Do You and Your Man Look Like a Couple?
Years ago, I wrote a very romantic post about considering your husband’s style idiom, with the recommendation that you take your fashion personality and add a nod to his.
This is something that’s been on my heart again recently. Married ladies, when you go out, do you look like a couple? Are people surprised when they find out the two of you belong together?
For me, that’s an uncomfortable feeling.
Related Posts:
The Bargain Queen on Personal Style
Early in my blogging career, I became acquainted with another blogger, The Bargain Queen. Unfortunately, she is no longer blogging (that I know of) and her old posts appear to have been removed. This worthwhile quote has been preserved here:
“Personally, I know that if something looks a little strange but I don’t want to take it off, it’s set to be a wardrobe favourite.”
Yes. I love it.
That wardrobe will never be stale or outlandish.
Related Posts:
Personal Top 10 Wardrobe Staples
I still enjoy this blog and have some good material buried in the archives; therefore it makes sense to me to re-post some previously written articles. My writing energy has primarily been going toward school (read the 10 page paper I did for Art History Research: chronocentrismincostumes.doc , if you are really bored. lol).
Originally posted December 10, 2007:
Inspired by The Fashionable Kiffen, whose list I’m glad I didn’t read until I had done my own, (and my friend who is reading It’s All Too Much, by Peter Walsh
- dark jeans. I realize it’s boring and on everyone’s list, that’s why I’m glad I didn’t read the kiffen’s post thoroughly before doing my own. Presently I am shopping for a modern looking tapered pair (is that an oxymoron?).
- fitted t-shirts. I prefer scoop necks. Jewel necks and square necks are also good. If you ever see me in a v-neck, know that it is a compromise of some kind. Oh, and I consider pullover sweaters t-shirts.
- sleeveless sheath dresses. Never short, but knee-length or mid-calf both work for me. Since I don’t wear dresses often, this style is a personal staple because it can be worn year round.
- athletic-inspired flats.
- wool or linen trousers. For summer, this bends a little to include short-sleeved pants in cotton sheeting (but no wool!).
- pencil skirts. With my silhouette and style personality, this has always been my skirt shape. Did I mention I’ve never favored short skirts?
- fitted jackets/blazers. Even my favorite coats have this flavor, being tailored and wool.
- Button-front, collared shirts. Sleeveless and long-sleeve are perrennial wardrobe staples, and currently I am sick to death of three-quarter sleeves and craving short sleeves. I especially love a semi-drapy natural fabric like very light-weight cotton or silk. Functionally in my wardrobe, these may serve as a combination scarf and skivvies.
- Cordovan leather. One of the most colorful and versatile neutrals, cordovan is technically a brown that appears almost burgundy or plum. Like black, it can be worn with black or brown.
- Suede, especially in colors. It’s just soft and friendly. What can I say?
(I considered listing skirt suits, but decided #6 & #7 covered that. Actually, I’ve been sort of looking for a new suit for several years, without success.) I have two skirt suits I am enjoying wearing these days: a brown wool birdseye tweed and a black and white silk tweed. Item number 9 is the only look on the list I am currently reconsidering.
Well, there it is. What are your top 10 wardrobe staples?
Related Posts:
What Not to Wear to Work: Velour Track Suit
Re-posting this. And admitting, although I still feel the same about the public wearing of velour track suits, that my tone was more dictatorial than I generally intend. For that, I apologize.
Seriously.
Some people have no clue. Unfortunately, most of them don’t read fashion blogs, or other sources of clues. Like the woman in the very nice vintage clothing store I was just in, who was wearing a brown velour tracksuit (with black tee-shirt) and a ponytail! This was no teeny-bopper, either, she had to be in her early 40s.
Since this is a conversation, where would you wear a velour track suit? And what’s your opinion of the professional appearance of a ponytail?
Related Posts:
Get Free Hangers!
What kind of hangers do you prefer? Having ruined more than my share of garments by hanging them on too-wide hangers, I now only use the plastic ones with the softly shaped shoulders. The ones you can buy for a dollar or two each. The ones your clothes are usually hanging on in the store when you buy them.
Occasionally I will forget to ask, but stores are almost always happy to throw in the hanger with the purchase. Last week, I bought two tank tops at the Eddie Outlet for $21.70 with tax. If the hangers had cost me $2 a piece, that is equal to almost a 20% savings!
Try it! What do you have to lose?
Related Posts:
Wear Your College Colors Day
Have I mentioned that the hero is 6′3″ and hairy?
According to his firm’s office cheerleading squad, tomorrow is “Wear Your College Colors Day”. Although college logo shirt is the basis of the local “after-dinner-grocery-shopping” uniform template, it is not part of his regular idiom. Nor mine. So when he fw’d the notice that wearing college colors to work on Friday September 2 was being encouraged, my mind raced quickly through the options: dd and I both attend schools sporting some version of vampire-wear for their school colors and the school the hero and I graduated from has the blues. No options worth $pending on.
