I like to shop, I like to write, I like to look cute, and I love a bargain! A blog seems a natural fit, doesn't it? Yes, a "natural fit", as advertised by certain jeans.
Ooh, we could go on about jeans for days, couldn't we? But this blog is about all kinds of clothes, mostly on the cheap, or at least reasonably-priced, so we'll have postings about jeans, about sweaters, about men's clothes (wow!), about shoes and boots and sandals... The sky is the limit!
For this first posting, I want to mention something about colors. The beginning of any good wardrobe is knowing what looks good on you. And colors are the best place to start with that.
When I was a child, my mom sewed quite a bit for me and my sister. She would take us to the fabric store (my eyes always burned--what was that?) and hold fabrics up under our chins to see how certain colors looked on us. My mom has a great eye for fashion, color, design, etc. I got most of what I know from her.
Mother always said my best colors were pastel purple and olive green. I have hazel eyes, black hair (starting to turn grey!), and very fair skin. Mother calls my skin "fair olive". In other words, it has a greenish undertone. Not very flattering, I think, but nonetheless true. As I have gotten older and learned about what looks good on me, I find these colors also suit me well:
* most shades of purple and green (Mother was right!)
* red
* black
* brown
* turquoise and coral (magic colors that flatter most people)
* orange and peach
* pink and magenta
* teal
* off-white, winter white, vanilla, cream
* some shades of yellow, including gold
I definitely can NOT wear navy or grey. Ugh. And there are probably others, but you get the idea. If you have ever "had your colors done", you probably know better than most people what flatters you. If not, here are a couple of tips to find out:
1) Look in your closet and drawers. What color/s to you own more of than anything else? If you have mostly red and purple, for example, they are probably your best colors.
***NOTE of Caution: this trick does not work if your whole wardrobe is BLACK! If you've been hiding behind black for years, now is the time to break out and get some color back in your cheeks! Don't get me wrong--I like black and it has its place. But wearing it head-to-toe every day makes you look depressing, depressed, boring, and unimaginative. Trust me. And it's not actually all that slimming, so stop it!
2) Another trick is to do what my mother did: hold it up to your chin and look in the mirror. I still do this if I'm not sure about a color, especially if it is a print with more than one color. What if you look great in one of the colors and lousy in the other? Hold it up and look. Do your eyes look bright? Does your skin look clear and bright or sallow? If you've never looked at colors this way, you're in for a treat. I'm betting you will have a revelation or two!
3) Think of what you are wearing when you get compliments. If someone says, "That's a great outfit", it's not nearly as telling as, "You look great!" If you hear something like that or, "Wow, your eyes look amazing!", pay attention--and wear that outfit again!
4) And finally, what color are your eyes? What color are your eyebrows? What color is your hair (naturally, I mean). Mother Nature doesn't make mistakes on this--you can wear the colors of your eyes and hair, and you can take that to the bank. If you color your hair and that color flatters you, you can wear it too.
Thus concludes today's color lesson. I'd love to know what you learned, what you know about your own colors, and what questions you have. Next time, I'll share a recent purchase with you, so you can learn to Shop Cheap, Look Cute!
Until next time,
Susan K. Morrow
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