Hairy vests! Cropped wide-leg pants! Ankle-length denim skirts! Dark jeans with white stitching! Gold pants! Back pockets with pointy, blingy flaps! Over-the-knee boots! The colour magenta!

Wheee! This makes me sound like such a negative creep, but it's strangely satisfying.

By the way, I appreciate that some of you wear and love items I've got on my poison eye list. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean you can't pull it off. Most of my dislikes are kind of irrational anyway.

What an interesting thread.

My one true poison eye are flap pockets. To me they interfere with the line of the garment and look messy and frumpy. I do realize that this is a very unique personal thing and most blazers and suit jackets in the universe come with them by default.

Poison eyes directed only at myself
-jean jackets or any denim jacket; I feel like I'm trying to pretend I'm 16 all over again
-white; it doesn't depend on whether it is my right white or not I really just despise the colour

So interesting to read. Una I did not know you invented the poison eye! It is such a helpful concept, you deserve an award! Anyway, mine are: too high heels - even on gorgeous bloggers I think too high heels (I know them when I see them) look wrong. I feel like they are going to topple over. And due to cultural associations, denim skirts. I am sure there are others and I am also sure I wear a lot of the items on this list so far.

OK, please take no offense. Tall boot with zippers up the back and boots with a seam over the toe area. I think it ruins the line. Harem pants, and I must say, boyfriend jeans. The boyfriend jeans remind me of the kids that wear their pants dropped around their lower parts. It also reminds me of Dick VanDyke in Marry Poppins dancing with the pinguins. Cleavage and flipflops at the workplace, Boufant hair with tons of hairspray, oh yes, still see this every so often. And now the younger ones are doing it. Mad Men style, I guess. T-shirts that are not long enough and cause proportion issues.

I think I had better stop. I did not realize I had so many 'poisen eyes'.

I have a bit of poison eye for:

- neon in large quantities, say a full garment - I can deal with it for an accent or in an accessory, but I'm really picky about it and not a fan, so I don't own any.
- dropped crotches. Even though I admire some outfits that have this feature, I don't particularly care for the look and will most likely never wear it. I just think Hammer Time!
- strapless most things. I rarely find it truly flattering.
- any kind of plastic shoe (Crocs, jellies, etc) -- just yuck.
- PB blouses
- puffed sleeves
- twee style in general on grown women -- it can be girly as long as there's something to toughen it up or give it some sophistication
- nail art that has anything embedded in it, like jewels
- really shiny wet-looking lip gloss

Funny! We go from one extreme to the other here - people in track pants with faulty elastic (must be faulty because they are down round their thighs). Then there are the "matrons" who try to look like their daughters - big hair. lots of obvious make up, short skirts, high heels, long fake nails. I try to image what they think about when getting dressed but I can't.

Furry vests
cheap flip flops worn as "real" shoes
feet hanging over too small sandals
long nails

Ponchos and sweater Uggs worn together over too tight leggings.

ETA: non-neutral or patterned tights.
Black clothes on toddlers

*women over 40 in mini skirts, i just feel somethings are best left to the young.
*women under 40 whose shirts are so short they can't bend over
*leggings wear with shirts that don't cover the tush
*athletic shoes with anything other than athletic apparel
*pants that drag on the ground . i really don't understand why people don't get them hemmed

Ok, not to upset anyone, here are my personal pet peeves:
- Bra straps that show
- Wide leg pants worn with high heels with only the toe peeking out - I know, I know, it's PPL, but it just looks like clown-on-stilt-legs to me, and I don't mind seeing an inch or so of shoe.
- Uggs (if worn, I say go for shiny, color or crazy)
- The Tory Birch tunic, white pants, and flats - worn all together. I call it the Northeast Uniform and I have an issue with anything that even has a whiff of 'mainstream' (I guess I still see myself as 'Alternative', which I'm really not anymore)
- "Twee" style - not a poison eye, but just not crazy about it

Otherwise, I love hairy chests, OTT animal prints, pattern mixing, crazy colors, shiny metallic clothing, crazy sneakers and I no longer have a poison eye for dropped crotch and pleated pants.

Love the lists & the reasons!

Just adding a few of my hung ups:

Not dressing for the weather conditions: Wearing bootcuts in the rain, insensible shoes for walking in the snow, a light topper when freezing outside, etc.

I also have serious hung ups with fabric weights, especially for winter. I need to have lighter fabrics in summer and heavier fabrics in winter, with the exception of silk and cotton blends, on tops only, for winter. I also like denim in summer, for bottoms.

I also thought of this one when I ran my tally on my boot collection. I discovered the reason why I seem to have so many. I actually have a dressy and a casual version for each type of boot. I realized I do not like to pair my work outfits, which are business casual, with more casual footwear and viceversa. I don't wear my dressy boots with denim, unless I'm going to a casual event or I'm doing a dress down Friday at work. I have two independent sets of boots. I think I have a poison eye for a mismatch in formality between shoes and outfit, in most instances.

