WEEK 2: Master Basic Dressing Illusions (Part 2)€¦ · WEEK 2: Master Basic Dressing Illusions (Part 2) You have started becoming familiar with the silhouettes, lengths and other

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WEEK 2: Master Basic Dressing Illusions (Part 2) You have started becoming familiar with the silhouettes, lengths and other style elements

that work for your proportions. And have started assessing individual items currently in your

wardrobe.

Then last week you started creating outfits using one or more of the Hide and Highlight

principles.

This week you’re going to continue assessing individual clothing and accessories and putting

outfits together, but you’ll also be considering the third of the 3 Hs: Harmonizing.

Harmonize

Your MPS style recommendations include ALL the style elements that help

you create flattering proportions.

However, if you remember nothing else remember to review your outfits

using the 3Hs: Hide, Highlight, Harmonize.

These principles should also help you understand how to disregard an

‘avoid’ style recommendation (if you want to), yet still create a flattering

outfit!

This week we’ll explore harmonizing.

HARMONIZE: Relate your outfits to yourself When you relate your clothes and accessories to something about your appearance and

when your outfit forms a cohesive whole your look becomes pleasing (to you and anyone

who sees you).

You can relate your clothes and accessories to yourself by:

Colour – by echoing something about your colouring. Here are a few examples you

can use now, even if you haven’t had a colour analysis:

o Wearing a top that is a similar colour to your eyes enhances the colour of

your eyes

Week 2: Master Basic Dressing Illusions


Examples of eye enhancer tops

o Wearing a top, dress or outer layer that includes a colour similar to your hair

colouring. Though be careful this doesn’t make you look too boring! You may

need to add contrast, or texture, in your portrait area (see the image 3rd from

left, below). Or add one or more other colours, or wear your hair colour away

from your portrait area (see the example in my outfit 2nd image from left

below)

http://www.polyvore.com/eye_colour/set?id=7569575



Linking outfit to hair colour

Shape – if you have curly, or wavy, hair wearing a pattern with curves, or a texture

that evokes curves, reflects your curls within your clothing. If you have smooth hair

smooth fabrics and straight lines will reflect the lines of your hair. If you have a

pointed chin a V-neck will reflect that line, pointed shoes will reflect an aspect of

your face at your feet

Texture – echo your hair texture (smooth, slightly textured, highly textured), or skin

texture (clear or more muted) (though be careful with this – you need to understand

that what we echo we emphasise!)

Make sure you only echo things you want to emphasise about your look! For example, if you

don’t like your square jawline avoid that shape within your clothes (especially at your

neckline).

As well as relating your appearance to your outfits you can create harmony within your

outfits by linking items somehow, for example:

A similar theme or mood – for example, a summer beach theme (light colours,

deckchair stripes, espadrille sandals and so on), an Aztec theme, a natural theme, a

polished mood, a playful mood. Do take care that you don’t get too ‘costume-y’ with

a theme or mood.

Visual weight – this is the perceived weight of clothing or accessories. The larger,

darker, more opaque, less structured, more textured, more embellished an item is

the heavier the perceived visual weight. Visual weight is particularly useful when

working out what shoes and other accessories work with an outfit. And for creating



balance in your proportions, for instance balancing a relatively narrow top half to

broader hips by wearing patterns, lighter colours and/or textures on your top half.

You can also play with these ideas:

The ideas below, are an introduction to more advanced aspects that you’d

learn more about in a colour analysis and colour course. So, if you’re at all

confused by these please ignore them for this course!

Colour values – echo the colour value of your hair (and perhaps your eyes, but be

wary of going too low contrast by echoing skin colour). For example, if you have:

o Darkish hair, some element of dark colour in your outfit will work well

o If you have light-ish hair some lighter colours within an outfit will work well

for you

o If your hair colour is more medium (neither light nor dark) in value try using

some medium colours in your outfit

Colour contrasts – echoing the contrast levels from your portrait area is also an

enhancing thing to do. Contrast levels can be:

o Low – almost no difference between colours. For example between two

similar colour values in a similar tone

o Medium – you can easily see there’s a difference between colours, but it’s

not really high impact. For example: a light colour and a medium colour; or a

medium colour and a dark colour

o High – an obvious difference between colours. A light colour and a dark

colour form a high contrast, eg black and white. Two bright colours also

create a high contrast

Try echoing the contrast level within your portrait area (especially between hair and

skin) in your outfits and also within the colours in your outfit (the change between

tops and bottoms, and within patterns).

Again, please ignore the above three colour ideas if you’re finding them

too much to take in at this point!

Proportions within an outfit Leonardo da Vinci discovered a number sequence called the Fibonacci sequence (also

referred to as the Golden Mean). It can be used to describe the proportions we find most

pleasing in nature (such as fern fronds, snail shells, and roses), in art (such as object

placement in a picture), in architecture (such as the Taj Mahal and pyramids), and in aspects

of our body proportions.

The proportions are: 1:2, 2:3, 3:5 etc.



Given we find these proportions so pleasing it’s no surprise that we find dressing using these

proportions creates the best balance.

How to use this?

Create outfits with garments that are uneven in proportion to each other, rather than even

lengths or widths.

Colour influences the appearance of proportion. For example, the colour of

hosiery can be blended with the hemline and shoes to make the three

items appear as one. In the picture below my pants, skin and sandals form

the illusion of one unit.

