Our dear friends Nik and Meredith invited us to chaperone a high school prom last weekend. Nik is a math and science teacher at the Aviation School in Seattle, so he and his fabulous wife attend the prom every year. This time they had company and we all had a ball! Greg and I have never been to an American high school prom so it was quite the eye opener. More about the prom itself later this afternoon. First, our outfits.

The four of us decided to get decked out to the nines and have a meal at The Georgian Room, a fancy restaurant at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle, before heading out to the prom. Our time together at the Georgian, relaying stories about our high school dances back in the 80’s was one of the highlights of the evening.

The photos were taken before dinner, right outside the hotel. Without planning it that way, Meredith and I both wore designs by Todashi Shoji accessorized with pearls. Meredith was positively radiant in a beautiful bright pink Grecian inspired gown that she finished off with fresh water drop pearl earrings and bracelet. She wore pewter pumps and carried a sweet burgundy clutch with embroidered flowers. The things that impressed Meredith most about her dress were that she could wear a normal bra, and that it had lots of comfy stretch, so thank you Mr. Shoji. You look gorgeous, Meredith!

I created a look that was inspired in part by Spanish couture designer Carolina Herrera and in part by old Hollywod glam. I tucked a basic white, non-iron Brooks Brothers shirt into a stretch black taffeta Todashi Shoji maxi skirt complete with fishtail. Well! It isn’t easy walking around in a skirt with a fishtail. I had to lift it up each time I took a step so that I wouldn’t trip and fall on my face. Other then that, I was really comfortable all night.

True to my style, I scrunched the sleeves, popped the collar of the shirt and wore black Kate Spade pumps with hose.

I completed the simple outfit with my late Mother’s elaborate gold, pearl and emerald jewelry, and a beaded clutch. The accessories are truly vintage and over 40 years old. My late Mum had this jewelry custom made, and because we had the same bone structure, they fit my wrists and fingers perfectly. I decided to keep my retro specs on for the evening so that I could see properly.

Our handsome dates for the evening were as dashing as they were delightful. Nik wore a black Nehru suit and shirt he had custom made in Paris, complete with dazzling gold buttons. He finished off his look with modern specs and killer Mezlan wingtip shoes, which got my vote for best peds of the evening. I loved Nik’s clean cut and interesting suit that worked so well with his edgy goatee. You look fabulous, Nik!

Last but not least, I managed to take photos of my ultra amazing and camera shy better half. Greg went for his favourite monochromatic suit look by wearing a charcoal pinstripe Hugo Boss suit with textured ink blue Theory shirt and fun Armani polka dot tie. He finished off the suit with black belt, Prada shoes and sunglasses. Love your look, my sweetie! You were one spiffy date even though you desperately wanted to take off your tie.

You just can’t beat an evening of good food and fashion with friends. I laughed so much that evening my cheek bones ached. And we ate just as much as we laughed which meant rolling our full selves out of the Georgian and onto the EMP (Experience Music Project), the venue for the prom. Stay tuned for the next installment of our high school prom experience this afternoon.

I hang my garments per category in my walk-in wardrobe. So all my tops hang together. All my jackets hang together. All my dresses hang together, and so on. Then within each category, I hang the colours together, as you can see in the photo below. This is for aesthetic reasons only, but it makes me happy. And it actually makes Greg happy too (we share a small wardrobe AND an eye for visual harmony).

To take things completely over the top, I keep all my clothing on one type of hanger so that the neat, colourful effect is maximized. I can’t help it. A pretty and organized closet makes me feel in control of my day. And I am quite the control freak.

Does anyone else colour code their wardrobe organization?

We often hear that adding heels to an outfit can balance out proportions. That height straightens curves. That wearing the same colour from head to toe elongates your frame. That wearing nude shoes will lengthen the leg line. On YLF you will often hear me talking about dressing your body to create “a long lean line”.

Surrounded by these messages and confronted with models that are generally around six feet tall in flat shoes, you might begin to believe that height is an important component of being stylish or fashionable. And that being short (or “petite”), is a disadvantage. One of our members Scarlet recently touched on this topic in a forum post, saying:

“It is so often that I read in the blog comments or in the forum negative comments about being short. Depending on the tone, it is treated almost like a disease or deformity to be below average height”.

Personally, I don’t think that being short is a style disadvantage at all. Just like style is NOT a dress size, style is NOT a height measurement.  Style is a celebration of individuality. There is no one way to be stylish, and we are reminded of this daily in the blogosphere, where uber stylish ladies of all sizes and heights post their fabulous outfits. The cities of Hong Kong and Tokyo rank amongst the most stylish cities in the world, and most of the women are petite.

Garment fit, clothing proportions and colours that are flattering against your complexion are key to creating an attractive and interesting personal style. None of these factors have anything to do with height. I do talk about creating “a longer leg line” or “a long lean line” in my posts because I count that as a figure flattering priority. But it doesn’t mean that you have to be tall. It is relative to your overall frame, so petite and regular height women can create a longer leg line.

And when it comes to shopping for tall ladies, which includes leggy models, they have their fair share of fit challenges. Their limbs and bodies are longer than average which often makes regular sized clothing too short in the leg, skirt, dress, top and sleeve length. The clothes that models wear on catwalk shows are made to fit them perfectly. Catalogue and website models are less fortunate and have to wear the items that were made for the masses. As a result the tops are often pinned to fit and the pants are just too short.

Granted, some clothing combinations lend themselves better to taller ladies just because those proportions work best. Wide leg trousers are the first item that spring to mind here. However, I also think that some clothing combinations lend themselves better to shorter ladies. Petite women rock a shorter hemline like nobody’s business.

So ladies, do you think that height is a sought after style attribute? Do you wish that you were taller? And if so, why? Do you think that tall women are automatically more stylish than shorter women?

Striped casual maxi dresses are quite the trend this season and have been popping up all over the show. The stripes are usually broad and horizontal, and the silhouette either flared or form fitting.

I’m not going to beat around the bush. I vote a subjective nay. Very few things don’t make it through my style filter, but casual maxi dresses is one of them. And to my eye, the broad horizontal stripe makes them even less flattering (although I do like broad horizontal stripes on tops, tunics and short dresses). To me these items look like ankle length t-shirts, which in a sense is precisely what they are! And the bolder the stripe, the less I like it. What’s your verdict?

This post contains affiliate links.