236: Colour and Style Q&A: Retired, Petite, and Casual.

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I’m retired, have a large bust and am petite plus have lymphedema so need compression stockings – I find it hard to find attractive clothes that work for me It’s a struggle to find items I like.
I am a petite O and recently bought a summery print skirt that is the right length ( top of my knee) according to your formula. I wore it with a solid knit top again the right length ( high hip, just covering the fullest part of my belly), but I see they are just about equal in length! Do I just go with it or do you have another thought?
I’m retired and have nothing between more formal corporate clothes and super casual as my life is now very casual and doesn’t suit the classic/formal clothing style I’ve been living in for many years and some guidance is needed!

232: Colour and Style Q&A: INFJ, go to outfits, and mixing neutral with undertone.

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I’m an INFJ and the idea that I can “let style slip” in favor of comfort and versatility (from 16 style types) really resonated with me. I love clothes, and this still happens! What can I do to combat this tendency and keep committing to outfits that have unique style?
I think the hardest thing, I am not a morning person, so I don’t do a lot of thinking before my first cup of coffee and my wardrobe is so uninspiring that I often don’t get dressed until I absolutely have to.
Additionally I sew as a hobby and would love to sew things for myself but the last few items looked great on the mannequin but just didn’t suit me. Needless to say, I haven’t made anything for myself in a while.
I’ve been wondering, can I mix neutrals with different undertones, such as black with warm grey or cool taupe with warm navy? Finding a truly cool navy has been a challenge for me.

231: Colour and Style Q&A: Value and Colour, Contrast, and Changes.

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My question is about value and color, given that mine seem to change drastically based on lighting. Regardless of lighting, my skin has a lot of color, but my eyes and hair both seem to do a pretty drastic shift in color and value based on lighting when I look at myself in photos ., I’m really not sure how to interpret my value contrast. I would love to hear your advice on the topic!
I have a more yang physicality (body—larger bones, a relatively straight waist) but am otherwise quite yin (personality/voice/movement/facial features). How does one deal with this contrast to create a harmonious look?
My biggest style challenge at the moment is how to get the courage to make the drastic changes I know I need to make with my image and style. I’m 35 and I’ve had zero style for so long that I worry that if I suddenly start wearing makeup and flattering clothes and beautiful jewellery, I’ll feel clownish or like I’m playing dress up.
I’d say my ideal style is 70% relaxed, 20% feminine and 10% unique/quirky. But my actual current ‘style’ is whatever is boring, comfortable and cheap 

228: Colour and Style Q&A: How can I dress my portrait area? Why is it so hard to form my own style? How to formulate a capsule wardrobe?

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I’ve just had thyroid surgery and, as a result, I have a 7cm scar on the front of my lower neck. How can I “dress” my portrait area without drawing attention to the scar or having to wear scarves or jewellery over it?
My style isn’t cohesive enough. When I make moodboards, they feel to all-over-the-place and don’t convey a unified style. Of course, I could just set artificial limits for my style, and that would make my wardrobe cohesive, but I don’t want to do that. I want my likes and personality to form one unified, visually appealing and memorable style. Like a wardrobe for a fantasy character. I want my style to be beautiful, distinctive, cool, and memorable, like a cool eccentric character. I love creating characters. When I design their wardrobes, it comes really easily to me, to make a distinctive, visually appealing clothing style for my characters. But when I try doing it for myself, it’s too messy and incohesive. I just don’t understand, why is it so hard to form my own style? I’ve been at it for 5 years now. It’s so easy to create a style for a character. When I create a character, I know their characteristics and create a visual style based on that.
How to formulate a capsule wardrobe to take me into the next phases of my life – 50s 60s 70s?

227: Colour and Style Q&A: What are the specifics for cheap jewellery? How to icorporate my darker greens into my wardrobe? What to wear when you’re petite and plus size?

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In a video you said that you look at the details of jewelry to avoid buying “cheap”. What specific things do you avoid? What specific things do you want?
I want to incorporate my darker greens into my wardrobe but am having trouble working out the best neutral to go with them. My palette is “Elegant”: Value contrast medium/high, Colour contrast medium. Charcoal and greys seem to make the greens quite dull and my burgundy make me look like a Christmas decoration. Think need a happy medium, something that will give the green a “bite” without going too “carnival”. Is there a neutral that would do the trick?
What to wear when you’re petite and plus size

226: Colour and Style Q&A: How can I look more feminine, new ways to wear your clothes, and find clothes for large hips.

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I would love to feel feminine in my clothes. I have V figure (strong) and have always felt very masculine because of it. And I was not born with style. So it is always struggle to choose and combine clothes and I rarely feel good in what i chose. And with my figure it is always Problem to find nice clothes which match my back and breasts and wouldn’t be too big around belly.
How can I look more feminine while flattering my V shape figure?
My biggest style problem is to think of new ways to wear my clothes. I don’t get new clothes very often at all. I like thinking of (and wearing) new outfits, but I don’t have a whole lot of clothes so I sometimes really run out of ideas. Any ideas?
I’ve discovered as I have been trying to find clothes large enough to fit around my newly enlarged hips I have way too much fabric from my waist to my inseam in the front. Is my only hope a tailor to customize clothes or is there a special size or rise or shape that might help?

