You are on Team Eye Shadow if you wear it daily or almost daily. You are on Team No Eye Shadow if you leave it off for at least half of the time. 

I have worn eye shadow once to a real life event. In true ’80s style, it was to my high school dance in 1987. My date after the dance couldn’t wait for me to take off the eye shadow as soon as we hit the after parties. Point taken and I couldn’t have agreed more with his assessment. 

Me and eye shadow are not friends because the effect, no matter how “natural”, looks too done up. This sounds crazy because I bat for Team Dressy but there you have it. I have a small face, but my eyes are relatively big, my lashes long, and my brows distinctive. As soon as I add eye shadow into the mix of mascara and eye brow pencil, I look and feel like a clown. Plus my eyes look too big for my face, and it just doesn’t work. I’ll stick to wearing mascara and eyebrow pencil daily, which adds just the right amount of polish to my style. I don’t change this eye make-up routine for formal events either. That said, if I was attending the Academy Awards, I’d probably wear a smokey eye. 

I am Team No Eye Shadow without a shadow of a doubt. 

Over to you. Are you on Team Eye Shadow or Team No Eye Shadow. Tell us why and no batting for both teams.

A peter pan collar is usually flat with rounded edges on the tips of the collar. They can be high, low and vary in width as seen in the examples below. You’ll find peter pan collars on blouses, shirts, knitwear, dresses, jackets and coats. They are classic so we see them every year. But every so often, classic looks become “on trend” so we’ll also see peter pan collars make fashion statements over the next few seasons. 

These collars get a mixed reaction from my clientele. Some adore the retro vibe, the softness of the rounded collars, their playful, romantic and arty integrity, and their feminine appeal. A pointy shirt collar is strict, crisp and masculine, whereas a peter pan collar creates a more ladylike and whimsical effect. Peter pan collars also do a great job of softening a very strong shoulder line. Some of my clients feel that they look more approachable and friendly in a peter pan collar. 

My other clients are dead set against peter pan collars because they look overly sweet, precious, girly and juvenile. Too much softness and not enough “grown-up authority”. 

I understand and agree with both points of view. The pointy shirt collar dominates my wardrobe because its strict, masculine integrity is precisely what appeals to me in the first place. But I also have a few peter pan collared pieces because I like their retro, feminine, soft and romantic vibe. There is room for both looks depending on my mood and what I want to communicate through my clothes on a given day.   

Do you wear peter pan collars, and do you prefer them to shirt collars? Or do you think peter pan collars are overly sweet, juvenile and precious. Can you look authoritative in a peter pan collar?

As Summer is slowly drawing to a close, we are gearing up for a new season of YLF Book Club. I’m excited! I’ve been reading up a storm and have discovered some true gems, tons of fashion fun that provides food for thought. That means lots of new titles we could chat about come Fall. But YLF Book Club is first and foremost about the movies and books you want to talk about. So of course we would love to hear your recommendations too. Don’t be shy and let us know if there is currently a title in YLF Books that you would like to discuss in depth. Have you come across a fascinating book you just have to share with us? Is there a style-related movie that intrigues you? A fashion documentary you feel everyone should know about? Tell us about it in the comments, and we might be chatting about it on the YLF forum very soon.

To refresh your memory, here’s the list of our previous Book Club titles.

New in YLF Books

In her first book, What I Wore: Four Seasons, One Closet, Endless Recipes for Personal Style, blogger Jessica Quirk of What I Wore wants to help readers create a versatile wardrobe with key pieces that will get maximum wear throughout the year. You will learn how to remix existing items, become a smarter shopper, put together wow-worthy ensembles for special occasions, and use affordable accessories to breathe new life into your basics and investment pieces. The book contains many fun colour illustrations based on Jessica’s own outfits, tips on how to budget for a four-season climate, tailoring tricks, storage and packing ideas, and suggestions for combining colours, patterns and textures.

Picking up the colours of your hair, eyes and colouring in your clothing, footwear and accessories is an effective way to pull together an outfit. The repetition creates a unified whole that is visually pleasing and draws our attention. 

Here are just a few examples: 

• Redheads wear chestnut coloured patterns and burnt orange with panache.
• Auburn haired ladies are fabulous in cognac.
• Brunettes with hazel eyes look fantastic in olive green.
• Black haired ladies look fab in black bottoms, shoes and opaque tights.
• Blondes wear light coloured footwear with ease.
• Grey haired ladies look fab in shades of grey.
• Gals with burgundy streaked hair sport burgundy belts and handbags with the best of them.
• Peaches and cream complexions are great with gelato inspired tones.
• Rosy cheeked ladies look wonderful in coral.
• Blue eyed gals look amazing in shades of blue and blue based patterns.
• Green eyed gals look great in shades of green.  

I enjoy repeating the colours that run through my light blonde hair. I love to wear white and cream both on the top and bottom. I love to wear patterns that incorporate white or cream. I prefer white pearls. And bookending my outfit with light coloured shoes, handbag and belt instantly pulls it together. 

My eyes are olive green with an outer blue rim and yellow bits in the middle. Olive green is not my best colour, but wearing citron makes my eyes look greener because it picks up the yellow bits. Wearing shades of blue close to my face picks up the blue in my eyes. Coral, bright pink and tomato red pick up the colour in my cheeks. 

Of course, repeating your colouring in your outfits is by no means essential. But doing so can create a pleasing visual effect by pulling together and grounding your outfit. Do you repeat your colouring in your outfits?