I was fortunate enough recently to be invited to tag along shopping with Jasmin as stylist Dayana Saliba showed us a little of the ropes when it comes to knowing what to buy for ourselves in terms of such things as colour, shape, material and much more.
I accepted because, hey, I like to shop every now and then (not often), but mostly because I’ve made it to this point in my life – thirty-three years old – by making some pretty dodgy fashion choices (and some good ones), and I thought I’d ironed out what looks good on me and what doesn’t and what to avoid like the plague. It turns out I mightn’t have had matters as sorted as I’d originally thought. I’ll go into my adventures below in a little more detail.
Body Shape
I’m sure you’ve heard of these: pear, apple, rectangular (or ‘athletic’ as I’ve also seen it described), hourglass – among others. I always thought I was a pear and bought accordingly: a-line skirts, bootleg pants and jeans and so on. I asked Dayana what she thought and I got a shock when she said ‘No, you’re an hourglass! You have a tiny waist and your dimensions are in proportion.’
While the shape difference mightn’t make too much of an impact on what I buy, Dayana did recommend that I accentuate my assets better – a belt high, rather than lower, on my hips. I have always worn belts lower because I figured that due to being short waisted that would elongate my stomach. But that’s not quite right, apparently. I admit a lot of what I do is leftover from the days when I was ultra-ultra-skinny: I belted things on my hips, otherwise clothes just fell off me – literally. So that will be a mental adjustment!
Skin Tone
I learned I have a cool skin tone which means that certain colours look better on me than others and some of those colours look better up near my face. The way fashions has been these past few years – with the surge of navy, emerald and turquoise – I’m told this is a GOOD THING for me. An example of those colours are below.
Browns, which I have a lot of in my cupboard, could be problematic. On a pant, fine, so long as I match it with a more complimentary colour on the top half of my body. Grey, luckily, is much better.
Breaking Up The Black On Black Rut
Perhaps my biggest crime, if you can call it that, is what I like to call my ‘Melburnian Signature Look’. I have a lot of black in my cupboard. Back in my twenties, before the babies, when I worked in the corporate area, I considered it a power uniform of sorts.
However in recent years I have started to feel a little… wrong, you might say … in black. It feels severe, and almost depressing. But I don’t have the money to toss them out and replace them with other clothes. Not that I’d even want to. Black has its place, and always will. So my cheap solution?
Accessories.
I’m the first to admit I don’t own a whole lot of jewellery and most of these pieces were on sale. I can put on some earrings, match that colour with a bangle or belt, and it will make a difference. Hooray!
On the flip side white can wash me out and I have a business shirt or two. A similar principle applies: a scarf, earrings, maybe even a headband or a brooch to get some colour happening. Sorted!
These are the clothes that I ended up buying. That outfit will be going to New York! (Not the beret, I doubt I’ll need it in the middle of their summer.)
Dayana’s Facebook page is Designed by Dayana. Thank you so much ladies for having me along and your advice. Such a fun experience.
