Skirt and dress lengths have been getting shorter along with the resurgence in 80’s fashion. Before, finding hems that ended on or below the knee was the norm. But today, hemlines seldom cover the knee. Mid-thigh lengths are pretty common and crotch-scraping lengths are available too.

I haven’t worn a mini-skirt since I was a teenybopper because I like to feel covered. So it took me a while to get back into the whole idea of raising my hemline. I still want the coverage so I prefer to wear raised hemlines with leggings or hose, and knee-high or mid-calf length boots. Even so, my hems are never shorter than two to three inches above the top of my knee cap. When I’m barelegged sans boots, my hemlines are a little longer, either on the knee or just above it. I showed some typical lengths in last month’s post on slouch boots.

So I guess I’m okay with the rising hemline trend as long as it’s no shorter than a few inches above the knee and I can add coverage. How do you feel about raising your hemline and how short will you go?

If I waved my magic wand and gave you $5000 to spend on any aspect of your style and wardrobe, how would you spend it? Before you let the cat out the bag, here are the rules for our imaginary shopping spree:

• You have to spend the money on yourself, so no sharing with family members or friends. This is about indulging you and only you.
• You have to spend it on fashion and style. No paying off of credit cards, buying of gifts, or donating to your favourite charities.
• You have to spend it within the time frame of one year. No saving for a rainy day.
• You can shop anywhere in the world, but the price of the plane ticket and accommodation will have to come out of the $5000 allowance.

It’s perfectly fine to blow your entire gift of style on a trip to Paris to purchase a Chanel bag of your choice. $5000 should just about cover that. On the other hand, if you’d prefer to shop online from home stalking bargains for a full 365 days to get the biggest bang for your fashion buck – that’s fabulous too. Perhaps you’d like to build a new walk-in wardrobe? Get hair extensions? Replace your shoe and handbag collection? Render the services of a fashion stylist? Purchase a timeless set of good quality wardrobe basics? Try botox? Let your imaginations run wild. No holding back and the world is your oyster.

I’ve been in the international fashion game for 17 years and there is still so much about the industry that I want to know and experience. People I want to meet. Places I want to see. Jobs I want to do. Events I want to attend. Head Offices I want to crash. Secrets I want to know. Clothes I want to wear, and accessories I want to sport.

In some instances I want to be me in the flesh living my fashion fantasies. But in other instances, I’d prefer to be a discreet fly on the wall. So in no particular order, here we go:

• I’d like to be a front row guest at a Chanel fashion show in Paris. Afterwards I’d meet up with Karl Lagerfeld who’d take me into the House of Chanel and graciously offer up a vintage Chanel gown that I’d wear to the Oscars the following year.
• I want to own this Valentino handbag.
• I’d love to meet Kate Moss, who after Twiggy is my favourite model. Her fearlessly fabulous style, interesting look, flair for design and controversial behavior has kept her in the modeling game longer than any other fashion model. Impressive.
• When I was a fashion buyer, I started off by buying baby wear for the age group 0 to 2 years. I did that for years and absolutely loved it. I regard it as one of the happiest times in my fashion career. At the time, I said that I wanted to be a baby wear buyer for the Gap. And guess what – part of me still does. And this brings me to my next fantasy.
• I’d love to spend a month as a fly on Mickey Drexler’s office wall. He’s currently the chairman and CEO of the J.Crew Group but he’s probably better known for his incredible legacy at the Gap. He goes down as one of the most influential and brilliant merchants the rag trade has ever seen. To get a peek into his work life would be sublime.
• I’d love to have tea with Vera Wang. She embodies a sense of trendy avant-garde grace and elegance that is second to none. And she’s 60! A true style inspiration and role model.
• I desperately want to know how trends really get started. How do all the haute couture and prêt a porter collections end up showcasing so many of the same trends in one season. It’s uncanny. Much of the direction is set at Premier Vision and other trade shows, but I wonder whether they attend some other secret conference where they all agree that skinnies, shoulder pads and neon pink is coming back into fashion. I’d love to be a fly on a wall at this conference.
• Zara is one of the most successful retail chains in the world and they don’t even advertise. At all! They are able to design, produce and deliver their merchandise in 15 days when normal lead times on this are usually three months. I am a huge fan of their product and business model. After magically learning Spanish, I’d love to spend a month with Zara’s fashion buyers and design team.

