This ensemble was inspired by the outfits I put together for a client using Banana Republic’s knit layered long skirt (which is on sale for $30). In the picture online it has been styled with dressy heels and a silk top, which looks a little off to me. This is NOT a dressy skirt. It’s made of knitted jersey, and looks best styled in a casual way. 

Straight maxi skirts with front side slits, tulip front wrap openings, or high-low hemlines are flattering because they prevent “uni-leg”. The slit, or shorter front hem, provides leg exposure which allows you to clearly see two legs under the expanse of fabric. Leg exposure further grounds the feet so that they don’t look spare. To my eye these are the best looking styles of casual maxi skirt, and they are extra comfortable as you stride.  

Choose any colour palette across solids and patterns. Here are the components of the ensemble: 

Casual Maxi Skirt: You’re after a style that’s straight or slightly A-line with an asymmetrical hemline. Side slit versions are best when they’re tapered towards the hem. High-low hemlines or wrap-front tulip styles tend to be slightly A-line. Knitted fabrics work exceptionally well, but casual and soft viscose or cotton blends can work too. 

Black, striped and grey casual maxi skirts tend to be the most versatile, but by all means choose alternative colours and patterns. 

Top: Fluid T-shirts in cotton and linen blends are a slam dunk. Choose them in a neckline and sleeve length that works best for you. Semi-tuck the front for a bit of structure, or leave the tee untucked if it is sufficiently short. Casual woven shell tops or tank tops are another way to go. Create a low or high contrast with the top. 

Optional Topper: A denim jacket or vest is an easy way to top off the look, but it’s optional. Leave it off if it’s too hot to wear layers. 

Footwear: Choose casual footwear like slides, wedge sandals, gladiators, espadrilles, sandal booties, cut-out booties and cork platforms. Or throw on a pair of Chucks or slip-on sneakers. Wedge sneakers are another option. Choose a colour that works with the outfit. 

Accessories: Finish off the outfit with a casual bag like a leather tote, slouchy hobo, bucket bag, upscale backpack or straw tote. Add a fedora, Panama hat, cowgirl hat or straw hat. Add jewellery, eyewear and watch as desired.

One of my clients is also using the knit layered long skirt as a swimsuit cover-up on her beach vacation. That’s how casual a skirt this is. A great look for Mums and gals on the go, or any casual setting.

I enjoyed Alyson Walsh’s article on how to keep your feet looking great when you’re older because it not only gives tips on footcare but also has some nice suggestions for comfortable footwear brands.

Commenters on Alyson’s own website, That’s Not My Age, are chiming in with more suggestions for comfy shoes. A few brands mentioned are: Birkenstock, Mephisto, Stubbs & Wootton, and Varca. I’m liking the look of some of the leather and suede Varcas, and would love to hear if you have ever tried the brand.

Lisa from Amid Privilege is considering a pair of slides to amp up her footwear style. Her readers are also recommending shoes by Arche, Naot, Jack Rogers and Bernardo.

Alyson’s post also reminded me to take another look at Camper. My now retired black knee-high Camper boots are still the most comfortable shoes I have ever sported. The last few years, their styles were a bit too sporty and rugged for my own style preferences, but several of their current styles look very promising (all available in different colours): Beth, Beth II, Maude, Isadora, Twins.

I’m curious, have you recently come across new-to-you or tried-and-tested footwear brands that make a stylish and comfortable shoe? 

Fab Links from Our Members

“Is It OK To Wear Nude Hose Again?” Joy found this article interesting because it declares that the return of nude hose was demanded by women who want a more finished look.

Suz thinks The Refinery’s head-to-toe wardrobe capsule approach might be a litte more realistic for those of us who live in a four season climate.

This Wardrobe Oxygen blog post explains a lot of Vildy’s frustration with retail: stores keep changing their focus and customer profile.

Kirstjen and Vildy both wanted to share “Fashion’s Secret Blockbusters” — an article about popular items that reliably sell out and return season after season. It made Vildy wish she was a lot richer: “I would be happy buying just one style of pants, one jacket, one dress. And be able to shop the way traditional men used to shop: just replace what works since it’s always in stock.”

Olivegreen directs us to this article about “The Gamine in Many Guises“.

One simple way to create outfit cohesion is to bookend the outfit by matching your footwear to the colour of your hair. The colour repetition frames the outfit and pulls it together. 

The colour match needn’t be exact. Subtle matches can also be striking. Here are some examples for a variety of hair colours.

• Platinum Blonde: White, cream, bone, stone, cool blush, light grey and gold footwear. Patterned footwear that incorporates shades of white, stone and gold are a more subtle way to bookend blonde hair. 

• Dark Blonde: Shades of tan, taupe, mushroom and pewter footwear. Patterned footwear that incorporates shades of light brown are the more subtle option. 

• Strawberry Blonde: Warm shades of beige, warm tans, blush, light cognac, rose gold, bronze, gold and cheetah footwear. 

• Medium Brown: Darker shades of taupe and mushroom, donkey, dark bronze and chocolate brown.

• Dark Brown: Black, ink, mushroom and dark grey footwear.

