Feb

24

Blue eyes, dark hair and pale skin

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Fashion isn’t easy for anyone, and even those who make it look like a natural habit have to work to achieve those results. Paris Hilton doesn’t wake up with perfect hair, nails and skin, or clothed in Dior. She spends her time, and her dad’s money, on getting that way each and every day. It’s exhausting, it’s hard work and it’s something the outside world takes for granted, assuming you are just naturally beautiful. If you have pale skin, dark hair and blue eyes you’re in for a world of beauty—with a bit of work. Here’s how to maximize your natural beauty and make it work for you.

Embrace your oddities. One of the smartest and quickest ways to enhance your natural beauty is to embrace the things about your look that set you apart. If you have a big chin, play off of that. If you have a tiny forehead, make it a feature. Being memorable is often more important in fashion that truly being Hellenistic.

If you swaddle yourself in high-end fashion you’re bound to get respect from fashion fans, but following blindly isn’t what fashionable people would do now is it? Pick and choose what will work for you. Dark hair and pale skin demand lighter colors, pastels, and a touch of softness. Blue eyes add the sparkle that makes the whole look stunning.

A few makeup points for this face type include blush as a means of adding color back to the face, lighter, peach-colored lipstick and enhancing the blue eyes with tans, browns and coppers rather than any ostentatious colors or smokey eyes during daytime.

Feb

21

Funny Fashion Mishaps

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There are a lot of famous fashion mishaps, and some really strange fashion decisions, too. Like Bjork’s decision to wear a dead bird around her neck, or J-Lo’s choice to wear a sheer green jungle dress to the Oscars, or even the infamous nipple slip that has forever ruined half time shows. But what about fashion blunders with high-end designer brands like Gucci and Prada?

Yes, designers make mistakes too! Just look at any random runway during Paris, Milan or New York fashion week. You’ll find a barrage of thin women in clothing that isn’t flattering and wouldn’t look good on a even a perfect body. What’s the deal?

High fashion is concept art. Essentially, designers capture an idea with each line of clothing and then take it to extremes to test the boundaries of public awareness. Take, for example, the ridiculous sunglasses on the runway by Fendi last year. They were outlandishly bright, cubic, multi-tones and had gradient tinting in reverse. In short they were simply ridiculous. Still, Fendi gets points for thinking outside the box during fashion week, and for demonstrating what not to do.

Just like Vanilla Ice’s yellow parachute pants, every step in the wrong direction we go with fashion serves to guide is more in the right direction be contrast. This is useful especially in high fashion where boundaries don’t mean anything and designers are willing to send a model down the runway in literally anything. Still, these fashion mishaps are acceptable in the long run, and we can all rest assured that no “real” folks in “real” cities would ever be caught dead in fashion week clothing.

Feb

7

Annoying Eyewear Fads

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Sometimes a fad will pop up that simply shouldn’t survive. Recently, many of these fads have been in the eyewear industry, prompting many to wonder if the giants like Prada, Gucci and Dior have simply lost their minds, or if they are pandering to an unruly, unfashionable mob.

The recent surge in white sunglasses is not only annoying, but ill timed. Wearing white in winter only makes you look washed out and older than your age. Perhaps this is why the fad is strongest among pre-teens. We recently spotted Justin Bibier in white shades that made him look like a poser. This may well be a fair assessment, but we would have thought the Biebs’ fashion team wouldn’t have let him leave the house in strap-on sandals and white Oakley shades.

However, the single most annoying new trend, especially hot in Asia at the moment, is the seemingly fashionable concept of wearing ugly, black-framed eyeglasses with no lenses. For most of us who are forced to wear corrective lenses to see, this is just insulting. We know being the chic nerd is in, but fake glasses don’t make you look smart, they make you look dumb. Enough said. In Asia, part of the fad comes from the strong affinity for anime, where the characters have larger-than-life eyes. The large frames add this effect ever so subtly. This also has the advantage of making your chin and lips seem smaller, the ideal anime appearance. But, if you don’t think looking like a hyper sexual Japanese cartoon is ideal, drop the fake glasses and move on.

Jan

21

Celebrity Fashionable Epic Wins

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It’s not often we get to associate Lindsey Logan with smart choices, but this last year she took her fashion sense from Disney hooker senseless to pretty amazing. She looks dashing in these Chanel sunglasses, the perfect look for her skin, hair and body composition. She may have been in and out of jail, in and out of rehab more times than Amy Winehouse, and in and out of relationships, but Lindsey stayed firmly fashionable in 2011, an impressive feat for a girl with so many distractions.

