Have you ever stood in front of your wardrobe and realised… It’s a sea of black? Black is everywhere. It’s in every store, every online catalogue, and likely, every corner of your closet. But here’s the question we need to ask: Why? Why do so many intelligent, capable women default to wearing black, even when…
Reader Question: I have light colouring so light colours work best. So what should you do when you’re overweight and feel that light colours make you look larger. Black is the most slimming colour, isn’t it? Retailers sell lots of black because it’s easy as they’ll tell you “black goes with everything” (it doesn’t, it’s…
Having worked with thousands of wonderful women over the past couple of decades I know (as they have told me repeatedly) that they wear black because they have come to believe it’s the most slimming colour (and they tell me that this is one of their dressing goals), that it also “goes with everything” and…
The exhibition: Gabrielle Chanel, Fashion Manifesto is currently on display at the National Gallery of Victoria and, as I was making my way around the exhibits of over 100 of her gorgeous outfits what struck me, was just what you could learn about wearing black from Chanel. Chanel was the instigator of black as a…
Busting the Black Myth In fashion magazine after fashion magazine you will read that essential in every woman’s wardrobe is a pair of black trousers and a Little Black Dress because both these garments are the most flattering and slimming you can find. They are of course aren’t they? I’m here to bust the…
Have you ever thought about which are you knockout colours? The ones that make your eyes pop and skin glow? These are your best colours and ones you want to build your wardrobe around, and are also fantastic in your jewellery too. Carol Karl and I discuss more about choosing colours and why black isn’t…
If you’ve been one of my long time blog readers, or a client, you’d be aware that black is not the most flattering colour if you have warm colouring or muted/soft colouring, or even light colouring. This is because black’s colour properties are: Cool Undertone Dark/Deep Bright/Clear If you have colouring like mine, as these…
OK, so I’m unlikely to ever be asked to the Oscars, or any such award ceremonies, but when I’m choosing a client’s signature colours, one of the criteria I may run past the colour is “would I dress this person head to toe in this colour and it would look truly WOW” as in, if…
Do you have any blog posts on how to wear the black items in your wardrobe when your value contrast is low or medium and you don’t want to wear all neutrals/all black? I don’t want to part with all of those clothes as I still like them. I found a few posts about wearing…
What about ‘the little black dress’? I am a ‘summer’ (cool, soft and light colouring) and therefore black is not a good colour for me, yet I would love to wear a little black dress on special occasions. Would I be able to get away with that? Wear it at night When you turn out…
The Colour Properties of Black Every colour has three properties. Value, undertone and intensity. Every colour palette also has these three properties as well. The colours that harmonise with your own colouring are the ones in your colour palette (if you’re not sure of your palette you can find out with my 7 Steps to…
One of the questions I get asked most about since changing my hair colour so radically from deep brunette to light blonde, is how have the colours I wear changed. In a word, black, used to be my go-to dark neutral. Particularly in the 15 years where it was impossible to buy anything in navy…
I was recently asked for some advice: “How to add a dash of colour to her otherwise black wardrobe.” She tends to wear outfits of black, but has a few coloured jackets, and wants them to look tied together, rather than just an afterthought. So I’ve created up a selection of black outfits with coloured…
So you’ve got a bunch of black items in your wardrobe that you can’t afford to get rid of (or just don’t want to), but you know that black isn’t the most flattering colour on you. How do you get your wear out of them and make them work? Here are my top 3 tips…
Contrast – both colour contrast and value contrast can be quite tricky concepts to grasp. Once you see it you can’t go back, but learning to see what is and isn’t working and understanding why can sometimes take a little time. I’ve explained how to figure out your contrast levels in this post – with…
I’m off to Manila in the Philippines tomorrow for the Association of Image Consultants International South East Asia conference. I’m speaking at the conference on blogging, so have to have something that is suitable to stand up in front of a critical audience. There will be a gala dinner, other conference events and then I’m…
SPORTSWEAR/ HIKING WEAR etc: how to assemble small capsules of technical clothing for sporting activities, when shapes and colours are often very limited. What are the few things to do to adapt such clothes to ones own personality and needs? Long gone are the days when you wore a baggy old men’s (or promotional) tee…
Most people who have light colouring don’t suit black. It’s just too dark and harsh on their complexion and it wears you, rather that you wearing the colour. But so many people still want to wear it, so here is a quick tip to make it less draining on you. 3 Simple Steps Think about…
A Guide to Mastering Value Contrast Have you ever been drawn to a stunning pattern, only to find that it somehow overwhelms your look, rather than enhancing it? What I’ve learned over the past 20 years working with clients doing personal colour analysis and finding the best ways of putting each individual client’s colours together,…
Reader Question: My biggest issue right now is finding age-appropriate clothes that I LOVE. I’m 55 and (based on your quiz) I’m a Classic style and I do like to always have a “put together” look, but that is getting hard to do. I don’t want to look like my 27-year-old daughter, but I also…
What makeup do you regularly apply and use? For some women the answer is none! For others, it spans the gamut of available makeup products. I was asked to share my makeup essentials. I wear makeup every day, a foundation (either a liquid or a mineral powder, depending on how “made up” I want to…
