How To Create A Look That Works For You

Fash­ion is a funny thing and at times may seem fickle and unfriendly.

The media and celebrity cul­ture we live in can eas­ily influ­ence you into trends that aren't flat­ter­ing for your lifestyle or body type.

Or per­haps you refuse this pres­sure, get annoyed or over­whelmed, caus­ing you to aban­don or ignore trends that may enhance your appear­ance, com­fort or per­sonal style?

Com­po­si­tion and Color are keys to last­ing wardrobe hap­pi­ness and find­ing a look that works for YOU.

I will write about Color next time...

But, today I will focus on Com­po­si­tion. Or, in other words; how things are put together.

What­ever your expe­ri­ence, I encour­age you to read on and chal­lenge you to make one of these styling tips your own.

1. Bal­ance the top and bot­tom fit of your clothing.

Wear­ing loose fit­ting bot­toms; maxi skirt, lounge pants, etc... is a great way to be com­fort­able and styl­ish. But be sure to pair with a fit­ted top, as wear­ing a baggy top with loose bot­toms can eas­ily go from comfy to frumpy!

Or per­haps you're feel­ing like you want to cover up a bit more and wear a tunic or over­sized blouse. This can actu­ally be a very chic look if you are sure to skip the baggy bot­toms and instead com­bine with leg­gings, yoga pants, fit­ted jeans or skinny skirt.

2. Pick the cor­rect skirt length to flat­ter your body type.

As I see it there are three no-fail choices depend­ing on your shape.

a. at mid-thigh
b. at the knee bend
c. at the floor

I see A LOT of skirts and dresses that stop right above the knee.

Hear this: The "just above the knee" look that is flat­ter­ing on few! It throws off the pro­por­tion of your leg mak­ing you knees look thicker.

The other length I see a lot of is mid-calf. It, too, con­fuses the body's pro­por­tions regard­less of your height.

My advice?

Go all the way to the floor (the shorter you are the slim­mer the skirt should be). OR... go up to your knee bend, gen­tly cov­er­ing your knee cap. This is a pretty length on most of us.

The guide is slightly dif­fer­ent for shorts, jeans or capris. But, be sure to pay atten­tion to how the dif­fer­ent lengths affect your look overall.

And, remem­ber - unless you have a per­fect bod - the just above the knee length rarely works well.

Also, when pick­ing a jean or trouser length, con­sider if they are going to be dressy or casual. Mean­ing... worn with high heels or flats?

Gen­er­ally, hav­ing a con­tin­ual ver­ti­cal line from top to bot­tom is impor­tant to a styl­ish appear­ance. Pants that stop at the ankle or back of the heel are not ideal.

Jeans and all full length (non-skinny) bot­toms should just barely graze the ground as you stand in bare feet. Once flat shoes are on, the shoe sole will give enough dis­tance from the floor to pre­vent wear and tear.

3. The wrong shoe height can ruin an outfit.

As I men­tion above, if your pant (or skirt) just grazes the ground when you are in bare feet, the cor­rect heel height is FLAT.

If you are going to wear high heels with a skirt, dress, flared or boot­leg trouser, you will look best when the length of the cloth­ing piece goes all the way to the floor.

I often see skirts and pants that have a shorter length suit­able with flats, worn with high heels. The only time this works is with skinny jeans.

And a word about the con­tin­u­ing pop­u­lar­ity of maxi-skirts. Their fit is meant to be graz­ing the floor in bare feet and worn with flats.

I hope you can draw from these three style principles.

The main thing is to not think you are doing it "wrong." All of this is guid­ance for the path you are on.

I am for­ever try­ing things that don't suit me, and remem­ber­ing what does work!

We're in this together...

Start with inte­grat­ing only ONE of these sug­ges­tions. Prefer­ably, what­ever is eas­i­est in work­ing with the clothes you already have.

You will discover your own style before you know it!