How to Tell Whether Your Outfit Works
Fool-proof sign your outfit does not work:
On first sight, your courteous family member, friend, or acquaintance cannot keep their eyes from straying to an area other than your face. Then they don’t say anything. I generally discover the draw to be a point of greater contrast than that present in my natural coloring.
Never rely on compliments to establish whether a piece or an ensemble is flattering. The reason? For some odd reason, when people notice something that really grabs their attention way they tend to pop off with a compliment, whether they really like it or not. In other words, kind words about your appearance could mean anything from, “I wish I looked that great!” to “What was she thinking?!?”
lol. Merry Christmas!
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Investment Strategies
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:34
So that’s why when I made myself smile at people I didn’t like in junior high, my feelings toward them always improved.
Sometimes I worry (ugh! not supposed to worry) that I have too much invested in my wardrobe in terms of affection. But here are some practical ways that I can make my wardrobe bow down to my greater priorities:
- When I dress myself according to universal artistic principles, I am recognizing God’s wisdom above the worldly wisdom of the fashion industry.
- I consider the influence my clothing choices have on others.
- I love to share!
Sharing, however, can get complicated. Life with people is messy. If I loan you something, it is just a temporal item. A pile of threads. If it is ruined in the course of life, oh well.
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The Serendipity of Limiting Your Colors
Green is a great red alternative, when it comes to holiday dressing. Again this week I experienced the serendipity of the limited color palette.
The university I attend is on the quarter system; therefore, I am nearly finished. Yesterday I was able to hit Value Village for their Monday 99 cent tag sale, which worked out really well for dd, whose university is on the semester system. She is still in “crunch” mode, and in need of a costume for her acting class (for the Sally Field part in Steel Magnolias).
While shopping for her ’80s sweater, and whatever else I might happen to find, I found myself a dress. A green sweater dress, to be exact, something for which I’ve been half-heartedly looking for a couple of years. (If I had the budget to just decide what I want and go buy it, I could have bought this cotton/silk/cashmere blend dress at Banana Republic in Fall of ‘08.) Finding a sweater dress for under $25 when one does not do acrylic falls nearly into the realm of the impossible. I spent $10.
Here, though, is the serendipity part: when I got home I pulled out a box in my closet containing a green belt (pictured, albeit not well, with shorts and blazer for a spring semi-casual event) and a pair of green & red paisley pumps. They match each other, but nothing else in my wardrobe. That is, until now. ha ha! Unbelievably, the belt is the exact same color as the dress. Not only that, but I have exactly ONE silk scarf (not outerwear type) left from about twenty years ago, and it also has the exact same green in it.
Rejoice with me! Or not.
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Somatotyping and Myers-Briggs
The very first thing I have written in my notes for Nonverbal Communication:
What are you saying and do you mean to say it?
Nevertheless, I have found our study of somatotypes slightly disturbing . The idea that people would draw conclusions about our personalities from body-type seems somehow un-American or something.
Somatotyping is the system of body typing and constitutional psychology based on research by William Sheldon in the ’40s. Most of us have heard the terms endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph. What we troubled me was research showing the following characteristics related to body type:
endomorphy
softer, shorter, old fashioned, warm-hearted, less strong, amiable, talkative, dependent, trustworthy
mesomorphy
stronger, more masculine, better looking, adventurous, younger, more mature, self reliant
ectomorphy
very thin, very tall, very ambitious, suspicious, tense, pessimistic, stubborn
Yikes! How many of us would fit these descriptions? And do we tend to get grumpy and difficult when people assume things about us that are not true?
But look at this chart I found at mySomatotype.com, overlaying somatotype with myers-briggs personality type.
At first glance, this fits at least myself and the hero fairly precisely. How about you?
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Wearing Head to Toe Black
It’s the week before Labor Day. Twice in the previous two days I have taken note of a woman, blithely going about her business, dressed completely in black from the neck down including black backpack purse and flowy, ankle-length skirt. In both cases, after wondering all kinds of things - is she a nun? test-driving her halloween costume? - I determined that this was just a woman dressed in her regular clothes, that just happened to be all black.
Allow me to just say clearly: being completely covered in black in late August/early September, at least in The Great Northwest, is an eye-catching look. Not in a good way.
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Does This Make Me Look Fat?