But there was one other option: the local community college system, from which dd earned her AA. Although I can’t tell you what their official color scheme is, their mascot is BIGFOOT! This I discovered last spring, when I was a student at one of the schools. I even bought a shirt. Mine is a beautiful muted brown with the word “Bigfoot” written in ivory script; this “Sasquatch State” shirt is what the hero will be wearing to work tomorrow.
The best part? It was $9.99 less 20% AND I convinced them to give me the hanger. he hee.
Related Posts:
Would You Ever Consider Plastic Surgery?
People considering plastic surgery often have to deal with negative reactions, whether direct disapproval or people whispering behind their backs. Much like people who wear excessive makeup, or who clearly spend hours fixing their hair, or even people who use suffocating amounts of perfume; people who undergo plastic surgery are often though of as somewhat vain or contrived. This simply is not the case all of the time. The following few paragraphs will demonstrate how plastic surgery can be used in subtle, helpful, or even reconstructive ways that do not indicate vanity.
Perhaps the most “controversial” form of plastic surgery, at least with regard to perceived vanity, is breast augmentation. However, as detailed on related websites like www.aboutplasticsurgery.com/, this type of surgery is not meant only for enlarging breasts; many women simply use it to maintain their familiar figure. For example, following a pregnancy, or even just from aging, many women find that their breasts change. It can certainly be contested that maintaining the body shape one is accustomed to is not complete vanity. Additionally, breast augmentation can even be used to reconstruct a breast or breasts following complications from a battle with breast cancer, a consideration unfortunately faced by many women today.
It is also quite common for people to look into erasing or lessening wrinkles via plastic surgery. This could be considered simply an effort to keep up appearances, rather than an attempt to change what one looks like or enhance one’s beauty. Through methods such as collagen injections and minor lifts, wrinkles can essentially be stretched and flattened so that the surface of the skin remains smooth. Now, of course, there are limits at which this surgery can appear to be a bit obvious or unnecessary… for example, an 80 year old person with perfectly flat and smooth skin does not look natural, and could be considered, perhaps, a bit vain or even somewhat in denial.
These have been just a few examples to help us to think through whether plastic surgery is always artifice. It’s always good to think these things through, rather than just react based on the expected perceptions of others. There are additional examples as well: slight liposuction for people who try and struggle to lose weight due to aging or pregnancy, or lifts and tummy tucks for people who have unflattering excess skin following a drastic or sudden weight loss, etc.
Under what circumstances would you consider plastic surgery?
Related Posts:
The Essence of Smart Casual
Casual. An ambiguous term at best. To some it means “anything goes”, to others it means “the necktie goes”. Then we add modifiers: business casual, smart casual, semi-casual. What does it all mean? In my system of lifestyle segmentation, “casual” is defined as nicer, but relaxed, clothing: khakis and sport shirts for men, less-crisply-defined equivalent for women.
In my mind, the essence of smart casual =
clothing which fits in (nearly) any lifestyle segment, depending on the shoes worn with it.
In other words; worn with flip-flops, the outfit reads leisure. Throw on a pair of platform sandals or snappy flats with the same clothes for a casual ensemble, or metallic shoes and statement jewelry for cocktails. How smart is that? And perfect for travel!
Dog-walking clothes, ball gowns, and smart casual; what more do we need?
Related Posts:
Is Your Idiom Retro Fun?
If “Retro Fun” is a decent approximation of your personal style idiom, have you tried Boden? Conversely, if you like Boden, do you like the “Retro Fun” description? All this to say: This week at Boden get up to 19% off with Free Shipping and Returns on our Outfits of the Week - offer valid 8/8/11-8/12/11. Each day there will be a different outfit or set of outfits which will be discounted by 10% on the site - in addition you can then use the additional 10% off + Free Shipping offer! Check back daily to see if your favorites have been added to the mix.
Get up to 19% off with Free Shipping and Returns on our Outfits of the Week.
Related Posts:
Using Zyla’s 8 Basic Colors
There was a fair amount of discussion in the comments on the previous post, and more that I wanted to bring up concerning David Zyla’s color system based on your own personal coloring. My opinions are as follows:
Orange: is either found in the hand, making it a romantic color, or in the eye.
Suggestion: it is probably safe to widen our range of reds beyond just the “pinched fingertip” color to include all the reds and oranges that harmonize with the palm.
Purple: one of the “dramatic” colors, the colors of the veins. Could also be present in the eye.
Suggestion: he does say to pick out several colors of the blood vessels in your wrist. But I personally don’t see these as “dramatic” colors, necessarily. Blues are “trustworthy” colors.
Zyla mentions in the book that mixing the colors according to his recipe results in an individualized color plan (my words). The concept of the formality of each neutral bears a little explanation here. I think when he says “the color of the ring around your iris is your most formal neutral”, he means not that it is the most formal color that you have in your coloring, but that it is the color that a man should use for his first business suit and a woman for her LBD. Admittedly, I am thinking of a couple of family members who have black as their second neutral, but not their first.
And Amy asks:
I never wear my “white”, I feel naked in it. Does that happen to you others? It’s too close to my skin color.
