Coutorture.com will be fea­tur­ing the excerpts from the book and it will be well worth a visit. Divided into women’s per­sonal styles labeled The Clas­si­cists, The Bomb­shells, and The Ladies, HB edi­tors also thought to include The Eclec­tics, those whose inner chic rev­els between the lines as well as those who are always look­ing fash­ion for­ward as The Mav­er­icks are prone to do.

Receiv­ing well-deserved reviews, this book really explains how to pull it all together. With strate­gic edi­to­r­ial sug­ges­tions, HB Great Style prof­fers bejew­eled ideas and includes images show­ing exactly how celebri­ties make it work for them. The edi­tors clever choices offer a myr­iad of options that inspire a dia­logue between your clothes and the jew­elry box.

The Clas­si­cists are women who pare things down to the basics. The pur­pose of jew­elry here is to take things up a notch or just to add a sexy scin­tilla of sparkle. Despite the fact that I’ve just fin­ished Brooches:Timeless Adorn­ment, I have to admit that even before I wrote the book, I thought that a blazer or jacket is the per­fect can­vas for a pin. I would love to see one on Lau­ren Hutton’s lapel—something that stands up to her brand of age-defying beauty. The way the edi­tors show Jen­nifer Anis­ton wear­ing a pen­dant peek­ing provoca­tively through her white shirt (it’s designer, I’m sure, but still a basic) is some­thing any­one can do with com­plete suc­cess. Elle Macpherson’s ele­gant and sim­ple black T and white skirt ensem­ble is crisp and clean. The slinky gold lar­iat slip­ping down the front of her athletically-cut top adds move­ment and lends a sen­su­ous qual­ity to the over­all look. I don’t know if the choice of wear­ing the warmth of gold was delib­er­ate on her part, how­ever it is really the way to go when you want to appear breezy, casual.

The Bomb­shells need no intro­duc­tion, and not much embell­ish­ment either. Still, notice the way Eliz­a­beth Tay­lor rocks that dia­mond neck­lace (or is it the other way around?) The drap­ing effect totally accen­tu­ates the pos­i­tive. If you are going for a wom­anly expres­sion in your dress, the jew­els must under­score that sen­ti­ment in every way. Ear­rings frame the face and longer ones fall along­side the curve of the neck–which is allur­ing in a sub­dued way. A bracelet is another orna­ment that works well with a form-fitted sil­hou­ette and it does a fab­u­lous job of plac­ing the focus on a slen­der seg­ment of bare skin.

The Ladies, like Audrey Hep­burn and Grace Kelly, could wear any­thing from the drama of vin­tage Harry Win­ston to the politesse of pearls. Their refined and tai­lored appear­ance set off any­thing to per­fec­tion, how­ever the jew­elry they choose was spec­tac­u­lar in the way it finessed a look. Often the tra­di­tional was bal­anced by the glit­ter of dia­monds or some­thing poised, such as a well-designed watch, or ele­gant cock­tail ring which func­tioned like a period at the end of a style sen­tence. Modern-day moments of refine­ment have been viewed in the red car­pet choices of Renee Zell­weger and Reese With­er­spoon. These ladies may have removed the white-glove from cir­cu­la­tion but not the gems. An incred­i­ble pin applied to the waist­band of a skirt or a small-but-significant ear­ring draws the atten­tion exactly where it is needed and wanted. A sin­gle piece of great jew­elry will go for miles when the dress is pol­ished. The object here is trim­ming the look to get the right bal­ance of glam­our and glitter–and not nec­es­sar­ily going for the gold either. White metal is a clas­sic choice for this par­tic­u­lar category.

What does The Eclec­tic woman do? She brings a new and amaz­ing per­spec­tive to all of it. Choices abound, yet it is bet­ter to not get car­ried away. Take up a sin­gle thread from that frol­ick­ing narrative–for exam­ple an organic or sculp­tural sweep of silver–and let it blend non­cha­lantly into the mix. As for The Mav­er­icks, I’ve never known one to be held cap­tive by con­ven­tion. Chloe Sevi­gny, Madonna, and Cate Blanchett have been seen in both tra­di­tional pieces and ones that spring so far for­ward that we are barely able to grasp the view. They make it work by being fear­less and com­bin­ing the obvi­ous with the not so. A mil­lion dol­lar Chopard flower brooch worn as but­ton hole clo­sure on a shark­skin jacket is surely an unex­pected vari­ant on an old theme. Blanchett wore it that way to a pre­miere. While still doing the jewel jus­tice, she didn’t let its gem-laden impor­tance curb her cre­ative state­ment. Instead she did what the edi­tors at HB and I cheer you on to do too–establish great style and rock it well.