I’ve let you in on my fashion fantasies. Care to let me in on yours?

For the most part, my significant other Greg likes what I wear. I attribute this to the fact that we have very similar aesthetic preferences. We both like strong, sleek, simple, modern, edgy and retro silhouettes. Nothing too bohemian, earthy, whimsical or ornate. We adore geometric patterns, bold contrasts, saturated colours, black & white, military styling, turtle necks, textured surfaces, zipper trims, superb quality and clever design detailing. We’re two peas in a pod.

But there are things I love to wear that don’t go down particularly well. For example: ruffles and frills, shiny fabric, poufy sleeves and lace. I’m happy for Greg to say those types of silhouettes are not his cup of tea. I appreciate his opinion. At least he has one! But that doesn’t stop me from wearing these items. I just know that on the days I wear ruffles, shiny things and poufy sleeves, Greg is not going to love my outfit. And that’s okay. We can’t both love everything all the time.

Does your significant other like your style? Is it important that they like what you wear? Do you ever wear items that they don’t like? I’m really interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

Update: It turns out that Hanna from the forum wrote an interesting personal perspective on this topic just yesterday. Her experiment, asking her significant other to describe her style in 5 words, is a great idea.

Note: When I wrote this post I had quite a broad definition of “significant other” in mind. The The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy captures it well. “A person whose close relationship with an individual affects that individual’s behavior and attitudes. A significant other is usually a family member, spouse, child, employer, coworker, friend, or lover, who serves as a role model or whose acceptance and approval is sought.”

I like to think of personal style as more of an art than a science, which is why there are very few absolute rules on YLF. I love to encourage ensemble creativity and out-of-the-box thinking because no one likes to be boxed into a rigid way of doing something forever.

Guidelines that take into account your body type are important though. I believe that you need to master some principles of good style and dressing to flatter your body type before you begin to manipulate these guidelines. As Maya put it in the forum:

“you can’t break the rules until you understand them”

Artists like Picasso, Van Gogh and Chagall developed their abstract style over time. They were well trained in the classics first, studying the basic principles of line, colour, depth and composition for years before they defied the odds and came up with the non-traditional abstract master pieces that defines their artistic style today. They mastered painting what they saw, and then they began to paint what they felt. The same can apply to you and your personal style.

Once you know what works best for your body by following the guidelines, you can either keep things simple and leave it at that. Or, you can challenge yourself by bending the so called “rules”. The point is not to regress by deliberating wearing unflattering outfits in an effort to be creative and individualistic. That’s counterproductive. At the end of the day, our goal is still to look and feel good in what we wear. The challenge is to make a typically unflattering look, look flattering. And it can be done.

I like to challenge my body type guidelines because I enjoy trying something new. This keeps things interesting and after all, it’s my bread and butter.

Here are some of the ways I bend my own guidelines:

• Wearing V-necks and scooped necks: my long neck, regular bust size and bony chest looks best in high necklines (turtle, funnel, slash, mandarin or cru). Lower necklines end up making me look like an ostrich and my bony chest is unattractive. But by finding low necklines that are cut high at the shoulder neck point but low in front helps shorten my neck. Also, a chunky necklace or scarf adds just enough chest coverage to make the style work.
• Surrendering my waistline: I look best in form-fitting, waist- defining styles because they add curve to my straight-ish body. But I’m all over the deconstructed revived 80’s silhouettes of right now so I had to make them work too. For starters, I keep the bottoms extra sleek and the shoulders of the tops or jackets extremely tailored so that my ensemble is somewhat structured. I also add girly detailing like low heels, ruffles and pretty accessories to balance out the androgyny of the look.
• Wearing shorter length skirts and dresses: my shapeless legs look best in knee-length skirts that finish around the knee cap. But hemlines have been getting shorter and finding skirts long enough has been hard. But for the first time ever, I’m wearing hemlines five inches shorter than what I’m used to as long as I wear them with slouchy boots. That way I get extra coverage and a bit of volume around the lower leg area.

Sally from alreadypretty.com and I were telepathic last week as we both thought about tackling this subject at the same time. Sal’s great post entitled “figure flattery as a limiting factor” cuts straight to the chase and you should definitely have a squizz.

You’ve just been challenged to take a make a traditionally non-flattering item for your body type look flattering. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.

