Recently my daily routine has grown to include watching TED Talks and YouTubes while primping. Today Reachel Bagley’s video Easy 3 Point Formula for Cute & Casual Everyday Outfits came up in my recommendations.
The goal: to add style to an everyday, comfortable, casual look
Her formula:
include 3 out of 5 of the following in your ensemble
- color (as in: a pop of color or an unexpected combination)
- pattern (prints)
- texture (self-explanatory)
- shape (strong or unusual line, cut, or structure. I think)
- shine (metallic or sparkle)
Much easier to count! But is the result different? If I just get dressed, say in shorts and a tee, I am at around 8 using the 14 point system; adding 3 of the above elements brings me to 11. I’ll take it 😉
Prom Dress Sale! Save Big on the Gown of your Dreams at macys.com! Offer valid 4/14-8/2
According to a post I found on this forum, Reinventing Your Style: 7 Strategies for Looking Powerful, Dynamic and Inspiring
If you are still ruminating on the idea of counting “points”, Elizabeth has developed an alternate way of counting which gives greater weight to the garments. Find it here.
Although Imogen’s follow up post demonstrates how a mostly yang person can dress more yin and vice versa, I’m going to stick with just the simple concept of showing your nature. She has a lot of physical characteristics ascribed to each, much as most other resources. That’s where I mostly get lost. So I’m ignoring it. Read through your resources and when I got to all the Triumph of Original Style stuff about how soft or defined your features were, etc, checked out. I think I get into the most “trouble” when I have tried to dress too soft and gentle. Was told once, during a conversation, “You look so gentle but you’re… bold.”
I very much like the resource that has you thinking about matching the complexity of what you wear with your level of movement. I think I actually have a lot of stillness – control. Fits with all that yang personality stuff. I once was described at a small civic meeting as their point person to help get the neighborhood involved with block cleanups, “She can get anybody to talk to her.” Well, yes, I can but notice the words
“get” and “talk to.” So I can get anybody to talk to me and often have to not to do that lest I hear an entire life story – people unburden themselves. I once lived briefly in Key West and learned never to initiate any conversations because they were inevitably full of phrases like, “I was driving the car when my family was killed in the accident” or, more lightedheartedly (but not for him) “She’s my separated wife and when we moved down here she decided she liked women.”
Anyway, I can get people to talk but not so sure I can get people to listen to me. A world of difference.
Am invited to an informal ladies lunch and initially was not going to go – antsy about sitting around for long periods centered around food. Not an eating problem just seems tedious to me. Am only American who doesn’t like the favorite Thanksgiving holiday and only Jew who doesn’t like the seder. I am going to try to dress deliberately more yang and see what the outcome is with the truth in advertising.
Why wouldn’t anybody use their entire personal idiom to express their true self? It seems contradictory to say it is necessary to wear the colors that look most natural on you, because otherwise there remains some in definable “something wrong”, and to then try to manipulate impression through other style elements. I realize in declaring this that I am unreasonably lumping all stylist advice together. 😉
I also have gotten in alot of trouble dressing too soft and gentle, but a slightly different trouble. Somehow, when I bought the “muted” story about myself, I ended up blending into the background and people didn’t talk to me (asin, didn’t acknowledge I was there). When I consider how I am treated in public when I wear the iridescent coral leather jacket, it is a powerful reminder to go more bright. I wonder if dressing more boldly would result in people listening better, being considered more of an authority. I suppose that goes to the point that understanding and applying principles such as yin and yang is for the purpose of expressing tru self more than for manipulating people to see some alternate version of self.
Your lunch will be a fun experiment! Hope the food is ok too 🙂
I’m still sorting out my experience. The food was just right, all of it pleasantly delicious and bargain priced, too. I had never been to the large restaurant before, a city institution in a city mostly burnt out. I was surprised by the interior where wood grain plastic tables each had a floating helium balloon attached – much like the banquet setup at a conference you have to attend. Also exceedingly dim lit for middle of day. Maybe to promote more consumption of alcohol. The coolest thing about the atmosphere was the cadre of black clad young servers who looked like stagehands. Often I have thought about cool as the idea of being at a place but not of it.
