One of my main tips from my chapter “How to Shop Like a Pro and Look Like a Million Bucks,” from the book I co-authored, Image Power, is to Buy Complete Outfits. Complete Outfits not only include all of the garments, but also the accessories. My dear friend and AICI colleague, Marjory DeRoeck, MFA, AICI CIP, has written an entire Image Power chapter entitled “Accessories: The Frosting of Fashion.” Here’s an excerpt from Marjory’s chapter. “Top Reasons to Use Accessories To put separates together as outfits. Use a multicolored scarf as a road map to pull together individual clothing items. A brown, orange and gold scarf would coordinate with brown pants, an orange sweater and a gold tee. To direct attention toward your best features. Is a tiny waist one of your best assets? Wear a wide leather belt with a gorgeous buckle and everyone will notice. To vary your wardrobe to suit your mood. Feeling upbeat? Put on your sparkly earrings. Feeling calm and casual? Add a mohair scarf in your eye color. To provide a conversation piece. Attach an interesting pin on your lapel and see how many people comment. It’s a great icebreaker at a party. To add color to (Read more...)

If you want to add more color to your wardrobe, but just one pop of color isn’t enough for you, let’s talk about opposites attracting. I’m talking about opposite colors, or complementary colors, on the color wheel. Putting opposite colors together is one of the most basic, yet fun ways of producing a color scheme to your outfit. For the sake of ease today, we’ll concentrate on tops. So you don’t feel like Rainbow Bright all of a sudden, ground any of your outfits with a neutral skirt or pant. I know what you’re thinking as you’re looking at this color wheel, “Dana, Christmas is over; I’m not wearing red and green together!” True, the colors on the color wheel are a little saturated and a bit bright. Rather than wearing true red and green together, consider candy pink and lime green. Playing around with the intensity and value of the colors is where your creativity comes shining through! Still not convinced? Worried about being mistaken for Denver Bronco fan* in orange and blue? Simply change the shades to peach and light blue. Or why not slide over a notch on the color wheel, and wear tangerine (Read more...)