I was recently interviewed by Douglas Todd, reporter for the Vancouver Sun. He was doing a story on how men are becoming more conscientious about their personal appearance at work and also in their personal lives. He asked if it is advantageous for a man to take care of himself and do what he can to look his best. For more, read the article.
Category Archives: Casual dress
Accessories Add Personality
For some of us women finding clothing that fits well can be so challenging that we feel stuck with a very small selection to choose from each season. This can lead to major frustration, especially when your personality isn’t in-line with the current selection of available items. However, with a little imagination and creativity, accessories can save the day. Accessories are the extras that can give you an individual style. By choosing the right accessories, you can create the look that says “you”.
When purchasing new accessories, always your figure challenges, your scale and your lifestyle in mind. By matching these qualities in your accessories with these qualities in you, your accessories can easily pull together your wardrobe and make you look great!
Match the Scale of You and the Scale of Your Attire
Even when a garment fits your shape and proportions, the scale of the print, the details of the garment or the size of the accessories may not. To bring your wardrobe into sync with your physical appearance, you must make sure they match your bone structure, body frame, height and scale.
Fabric & Style Can Make Clothing Look More Expensive
When clients ask me how to make their wardrobe dollars stretch I give them the following four suggestions:
- Choose quality over quantity.
- Buy quality fabrics and timeless styles – the best you can afford.
- Choose all-season natural fabrics such as lightweight wools, fine cottons, and silks.
- For a better fit, Make small alterations to the sleeves, hemline and the waistline.
Your clothing will look and feel more expensive and you will look like a million bucks!
Summer Can be Suit Season
Even though it’s summer, it doesn’t mean it’s time to put away the business suits. Suits can look and feel comfortable in any season if the right suiting fabric is chosen. When the sun comes out, wear 100% wool suits in “tropical weight” or “four seasons weight”. It will give you the most wearability and the most comfort.
Consistency is the Key to a Professional Image
There are times when I get up in the morning and I don’t care how I look. I think everyone has those days. When getting dressed in the morning, we throw on the first thing that looks comfortable. And even though we may think it doesn’t matter, this can sometimes get us in trouble.
As an image consultant, I have made a few embarrassing mistakes of my own. One day, I ran down to the grocery store to grab a few things. Wearing sweats and no make-up, I ran into a past client. Oops! You never know where or when you might bump into someone important.
Even though there are days when I would rather not dress for success, I have learned the hard way that I really do need to look the part. Even though we may not care how we look, others might. For more on how to make the right business impression see ‘Upwardly Mobile Clothing for Upwardly Mobile Women’
Not Sure What to Wear to Work?
Notice what your boss and your clients typically wear. To impress your boss, dress at the same level or slightly more casual. If your boss wears a jacket, so should you. To impress your client, dress at the same level or a little more formal. If your clients always wear jeans, you might want to leave the jacket and the jeans at home. Dress for Success with a tailored bottom and a coordinating top.
Shed Some Light on Your Best Features
One way to make your best features stand-out is by wearing lighter colours in that area. Light colours reflect light and draw attention to that area. This will accentuate the area and make it appear more prominent…especially when a darker piece of clothing is worn next to it.
How to Look Slimmer in Your Warm Colour Palette
In my previous blog post, “Heavy or Slim…Not as Simple as Black or White!’, I talked about the effects of various colour qualities and how you don’t need to stick to neutrals like black or white in order to look slimmer or balance your body shape. Since then I have had questions from clients about what to do if you want to look slimmer but don’t suit cool colours.
One thing to consider is that there are so many variations of colour that can go into the mix. There is usually one colour quality in the mix that will suit your colouring and have a slimming affect. For example: if you look great in warm colours but also want to look slimmer, you may also look great in muted colours or dark colours, which will make you look slimmer. By taking advantage of these slimming colour qualities you can look slimmer and look great in your warm wardrobe colours.
Heavy or Slim…Not as Simple as Black or White!
We have all heard the rumour black makes us look slimmer and white makes us look heavier. But there are other ways to create similar effects without limiting your wardrobe to black or white.
Any dark colour will have a slimming affect. So why limit yourself to black? Clothing in lighter colours has the opposite affect. Light colours reflect light which causes an area to appear larger.
Clothing in muted colours has a similar effect to black. Because they absorb light they will have a slimming affect. Bright colours like white reflect light and will make an area appear larger. This will have a similar effect in clothing.
Clothing from the cool side of the colour wheel also has a receding or slimming effect. If cool colours suit your colouring you have an advantage if you want to look slimmer. Warm coloured clothing will make the area appear bigger.