My way of passing the time when I wait in long lines at the airport is to sass out what other people are wearing. It’s fascinating. Everyone has their own unique “traveling uniform”. For reasons known exclusively to them, they’ve carefully chosen a specific set of clothes, shoes and accessories to wear for their journey. After many years of spending time in international airports, I can safely say that I’ve seen just about every type of traveling ensemble imaginable. The only thing I haven’t seen are tuxes and ball gowns, but I’ll probably see those at some point too.

In the melting pot of airport style, some fabulous looks are repeated time and again:

• Immaculately polished flight attendants from some of the airlines. Singapore Airlines is the standout example. I don’t know how these working lasses manage to stay looking professional and perfect throughout the flight. Not a hair out of place. Mind boggling.
• Well turned out businesspeople in fabulous suits, shoes and coats.
• Women sporting the pseudo equestrian look with jeans tucked into boots, a tailored jacket or top, scarf and killer handbag. Sometimes it’s leggings and boots with a tunic and huge pashmina. So chic and sophisticated.

From bright Indian saris to spice toned African kaftans and headgear, I also love to see men and women in their regional dress. We refueled at Dakar on the way back from Cape Town, South Africa last week and watching the women board our flight in traditional Senegalese dress as their traveling uniforms was a real treat. They looked so effortlessly stylish and pulled together. I know that part of the reason these outfits appeal to me is that they are exciting and different from my point of view, but that doesn’t stop me enjoying them.

Of course, you also see everything else: sweats, pajama bottoms, short-shorts, big baggy T-shirts with moon bags (fanny packs), leg shortening capris with socks and athletic sneakers, crotch-scraping mini-skirts, head sweatbands, spiked 5-inch stiletto heels, Crocs and beach flip flops.

Some of this is just the variety of life, but it also represents different travel style philosophies. It wasn’t too long ago that people generally dressed up for air travel. Some people still do. There is also the other end of the spectrum where people dress for comfort at all costs. The best example of this approach was the businessman we saw in his pajamas under a long coat. At a glance he was businesslike, with the coat and briefcase, but then at security all was revealed.

Personally, I like to wear comfortable items when I travel, but I also have to feel good about the way I look. I usually wear jeans with ballet flats or boots and multiple layers on top to keep warm during a freezing flight. I also wear a huge scarf to keep doubly warm. What is your approach when you dress for long flights?

When denim button down shirts started resurfacing in prêt-à-porter collections, I thought, you’ve GOT to be joking. But the penny dropped five minutes later as I saw a whole slew of outfit combinations before me. Now I can’t wait to add the worn looking item back into my wardrobe.

Denim shirts have been around for decades and most of us have probably worn them at some point in our lives. Remember the Levi’s version with the press stud buttons that was “it” in the early 90’s? I had one of those and loved wearing it open with black 501’s, a lace camisole and Docs. I don’t want to wear a denim shirt in that way again, but I like the idea of creating a dressier vibe with a similar denim shirt.

Picture this:

Denim shirt rolled up at the sleeves + lace camisole + dressy black skirt + black patent obi belt + refined textured hose + dressy heels and chunky pearls

I love to create contrast in my ensembles. Not only with colour, but also by mixing different levels of dressiness. As I write this I’m wearing a dressy, sea green, shantung blouse over a casual pair of denim clamdiggers, matched with a skinny, studded, black double wrap belt. It’s the same idea as pairing a rigid biker jacket with a soft feminine scarf, casual Converse with luxurious white pearls, or a sophisticated black sheath with a worn out webbing belt.

As soon as I find a denim shirt that works, I’ll post the looks I have in mind. Better yet, if you have the elements in your wardrobe, post a picture of your remixed denim shirt combinations on our forum as inspiration. So ladies, are you as excited as I am about giving a denim shirt new life?

Ignore the prices of these designer examples. I posted them so you can see what’s in the fashion pipeline. You can thrift a suitable denim shirt for $15 and achieve a fabulous remixed look.

I thoroughly enjoy all four seasons, but there are some I prefer to others because of the wardrobe choices the weather dictates at different times of the year. Here’s my ranking:

1. Autumn wins hands down because I get to haul out my extensive boot, jacket and scarf collection. Boots in all styles and colours are my favourite form of footwear and I adore wearing them with jeans, dresses and skirts. Scarves are fun and there’s nothing like an assortment of fabulous jackets to make you look and feel urban and sophisticated.
2. Summer is in second place because I love wearing a short, sleeveless sheath or sack dress with a pair of flats or low heeled wedge sandals. Not having to fuss with layers makes a welcome change.
3. Winter is next because I enjoy wearing coats and hose.
4. Spring comes in stone last because our Spring is cold and you usually end up wearing Winter clothes, which you’re SICK of wearing by the time Springtime rolls around.