• Black: Black, ink, dark chocolate and dark grey footwear.

• Red and Auburn: All shades of cognac, mid tones of brown, burnt orange, deep shades of coral, bronze and cheetah footwear. 

• Grey: All shades of grey, pewter and silver. Salt ’n pepper hair looks great bookended with black, dark brown and grey footwear. Light grey hair is a match made in heaven with white, silver, light grey and off-white footwear.

• Burgundy Streaks: Burgundy footwear looks amazing with burgundy streaked hair. 

• Rainbow Hair: Hair that has been streaked or fully dyed an unnatural colour like pink, blue, green, purple, teal, turquoise and neon looks amazing with footwear in the same colour. 

Of course, bookending is by no means the only way to create a cohesive outfit. And it’s possible to achieve great outfit cohesion without it. Ladies with dark hair look great in light footwear, and vice versa. And you don’t need to have rainbow hair to wear non-neutral shoes. 

If you have blonde hair, you might like to wear dark footwear when you’re wearing a dark column of colour, or when you’re wearing dark bottoms and need to elongate the line of the leg. Ladies with dark hair might like to wear light footwear when they’re wearing white jeans, again, to elongate the leg line. 

Bookending is a highly effective styling tool that I frequently use in my own outfits and when dressing clients. For example, when a client with black hair wears white-out, finishing off the look with black footwear works because it matches her hair. However, adding black footwear to my own white-out looks tends to look off because of my platinum blonde hair. As soon as I add light footwear to the outfit, it’s visually balanced.  

Most of my footwear bookends the colour of my blonde hair to some extent because I like the effect of the visual balance. But perhaps just as importantly is the fact that I wear a lot of white, light, and bright colours, which tends to work better with light-coloured footwear thereby creating the soft vibe I’m after. If I wore dark colours almost exclusively from head to toe, I’d have a much larger collection of black, ink and grey footwear. 

Over to you. Do you like to bookend the colour of your hair and your footwear to create visual balance?

A big thank you to all of the 800+ people who took the YLF survey last week. It was a fantastic response, and over this last weekend we spent many hours poring over your answers and suggestions. 

Some of what we saw was not surprising to us. 

• Blog, Forum, then Finds: The Blog has the broadest appeal, the Forum has the most participation, but Finds is also gaining in popularity. We even have a few users who focus on Finds and seldom use the blog or forum.
• Style Advice: The most popular posts on YLF revolve around style advice and trends. “Detailed style advice posts” are tops by a long way, and “Wardrobe capsule posts”, “Ensemble posts” and “Posts about trends and seasonal trend reports” were in a following group that was quite a bit ahead of anything else. By the way, some people were worried that we’re looking to cut certain types of posts and that isn’t the case. We’re just trying to figure out what is most popular so we can better focus future efforts.
• Mobile in the Minority, but Gaining: Most people still visit YLF using a desktop or laptop computer, but phones and tablets are closer behind than ever.

There were also a few surprises. For instance:

• Ads Are OK: An overwhelming majority of people are happy to use YLF with ads. Only 3% said they would prefer to pay for an ad free option.
• Morning People: YLF visitors have an overwhelming preference for visiting in the morning. This is when 38% of people normally visit. “No particular time of day” was at 34% and evening followed at 15%. Midday, afternoon and late were single digit percentages.
• youlookfab.com: Relatively few people who responded follow YLF anywhere other than on the website. Pinterest was most popular, but less than 10% of people often follow YLF there.

We didn’t have many preconceived ideas regarding the question about products people would consider purchasing from us, but the answers were very interesting. The most popular option by far was the “DIY style refresh”, followed by eBooks and physical books, with style advice videos being least popular.

The answers to the open ended questions were very thought-provoking. More than 450 people took the time to write to us. We really appreciate the time and thought that went into this and the three of us read every single word that was written. We will be drawing from this input for some time to come, but I would like to highlight a few things that came up about the website itself, and what we plan to do about them.

A very common piece of input was that the front page design made it hard to follow recent posts. We agree. It is harder than it should be to make sense of the post order beyond the most recent 2 or 3 posts. We have a few immediate changes to address this.

1. There is now a “Most Recent” block near the top of the page that lists all of the posts over the last week or so.
2. The “browse all posts” link in this block will take you to a traditional blog view (i.e. posts in reverse chronological order).
3. There is a date on each post’s block in the grid layout.
4. I neatened the grid layout and lowered the word count to reduce the visual “busy-ness” of the page.

We will certainly continue to improve the front page design, but hopefully these initial changes solve some of the problems many people were having.

Another thing that came up often was the inadequacy of our current Google-based search function. We agree with this too, and while we don’t have a quick fix it is something we’re working on.

In several cases people mentioned specific technical issues they were having, like pages not loading on a particular phone, having to log in repeatedly, having trouble with uploading pictures to the forum, or not being able to use the Finds collector. In all of these situations we can almost certainly help, but we need to investigate your particular situation. Please get in touch using our contact form or, if you’re a member, by posting a question in the technical support area of the forum. We’d love to help. 

Finally, thank you for all the support and encouragement you wrote in your responses. It means the world to us.