French chic

Ok, so I haven't been updating awhile. I was in Paris for a week for an interview about a PhD position and then last week I was in a hurry to finish my Master's thesis. Well, now that it's all done, I was inspired to post about French chic as I just came from France. I wouldn't say it's completely my style (not enough colour and I don't look so great in black/grey/white), but I think there are some things for me as well.

So what is French chic then? It's the kind of style that looks effortlessly stylish. Read more about it at The Focus on Style or How to be Chic. Also, here's a great video about French chic:



Also, I think this applies, even if it's not particularly about French chic. In any case, I don't think that wearing something you don't feel comfortable in or doesn't feel like you, is going to make you look stylish. It should always feel like you. But you can choose more stylish things that are you and try new things to see if they actually might be you and you just haven't thought about it.

The right style for YOUR body

I have thought about this before, but especially when sewing the charleston dress: there are certain styles that just fit better for certain body types. No matter how much I love 20s charleston style, I will never look great in it. Then again 50s style suits me a lot better. Well, there are things I will wear anyway, but it is nice to know what really suits you and what to avoid. To help, there's a great collection of videos at Videojug: Videojug - Fashion for your shape

Basically, it's a collection of videos with the tag - fashion for your shape. You can find the best styles and avoid the ones that really don't work. I'm trying to take these as guidelines, not as strict rules, but I think they might help with defining your own style. Also, it's good to look at few different makers of videos. Sometimes the tips disagree a bit, so seeing a few videos gives more idea what's best in general. Also, now that the summer is almost here, they have advice on the best swimsuit styles as well, so if you're updating your swimsuit, take a look at the advice first!

What I realized watching these videos is, that I've noticed lot of the stuff myself while just choosing clothes. Sometimes, when you really like something, though, you might not realize that while it looks amazing on the hanger, it just doesn't look great on you. So, I think I will keep these in mind while planning what to buy/sew/wear. And it will make the decision that much easier.

Colour blocking

Well, I know I'm a year late, but as the colour blocking seems to continue this year, I thought I'd write about it. Especially, because I really like the idea (big fan of colours here). I think one of the clearest examples what it is is explained by Wendy from Wendy's Lookbook (see the video below). I found the beginning a little bit annoying, but it gets better :) She demonstrates well how to choose the colours as well as giving some examples of outfits. The video is about 10 min, but most of it is examples, so the beginning was the thing for me (the things about the colour wheel and choosing different combinations).

Color Blocking for Spring/Summer (2011):

Wendy has also made an introductory video about colour wheel, that I thought was fun and here also you can see the way of choosing which colours to combine:

The Painter's Color Wheel with Clones!

I have also included a colour wheel here for reference:

 

And of course some examples how to apply this. First there are some lovely examples from Shabby Apple's collection: The Block. I especially love the combination on the left. It's so vibrant and fun.

 

You should also check the tips of Fabulous after 40 about colour blocking. Don't let the title of the blog fool you, the tips are good for people under 40 as well. And if you want more ideas, just go to Pinterest and search for color blocking. And of course there's Google, but I think Pinterest gives better results.

Michelle Obama does colour blocking

Colour blocking on runway