Forever Cool

Each year, 75 million baby boomers spend $100 billion on clothes--but you'd never know it to look at them. Alarmed by the fashion faux pas of her fellow fifty-plus peers, style consultant Sherrie Mathieson set out to help them update their personal style yet remain age-appropriate. While her theory is to skip formulas and mix it up, she counsels her boomer brethren to avoid trying too hard (Ladies, what's worn in Vegas, stays in Vegas; guys, flowered shirts are so Beach Boys).She presents stylish, contemporary twists to classic looks (a simple, sleekly cut black suit is punched up with stacked silver jewelry; a graphic skirt adds panache to a solid-color sweater set; a pair of men's khakis is driven out of dullsville with a black linen shirt).Each page pictures an unfortunate "never cool" ensemble and beside it a "forever cool" rendition. Whether her stuck-in-a-fashion-rut real-life people are sporting sad accessories, underage looks, problem prints, or predictable pieces, Mathieson takes on all of them with kindhearted candor and breathes new life into their attire.From work attire to special-occasion outfits for evening, the beach, the gym--even the ski slopes!--Sherrie Mathieson has fresh-looking fashion fixes for any boomer who is ready to ramp up his or her clothes savvy.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Self-Help, Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.