Fashion mistakes to avoid: Staying in style requires strategy, paying attention to trends, tastes, comfort, cost & daring.
DON’T chase trends
The struggle to stay fashionable is a perilous one, and there’s always someone trying to sell you an easy answer. Don’t get suckered into hopping on every bandwagon, otherwise you’ll never forge a style identity of your own. Instead you’ll just keep moving from fad to fad, leaving a graveyard of embarrassingly outdated selfies and overblown price tags in your wake.
DON’T over-accessorize
Accessories can be your best friend or your worst enemy and one of the more obvious fashion mistakes. If you do right by them, though, they’ll do right by you. That means giving each one room to shine instead of crowding them with competition. The right accessories can add emphasis and excitement to any outfit, but too many just make you look like the walls of a cheesy novelty restaurant: over-decorated, underwhelming, and tacky as hell.
DON’T wear ill-fitting clothes
Don’t confuse baggy for stylishly slouchy. If you stand in front of a bright light and your silhouette looks like a melting blob of goo, you’re doing it wrong. Clothes that are too big are not flattering, and they make you come off as sloppy. On the flipside, too-tight clothes make you look pained and, well, still sloppy. A good outfit should complement your figure, not obscure or strangle it.
DON’T pay too much
You can’t buy good taste. If you have an eye for fashion, you can put together an outfit that looks good whether you got the clothes from a shop on Rodeo Drive or from an actual rodeo. If you’re on a budget, sign up for mailing lists, keep track of sales, join frequent shoppers’ programs, look up Kohl’s promo codes online, scour every Goodwill in the state, do whatever you have to do. It’s not worth putting yourself in the poorhouse to keep up with your favorite designer.
DON’T mix patterns
Ever see something so chaotic and hideous it literally makes your eyes hurt? Pattern-mixing is a dangerous weapon- but it oughtn’t be. And if you’re not a mad scientist who likes torturing innocent passersby, it’s probably something you should avoid. Wearing one pattern is enough. If you have an accessory that matches, that can make for a cute look. But going all-in head-to-toe will make you look like a cartoon character, while contrasting one crazy pattern with another equally crazy one will just make you look like a bad cartoon character.
DON’T show too much skin
There’s a fine line between sexy and skimpy. The former is good, the latter… not so much. There’s nothing wrong with feeling comfortable with your body, but if you’re going to go out wearing the equivalent of a g-string and pasties, why bother wearing anything at all? Nudity is nudity and clothing is clothing. It’s just that simple.
DON’T dress uncomfortably
If you’ve ever seen a woman walking around in wobbly high heels with a big grimace on her face, you know why it’s a bad idea to value form over function. Clothing that looks good but doesn’t feel good to wear stops looking good the moment you step out the front door and people can see how uncomfortable you are. Try to hide it all you like; we can still tell.
DON’T play it safe
The biggest fashion mistake you can ever make is never straying outside your comfort zone. Great fashion is pioneered by those willing to push boundaries and try new things. Sometimes that means breaking rules, including the ones above. As long as you’re true to yourself, though, you’ll always look fabulous.
