My editor from the glossy, Pauline, always says that I’m a fall/winter girl — with an inclination towards tailored lines, suits, layers and a more austere palette. But recently, I’ve been shedding the ubiquitous piled-on look and instead going for more minimal pieces, like a tee and a skirt, but in screaming unpredictable colors. I have to say that color suits me — an easy transition from holiday bleak to bright summer.
That was the no-brainer part. High summer style is not only confined to the spectrum of unpredictable color mash-ups; in fact, for summer girls, it’s the season where skin is the focal erogenous zone. Which brings me once again to another style meter I’m sure you fans of fashion would love. My personal extent to showing off uncovered body parts would be shrunken hem micro shorts. And maybe some deep V’s or two.
But the modern stylish provocateur comes in the form of a subliminal tease — varying in the degrees of layer ounce and its relative skin exposure. I’m focusing mainly on tops first, because dissecting skin visibility on the bottom half takes another column discourse. And yes, it has a prerequisite: a toned body to match. (Which means, I’m already out from the get-go. Man.) This is the new sexy: subtle, reworked, anti-cling and it doesn’t even involve any short body-con dresses.
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Check the extent of your style bravado from these three exposures:
SAFE: transparencies or sheer
Although gossamer finished pieces give others an instant x-ray vision to your inner soul slash lingerie, it’s still a filmy layer that covers skin. Contrasting inner outfits superimpose the bare parts like the midsection at Cacharel and Costume National. The key to making sheer relevant to the style tribe elitists, is to keep silhouettes within a bright color story, button-down masculinity or slouchy wide neck tees balances casual with the otherwise formal connotations of chiffon or organdy.
DARING: openwork lattices or webworks
Bigger hole crochet and macrame would fall in this family as well. It’s a step higher than sheer because of course, those tiny peek-a-boo spaces show off skin already — albeit in tiny dots. Still, it’s not too revealing and sexy in a high fashion way. The key: Keep openwork pieces in a T-shirt silhouette with sleeves and in a non-confrontational color like neutrals, grays, or the best — midnight black. If you want to inject some brights, move it down to the lower half, like a solid colored skirt or trouser.
BRAVE: bra tops or cropped bandeaus
Actually, the “Bra” — runway edition, doesn’t resemble lingerie, so it’s not really innerwear as outerwear. The new crop of meant-to-be-visible bras does not come in lace, satin or any suggestive finish either. In fact, the reason why it works is because the cropped tops come in almost bland, inauspicious granny palettes. The key to working the look is proportioning all that exposure with a high-waisted skirt or trouser plus a blazer thrown over it. In effect, that leaves only a small rectangle of tummy abs to peek through. Don’t pair ultra-cropped tops with low-waisted anything because that will automatically zoom you to FHM territory or Britney Spears havoc. Just saying.
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Superstealth me: stylesamurai.blogspot.com.