




Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I got together and made this video on why knowing your style rules doesn’t make you less creative when you dress (some people think that if you know your rules you will become a less stylish dresser). We don’t agree – discover why as you watch it.
Want to get the whole picture of all your style rules (which are really just guidelines) then check out this post on the style puzzle.
How to break your style rules like a pro.







Whether right or wrong – it’s ultimately partly subconscious anyway (in my opinion), ours is an extremely image-conscious world, esp for women. While our teenage years matter little, there is research to show that thereafter more attractive people tend to get better jobs, are promoted quicker, are treated better etc. which in turn creates more success in other areas of life (more confident, happier – creating another virtuous circle). We can’t choose how beautiful a face we are born with or whether we have the perfect figure. But attractiveness is often not what you have but what you do with what you have. Attractiveness is how harmonious someone looks and the colours we wear do influence how healthy and glowing our skin/hair/eyes are and an unflattering garment will draw the eye to a less than perfect spot on us, which might remain invisible/less noticeable if we acknowledge our body shape and dress ourselves accordingly.
Your blog Imogen has been the single most important source showing me what works for me best and why. We should all celebrate an expert opinion on what makes us look our finest rather than follow our own (arbitrary) preferences in a headstrong manner. We are all free to break ‘the rules’, true, but what is the point? There is a scientific side to all this and why would we want to dress ourselves in a way that does not make us look as good as we can truly look?
Knowing what colours suit us, our value contrast, dressing for our body shape or perhaps more importantly body proportions are greatly helpful and adhering to these rules still leave a lot of freedom for dressing creatively, in my view and we can embrace personally unflattering colours in other areas of our life (choose as screensaver, paint the wall that colour, have a pen in that colour etc ). I think it’s folly not to wholeheartedly embrace Imogen’s expertly advice when we are so lucky to have access to it, the general guidelines at our fingertips for free! That is my take on this issue. And thank you Imogen for all you’ve taught us.
BRAVO. Jill is exactly right – Imogen makes explicit what we sometimes feel intuitively. When I feel intuitively that an outfit is working for me, it’s hard for me to know exactly why and to look for those elements in other pieces; when Imogen spells out high color contrast and high value contrast, it’s much easier.
Thank you both for so generously sharing your talent with your online fans. Should either of you ever find yourself on the coast of southwest Florida, cocktails are on me. 🙂
I do so appreciate your approach Imogen. Guidelines to try; tweak them if you want! I have always liked guidelines because they provide direction. Have always resisted rules.
What a treat to see Imogen and Jill together again. First of all, you both look great. Secondly, there is such great advice in this video about first knowing the rules and then breaking them if it suits your purpose. I tend to stick to colors and shapes that I feel suit me but when I try something out of my comfort zone, I am sometimes pleasantly surprised by the result.
More videos of the two of you Please!!
Thanks Rebecca – we’ve made a series of 9 videos – so lots to come in the next weeks!