I am attracted to “opposites”. I enjoy wearing classic items as much as sporting hot off the press trends. I like fitted clothing, but I also like voluminous items. I have a big thing for both ladylike styles and tomboy styles. I love my Kate Spade stilettos as much as I love my 20 eyelet Dr. Martens boots. I’m just as happy wearing a romantic, soft lace blouse as I am wearing a stiff, masculine button down shirt. I enjoy sporting a neutral outfit as much as I do wearing hectic colours. I love black as much as I love white. Bring on the patterns and the solids! The retro and the modern. 

I realize that I sound like I’m suffering from style schizophrenia, but I believe you CAN integrate opposites into a single cohesive style. In fact, marrying my opposing style preferences is one of my style goals. Here are some of the things I do to make it all work.

• Classic Grounding: I mix crisp classic wardrobe items in with the rest. That way the ensemble feels grounded. I also enjoy the style consistency that is created by wearing classic items several times a week. I miss the classics when I omit them from my ensembles.
• Minimal Balance: I create cohesion by not wearing jewelry and keeping my outfits minimal. 
• Simple Statements: I generally choose simple designs that don’t have complex styling details. The cleaner the look and the more simple the cut, the more I like it. This allows the luxurious fabrication and colour to do the talking. 
• Colour Discipline: I create cohesion by sticking to well defined colour palettes. I wear black, white, cream, ink blue, grey and saturated warm sour brights. 

So instead of being a specific set of style preferences, my signature look is more about the recurring themes in the outfits I wear. Modern, classic, crisp, minimal, simple and bold.

Are you attracted to opposites?

Did you know that cork is being used in the apparel industry as a lightweight fabric and insulator? Swiss textile company Schoeller is combining the insulating properties of cork with high performance fabrics like wool fleece and jersey for the manufacturing of outerwear and activewear.

The Telegraph reports that eco-conscious designer Livia Firth is launching a sustainably-made five piece capsule collection consisting of a little black dress, a butterfly motif pashmina, two cloche hats and a handcrafted necklace.

Fashionista recently did a round-up of their twenty-five favourite fashion labels that still produce some if not all of their goods in the United States.

Fab Links from Our Members

Parsley enjoyed watching the performances and outfits of the women gymnasts during the 1936 Olympics. 

Gymnast Gabrielle Douglas was criticized for the state of her hair. Ironkurtin found Gabby’s response tremendously refreshing.

MaryK was completely captivated by this comparison of Usain Bolt’s winning time to the winning times in all the Olympics going back to 1896. She adds that the data are fascinating and the computer graphics are out of this world.

Laurinda thought it a bit odd that female beach volleyball players were wearing sports bras over their shirts. She wonders if it’s just to keep the local chill at bay.

Even though it’s a style far away from her own, Zapotee loved this sneaker slideshow in the New York Times. 

In this article about the Wisconsin Gurdwara shooting a Sikh woman explains that she follows fashion trends, but in the past also felt the need to hide her beliefs and urged her husband to adjust his appearance to fit in. RunnerChick is humbled and inspired by her intention to be more true to herself from now on. 

The rich colours, patterns and textures in Tory Burch’s Fall 2012 collection are a feast for the eyes. Jamie’s favourite outfits are those that feature a combination of deep violet and orange.

Eternalvoyageur recommends this resources list for small busts over at Thin and Curvy

How to dress for weight fluctuations? Goldenpig discovered lots of useful tips in this blog post by Already Pretty’s Sally. 

Charmian was disappointed that the emphasis in this article about Silicon Valley techies breaking a fashion taboo was on “successsful” women. Not many in-the-trenches-of-their-career women were featured, which speaks to the strength of the enivronmental norm to dress casually. 

Earlier this year Angie rediscovered her love for light blue, and as a shirt girl herself, she encourages us to check out all these women rocking their light blue shirts over at Habitually Chic.

Flamboyant fashion editor Anna Piaggi died on Tuesday, aged 81. Desmo April says that the fashion world will be much less colourful without her, and points us to Jezebel who are looking back at some of her great outfits.

This sounds obvious because we purchase wardrobe items in order to wear them. Yet sometimes we get so caught up with hunting down “the next exciting piece”, keeping up with trends, or chasing bargains, that we forget to wear the gorgeous items we already purchased. We are adding items to our wardrobe faster than we can wear them. It’s a weird shopping and dressing cycle that is not uncommon at all. The result is a large number of unworn items, which is essentially a waste of money. 

Of course, purchasing items for a future occasion often means that we have to wait to wear them, even if it is just to keep them nice for the occasion. Or we have to wait for the weather to co-operate. These reasons for not wearing new things are understandable.  

The process of amassing wardrobe items can be lots of fun, and to some this is a hobby in itself. Although I personally prefer to maintain a small wardrobe, I am not against a large wardrobe as long as you do actually wear your many, many options. 

The danger is in seeing new items as the only way to get newness, when in reality a lot of your style innovation should come from the way you wear your items. Even with a small wardrobe there are an enormous number of potential combinations. And if you have bought your items with capsules in mind, then you’re even more likely to find interesting combinations that test your style boundaries. Combinations are not the only way to innovate. Tucked or untucked. Scrunched or unscrunched. Knotted or loose. Open or closed. Layered or not. A small tweak can often show a completely different side to an item.

At the end of the day, the reason you bought goodies in the first place was so that you can enjoy them on your body. Please wear your wonderful clothes, shoes and accessories! 

I love the way today’s fashion celebrates an infinite variety of stylish possibilities. More than ever before, we are living in a fashion era that is ultra accepting and encouraging of all sorts of outfit juxtapositions and silhouettes. We celebrate personal styles from the super classic to the ultra avant-garde and everything in-between.

Trends also have much longer fashion lives than they used to have. In fact, fads barely exist these days because things can often be worn in updated ways.

Gone are the days when looking stylish meant dressing in one particular way. This is truly refreshing and liberating.