I don't like shawls and I get upset when my friends decide to cover their pretty dresses with their "blankets" all night. I actually hide the damn things.

I have a semi poisoned eye for colored tights but I love them on certain people, especially if those people have a theatrical flair to them.

For work stuff: Shirts with buttons that gape overly, skirts that are too short, baggy trousers, especially if their are on the shortish side ( not PPL) and paired with a frumpy shoe. Work trousers with flat shoes. It just does not work for me.

I'm sure there are more, but I've a poison eye for:
men wearing baseball caps backwards
men wearing caps indoors, especially in restaurants
bright tights on females old enough to be out of highschool
wide pants that are cropped or too short
visable tattoos
piercings, especially tongue and top of the ear (looks like a mole up there to me)
pajama pants or tops or both in public
leggings as pants
short shorts worn with very high heels

I have poison eye for so many things, it's absurd. Some of them I get over and change my mind on. Leopard print, for instance, is gradually getting over the cheap tartlet look to me. But not if it's a body con dress with stilettos. That still looks impossibly trashy to my eye.

Sky blue combined with red. I know, it's worn by all the best people, and it's a classic combination for men's shirts and ties. I still wince every time I see it. I never tell anybody that when I see them, but I don't let hubby wear it. (He has no particular desire to do so, so this is not being domineering. He asks for my advice, and I give it to him.)

Almost anything strutting down a fashion runway. The clothing is usually so over-the-top and exaggerated, the women too often look like they're on the verge of dropping dead, with make-up that makes them look like zombies, and instead of inspiring awe of the designer's creativity in me, it just makes me cringe. There are exceptions, of course, but not enough to make fashion shows something I would ever seek out.

Wild pattern mixing. Put together two prints with different colours, and my eyes hurt. Simple stripes or polka dots or such things combined with a print can work beautifully if the colours match.

Most fashion-forward shoes. The number of workable combinations of footwear features is pretty limited. If any particular combination has almost never been worn, there's usually a really good reason for that, either aesthetic or practical. On the upside, most of them go away very quickly on their own, precisely because the broader market will not put up with something that ugly or that uncomfortable.

Visible underwear. Except for the cami peeking out, precisely to provide more coverage.

Pierced septums. Perma-boogers, that's what they are. DD and I do not see eye-to-eye on this one...

Piped jackets. I know, they're classic, and in style. But I have yet to see one I like enough to want to put it on. Some of you look lovely in them, but I still generally think you would look more lovely if you changed the jacket.

I sound old and crotchety, don't I? ;o)

Una, I love your expression. I hope it becomes a permanent part of the English language.

A nice handbag with sweats/yoga clothing. If you're going out in exercise clothing, the handbag should match -- a cheapy nylon bag would do. Or, dress up to match your handbag.

The sweater I'm wearing today - don't know WHAT I was thinking!!!

Leggings under dresses. Reminds me of when I used to run off to modern dance class when I was a kid.

*Winterized* summer dresses always look seasonally confused to my eye.

Dragging jeans with frayed hems.

Chipped, peeling nail polish. I'm looking at you, DD.

Baggy, ill fitting clothes: The *before* wardrobe that basically every WNTW gal has.

Shorts and socks together. I don't think women do this.

Stiff mom jeans with elastic at the waist and deep pockets in front with top-stitching. My mom had who knows how many pairs of these atrocities; some had spent a decade or more awaiting shortening so she hadn't worn them all thank goodness. I snuck them out to dispose of them forever. *Regular* mom jeans would have been a vast improvement, believe it or not. But if she figures out what I did, I will get her ponte pants, yoga pants, or even velour leisure wear since she is nearly 88.

I need to rethink the colored tights I just bought.

I am pretty tolerant of other peoples choices, my poison eye is for people who look unhappy or uncomfortable in their clothing choices. I love to see the person before the clothing.

ETA I am very proud of my visible tattoos.

Some things that other people here on YLF look fantastic in still somehow make me cringe, or I would never try them myself. A few examples:

- dropped crotch or harem pants. Reminds me of my incredibly awkward and somewhat painful middle teen years.

- cutesy and/or twee prints and details. Some of them are super cute but if I try to imagine myself in, say, the ubiquitous swallow print I just think it would look ridiculous.

- most animal prints. I've come around to zebra but I just can't seem to shake the Peggy Bundy association with other prints.

- tapered ankles and cropped length trousers. Again this reminds me of my awkward youth, plus this shape looks pretty bad on me so I avoid it.

- super high heels. Somehow these don't even look elegant to me anymore, just freakish. I especially dislike the huge clompy platform wedge booties that look like a big block of wood covered in faux suede that have been popular around here lately. Your feet are not meant to be 6 -- 8 inches off the ground!

