Lisa in her lovely (but blah) dress
In this photograph we have Lisa, who asked me how she can make this dress look more exciting. She doesn’t like the shoes she is wearing and would love some better suggestions. Lisa really likes this dress a lot, but would love to like it even more!
Bridgette’s Style Solution:
Lisa is right, this is a lovely, flattering dress. I think the color looks good on her and the silk shantung fabric lends itself nicely to the crisp tailored look to the dress.
What Lisa can do to make this dress more exciting is to add some color and pop through her jewelry and shoes. Since the dress is in a neutral shade, Lisa is free to go in any direction she chooses with the accent colors. This also creates a tremendous amount of versatility in one dress because she can easily dress the outfit up or down depending on the accessories she chooses.
Jewelry
To start, I would suggest going bold and adding a red necklace which would really add some punch. If she wants to create a softer look, she could choose accessories in pink, purple, green or yellow, for example.
Shoes
Next the shoes. While they aren’t awful, this is an area where she can have some fun as well. Lisa can go with simpler jewelry, shop for shoes and choose a fun color for her shoe like teal. Another option could be a shoe that matches her skin tone in tan or even a gold sandal. If Lisa is feeling bold, she can also try a novelty shoe that is beaded or in a fun print.
The general rule of thumb is that, anytime your clothing is head-to-toe neutral, you are free to play with any color of your accessories. My suggestion to Lisa is that she choose her favorite colors and find jewelry and shoes in those shades.
Do you want to know where your going in your outfit? Send us a photo of yourself in the outfit and a few words about what’s irking you about it.
Great advice! I’d love to see an “after’ photo of Lisa showing how she’s implemented these changes.
Love the new site Bridgette, and the new zest for your career!! The advice is spot on and this isn’t the only blog post that’s helped me reorganize and clean up my closet. Ever since our “session” in my closet I’ve been following your rules and the tips from your book “Style RX”. I even pass on to people the idea of dressing for your type, ie. are you a high contrast or low contrast person. And I’ve kept with these idea when I’m shopping. Like, even though I liked the baby blue scarf, I went with the purple one cause it had the correct contrast with my features. Anyway, glad you stuck with it!
Sorry Bridgette, if you wanted to follow my link to my blog site, it’s corrected in this reply. Keep up the good advice!!