At one time or another we’ve all asked the question. Does this make me look fat? It might.
Is it:
1) The wrong silhouette, or shapeless altogether?
2) Too small?
3) Put together in such a way that it creates a focal point where you would rather not have one? Like the wannabe glamourous young lady in black pants and black sweater, swath of white lace encircling her hips & derriere?
(A friend of mine used one of these long shirts with the lace hem to create a much more flattering look: matching the lace to the color of her skirt, she created the effect of a coordinating lace belt, and wore a contrasting top over.)
If creating a slimmer appearance is your foremost fashion concern, the book Does This Make Me Look Fat?: The Definitive Rules for Dressing Thin for Every Height, Size, and Shape
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Identifying Your Values
Color values, that is. What you value is clearly important in terms of what you wear, but not the topic of this post.
Value = the relative lightness or darkness of a color
In my watercolor class, we talk alot about value. In fact, our instructor hammers us about getting the values right, while allowing just about any approximation of hue. If one of us were to decide to make a certain shape lighter or darker than it is in the reference photo, the entire picture would have to adjust right along with it, keeping the mathematical relationships between color values the same.
You can do the same in your wardrobe, using the gray scale & value finder or just “close enough” visually.
How to use the tool:
- place the tool against the surface to be matched so that the color appears in the keyhole
- try different keyholes until you identify the one that is the same degree of lightness or darkness
You have now identified the color value, designated by the number on the corresponding gray!
To assemble an harmonious ensemble:
- identify the values present in your personal coloring: hair, skin, and eyes
- repeat those exact values in your ensemble
- OR use two of the three
- OR calculate the difference between them and use colors with the same difference in value
- throw in an accent of black and/or white to add drama
Anyway, this inexpensive tool, which can be purchased here through Amazon or at your local art supply store, is going to live on my dresser for the next month or so, as I move into planning my fall wardrobe.
Value is about the most noticeable element of one’s personal appearance. How do incorporate the concept of color value into your wardrobe planning?
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The Triumph of Individual Style
If you were to own only one “what (not) to wear” book, this is the one to buy! It is a college art text. Formerly no less than $68, Amazon now has sells it for quite a bit less
Book Description
This text aims to teach the reader how to assess her body type and then choose clothing that looks good on her. The process involves what the authors call an individual’s “design pattern.” This pattern is made up of lines, shapes, proportions, body particulars, scale, colors, and textures. How they fit together in harmony and how an individual infuses them with her innate creativity is what authors call “style.”Text Features:1.Principles of art as they apply to understanding and enhancing the female body
2.Art reproductions from museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Musee du Louvre, illustrating women’s body forms and surface features
3.Hundreds of line drawings suggest contemporary wardrobe strategies
4.Two color wheels and pages of charts for skin, eye, and hair color.
5. Provides color swatches to create a color wheel
Personally, after studying this book, I have found that there is a way to figure out any “what-to-wear” problem “from scratch”, providing freedom from the legalism of following somebody else’s list of “shoulds” and “how-tos”.
If you’ve been considering taking the plunge, now could be the time! (My copy was a birthday gift from my hero.)
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Leopard Print Velvet Blazer
I just wanted to show you Boden’s Velvet Blazer
. It comes in great colors for Fall 2010: berry, black, purple, cyan, pewter, and leopard print. The price? $98, which is what I would expect to find an item like this priced for at a moderately priced store. Generally, you can find a link to Boden USA in my sidebar, offering additional savings.
According to Harper’s, camel will be the new color for fall. Of course, many of us have always believed camel, and leopard print, to be “classics”. Good for us; when a classic we like is declared the “in” thing, that is the time to buy! At any rate, one thing I like about many animal prints is the mixing of cool and warm colors (although I think I would have used a lipstick red scarf rather than the dusty purple, if I were styling the outfit pictured).
How about you: will you be adopting camel this fall, either in a leopard print or straight up?
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The Best Color for a Suit or Jacket
Here’s a tip borrowed from the guys: If you are going to buy a blazer this fall, or a sweater or a vest, your best color option is — drumroll please — your haircolor. Picture it. Your hair and your jacket working together to form a frame to flatter your face, making it the focal point of your outfit.
(Since I am not likely to find a silver suit, I have bought two brown tweed suits - one with trousers, one with a skirt -to wear this fall.)