Another epic fashion win was performed by Kate Middleton, the pending Queen of England. Her wedding gown was absolutely gorgeous and she looked as stunning in regal in that as any queen should. But what’s more impressive is the way she uses affordable fashion she buys off the street and combines these looks with high-end gear. She’s beautiful in a way that allows this kind of layering, but it also gives her a edge of relating to the population that most don’t have with royalty. She’s one of the top epic wins of the year.

Michelle Obama is also near the top of the fashion pile thanks to her similarly high and low-brow fashion looks. She was spotted shopping at Target in store-brand clothing and a baseball cap a few days after an official function at the white house where she was clad head-to-toe in designer digs. Any woman who can live in both worlds gets props from us, and her addiction to trying new looks that are slightly more edgy than previous first ladies is applauded.

Jan

14

Red, White and Blue Fashion

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Nothing makes Americans more irrational and empowered than the run-up to the presidential election. Every four years we watch strange archetypes of American society dress up in red, white and blue and wax philosophical about issues that have, for all major purposes, nothing to do with any real presidential power. Still, the carnival of the election really brings out new fashion trends that are not only comical, but sometimes supremely so. We’re talking red, white and blue sunglasses, or high fashion eyeglasses like Newt Gingrich’s wife’s impossibly chic Prada eyewear and Versace clothing.

One way to look more presidential is to wear blue. You’re hinting subtly at a blue collar vibe, which is what Republicans love to espouse despite being the party of the wealthy. Rolling up your white, long-sleeved dress shirt into a short-sleeved shirt hints at the American passion for disrespect to authority. And again, a blue collar vibe. So, to look presidential wear a white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, a blue tie, and possibly a darker blue windbreaker, which, ironically, hints at authority so you start to associate the candidate with power.

Democrats, on the other hand, tend to play up their education, as they are appealing to a more educated crowd. Expect nice suits, shoes and expensive hair cuts, they now that they are creating a specific look to appease a certain crowd, but they do it anyways because it’s what’s expected, like a Kennedy running for office or a Bush running a farm while simultaneously holding office.

Jan

6

Men who Know Fashion

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Some men have good fashion sense, most of them simply play copy-cat with the stars they see on TV or their favorite musician, or even more terrifying, they copy the Brawny man. Check out the recent Rolling Stone Magazine image of Zach Galifanakis. This isn’t exactly a look many people could pull off, but as a comedian he is allotted a certain amount of odd leeway. These Tom Ford – Carter shades are a bit too John Lennon for most, but Zach manages to pull it off using his super serious persona, the one he uses throughout Hangover. We suspect that hippies, and those with gauged ears would adore these Tom Ford shades, but that the majority of folks will find them too goggle-like. Still, for unique, male fashion Zach is getting high marks.

It’s hard to do a roundup of great male fashion without mentioning Brad Pitt. He was launched into the big time seemingly overnight, and his decision to pair up with Angelina Jolie made him half of the most powerful celebrity couple in Hollywood. We’re not sure if he is dressing himself or else has a team of experts, but Brad hardly ever makes a mistake with his wardrobe. We’ve seen him in Tom Fords, Dita, D-Squared, Prada, and even Versace. And his recent foray with Police sunglasses proved successful and sexy, even for a middle-aged man.

Daniel Craig is another celebrity who isn’t caught on camera, ever, without looking primped and cool. We’re talking James Bond 24/7 with this guy. It’s all creased shirts, clean jeans and shoes that match his belt and, we’re betting, his wallet too. This guy was a born looker, and although he has a bit of a rough side we think the fashionable side emerges more prominent.

Jan

3

Kardashian Fashion

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After years of trying to avoid the “famous for no reason” type of celebrities who make it to the big time simply by being either A)crazy (think: Courtney Love) or B) pretty (think: Paris Hilton). But now a whole family of otherwise normal folks are famous and it defies logic. Sometimes they are praised for their high fashion (Kourtney looks dashing in these Dita frames, image left) but really, who are the Kardashians?

If you’re left scratching your scalp wondering who this family made it to the big time, you’re not alone. Here’s the rundown. OJ Simpson was accused of murder in the 90s. One of his lawyers was a Mr. Robert Kardashian. He married a beautiful woman and had a ton of beautiful women. She divorced the lawyer and married an Olympic athlete. One of the children, Kim Kardashian, was famous for being a socialite, which essentially means she was famous for blowing through lots of Robert’s money on big parties and attempts at a modeling career. She made a sex tape (amateur) that was “leaked” to the press that launched her into the same silly category as Paris Hilton, also famous for blowing through her dad’s money, making sex tapes and being drunk in public. The family launched a TV show called “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” which featured the whole family of beautiful people and their senseless drama.