225: Colour and Style Q&A: How to avoid looking frumpy, how to evolve your style, and dressing the casual life.

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It’s my understanding that people gain weight during covid. I used to pants. Now I tend to only wear elastic pants, skirt, top and dress. How to avoid looking frumpy?
My new challenge is focussing more on how to evolve my style. I am happy with my style but keen to branch out further and avoid ruts.
I have a casual life and would like to know how to look polished in comfortable clothes. I believe that when you look good, you feel good.

224: Colour and Style Q&A: Personal style, pants, and stylish mum.

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I never know my personal style, I feel overwhelmed with all the pictures I see on social media and what clothes I like and then when I end up buying clothes they either don’t look right on me or I don’t feel good or confident in them, that’s one of the reasons I feel shopping so difficult.
It seems that cropped pants are very popular right now. I’ve tried on some in stores, but couldn’t find any that looked good on me. My legs and body are the same length, but my thighs are long and my legs from knee to ankle are short. My ankles are slim, but I have big feet. The slim legged cropped pants make my hips look very wide and my feet very large. The larger legs look equally bad. I’m an H shape with a flat butt. I normally wear slim cut pants that are straight leg or boot cut, but I’d like something cooler for casual summer wear. Most all the blogs say to never wear capris, but I’m wondering if capris the same length as my ideal skirt length wouldn’t be my best bet. You posted a blog with a very complicated mathematical formula for finding the best skirt length. Mine is at the bottom of my knee and I think that is right
I have work clothes, church clothes, social and dressy clothes. I’ve never been much into leisure wear. Now that I am at home I don’t have “stay-at-home nice clothes”. I don’t want to wear my work clothes and ruin them but I don’t have nice casual clothes. I hate “tight-feeling” clothes like jeans when I want to be comfy. I don’t have any visitors or anyone coming to the door. Any suggestions?

222: Colour and Style Q&A: Medium Colour, Patterns, and Plus Size.

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My question is about the Light Bright coloring. Do I always need to wear a print blouse to look my best? I have some pretty jackets and purses with prints. If I chose to wear them, is the best thing to do to wear a blouse with a white and color print that would coordinate with the print on the jacket or purse?
How do I pull patterns into outfits? Most of my clothes are solids, worn with neutrals. (But I still get compliments on “dressing stylish,”)
How do I look smart in clothing when I’m plus size?

217: Colour and Style Q&A: Struggle to find pants and skirt, blending in or stand out, and creating outfit with modern touch.

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I Struggle to find Pants, and skirts, for a size 12-14 body type, with what seems to be a mix of “X”, “H”, and “pear shape” characteristics. The widest part of my body is indeed the upper thigh, Finding skirts that don’t cling to the thighs/hips too much, but aren’t in styles I wouldn’t wear, is a bit of a challenge, same with pants.
My Biggest challenge is that I like to dress up a bit but most people dress very casually nowadays. I am embarrassed to dress the way I want because they are going to look at me weirdly and think “where does she think she is going?”. Most women don’t even wear heels anymore, just jeans, T shirts and gym clothes. If you live in a small town and dress nicely you are going to draw all the attention. How can a be chic (and I don’t mean over the top believe me, just look put together, wear heels and jewellery) and still fit in?
For example today I wanted to wear pointed heels and felt bad and went for sneakers instead 
What I struggle with most in creating outfits is finding the actual trends and that give my outfits a modern touch. I am not overly fashion-conscious and prefer creative classic outfits. Maybe you can give advice on how that can be managed.

215: Colour and Style Q&A: Frumpy, lack of style and blouses for hourglass.

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I have been feeling quite stodgy and frumpy with my style lately. I retired 3 years ago and I’ve decided it’s time to step up my game and spend some much needed time focusing my attention on updating my wardrobe.
There was a time when I was always dressed very professionally at work and I felt put together and confident. Over the last number of years, I started to let my style fall by the wayside at work. I think casual Fridays at the office had lots to do with this and since then, my style aesthetic slowly began to disappear.
I seem to have lost all my confidence in how to properly dress my body. The struggle I seem to be encountering at the moment is how and where do I start my wardrobe overhaul Would love to hear your thoughts about finding your style aesthetic again and building a new and revised wardrobe from there 
I think my biggest challenge is my lack of style. I am definitely “natural” by the personality quiz definition, but I don’t like to look messy. I like comfort and quality! How do I be stylish and natural at the same time?I have an hourglass figure and I find it hard to find well suited blouses. I have wide shoulders and small waist and all tops end up loose on it, they take a bell shape! I limit myself to elastic, tight fitting tops, but they mostly are very casual and I look for more refined clothes. Fashion industry tends to make boxy shaped clothes nowadays and they are really ugly on me! I mean after my chest the fabric moves away from my body and protrudes and I don’t know how to tuck it in!