Develop Your Style Spidey Sense

A “spidey sense” is an extraordinary ability to sense imminent danger. Your style spidey sense (or SSS for short), on the other hand, is your ability to detect a dangerous item or silhouette that will make you feel less than fab. 

For the last couple of years I’ve been developing my SSS with a very special mentor. Naturally stylish and with unparalleled intuition, my mentor has helped me to become a better fashion stylist to my clients, and better at creating my own wardrobe.

It helps that my mentor has a similar body type to mine. We share a slight frame, a long neck, short hair, a small head and narrow shoulders. As a result, our figure flattering priorities are in sync and we have a close mentor-mentee relationship.

We both need clothing with narrow fits and plenty of structure. I used to have to think hard about these factors, but now my SSS makes it easy. I have a supernatural ability to detect tops, toppers and dresses with structure around my shoulders, shoulder neck points, and neck. My SSS tingles whenever I pick up an item that has a wide neckline, sloppy shoulder line, or extremely oversized fit. It also sends me a warning alert when sleeves are too wide.

When I first started to develop my SSS it would buzz with alarm whenever it detected a remotely fluid fit. But with the help of my mentor I fine-tuned my SSS to detect items that have just enough structure

You too, can spend time with my mentor, Spider Sam, to develop your own style spidey sense. He’s generously offering free sessions today and for the rest of this week. We at YLF wish you a happy and peaceful Easter and Passover.

Couch Patrol

Brown Couch

Rear View

Spider Hood

Hood Hair

Handsome

Vigilant

Fashion News Roundup: March 2018

A Bill Cunningham memoir, Everlane’s new underwear collection, more luxury labels going fur-free, and other news from the world of fashion in March.

Fun Fashion Quote

“It’s not recycling, it’s called wearing your clothes.” In this article on The Pool, Sali Hughes makes the case for not feeling pressured to buy a new dress or outfit for every special occasion in your life:

“I’ve bought only two items of clothing since Christmas and I’ve pledged to acquire no more dresses until autumn at the absolute earliest. This is partly a shifting change in priorities (there comes a time in one’s life when a boiling-water Quooker tap is a more desirable luxury than a pair of posh stilettos), but mainly because I have a wardrobe full of clothes that I love and I feel more inclined to wear what I already own than I do to chase disposable trends, spend precious cash and contribute needlessly to landfill. Wearing things to death isn’t ‘recycling’, as the tabloids call it — it’s doing what we’re supposed to do. Besides, wearing a favourite dress is like meeting up with an old friend and remembering how fabulous their company makes you feel. It’s respecting and honouring what you have, feeling confident in your own skin and accepting that you don’t need to pay a premium to be good enough. You already are and so is your frock.”

Ensemble: Tonal Column of Colour

This ensemble was inspired by an outfit I wore last week. I combined tomato red lace pants (the ones I wore at Christmas) with an old tomato red blouse. The reds look different in the photos, but in person they are a good match. I added a coral jacket, coral scarf, pearls, and blush shoes and bag. The coral is tonal with the reds and the blush is tonal with the coral. I didn’t need a coat or boots that day because I was shopping with a client in a heated mall. I took the scarf off later.

Here are the exact items from my wardrobe.

I find tonal looks with non-neutrals interesting, unique and soothing. They look very different to tonal outfits created with neutrals like black, grey, navy, tan and white.

Think of any NON-neutral that you can use to create a tonal combination from head to toe. Tonal colours are similar, but not exactly matching, low contrast to one another, and work in harmony. Choose a pastel, bright, jewel tone, earth tone, or mid-tone. Stick to solids and false plains if you can.

I’ve created three versions to get you started. The red/coral/blush rendition on the left approximates my own outfit. The middle rendition combines shades of lilac and lavender. You could throw in a muddy shade of pink there too. The rendition on the right combines cobalt with navy.

If you get stuck on tonal shoes, choose metallic or white for lighter colours, and black or grey for darker colours.

Ensemble: Tonal Column of Colour

Roundups

Simpler Items

This week's list of top picks list is about basic pieces.

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Assorted Items

Items for Summer, both in and out of air conditioning.

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Casual Summer Vibes

This week's top picks are good for a casual Summer vibe.

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Summery Earth Tones

These items are for those who like to wear casual earth tones in warm and hot weather.

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Hints of Spring

Some tried-and-tested winning items to refresh your style for Spring.

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Dressier Items

An assortment of dressier top picks might be just what the doctor ordered.

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Link Love: Where to Shop Vintage in 2018

The Huffington Post rounds up 18 online vintage clothing stores where you can shop for retro-inspired items that are on trend again in 2018.

Racked reports that within the last decade more and more reproduction boutiques — stores that reproduce items from the post-war time period, some even using original patterns and fabrics — have been popping up.

Vintage Insta-stores, vintage shops selling their wares on Instagram only, are also on the rise.

Fab Links from Our Members

This article about Roland Barthes and the philosophy of fashion caught La Pedestrienne’s attention.

She is also intrigued by the Jumpsuit project.

L’Abeille directs us to a Twitter thread in which an A.F. Vandevorst runway show is reimagined as a dystopian novel.

She also enjoyed this article about the style in the TV show Schitt’s Creek.

efbgen finds EWG, a website that evaluates and rates make-up and beauty products for safety, very useful.

She’s also quite taken with The Laundress, a company that sells laundry products and also gives suggestions on how to launder specific items.

Gigi recommends beauty blog Temptalia as a good source for comprehensive make-up reviews.

Torontogirl wanted to share this article about uniform dressing, and adds: “I tend towards uniform dressing by nature, but not because I see it as somehow superior to any other sort of dressing — each to her own, and life would be awfully boring without my more creative style sisters around!”

Weekly Roundup: Dresses, White Jeans, Tops & Toppers

Spring and Summer collections are in full swing, and shop floors are looking great. I’m VERY happy to see more retailers offer extended sizes. Thank you White House Black Market, Nordstrom, Ann Taylor, Ralph Lauren, the Loft, Rachel Roy, Banana Republic, Boden, Madewell, and Anthropologie. 

These items were winners on clients last week, and many are available in plus sizes, although you may need to click through to the plus size section to see the full set of sizes. White jeans that are thick, substantial, and don’t look like leggings have been a hard find. But thankfully, they’re surfacing a few styles at a time.

Visit the collection page to see the items alongside my descriptions.