Still, for all their general lack of appeal, the family is remarkably fashionable. Kim an Kourtney are especially flashy with their wardrobes, and have turned out a few looks that are unique as well as loaded with fashionable foresight. Were they to get famous for their fashion sense that would be one thing, as that is somewhat skill related, but instead they seem to be making it to the big time for being scandalous. Robert Kardashian was accused of laundering money with OJ, and doing drugs with them, and the daughter Kim was famous for “leaking” a sex tape. Not exactly family values.

Nov

29

Vintage Country Fashion

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Vintage is coming back into style, and with it all the headaches of trying to determine if something looks vintage, or just out-of-date. Still, pairing a shiny, new pair of Tom Fords with a vintage top is a surefire way to look fashionable and recycled all at once. Go green!

A few key tips to pairing vintage threads with modern elements is to always keep the few modern elements very obvious. Like our little flower lady here, she has a modern hat that wouldn’t look out of place on Gwen Steffani’s beautiful head paired with a vintage top that even has a stylish, quasi-modern cut. Her modern hair and makeup make this a stunning photo (though her missing left hand is a bit creepy and show a bit of misdirection with the photographer’s stagnate skills).

There are a few set color palates for vintage that work well. Anything that is a grandma color will do, like the urine yellow, the blend of blue-green that looks washed out and tired, greens that are more yellow and dull than green, and even browns, tans and oddly vibrant oranges. All of these hues will help you set the vintage mood. It’s easy to toss in a bit of vintage texture to get a complete feel. First, whicker is a hot and easy item to toss into your wardrobe, or a bit of leather (boots, hat, belt) for weight and texture, or even knit items. Sweaters are especially vintage and look sexy paired with leather jackets and cowboy boots. Lace is another vintage hot seller, and the more complicated the pattern the better.

Nov

16

Halloween Fashion

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Halloween was last month, and that brought out more than a few freaks and goblins. Still, it can be fun to see all the interesting spooky fashion. One thing you notice every year at Halloween is the absence of fashion and cool clothing. But, one thing to keep your eye on is the morning after Halloween, when women and men wash off the fake blood and then want to look more than their best. You’ll see women in frilly Dior sunglasses and beautiful skin and hair, it’s the most important day of the year for women to show they do, in fact, look more human than the zombies they dressed up as the night before.

This year, we saw a lot of zombies and vampires al la Twilight. There were more women dressed in flannel than I’d care to admit, and then the number of women dressed as Lady Gaga was disgusting. Who wears tones of meat as a dress and gets away with it in October? Apparently a lot of people in America. Still, it’s not easy to smell of raw meat all day and then go home and look sexy the following day.

Finding the day after Halloween a fashionable day isn’t easy. Especially this year when the following day was a Tuesday when everyone was so tired and hungover from a day at work and then a day at the bars that they looked more haggard and sickly than beautiful. Still, there were women in silks and furs and roves and glamour trying to look their Sunday best on Tuesday the 1st.

Nov

4

Compatible Fashion

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There are a few things that set of a real fashionista’s radar. If, for example, you pair cheap, knock-off jeans with designer Prada glasses people will notice and know you spent money on an accessory to try to fool everyone into thinking you were fashionable. This is a beginner’s move, and if you care at all about your fashion then you won’t make it. If, however, you hit up a few thrift shops you may find some vintage items that complete the look and actually look favorable with designer accessories.

This is, essentially, what movie stars like Johnny Depp do. You’ll notice their jeans are full of holes, their jackets have elbow pads (like Grandpa’s old jackets) and their shoes are from the 1920s. They can afford nice, real vintage items while you may have to settle for the thrift-shop castaways, but the look will be so similar you’ll be shocked at how great you look. And most of the time with a bit of sewing skills you can alter these items enough to be one-of-a-kind. There is a story to your shirt now, a history. So, vintage can be done affordably if you are smart. You don’t have to be a millionaire to look like a vintage bum. You can pair this look with designer glasses and pump the whole look up a notch. Oliver Peoples and Tom Fords are great vintage pairings and are very compatible.

If you can afford to do it, buying brand-name jeans, shoes and shirts and pairing them with brand-name accessories will look nice, but may also look pretty bland and almost like cheating as you are coping what someone else considers fashion. If you see someone wearing all designer stuff you know they don’t have the creativity (only the checkbook) to support real fashion.

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