Nina Garcia Books

Nina Garcia is proving to be quite the authority on penning style. The Elle fashion director turned Marie Claire fashion director and Project Runway judge is also a Fab favorite — remember she answered all your burning fashion questions a while back? With her surely busy schedule, and following her first book, Nina has released The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own ($15), available for preorder. Like her first book, Ruben Toledo illustrations accompany witty and exact writing. Unlike her first book, it's silver, denser, and yours truly is featured on page 29! How exciting is that? (Thanks, Nina)I've given it a good flip through and I already own many of her 100 suggested items to style salvation. Phew — knowing Nina she would have convinced me to get all 100. But what's cool is, even though I own a monokini, I did not know the Vatican denounced it in 1964. And these are the sort of fashion nuggets Nina shares. Make sure to add this one to your Summer reading list, stat.

The season premiere of "Project Runway" may still be seven weeks away (49 days to be exact), but we've got plenty of projects to keep us satisfied. There's "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style," which we're obsessed with, and Heidi Klum's Very Sexy Makeup Collection, and now there's Nina Garcia's book The Little Black Book of Style, on sale for $13 (originally $18). This book, according to Nina, is not "A book of rules. It is a book on style." Just what you would expect from the "Project Runway" judge and ELLE fashion director.

The book itself is the LBD of fashion guides - sophisticated, elegant and timeless. It offers tips on how to: be your own muse (confidence trumps beauty), invest in wardrobe staples (ballet flats, cashmere and diamonds) and "what to wear when" (just say no to sweatsuits on planes). Overall, Nina offers very sage advice for both the savvy shopper and ensembly challenged.