Although I have favourite seasons, what I enjoy most is dressing for four different seasons. The change in weather keeps my wardrobe choices interesting. I wouldn’t like to wear sleeveless dresses or boots and jackets all year long because that would get boring.

Over to you. Do you have a favourite dressing season?

Most fashion stylists and wardrobe experts encourage structured clothing that defines the waistline. For the most part I wholeheartedly agree. Wearing tops, frocks and jackets that reveal the smallest part of the torso is instantly flattering. Wearing fairly streamlined empire cuts can have a similar flattering effect because the silhouette raises the waistline to another small part of the body (which is often right under the bust).

Three years ago the voluminous trend was one of the watershed changes in fashion that caught the world by storm. Volume can be interpreted in many ways: from wide legged trousers, billowing sleeves, banded tops, cascading cardigans and paper bag skirts, to trapeze jackets, sack dresses and harem pants. Half of the silhouettes with voluminous detailing allow you to keep your waistline, while the other half doesn’t. It’s the latter half that I’m particularly drawn to, and I’ve found that I’m in the minority.

From what I’ve seen on the streets, with my clientele and on our forum, wearing clothing that hides the waistline is not popular at all. As much as I try to encourage the look in a refined, polished and tailored way because it CAN be done, it’s usually met with resistance. Don’t get me wrong, I love a sleek, structured, form-fitting, flop proof hourglass silhouette as much as you do. But when it’s done properly, I enjoy an ensemble with an unstructured waistline just as much. It’s mod, retro, arty and totally liberating.

It’s not necessarily a question of body type either. The right waist-less item with your best neckline, at the correct short length, with a strong shoulder line, and in a fabric that drapes elegantly over the body will work on virtually anyone. I’ve seen short, busty, hourglass-y women pull off sack dresses with panache. As always, the devil is in the details.

It isn’t enough that a waist-less outfit can look fab. You need to feel fab too. And women are against hiding their waistlines because it makes them feel unattractive. Specifically: unpolished, dumpy, or boxy. Years and years of having “the defined waist” drummed into us has had a great effect.

How about you? Is your eye adjusting to the look?

I adore short drapey sack dresses like the ones that you see here. Fun to wear and very comfortable. I enjoy wearing them on their own, over skinnies or with leggings. I challenge you to give waist-less dressing a try.

One of our readers left a very interesting reply to last week’s post on layered necklaces:

“Statement piece….? What is the statement? Is it something like a secret that only the wearer knows? But then you’d be making a statement to yourself. That word is used sooo much in fashion and I really want to understand. Like the necklaces above…is the statement something like “Oh, hey I AM BIG!” or “Look here!” Or is it more like “I am a deep person with a unique interest in complex/simple design… a reflection of my inner self…? Or is it like, “I am da bomb!”Maybe I am thinking too much…..impossible…aaaargh…..I do get the “Key” pieces in the wardrobe thing…..but again, what is the statement that the wearer is trying to make…?

I talk about statement pieces all the time, so this got me thinking. What is it about an item that makes it a statement piece?

I think of statement pieces as interesting, attractive and relatively eye-catching wardrobe items that reflect your personality. They are usually quite bold and unique, but not necessarily brightly coloured and oversized. They are often, but not always, the thing people notice first about your outfit. Sometimes they become items that people associate with your signature style.

For me personally, the first statement pieces that come to mind are accessories: my specs, my watch, my wedding ring and my handbags. But I also have coats, scarves and shoes that I consider to be statement pieces. My cream trench or red Kate Spade shoes, for example. All of my statement pieces make me confident and happy with my outfit.

Are statement pieces a personal inner thought, or an overt statement to the rest of the world? I think a true statement piece has elements of both. My philosophy is that style is about creating a positively reinforcing feedback loop between the way we feel and the way we look. It connects our inner thoughts and feelings to the story we tell to the rest of the world. Statement pieces are like the headlines in this story.

How would you define a statement piece? What are your statement pieces?