Overly plucked thin eyebrows.

Bad tattoos. I can appreciate a well done tattoos. I see a lot of ink in my line of work. There is much more bad ink out there than good ink.

Oooh, Anna, over-plucked eyebrows are THE WORST!

* red leather jackets (not burgundy or oxblood, real red leather); I actually have a little bit of poison eye for red-colored clothing items and I have very few red items in my wardrobe (if someone can explain this, please feel free; it seems so odd to me because I like all other colors)

* choker necklaces that fit right around the neck and are worn about halfway up the neck

* overdone outfits with too much going on that do not leave enough visual "space" for someone's natural self to show through; like what RoseandJoan said about seeing people, not just clothes

* most golf outfits for women (I'm a golfer and it's impossible to find something flattering and decent to wear)

Personally I just don't like asymmetrical ANYTHING. It makes me very crazy. I appreciate there are great fashions but would not feel comfortable in this.
Hairy vests (like many others)
Leggings as pants (if I can see your underwear through them you should have covered that area)
Visible bra straps (no matter what color it is a bra strap- not meant to be worn with a spagetti strap tank)
wording on rear ends

Oh lordy so many things. Uneven hems (unintentional), cropped leggings under dresses, waist seams that are too high on the torso, pattern mixing animal prints (sorry), clingy knits on those of us that have rolls of flesh, really pointy shouldered blazers, those twee floral prints from the 80s, cheap polyester (the kind that would survive the apocalypse), tape-yarn sweaters (dunno why), purses that look like bowling ball bags, really pointy heels (I'm slowly reforming on this point, but I still don't like them in isolation, just possibly in a whole outfit).

That's not to say that I haven't seem most of these things done well and really suiting someone's style, they're just never going to be part of mine.

This is really interesting to read! I think my poison-eye items are similar to some of yours. Off the top of my head:

"Nude" clothing items - not shoes or accessories, but dresses/skirts/shirts that are nearly the same as a person's natural skin color, and can make it look like the person wearing the item is fully or partially nude when you see them from afar
Baggy drop-crotches on women's pants (I'm still trying to nail this down; I like some drop crotch items, like Angie's harem pants and many of the BF jeans that are more fitted. But when it's a heavy denim and the crotch bags/bulges out, it just looks unflattering to me.)
Belly-baring shirts (either gender)
Leggings worn as pants (leggings that are too thin/clingy around the crotch and rear, or show VPL, without a tunic that's long enough to cover those areas.)
Short shorts (with an inch or so of inseam, those that barely cover the rear end)
Shoes with an exaggerated pointy toe (the "witchy" toe)
I totally am with Anna on hating over-plucked eyebrows; in the late 90s when I was entering high school so many of my friends wrecked their beautiful brow lines by over-plucking when the trend was toward having pencil-thin brows.
Bellybutton piercings; I don't think that it looks bad necessarily, it's just that I cannot see a bellybutton piercing without cringing and thinking about how painful that must be. (My own bellybutton is particularly sensitive!)
Large gauge plugs in the ear lobes; again, it just makes me think of pain when I look at it.
Shoes that are over 4" high; to my eye, shoes that high kind of distort the shape of a woman's foot and look odd to me.

Dropped crotches...it doesn't even sound pretty.

Sweats with words across the butt.

Visible bra straps or panty lines.

Cameltoe.

Whale tail.

Overly baggy clothes and baggy jeans with underwear showing.

Inappropriately mature/sexy clothes for little girls.

Black or khaki slacks and twinsets (formerly guilty of this offense!), or even worse, with collared polos (unless you have a Target name tag on, but even then...yuck).

Reeking of perfume (which often goes along with too much makeup and jewelry).

Flip-flops worn outside of the pool or beach. Uggs don't really bother me, but for some reason everyone seems to wear flip flops everywhere, especially the airport and I really hate looking at everyone's bare feet all the time. I don't care if you have a Tory Burch logo on them, they're still rubber flip flops! Wear some shoes people!

Reading over some more of the comments, because I think this is a pretty entertaining thread.

Irene-thank you!

Shiny-oh my gosh, so with you on the visible thongs and plumber's crack/butt cleavage. So much overload from seeing that all the time in high school. Yuck!

Deb, your description of drop crotch pants reminding you of Dick van Dyke dancing with the penguins made me laugh.

What a great thread! I think I share my poison eye with many of you. I try to be tolerant of different styles and preferences, but there are a few thing that make me cringe a little:

- Overly feminine dressing. I love the feminine look when done right, but a cake can become sickeningly sweet, if you know what I mean.
- Extencive piercing
- Extencive tattooes
- Ill fitting clothes. Huge muffin tops, or jeans or pants dragging along the ground. Baggy casual pants and sweaters. Better choices CAN be made.
- Rubber flip flops outside their natural habitat.
- Visible thongs, bah!
- Casual dressing in non-casual settings