This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't particularly good either. From amazon.com: From Publishers Weekly: For fashion lovers, flea market fanatics and thrift store junkies, this book is the perfect find. Former fashion model Alison Houtte, with the help of her sister, journalist Melissa Houtte, offers an enthusiastic memoir of her family's obsession with fashion, her early days as a model and her second career as owner of Hooti Couture, a Brooklyn boutique specializing in vintage clothing. Houtte's chatty manner and anecdotal storytelling style give the book a quick pace, as she visits country auctions and estate sales looking for the perfect items for her loyal and eclectic clientele.

That part of the book is fun, and truly enthusiastic. It is a fun book to read through and read her adventures. The only problem I had with the book was the weird intertwining of her "intimate" life. Bizarre and random and unnecessary mentions about bad relationships and crazy model behavior, except that she doesn't go into enough detail. It's kind of like this: vintage, Chanel, vintage, modeling days, vintage, vintage, bad boyfriend experience, vintage, vintage, bad choices as a model, vintage, vintage, vintage...

I just kind of wished she had kept just to the tale of being a vintage clothing owner and her adventures as such. She could have mentioned that she was a model once and that would have been fine. She even makes weird mentions about people staring at her for being a former model, or that a former boyfriend just wanted her because she was a model. We don't care. We're reading this book because we want to know more about vintage fashion and being a vintage clothing shop owner!! It kind of felt like name dropping or something, just awkward and weird.

It was fun to read about her personal history with fashion. To me the most fun part was reading about her family history with fashion. And her trips to flea markets and thrift shops, and the really awesome finds she'd stumble upon. That was always cool.

But overall it was a kind of awkward book. Even with her journalist sister helping her write it, it was still awkward writing. meh...if you like fashion or vintage fashion you might enjoy it. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, just that at times it was really awkward. ( )

This was a fun book! Houtte has a vintage shop in Brooklyn, and it sounds like a delightful place to shop. Her mission is clear, her anecdotes for the most part are clever, and her tone is friendly and warm. I liked reading about her wonderful finds, and about her adventures in modeling.

I dinged her an entire star for not knowing the difference between Vera Neumann and Vera Maxwell. ( )