Fashion and fashion advice

[mrs_sweetpeach]

At 1:00 this morning, I found myself watching 'I've Got Nothing to Wear,' a new reality series on TLC. I hadn't heard of the show before tuning in; from what I gather, each episode concerns a woman with a wardrobe problem (what to bring on a three-week business trip or what to wear on stage in the case of the two episodes I saw). The woman works with the show's resident stylist Jorge Ramone to determine her fashion goals and to find items in her closet that can be refashioned. Then, back the "chop shop,' three students, under the supervision of designer George Simonton, get out their scissors.

The part of the show that most intrigued me was the "look book" presented to each woman to help her learn how to pair her separates and accessories. I suppose most women learn how to accessorize when they are young, but I think I must have slept through those lessons. That or attending a parochial school with a strict uniform policy warped me for life.

When it comes to fashion, I may beyond help. For example, I recently checked The Science of Sexy out from the library. The 'science' in the title comes from the 48 body types the author has identified. Each type is represented by a numeric value determined by height, weight, and shoulder-bust-hip ratio. That part made sense to me. My troubles began a few pages later when the author asked me to identify body parts I considered flawed (there was no category for "all of them") and to identify the three parts of my body I love (none). Then there was the question about the image I want to project. The choices were (A) sophisticated and glamorous, (B) conservative and classic, (C) trendy and cool, (D) hippie chic, and (E) all-out-sexy. None of these describe what I want -- a combination of intelligent and artistic.

Comments

[maddiec24.livejournal.com]

Maybe we could both get on the show? I'm hopeless when it comes to fashion. I can usually coordinate an outfit, but I tend to go more for comfort than anything else. I tend to feel like people, meaning my family, think I overdress, as I'm more comfortable in jumpers and tees or skirts and loose tops than shorts or jeans or especially pants. Around here that's dressed up.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

Intelligent and artistic is an oxymoron. :-)

The best way to get this effect is to wear a nice shirt, jeans, and a blazer. The better quality pants you have, the less artistic you look, but that's set off by looking more intelligent. (Really, you gain about 20 IQ points to the general public by putting on blazer.)

Seriously, me too.

[belladonna-sw.livejournal.com]

And I'm the youngest of 6 girls, theoretically I should have learned -something-!?

Then I was a stay at home mom for 16 years and didn't need to be fashionable. Now hubby is an engineer that regularly either takes people out, or gets dinner invitations and I hyperventilate because I don't know what to wear that doesn't (a). make me look like a hippo, (b).don't make me look overdressed or underdressed...sigh

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I never learned fashion. As a starving college student (for 10 years to get my BS) I think I shopped primarily at Salvation Army -- heh -- and conventions. When I had to work at a "better" place for a couple of week, I still went there, but went for things less shapeless. Then, when I got basically the job I had now I brought a friend I'd met on-line over to my house so she could tell me what tops I could wear with what bottoms.

I'm finally getting to the point that I am thinking about replacing my many-times-mended shirts that fall apart a little bit more every time I wear them.

But I would NEVER want to be on a tv show. Even if they could mock up my closet somewhere other than my house which is just Off Limits, I can't imagine anyone paying me enough to make me willing to do that.

That book sounds as um... meaningful to someone like I am as a book on archetypes a friend had me read was. I just didn't buy the premise.