a female college student and hopless fashion idiot need some fashion help. do anyone know good fashion guide books or something?? 
Dressing sharply is easy. First, get one of these. They make you look great with anything.
Second, you can’t dress flashy till you spend a lot of money, so don’t bother. I buy all my clothes used. People say I look like an old man, but I don’t mind.
Third, I really have no idea about fashion, but this sounds very much like a call for opinions. My opinion: dress however you want, and don’t let some fleeting, ill-defined rubric of ‘fashion’ dictate your choices.
i should have used ‘style’ instead of ‘fashion’. i am really not trying to become ‘fashionable’ but just need some basic idea of matching colors and style. everytime i send my pictures i get the same comments from different people.
- you wore this again!! please chage!
- each garments i put on just don’t match in color or style
i will feel more confident in the crowd if i dress better.
Go out and look at what hot chicks are wearing. If you don’t know what a good example of a hot chick is, ask a nearby guy. He will point a few out for you within minutes. Then go to your mid-tier stores (not the cheapest, but not the killer expensive ones) and replicate.
If you have a great body, you can’t go wrong with tight, short, and tight.
Can’t really help unless we know what you look like: what looks good on me might not on you.
My “style” is very simple, pared down skirt-and-sweater, with minimal jewelry (earrings and nacklace). Remember, “less is more.”
But then, you want to dress like a college girl, not like a middle-aged matron . . .
My second long term relationship was with a girl who ALWAYS looked great. I mean, ALWAYS. It was frightening in a way, because she could throw on MY suit jacket (I’m 210 lbs and 6’3") and look good.
One day, I couldn’t stand it anymore and asked her to spill her secrets.
Here they are:
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Ignore what the “fashion mavens” say, unless you like it. If they say long skirts are in, and you like 'em, fine.
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However, never, ever wear an old fad, unless you’re going to a costume party. (IE: No beehive hairdo’s, no legwarmers)
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A great body helps. A lot. $10,000 for clothes and a bad body, or $10 and a great body, take the latter.
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A biggie: (And it works for guys too) : Carry yourself as a member of the upper class. Always erect, but don’t overdo it. John Molloy’s LIVE FOR SUCCESS is a treasure here.
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Another one: (More for guys) : Matching hue’s and textures are the key to being a great dresser. Molloy, in dress for success is a treasure here, too.
Jeans, white, and black go with everything. However, it is not advisable that you wear an entire outfit (unless it’s just a one-piece thing, like a dress) out of only one shade of one color.
Also, if you look at a color wheel, you might be able to find some colors that complement each other nicely.
See PhilAlex’s tip #3.
This advice is gold. Don’t waste time and money on clothes when you can get 10x your bang for the buck at a gym or on a bike or treadmill.
Keep in mind your objective. The right approach is much different depending on what you want to accomplish – catch the eye of every nearby male as a hot chick, fit in with the crowd and make friends, or make a good impression in the workplace. Your objective sounds like the second one. You probably already know this, but if you go too far into the short, tight, see-through and low cut, the guys will notice you but quite a few girls will judge you and avoid you. I read some good advice that if you are trying for a “hot” look for a night out, you should pick one of the 4 --short, tight, see-through OR low-cut. Never more than one to avoid looking like a hoochie-mama.
I think Land’s End clothes would meet your objective well. Chadwick’s of Boston also might be a good choice, a little trendier and less expensive. Even if you don’t buy, their websites and catalogs will give you good examples.
Dress for Succcess is good reading, but more geared toward the workplace. It’s interesting for its sociological value, but make your own decision to what extent you want to buy into that worldview. One good point the book makes is that fit is everything. If you don’t have that perfect body now, wear clothes that fit the body you have, not the body you want. If you have trouble finding clothes that fit well, salespeople can usually help with recommendations.
Good luck!
http://stylemakeovers.com/colortest/color_module.htm
Start watching the show, What Not to Wear. Lots of good “basic” advice. Their website is also good:
The British version is equally good, but different:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lifestyle/style/
Check your local library–good books about basic dressing, starting with Color Me Beautiful.
Looking Good by Nancy Nix-Rice is an excellent beginner’s book. The pictures are a bit dated, but the advice is timeless and solid.
The most important thing is to remember that you’re dressing yourself, not a store mannequin. Go with colors that flatter your coloring and styles that flatter your shape. If you don’t look good in black, for instance, it doesn’t matter how “in” it may be this season or whether every other young woman at your college has the Johnny Cash Memorial Wardrobe. Wear brown or navy blue or grey anyway if that’s YOU. Similarly, if your bust is your best feature but you’re not too happy about your tush, wear tops with nice deep V’s and pants or skirts you feel comfortable in. Don’t worry if everyone else is wearing turtlenecks and skin-tight slacks this year.
Good luck! You’re getting an early start, lots of women don’t stop to think about this until they’re much older and have spent an embarrassing amount on unflattering clothing… Like, uh, me for instance. But I’m rebuilding!
I’ll echo what was said above. We really don’t know your objectives.
And… for every rule, there is an exception.
Speaking as a guy here, I worked in a corporate enviornment for over 10 years, and wore the same thing almost every day: White Shirt, Black Socks, Black shoes, Blue or Black pants and a tie.
Now, the tie, as far as I was concerned, almost anything went.
Of course, it helped that I was a very good producer. I could have come in wearing track pants, and I doubt I would have been fired…
But… to each his own.
One more thing: Not meaning to hijack, but women are much much more critical of other womens clothes than men are. I’ve been spending a lot of time speaking for companies and have had more than a few looks at “rating” cards that other speakers have gotten.
Women always, always comment on the women speakers clothes (Does that matter?).
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man comment on a man’s clothes… (Shoes? I think he was wearing some)
I think Donald Trump put it best: I went to Paris Fashion shows, but not to look at the clothes.
Oh, something I forgot to mention… you don’t say whether you’re interested in casual clothes to wear to class, or if you’re graduating soon and thinking about job interviews and a career wardrobe. Maybe both. In either case… many women (and some men) find themselves in a situation where the closet is overflowing and they still have nothing to wear.
To avoid this, you need to shop smart. Buy smaller amounts of clothes, but choose things that work together, both in terms of basic style and color. This is often referred to as “capsuling” and it’s covered in the Nix-Rice book I mentioned and, I think, in Color Me Beautiful. If you have four T-shirts that all match one casual skirt and two pairs of pants, that’s twelve potential outfits to wear to class. Add a cardigan sweater or an oversized denim shirt that matches them all, and you’ve doubled that. You don’t have to make everything match everything else - that’s close to impossible anyway - but once you have some versatile basic pieces, everything new you add should work with at least three other things already in your closet.
I agree with Flodnak. When I was working we had a bunch of guys working in Engineering who were hopeless dressers. It was obvious they went out and bought JUST what they needed, thinking the stuff they had at home matched. It never did.
(Again, my White-shirt-black-socks-black-shoes rule works perfectl)
-P
InStyle magazine has a section which illustrates how to put an outfit together, top to bottom - fabulous looks, ranging from day/casual to night/dressy. Once you’ve figured out precisely which clothes would flatter your body style and skin/hair tone, go to Bluefly.com for bargain prices on designer clothes.
Don’t forget that one unique (not necessarily expensive) piece of jewelry can make a big difference. Try JMarco.com: