Turquoise is going to be huge for Spring, but that doesn’t mean you have to sport the colour as a clothing item. Of course, you don’t need sport turquoise at all if you don’t fancy the shade. But if you like turquoise, consider wearing the colour as an accessory instead of a clothing piece. Turquoise jewelry gets my number one vote.

Classic, earthy jewelry that incorporates the turquoise gem stone has been around forever and it’s available every season. But I’m digging turquoise jewelry with a difference. Beads made of glass, lucite or resin, leather cuffs and wrap bracelets. These modern and vintage turquoise pieces have piqued my interest and they’ll probably make my “must haves” list for Spring/Summer 2010.

The turquoise necklace is in the YLF store and on my wish list. Pop it over a simple white top with jeans and a pair of dressy flats or heels and you’ve made a crisp, clean and strong statement. Easy and effective.

I dig Michelle Obama’s sense of style. It’s chic, strong, sensible and unexpected. America’s First Lady has put a sense of fashion back into politics, and it’s a breath of fresh air for style crazed people like me. When I think of Mrs. O’s style, I think of a statuesque, fit woman wearing a flawless designer sheath dress with dazzling jewelry, OR, a pair of casual slacks, flats and J. Crew cardigan.

Andrew Bolton, the curator of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute puts it well:

“What is compelling about Mrs. Obama’s style is how she wears both high fashion and low fashion – it’s modern, democratic and above all, American”.

We were kindly sent a copy of Mary Tomer’s great coffee table book, Mrs. O: The Face of Fashion Democracy, and we’d love you to review it. All you need to do is share your views on Mrs O’s style in the comments below. If you win we will send you the book and ask you to write a review on the YLF forum.

Note that you need to be a signed up YLF member (with a profile picture) in order to participate. We will pick the winner using a random number generator. Entries to the competition close Wednesday 13th January at midnight, Pacific Standard Time.

To recap, here are the things you need to do to be eligible for the giveaway:

1. Sign up as a YLF member if you haven’t done so already
2. Ensure that you have a profile picture
3. Write a comment below (while logged in!) on Mrs. O’s style
4. Do this all by midnight on Wednesday, and…
5. Be prepared to write a short review on the book for the YLF forum

Can’t wait to hear your comments.

“Business Casual” for women is tricky to define because it can be interpreted in so many different ways. The dress code is dressier than Smart Casual, but not quite as dressy as Business Formal. So no denim, but no suits either. This leaves a multitude of possibilities!

Your personal preferences will obviously play a big role in defining the right business casual for you, but in this post I’m going to focus on the all important context: The nature of your work and the culture of your work environment. I see two main dimensions:

1. Conservative versus Creative: Work environments like an accounting office demand a modern classic and traditional style of business casual dress, and therefore lean towards the conservative side of this continuum. In a design studio, on the other hand, trendy, and even eclectic or edgy dress is encouraged and completely business appropriate as long as the outfits are modest, polished and professional.
2. Casual versus Dressy: Some industries are dressy, while others are more casual. For example, the IT industry will interpret business casual closer to the casual side of this continuum, whereas financial services will interpret it more formally. The same is true in the more creative environments — some will be more dressy than others.

Here is a visual representation of this model:

Needless to say, these are generalizations. I’m sure there are law firms where the attorneys dress in creative ways. Or computer software companies where people dress more formally. Also, based on your preferences you can push things along a continuum. For example, you might prefer to err on the dressy side of business casual just because you enjoy dressing that way. And it needn’t be static over time. You might be able to move along each continuum depending on the agenda of the work day.

The important points are that each of these dimensions is a continuum, and any particular work environment is going to fall somewhere in the four quadrants.

Over the next few months I’m going to dedicate some time on YLF to business casual. I plan to tackle the diversity of different work environments by using this simple four quadrant model. What do you think of the model? Where do you think your work environment would fit best? What about other companies and industries?

The Budget Babe made an interesting comment about this week’s post on Spring 2010’s new palette in action:

“I love colors, I really do, especially as found in nature…but why must “happy” always be intertwined with bright colors? Gray and black are happy colors for me.”

I mentioned this to Greg and then he said: “I think black and grey are happy colours too. Just like Chris Cornell is happy music for me, even though it is quite dark, because it makes me happy”.

Hmmm. Chris Cornell’s music makes me happy too, so this got me thinking. What makes a colour a happy colour? Is it the colour itself, or the way the colour makes you feel when you wear it? Or both? Why do bright, saturated colours conjure up feelings of fun and happiness? Is it the associations with a warm sunny day and the blossoming of Spring flowers?

I do think of bright colours as happy colours. But I can feel just as happy wearing a fabulous black garment as I can wearing a bright citron item. I find black and white colour combinations happy too. In fact, I think of white or off-white as one of the happiest colours of all.

What do you think? Can colours like black, grey and brown be happy colours?