Have you ever wondered why some necklines and necklace lengths flatter you more than others? It all comes down to balance points—key proportions that create harmony between your head and upper body. As humans, we love balance—it gives us a sense of visual harmony and connects to our innate sense of physical stability. This is…
Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I were asked about how to be comfortable, have a practical wardrobe but still be elegantly stylish. In this video we discuss some strategies to create a wardrobe that is both functional and comfortable yet stylish. Fabric Selection to Be Comfortable and Stylish Comfort and Ease Do fabrics…
How to create a working wardrobe and get the right balance between basics and heroes? Whether those heroes are patterns or items in bold colours or textures that make their own statement it’s worth identifying the right balance or ratio for your wardrobe. This is the topic of discussion I had with Jill Chivers of…
Got a top that a bit too long and kind of shapeless (kind of even looks a little maternity)? Love to wear it with your jeans or any sort of pants or skirt( like my denim skirt here) that has belt loops? Then it’s time to try the belt-loop half-tuck. You may have picked up…
We live in a coloured world. We wear colour, we choose colours to live with in our houses, we are surrounded by colour. It plays a vital role in our lives. It determines colour palettes for fashions, interior design, moods and emotional states. We can use colour to create illusion and as a symbol for…
The Personality of Patterns in Scarves This is the topic of the video Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I discuss, though the personality of prints and the discussion on fabric choices extends into other clothing elements outside of the scarf! So how do you express personality through your patterns? Patterns Classic – stripes…
How do your shoes communicate? What is the personality dressing style of your shoes? In this video with Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types, we discuss and show examples of different shoe styles and elements of shoes so you can learn how to interpret your shoes and what they are communicating. What are The Design…
To finish up my Frocktober efforts at styling dresses in different ways I’ve been raising much-needed money to support the life-saving research of the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation who are working hard funding scientists to find an early detection test for ovarian cancer. Please support my fundraising efforts here… every dollar makes a difference (and…
Style is something that a lucky few are born with (or appear to be born with) but the rest of us have to learn. Fortunately, you can become more stylish … it’s just not going to happen in a week (or even two, but you can learn a lot in two weeks). Like any skill,…
How do you make decisions about whether or not you should jump on board a fashion trend or not? For many of us it depends on how you feel about your body, what flatters it and whether or not you are happy to ‘give up’ some elements of figure flattery for the sake of fashion…
Frocktober continues and I’m sharing more dress styling ideas for you to try with your own dresses at home. Please make a small donation to my fundraising efforts to help find an early detection test for ovarian cancers which is a silent killer of many women. Your donation will help save lives. And I want…
Hats come in all different shapes and sizes. They were very common back in the 1950s when it was polite and the right thing to do, to wear a hat when outside of the house. Here is the photo I mention in the video that my father took in 1958 at the corner of Russell…
Accessories can be a great way of adding contrast in your outfit. You can add interest with pops of colour in accessories and create focal points for which to draw attention and encourage the eye to linger. You can raise your colour contrast. You can raise or lower your value contrast. This is why accessories…
Celebrating Frocktober (and raising money to help fund vital research into finding an early detection test for ovarian cancer). Please make a small donation as it will help save lives. This year I’m styling dresses multiple ways (I don’t have enough dresses to do a dress a day, plus I love the challenge of finding…
Recently I’ve been asked to cover the topic of hip dips and how to dress them to make them less obvious. Hip Dips are also known as Violin Hips and are most common on the 8 shape, A shape and X shape bodies (but can come on any body shape). They are an indentation between…
It’s Frocktober again and I’m helping to raise much-needed funds for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation as there is still no early detection test for ovarian cancer (your pap smear doesn’t tell you) and so around 70% of those diagnosed don’t survive past the 5 year mark (scary statistic) as they are not detected early…
There are many elements of fit to consider. Not only the physical fit of clothing, but also the psychological and lifestyle elements of fit. Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I have discussed the physical elements of fit here. In this video we discuss some of the broader elements of fit such as lifestyle…
I love colour (as regular readers will be aware) and I don’t have a naturally high colour contrast (ideally I’m physically more in the neutral plus 1 colour camp). But I like to wear more than one colour in patterns as they are often more versatile than a colour plus neutral print, and have found…
Hi Imogen. I have always heard that tops for skirts should be a bit shorter than tops for pants. My question is, how do you make this work when trying to put a capsule wardrobe together since tops should be able to work with both pants and skirts. I know you can tuck them in,…
The “cold shoulder” or “off the shoulder” trend has been big the last summer or so and continues on into the cooler months. So if you love this trend (and it’s great for those A shapes who want to add a nice horizontal line across the shoulders to balance hips), here is some inspiration. …
Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types and I were asked to comment on the question of “how much skin is appropriate to show in the workplace”. Now we are aware this can be quite a contentious as there will be some wildly differing views on this topic depending on your culture, your work environment, job,…