There were supposed to be a dozen or more gals but only about half made it. I didn’t ask the dress “code” beforehand and winged it. I put on a berry colored knit dress. Got it in a clothing swap and I loved the exact shade. However it was very body con and had ruching down one side of the skirt portion. Felt self-conscious in this and had it in the purge pile. Decided to try it with something over it – a soft flat knit acrylic topper with detachable (could be worn as cummerbund sash) matching long scarf piece. Black with a medium large pearl grey diagonal overplaid. Skirt on dress still too short for my taste – couple inches above knee. Ruched it up like a tunic top and added black and silver grey narrow striped crop pants. Chunky black ankle boots. Other ladies – ranging from 60’s to 80 – mostly in technicolor versions of normcore. One in throwback rasta style.
I understood my friend’s style the best: mid wash jeans (not anywhere near designer), matte stretch leopard shirt, leopard flats and small handbag. Not all these were exactly the same tone and that worried her because she insists on matching but I thought it went better and they bridged each other. Jean jacket. So, double denim. Probably a lot of aggregated small scale jewelry. I never notice it much. She always seems to fit in wherever she goes. We like many of the same items and styles but have an opposite approach to putting outfits together. She takes everything and feminizes it more. I toughen feminine things up some.
No one commented on anyone’s outfit except that we all agreed that a pair of new diabetic shoes were cute. In terms of group interaction I noticed that when one person is naturally dominant, other folks just acquiesce. I’ve seen or met all before, over the years. While waiting for the party to form up, I realized just why I don’t socialize much with groups of women. There was a lot of tsk tsking over a still absent member, mostly health-related but that always veers into resultant appearance and behavior. I was only glad that, with a former nurse there, the conversation never steered all the way into the wheelhouse of operations and pus.
I don’t know if the caught my friend’s reference to some “Jewish” words I had translated for her but I certainly did hear, on the ride back, a great deal of condemnation for Jewish slumlords (hasidim with earlocks) who didn’t belong here and didn’t give back to the community. Though one house pointed out was grudgingly identified as somewhat fixed up now. So I guess I fit in well enough not to have people feel they had to censor their opinions. I didn’t say anything, just mentally noting that the more the world changes, the more it is the same.
Anyway, my own clothing was yanged up some with the diagonal plaid but was much more subdued than most of the others. More fashiony, too. So I felt very aware of being in style and wasn’t sure whether this was painful or not. 😀
Read a couple of good articles this morning on Cool.
http://takimag.com/article/the_science_of_cool_kathy_shaidle#axzz2zbey0W3y
And particularly this one that the first one linked to:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/gavin-mciness-its-cool-love-not-cool
Particularly interesting are the ideas that cool is not Christian and that – taken to a philosophical extreme – is death vs life-oriented. Though the 2d article makes a good case for this becoming literally true. And has an excellent take on the striving after youthfulness.
I think he’s got something here (bit of language):
“YOUTH. Hipsters are 18-25. They’re supposed to be stupid. They should be focused on music and fashion because ultimately, both are about sex. Fast music and the relentless pounding of rap and punk is about getting sweaty and thrashing around and fucking. Fashion is peacocking and it screams “fuck me” to desirables and “fuck you” to everyone else. ”
Fashion/style all about invitation and exclusion, then? I’m not seeing any third path.
” I was only glad that, with a former nurse there, the conversation never steered all the way into the wheelhouse of operations and pus.”
Sn-lol-rt!
Just before I read this, I was thinking that perhaps as one gets older it becomes easier to wear whatever you want without being misunderstood. Maybe?
Anyway, I look forward to reading those articles. And writing something myself. We have a new grand baby and, although he is fine, they still haven’t been released from the hospital. On top of that, I had fittings last night and I had some if my other littles for the weekend. A little behind, and today we have the hero’s uncles funeral.
Thx for the update! Love the description of putting together your outfit!
you can see a vestige of the dealmakers on the left and the folks on the right are what the patrons looked like on the day we were there. Photo is minus the helium balloons.
http://www.thepubnj.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC0036.jpg
Great page on the history, though. I want to frequent *that* place. ;D
http://www.thepubnj.com/wordpress/?page_id=10
I never knew – not being from here – that the airport traffic circle actually ever had anything to do with a long gone major airport hub.