The Christmas Wars
I’ve been wondering: why do non-Christians celebrate at Christmas-time?
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A Pre-school Geometry Lesson
I’m going out tonight, dressed as an hourglass. Not in an hourglass costume, I’m talking about one of the six basic silhouettes. Most advice in how-to-dress books would be unnecessary if women learned to dress in the silhouette that most closely matches their own body-type. The six basic shapes are hourglass, rectangle, oval, figure-eight, triangle, and wedge (inverted triangle); they are determined by the line of the shoulders (straight or sloped), how the width of the shoulders relates to the width of the hips, and whether or not the waist is visibly smaller. Sketch it out.
To study this subject in depth, I recommend the excellent book The Triumph of Individual Style, by Carla Mason Mathis and Helen Villa Connor.
The good news: there’s really no such thing as a pear-shaped woman. She’s a triangle, wearing the wrong outfit.
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The First Formula
There are those who think it amusing that I actually have formulas and mathematical equations that I use for shopping. Like the one I use to make sure I have the minimum of certain key pieces. Since I wear a wool sweater just about every day that it is below 40, today (7 degrees) is the day I will stop, count, and calculate whether I have enough. Just in case you weren’t absolutely certain that I was nuts, here’s what I do:
a) Figure out my laundry cycle. What’s the longest number of days something might sit in the hamper before it’s ready to be worn again?
b) Calculate the percentage of days that I need to be able to wear this type of item.
c) Estimate how many days I can wear something before washing it. (When I had babies, I would estimate how many changes of clothes I needed per day.)
The math:
Multiply a and b, and then divide by c. Or if you are a mother of preschoolers that last operation would be a multiply. I hope you get it. I need to go shopping.
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Somebody Loves Me
I hate to be late. But this morning, on my way to an 8 a.m. mammogram, in 17 degree weather, it felt kinda snuggly. You see, I was four minutes late to my appointment because somebody insisted that I let him go out and warm up the car for me. Tough life, isn’t it?
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The Importance of Being Timeless
While many would like to deny or ignore the fact, appearance is a primary way humans communicate with one another (1 Sam 16:7). Fashion is a fast-changing dialect. The problem with being stuck in a time-warp is that, although you may be comfortable and perfectly happy, many of the people you meet no longer speak “1985″. Nevertheless, I know several women who still wear their clothes from high school but do not look dated. How? Their style is timeless.
Understand, I am not advocating timeless, or traditional as I normally refer to it, as the only way to avoid misunderstanding. Contemporary works, as well. My point is, and it has happened to me, your appearance may not be accurately reflecting who you are on the inside. Especially if people don’t understand what you are saying.
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Facing Sunday Morning Without Trauma
Tomorrow is Sunday. No doubt when we leave we will all be dressed, but chances are good that someone will have had some wardrobe trauma in the process. Generally, one of us ladies is the one with the problem and one of the others is the one with the solution. Look out if two of us can’t decide what to wear!
I recall a time a few years ago when my own Sunday morning wardrobe trauma was pretty much weekly. My problem: I didn’t actually own a dress, but every Sunday morning I tried to select one from my closet to wear. My solution: I bought a khaki skirt that I could wear to church with my T-shirts. That skirt was one of the few items I ever paid full price for (I think it was $30 or so), but I wore it several years before selling it on consignment this past summer. In warm weather, I wore it with tanks and sandals. Come winter, it was turtlenecks and boots.
So, figure out your own formula. What do you like to wear to church? I guarantee you won’t find it in your closet on Sunday morning if you don’t actually have it.
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Rule Number 2
Everything you wear should make you feel like yourself, going where you are going and doing what you are doing. Nothing is more distracting than feeling inappropriately dressed. Be yourself. Then focus on reaching out and making others feel comfortable.
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Beauty is in the Eye …
Three great accent colors are present in the eye: the main (iris) eye-color, a shade of white, and black (the pupil). Try one or all of them with your blazer (see A Salty Fashion Tip).
