Each season on Project Runway, "Fashion Director for Elle Magazine" Nina Garcia gets bitcher and bitchier as she gets more famous. She's enough to remind us why we never worked for a fashion magazine. That, and we're not a size 2. Nina has a new book coming out after Labor Day called The Little Black Book of Style, where she imparts her wisdom about the world of fashion unto others for the low, low price of $17.95, or just $3.95 more than a year's subscription to Elle. Money well spent, undoubtedly. In Chapter Two—"The Basics"—Nina teaches us about juxtaposition. Because it's still the 80's where she is.

How many times have you read in a fashion magazine that you're supposed to "mix it up," that wearing a Chanel jacket with jeans from the Gap is okay and you can shop at Hermès and Forever 21! Um, probably, like, a million? Nina thought her readers might need to hear that advice again (also in this chapter, she advises throwing things out that don't fit):

Anything that sounds like it won't make sense usually looks amazing. The uptown with the downtown. The soft with the hard. The casual with the elegant. Trust me, it works. Unpredictable is far more interesting than predictable. It is what is going to make you look different and interesting, which is the hallmark of a stylish woman. Mixing it up is not about looking staged. It is supposed to be personal. Keep those items that are uniquely you.

Mixing it up means taking the unexpected and making it yours. I had never been an old-lady-diamond-bracelet kind of girl. I just didn't see the appeal. But at a dinner party one night, this incredibly chic and stylish woman was wearing on of those old lady bracelets. She paired it with her beads from Thailand, her Kabbalah string [Ed: Ewww], and a few other pieces that she never takes off. She made it a part of who she was, and for the first time in my life, I wanted an old lady diamond bracelet... or maybe I was just in awe of the expert mix-and-march situation. I never got the bracelet, but I never forgot the image of that perfectly imperfect mix.

Style is about these imperfect mixes and these unusual juxtapositions, it takes time and trial to perfect the mix. It can't look staged, it has to look effortless.

Go ahead and try:

  • H&M with Prada
  • Vintage with a modern trend
  • Plaid with stripes
  • Preppy with edgy
  • Masculine with feminine
  • Flirty with fierce
  • Funky with basic
  • Leather with lace
  • Sweet with vampy
  • Uptown with downtown
  • The precious with the not