Fashion Style and Rules – Dos and Don’ts

Where do fashion rules come from? Is there a fashion board that decides what we should and should not wear, or what ‘goes together’ and what looks bad? Not hardly. The rules and lists we read to guide our fashion choices are produced by fashion columnists and editors as part of the business of selling magazines and drawing an online readership. Take this into account when making your choices, and consider the rules more like guidelines than absolutes.

In fact, to be truly fashionable you should be breaking the rules occasionally. An overly fussy and cautious approach to fashion makes you look like a follower rather than an innovator. Instead, try breaking some of the rules below to add some twist to your style.

Your colors should not clash: What a limiting belief! People often think that there are colors that you should wear together and colors that “clash” and should never be combined. This narrows your choices considerably. Instead, why not indulge in unusual combinations from time to time?

Stay away from the extreme end of clashing; there are colors that do look horrible together. But, colors that don’t seem to naturally ‘go together’ can be visually stunning when worn in combination. Most fashionable dressers play with combinations that stop just short of horribly clashing.

Save bright jewelry for nighttime: This rule doesn’t make sense, if you think about it. Most jewelry isn’t harmed by sunlight. Why set aside some for strictly nighttime use?

Have fun with some of your brighter pieces by wearing them during the day on occasion.

Play up eyes or lips, but not both: Many women believe that you can wear striking eye makeup but then need to have a neutral lip, or if you wear a colored lipstick you should be very light with the eye makeup. But there is no reason for this caution.

Choose colors from the same color family – you don’t want a cool-toned lip and a warm-toned eye or the face will feel disjointed. Then, apply with a slightly lighter hand than you would if you were only playing up one or the other. You’ll be surprised with how flattering the results can be.