Amanda for All Seasons
Chic fashion consultant and author Amanda Brooks of Amanda Brooks Inc. has made her unconventional haute (ITALICS) bohemian reputation combining her discerning eye, savvy marketing instincts, and a creative interpretation of the fashion zeitgeist that captures the imagination.  First coming to media attention a decade ago as a much photographed New York City socialite, it quickly became clear that she was no slave to the dictates of fashion but rather refreshingly synthesizes them to suit her self.
Amanda revels in the challenging art of dressing up (“It’s fun to be different.”), by sometimes dressing down.  There is always an unexpected element creating frisson in her seemingly easy signature style – an item from, say, a different season or decade,  or a piece of couture from Chanel with an item mass produced by H&M, or most confident of all, a fabulous vintage something, without any label, she has plucked from an overstuffed rack at a charity thrift shop.
Today she is eagerly anticipating the publication this September of her first book “I (heart) Your Style,” in which she candidly defines and refines “your personal style.”  The timing couldn’t be more auspicious, it is as though Amanda’s antennae sensed our current need for recession mode (ITALICS) advice as we navigate the uncharted fashion waters that lie ahead on diminished budgets and overflowing closets of seasons past.  
Where did Amanda Brooks get her fabulous style DNA?  She attributes her grandmother for a start.  Beatrice Bowry was not only a fashion illustrator, one of the highest paid women executives in the 1930’s, but also the savvy and elegant Director of the Clothing Institute at Filene’s in Boston (“Not the same Filene’s,” Amanda points out with a grin. “It was an archive.”) In her spirited weekly radio address to admiring throngs Beatrice exhorted, “A limited purse is not a valid excuse to dress poorly”. 
Amanda credits her father with her free spirit.  He, too, was no stereotype.   Stephen Cutter inherited his family’s Palm Beach real estate company but felt impelled to run his own independent art gallery.  While climbing Machu Picchu his idea of sensible shoes was a pair of Gucci loafers!  When he married interior decorator Elizabeth “Piki” Stewart in the late 1960’s, Piki had Lilly Pulitzer design a new iconic floral print for the five bridesmaids’ dresses (“very 60’s chic”).  Just as one is mentally pegging Piki’s taste, Amanda adds the unexpected, “I still wear one of her 1980’s classic Bill Blass suits. It is timeless and translates today.”  After her parents divorced, she and her elder sister Kimberly moved to Bronxville, NY with an adored step father. It was Piki who encouraged Amanda’s love of learning by way of Horace Mann, Deerfield Academy, and Brown where she majored in Art History and Visual Arts.
The only fashion don’t her mother expounded during her childhood was “black is inappropriate.”  Amanda’s 8 year old daughter, Koko, is allowed to wear a touch for her “Prada moment.”  When Amanda was the same age (“a bit of a tomboy extrovert”), she was allowed to wear mismatched shoes, and to wear her ponytail at her forehead, a unique display of individuality and, quite possibly, a fashion first.  I hope there is a picture in the book!  (Dear reader, you will be interested to note that for this interview Amanda is wearing her long blonde mane in a pony tail still, but in the classic manner, at the back. She is also wearing generic black leggings with a black and white T shirt and, here’s the Brooks’ twist… a Chanel black leather and chain choker.)
Amanda entered Vogue’s (ITALICS) hallowed “100 Women of Style” list for the first time a decade ago while writing about fashion for such magazines as Vogue and the New York Times (ITALICS) just prior to becoming Creative Director for the Hogan and Tuleh labels.  It was a Tuleh design she chose for her wedding dress in 2001 when she married a maverick old Etonian, British artist Christopher Brooks, aka “Looks Brooks”.  It was the first time Amanda had seen him in a tie.  He describes his color-field paintings as “trying to walk that precarious line where bad slips over into good.”
Together with son Zachary, the Brooks family enjoys a life of, well, haute bohemia.  They balance their time between America and England.  Apart from visits to her family in the Adirondacks, they have a house on Christopher’s family farm (“The Farm”) in Oxfordshire, which sounds like the British country equivalent of the Kennedy compound.  They have a “modest” mid century retreat planted with native flora on the bay in Southold and a colorful light filled loft on the Lower East Side conveniently near the office of Amanda Brooks Inc. which is “on the other side of the corridor.”
And then a couple of years ago, it was DVF rather than DNA that inspired Amanda to define her own personal fashion aesthetic and set up a consultancy for brands such as Roger Vivier, Tod’s, and Thakoon.  It was Diane Von Furstenberg who told her she would “love to see you on your own.”   She (hearts) her style, too! 

• “I (heart) Your Style” (ITALICS)  by Amanda Brooks to be reviewed on 1stdibs Introspective (ITALICS) in October, 2009.     

STYLE COMPASS Amanda Brooks, Q & As

HOW GREEN ARE YOU?
I recycle, in my kitchen and (ITALICS) in my closet.

FASHION: I mostly buy clothes from friends: Thakoon, Phillip Lim, Diane Von Furstenberg, Proenza Schouler. They're great for a 
fashion fix and they work well in my life.

FABRICS:
I'm always fixated by African Wax prints for interiors. I also just bought a vintage splatter-dyed velour sofa which I love. As for clothes, I love Thakoon's twisted floral prints and Proenza's jewel toned velvets for fall.

ENTERTAINING:
I much prefer to entertain at lunchtime, with lots of children running around. There's no hurry to get home and there's always a more casual feeling. At our summer house in Southold, almost every party is potluck. I love that my friends ask me to bring things and help them out and vice versa. For lunch I almost always make a pasta salad with fresh and healthy farm stand vegetables, and I make a friend pick up some fried chicken on the way. I also serve Crystal Light lemonade with tons of fresh mint in it and a French rose wine.

COLOR: I love bright colors mixed with neutrals.

TRAVEL:
I'm happiest when I am at a home I love – my husband's farm in England, my parents' summer house in the Adirondacks, our weekend house in Southold, or my best friend's home in Palm Beach.

FLORAL:
I love euphorbia, Adam's needle, sedum, fennel, Russian olive trees. We're just designing our garden in Southold – it’s inspired by desert gardens of the southwest.

ART:
Our house is filled with artwork – mostly husband's Christopher's paintings but also photographs by Adam Fuss, paintings by Anh Duong, and also very large collages that I make and give to my husband for Valentine's Day every year.

BOOK:
Mamarazza (ITALICS) by Marianne Seyn-Wittgenstsin

MUSEUM:
The Picasso Museum, Antibes, France

RESTAURANT - Uptown: La Grenouille, Downtown: Freeman's

HOTEL - The Bel Air in L.A. makes me feel like I'm in Palm Beach in the 70's.
.
MUSIC - Stevie Wonder

GIFT - Vintage photography books.

SHOP/STORE - All the thrift stores in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach.