‘Flatter Your Figure: Transform Your Figure With the Next Garment You Wear’

Author: Jan Larkey.

Info: Fireside Books, 1991. $10 paperback. Illustrated. 102 pages

“Flatter Your Figure” is a trade-marked system for a woman to identify her body traits and dress to accentuate the positive, as the song goes.

All you need to get started is two straight sticks (curtain rods or broomsticks work), a pencil, a string and this workbook. You are first instructed to hide the measuring tape. The lessons begin with “FOoooOf” (Figure Out Our Figures), a little questionnaire. The theory is that clothes--collars, sleeves, bodices, lengths, whatever--only have so many shapes, and it is predetermined what looks best on you.

The book is monochromatic; no one is going to tell you to get rid of everything yellow you own. What Larkey does do is make you feel good about what you’ve got, get you tossing out preconceived (negative) notions and get you thinking about looking good, which makes you feel good, which makes you look better. Very sneaky.

Taken into account are fashion trouble spots of the over-thin, as well as the overweight, short, tall or disproportionate. For the uninitiated who want to sew, shop and order with confidence, this book is a help; it also is handy for the woman who already dresses well but sometimes just senses something is off. Recommended for anyone who has felt the sneaking suspicion that getting dressed should not be a nightmare.

This book is available at Barnes & Noble, Costa Mesa, and other area bookstores.