Friday Fashion Lab: Opening Night (Peter Pan)
The background on this dress: back a year or two ago, when I was picking up stuff for a dollar at Value Village and then trying to sell it on eBay, I picked up this dress, but never sold it. It’s French Connection, tags still on it. The reason I have never worn it? I have never been sure whether it was elegantly drapy or sloppy big.
Until today. With Peter Pan opening tonight, of course I wanted to wear something elegant. And I have a peculiar preference for thematic theatre dressing. Hence, the green is ideal.
(And, as some of you may have picked up, I am positively smitten with this color this year!)
What makes the fit work:
- pulling the belt firmly across the high hip, effectively changing the silhouette from baggy dress to drapy shirt and A-line skirt.
- cuffing the sleeves. Nothing makes something look too big faster than sleeves that are too long. I actually think they are supposed to be worn cuffed.
- Wearing it with heels. This is probably a proportion thing; with flats boots, I would have needed to be able to push the sleeves up to 3/4.
So, here’s my problem: I have only one belt which fits through the mini belt-loops, and its color will not work. No time to shop. Do you prefer the brown sash belt or the print? One consideration: I definitely look better in smaller belts at the hip (and if only I understood why). Or do you have another improvisational belt suggestion?
If I don’t hate this dress by the end of tonight, I will probably wear it to the office Christmas party this year. But with dressier shoes.
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Off-site Fashion Lab: Dark vs Light Jeans
In case you haven’t seen it, Karen of a certain age’s dubious experiment: light denim/dark denim.
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Mom: Before and After Haircut
aka “Shirley Jones Fashion Lab”
Mom has graciously allowed me to show you her before and after haircut photos. Also pictured, the photo she forgot to take with her. 
Which reminds me of a concept I had thought of previously:
If you resemble someone beautiful, famous, and glamorous (like Shirley Jones), why not piggy-back off their stylist’s expertise and borrow their hairstyle?
(Perhaps not wanting to be associated with the character of the person you resemble?)
Now, the fashion lab portion of this post:
Based on these photos, do you have any “what color to wear” advice for the subject?
And just for fun: who would play you in the movie of your life? He hee. I have no idea what actress I resemble, but I’m fairly certain any movie of my life would have Mike Myers involved at some level. Thankfully, I live a boring life. 
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Friday Fashion Lab: In the Fitting Room
This post is sort of a part two to a previous post picturing some items I purchased for $4.97 each at JCPenney earlier in the week. Today, when I went to return the skirt and the jacket (to a different JCPenney store), the final clearance was all priced at $3.97!
The top was not clearance. However, it was still a contender. In the end, I decided to go for the dark green pictured further down (they were each on sale for $12.99) and wait for this one to be reduced further.
The skirt is several inches longer than the previous one, but it is all cotton. Should I keep it?
Purely for your amusement, I threw in thepictures of these two skirts: the magenta wouldn’t have been bad without the zoomy zipper up the bu** and the long one … well, what do you think I’d look like wearing it? (Have you ever heard the term “bun head”? And must it always be disrespectful?)
This third set of pictures illustrates my new personal rule: pants, for me, must stop at or above the knee or continue at least to the ankle. The reason? While my legs in total are short, from the knee down, they are actually (proportionally) an inch long.
Now, about these last two pictures:
- I am elated! Ever since the early ’90s, when I was shopping Lane Bryant for pregnancy clothes, I have been waiting for this green to reappear on the scene.
- Yes, I really did wear Great Northwest outdoor gear to the mall. Sssshhh! Don’t tell Angie.
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Fashion Lab On Location: Blending vs Contrasting Shoes
What a wonderful surprise! Taking a surprise day of vacation, my hero agreed to accompany me to the Nordstrom rack to look for shoes and take pictures on location. He even bought coffee.
More about my fall wardrobe needs later, but I should mention that foremost on my mind today was needing walking shoes. Over the last week or two, I’ve been very disciplined to get out and walk nearly every day and I’m noticing the strength in my back returning (some of you may remember I experienced a very serious back injury this past January). Lately I’ve been wearing sandals, but that won’t continue forever …
The first picture is from my before pictures post. Noting that my legs are shorter than my torso, Imogen suggested a shoe that blends with the color of my trousers. Which I don’t dispute. However, shopping being the experience that it is, having a wardrobe full of the right things is often easier said than done. Grumble. Out of the three pictured, plus several others, nothing better than my old blue ones materialized.
But all was not lost! I have tried, with no real success, several trenches during the run of this blog. Do you like this one? (Unfortunately, the picture of the front was no good. But the look on my daughter’s face when I tried it on for her was very promising. The collar is wide, with softened points which my husband says go with the lines of my face. Not the lines in my face. LOL)
And is this the kind of hair cut y’all were thinking? This lady was as kind as could be to allow me to take her picture. And so pretty! Most interesting, though, was her story: she just recently cut her hair and is really loving it. Before that, all she was able to do with it was wear it in ponytail!