Example of 1:1 versus 1:2 and volume all over versus structure plus wide

Not wide over wide – since this makes us look wide all over (see me in the first photo

above). Volume over volume is a current fashion trend (on the runways), but unless you’re

tall and very slim it’s not a flattering look.

However, one way to make it work is to create the illusion of a more tailored top or bottom.

For example: add a more structured vest over the fuller garments; add a belt; or use tucking

or partial tucking to create the illusion of structure (see this article on my website to see

how to master the partial tuck).

Rule of Threes – to give an outfit a finished appearance three areas of interest are needed.

In the picture above right, the addition of the textured necklace relates to the colour of the

pants and combines with the curved lines and the light colour of the top to create three

areas of interest.

http://www.style-makeover-hq.com/partial-tuck.html



When an outfit feels ‘blah’ it’s often missing the third element. For example, two solid

coloured items usually need a third item to make an outfit feel visually interesting. Adding a

necklace, scarf or third layer, such as a jacket, cardigan or vest, will often add the needed

visual interest.

Scale In the image to the left, which centre dot is

smaller?

Answer: they’re both the same size! However, the

small dots make the centre circle look bigger,

while the large dots make it look smaller.

This is the illusion of scale!

How to use this?

If you want to make an area of your body look smaller, put a larger scale accessory or piece

of clothing, or design element, next to it. If you want it to look bigger, put on a smaller scale

accessory. However, to keep your look harmonious, don’t stray too far from your scale

recommendations.

How to use this?

Pay attention to the scale of design elements such as silhouettes, collars and patterns and of

accessories such as earrings, necklaces and handbags.

Skinny legs will look even skinnier with a wide hemline

The scale of this bag overwhelms Katie Holmes

Please note: you don’t have to use every harmonising aspect in every

outfit! Pick one or two to focus on, especially as you get started with this.

The point is that you start to consciously notice what’s working and what’s

not within your outfits. You’ll probably find you start noticing this in others

and in photos too!



EXAMPLE of using the above information

The most obvious harmonising strategies I’m using here are:

The colour of the top echoes my hair colour. However, the top colour is slightly brighter, which both attracts attention high on my body and keeps the look from becoming boring

Colour value of top is similar to my hair colour Colour contrast between my portrait area and the

top is medium Colour contrast between top and darker bottoms is

medium There is a similar colour in the print pattern (though

you may not notice that from this photo) The pattern of the pants echoes the swirls and curls

of my hair My sandals are a similar tone to my hair and top,

creating a balanced look The proportions between my top half and bottom

half are uneven, even when you take my hair into account. The look is too boring (even between top half and bottom half

HOMEWORK 1: Reassess outfits

Step 1: Look at your outfits from last week Have another look at the outfits from last week’s homework and using the information

above, look at each outfit photo and assess them for:

Colour and contrast harmonies

Shape harmonies between you and the outfit

Notice the fabric textures

Proportions, both vertically and horizontally

The scale of design elements and patterns

Theme/mood/’pulled-togetherness’ of outfits

And do make sure you’ve first used your MPS to review the individual components of the

outfit. Do they meet your style recommendations? And if not, have you been able to use

ideas from the 3Hs and dressing illusions to create a flattering look anyway?

Step 2: Identify any changes If an outfit feels as if it’s missing something can you identify what’s wrong?

Is the outfit flattering? As well as creating the right balance for your horizontal and vertical

shapes and minimising any figure challenges, does it harmonise in any way with one or more

aspects of you? If not can you identify any ways to change it?

For example, could you change a hemline? Or tuck in a top? Or add an accessory to create

more interest? Or change the top or bottoms to create a more harmonious contrast level?



Step 3: Post photos Post photos in our Facebook group along with comments about your assessment. Also note

whether you actually love (or at least like) the outfit.

HOMEWORK 2: Create new outfits Now it’s time to practise creating new outfits using your style rules and the 3Hs. For this

homework make sure you incorporate at least one harmonising aspect from above.

Step 1: Identify the area(s) of your body that you need to balance For example:

Narrow hips to wide shoulders, wide shoulders to wide hips, short legs to the rest of

your body, long legs to the rest of your body

Flow through the waist

etc

Step 2: Choose an appropriate basic outfit strategy for your proportions Select from 1 of the 4 ways of using colour from last week and create an outfit using items

in your wardrobe.

Step 3: Shop your wardrobe Try combining tops and bottoms, dresses and outer layers etc that you haven’t put together

before.

Step 4: Add a focal point Add one or two focal points. For example: using a necklace or scarf; a colour or a texture

Step 5: Harmonise Make sure you’ve included at least one of the aspects of harmony above between you and

your outfit. Pay particular attention to contrast.

Step 6: Note any missing items If you find you’re missing the ingredients you need to create the outfit you have in mind,

start a shopping wish list and make a note of the items you’re missing.

Step 7: Post photos Post at least one photo of you in one of your new outfits in our Facebook Group. Let us

know how you like the outfits you post and any discoveries you’ve made as you’ve done the

homework this week. In particular, note anything different, to do with harmonising, you’ve

tried in this outfit.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stylemakeover/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stylemakeover/

Documents

WEEK 2: Master Basic Dressing Illusions (Part 2)€¦ · WEEK 2: Master Basic Dressing Illusions (Part 2) You have started becoming familiar with the silhouettes, lengths and other