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Hello! Let me introduce myself; my name is Blaire. Yes, like the Gossip Girl character and yes, I’m a huge fan and I make no apologies. I’m 21, a high heel tragic, salted-caramel fiend, Henry Cavill worshipper and all round pop culture sucker.
Welcome to the first in a series of fun and exciting literary expeditions into the world of fashion. I want to explore the various elements and influences that contribute to the fashion world and spin them so they relate specifically to you. These are not intended to be how to guides or self-help columns. We all read the same magazines and watch the same television shows and are influenced accordingly.
Every day I’m exposed to ideas and mantras that are supposed to make me feel empowered and strong as a woman of the world, but often times it leaves me a little confused. In a world dominated by the idea of beauty, how am I as a woman meant to decipher what’s going to make me beautiful? My biggest fear is looking at pictures of myself and seeing a look-a-like cast member of Geordie Shore. There are so many important lessons in fashion to be learnt and even then it’s all massive game of trial and error.
Lesson 1: It’s All About You!
I find that women as a whole seem to have trouble grasping that every woman is different. I’m not going to sit here and tell you all to love your curves and embrace your flaws. I know you won’t, you’re going to sit around with your girlfriends and talk about how much your body sucks and how ugly you are.
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As much as I try to love my flaws, I still hate them and I understand that every individual is their own harshest critic. I hate my chin, I think my thighs are huge and I would do anything to have a couple more inches on my 5’3 height. But what about embracing your strengths? Why don’t we all sit around all talk about how amazing we think we are? I love my eyes and my lips and I think that my chest-waist-hip ratio is perfect. I used to be really worried about how my body would affect my ability to wear the clothes I wanted, and I was right. I know what works for me and what doesn’t and I’m not scared to take a little risk now and again and at the end of the day, I wear exactly what I want. The best thing I ever did was get to know my body.
The most important concept of fashion is knowing your body inside out, so I want you to go and find a full length mirror and look at yourself.
Note the proportions of your body. Look at your shoulders, your waist, your hips, legs, arms etc and identify your body shape. Most women will fall into one of these categories regardless of what dress size you wear and if you think you fall in-between, fear not! There’s nothing wrong with being an inbetweener.
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Also look at your skin tone and work out what the undertone is:
- Cool (pink, red or bluish undertones)
- Warm (yellow or golden undertones)
- Olive (neutral as it is a mix of warm and cool undertones)
This is going to help you work out what colours are going to look best on you and find your perfect make up. I can’t stress how important this is. No one likes a face that’s a different colour to the body it’s attached to.
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These are the basics that seem to slip through the cracks and these little things are what are making your little black dress look more like a hessian sack then a couture creation. Now that you know this, everything else we talk about will make more sense. Your body should be your best frenemy, no matter how much you hate it you have to use it to your advantage. Work every angle and know what’s going to look good on you. Fashion is more about personal expression and self-flattery than any other industry so there’s absolutely no shame in letting everyone know that it’s all about you.
I promise right now this is the first and last of my self-discovery driven ramblings but I’ve only just stepped onto my soap box.The purpose of this isn’t me telling you what’s right and wrong because there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to looking good. Sometimes you’re going to get it ridiculously wrong and one day you’ll back on photos and laugh about it. I used to wear emerald green eyeliner with a green dress and thought it was amazing but now when I look back on those photos I can’t believe I ever thought it was a good look. Green is not my colour. I have an olive skin tone. I just looked like a glamourous asparagus gone horribly wrong. But hey, life is too short to wear boring clothes.
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