Anyway, keep leaving me your input and suggestions. And keep us posted on what you’re up to. Remember, this week we are talking about weight loss and physical fitness. How’s that fitting into your life?
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Fashion Lab: 30 Foot Rule
When viewed from across the street, what do you look like? (Not, “how do you look”, but what do you look like you are?)
The 30 foot rule is used in theatre. Costumes, props, and set pieces need merely to look like what you want them to look like from 30 feet.
A few months back we noticed our neighbor’s son (in his early 20s) would show up from time to time with a girlfriend. Except with her frosted hair and wide middle, we kept wondering if it was his girlfriend or her mother. Now we know she has a reason for a belly. With her hair in a youthful color, her figure might have said “mother-to-be” from 30 feet, rather than “middle-age”.
Motivating me to embark on a midlife image transformation was the realization that, when I’m driving around town, I do not look like what I am. I attract way too much attention from men close to the age of my own sons. It’d be funny if it weren’t so embarrassing.
Since I’m not going to change the car (for frugal reasons we have decided to drive scruffy cars until the nest is empty), what will identify me as between 35 and 45? Now, I’m afraid, depending on whether my hair strikes you as blonde or gray, I could be anywhere between 25 and 65!
In my sunglasses, skinny bootcuts, Converse, and various coats, what do I look like to you? What else do these (almost) 30 foot pictures reveal? I’ll leave a couple of my own observations in comments.
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Friday Fashion Lab: Black Again!
I’m re-running this post from last summer, in connection with a link that Imogen posted here to a myth-busting article she wrote concerning black.
The greyer your hair (even underneath that dye), the more likely you will find that softer colours are more flattering for you, as because as we age, we lose pigment from not only our hair, but skin and eyes as well, how whole appearance softens. Colours that are too bright will draw attention to the body of the person who has softer, more muted colouring (and who needs attention to be drawn to your bum?).
So back to black - the properties of black are that it is Cool, Deep and Bright - and if these are not the colour properties that work with your appearance. Also, did you know that black is very ageing - it will cast shadow on your face, make wrinkles and lines look deeper, throw shadows under your eyes and make you look even more tired, and create double chins.
Now why is black considered so slimming? If light colours advance (make you look bigger) and dark colours recede (make you look smaller) then what is the most slimming colour? According to all those mags and fashion writers - it’s black as that logically seems to be the darkest colour, so it should recede the most. But if bright colours advance and muted (that is greyed down) colours recede then what is black? But black is actually a bright colour as it has no grey element so those ’slimming’ black trousers will actually draw attention to you bum and make it look bigger, not smaller. Click over to read the rest of the article and find out what color trousers to buy to make your bum look smaller.
Ever wonder why I have doubts about black being the most slimming color? These skinny jeans offer a nice comparison. I have only one word to add: saddlebags.
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Fashion Lab: Boxy Tops
Some time ago we were discussing the uniform typical of some of our moms:
elastic waist pants + boxy top + “earth shoes”
Hoping to address this topic delicately and helpfully, without being unnecessarily hurtful or judgmental, I would like to once again quote the illustrious (although I really should look that word up first) Imogen Lamport, from her article The Long and Short of It, which explains how to work with vertical body proportions (aka length-balancing):
Baggy or boxy clothes will make you look bigger (they do that to everyone) …
The proof (I used pictures of a plus-sized model because it’s just more illustrative):
Comments?
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Fashion Lab: Shorts Color and Apparent Leg Length
I was looking for something completely different when I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw in this first pair of compared pictures. Do you see what I see? Not that I like to wear this length of shorts, or navy …
What do you notice about apparent leg length as it relates to the color of the shorts? Any other comments?
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Another Belt Fashion Lab: Width AND Placement
Updated. More of the same set of pictures.
After seeing all these, I have two observations:
- I like the belt at the waist with the knee length looks and at the hip with the full length looks. Last week, with a long skirt, I played around with the positioning of the belt and ended up liking it at high hip. I suspect we’re looking at length-balancing here, rather than a silhouette issue.
- The belt needs to be in scale with the other details of the outfit. For example, look how much better the wide belt looks with the jeans and white top, but it seems to overwhelm the dress. With the dress, the skinny belt is better. Can anybody explain why I like the skinny belt with the skirt and top, but I prefer the wide belt with the black tank and leggings?
Many thanks to eternalvoyageur for coming up with the idea for this and sending in these great pictures. Without further ado: wide belt and skinny belt, tested worn at waist and hip. (My much less thorough test of the same idea).
With so many pictures to look at, I’m simply going to ask:
What conclusions do you draw from this experiment?
