On the weekend I spent a number of hours with a lovely client who when we were figuring out her personality style, realised that she had been ignoring accessories, thinking that they were less important than the clothes she was choosing, resulting in her not expressing an important aspect of her personality. She told me…
. . As rightly mentioned in the comments by readers, Cybill and Duchesse, not only is there the formal or casual element as previously posted, there is also the matter of season. Colour – lighter and brighter colours tend to suit warmer seasons, darker and richer colours suit cooler seasons (and we’re talking seasons…
I was in the supermarket the other day and noticed that many women carry the same handbag everywhere, to work, to the gym, to the supermarket, out for an evening, never stopping to consider that this one-size-fits-all solution may be doing then an injustice. So is it time you thought about your handbag, and whether…
I’m an H shape, not waist to speak of, and sometimes I wish I could wear a belt, but they just show off my lack of waist. So what are my options? Option 1 is to wear it low down on my hips rather than at my waist. Preferably with a curved belt that sits…
One of the other elements of choosing a necklace, along with the neckline, is creating harmony with the print or pattern or other design features of the garment it’s sitting next to. From left to right, top to bottom: Snakeskin cardigan with multiple piece coral necklace – two naturally occurring shapes, made of many small…
I was asked by a reader how to choose match necklaces with clothing, so to start, here is a quick guide on how to match necklines and necklaces Necklines that have detail – beading, ruffles, cowls etc, don’t need any extra embellishment, avoid wearing a necklace with them. Lower necklines such as Vs, Scoops, Square,…
Yesterday I did a post on What Size Handbag to Choose – one of the commenter’s asked about handbag placement, should you wear it at your hips or under your arm, down the side of your body and what happens when you wear it across your body? The answer lies in knowing your body shape and…
One of my lovely readers Karen sent me this email: I do think we can and should each find our own personal style and be comfortable with it. I do not understand the large size that handbags have become. If I carried a currently stylish handbag, it would be 90% empty, and I’m not sure…
In this post I’ll help you choose earrings according to your face shape. Hopefully after my last few posts you’ve now got more of an idea of your face shape. Remember, these are guidelines only, and very few faces are exactly shaped. In many ways, what is most important to figure out is: Answer these…
I don’t know about you, but I love the look of high heels. And I’m more than happy to wear them when I know I’ll get to do some serious sitting down. But if I know I’ll be walking anywhere, then I tend to opt for either a kitten heel or flat. Often when I’m…
While I was in Sydney at the AICI conference, I shared a hotel room with my lovely friend and image consultant colleague Jan from New Zealand. She was kind enough to let me take a happy snap of her outfits (missed a couple of days sorry) to share with you here. This was on Saturday This is…
The other day I posted on breaking the style rules, and I thought that I’d post some more ways to do it. Knowing your rules (or as I like to think of them – as Style Guidelines) is great as you will be more empowered when making choices shopping (hello? how much money have you…
After my post on Highlighting Your Assets, some commenters seemed to have trouble working out what their assets are, they’ve spent so long being told about and focussing on their ‘flaws’ but never ‘assets’. I see everything as an asset, and don’t believe in flaws. It’s just that some assets you may want to highlight,…
Focal points are created by detail on clothing – whether it’s colour, shiny fabrics, pockets, distressing on jeans, ruffles, pattern, belts, beading or jewellery. You can use detail to draw attention to your assets and away from areas you’d rather people didn’t notice. You can see from this collection how the details draw…
Recently blogger Embellissiment asked how to choose a watch to go with outfits, and whether watches are ‘jewellery’ or something else. Basically, I think that watches are an accessory but like a shoe, a more basic, every day essential accessory (yes I know that your mobile phone has a clock on it, but a…
Metscan asked about Jan’s attitudes to jewellery and jeans – here is her reply – FYI – in New Zealand, jandals are their word for flip-flops which in Australia we know as thongs! “In respect to jeans and jewellery, I think you have to take care when you with putting the two together , it…
Reader Jamtart asked recently for some ideas on what kind of jewellery would suit her – she’s petite (5’1″) and busty – and wanted some ideas. I suggest some pieces that are larger in scale, but not heavy in dimension – so in all price ranges, here are some ideas. Firstly, from Wendy Brandes…
I’m really struggling at the moment to find spring/summer clothes that don’t look too young for me. I don’t know why but a lot of stuff looks too fancy or ruffled, and that’s just not me 🙁 I always end up feeling too warm in the warmer months, because I never quite get a good…
So, you may be aware that I generally advise against wearing a high neckline when you have a larger bust, as it makes it appear to be even bigger and start just underneath your chin. But sometimes we all want to wear high necklines, for example, it’s winter here at the moment and…
Often, when I’m with a client, they’ll tell me that they have some necklaces that they like, but never wear. When they bring them out to show me, we discover that they’re just not hanging in the right spot for them – and as soon as we put them on one of their ‘balance points…
When I wrote about wearing larger scale necklaces to distract from a big bust, I had some comments asking how did I choose the necklace to wear. So to start with today – I will show you a few choices I make and why I do so. There is a concept called Relate Shapes…
