Fashion Advice: "How to Dial Up Your Look"

In late July, Guardian Fashion Editor Jess Cartner-Morley wrote, "Understated Dressing is Overrated—Here's How to Dial Up Your Look".  A friend forwarded the article to ask what I thought. 

I was not attracted to the photo, a blazer with pushed-up sleeves over a dress in a large-scale print. I almost hung up then and there.

Photo: The Guardian

(If you have ever gotten a blazer sleeve to stay pushed up once you actually use your arms, please share the secret.)

She does, however, succinctly describe one's public image—"Your outfit is your hello to the world"—and asks a crucial question, "What would you like people to think when they see you?" Without second-guessing myself, I replied, "Not bad, for an old bird!"

To Cartner-Morley, classics like the little black dress make you "look like you belong in the room", but says that sometimes you want people to think you are more than merely appropriate, e.g., "interesting, sophisticated, powerful or sexy." This is asking quite a bit of a dress!

She handles "sophisticated" by recommending dramatic shapes, whether narrow or voluminous (not the normcore in-between) and those shapes should be "interesting" via a print or colour. (The outfit in the photo combines both attributes, but I don't find it interesting.)

She doesn't touch "powerful", but assuming she refers to the higher reaches of business and social  worlds, one can find lessons in the costuming of "Succession's" characters, especially Marcia Roy and Lady Caroline Collingwood. 

Lady Collingwood's YSL jacket

"Sexy" is in the eye of the beholder, and most predictably fanned by revealing the body or at least a solid preview reel. It is not always about clothes themselves. The hair, the body language... where was I?

Oh, right. Here's a secret weapon: I've never known a man or woman (depending on your preference) who has not found a pair of supple, fitted boots sexy, and give 'em at least a hint of heel; we're not talking Blundstones here.

Even in beat-up jeans and a t-shirt, you may, if there's a modicum of interest, reap as much frank admiration in those boots as in a seductive dress—or you could wear them just for your own fine self. They are always more pricey than you'd hope, but will be the life of many a party. 

Three levels of head-turning boots:

1. Luxury: Tod's snake-effect leather ankle boots; sale price $CDN 632 on The Outnet.

2. Not cheap but not crazy: J. Crew suede "Stevie" suede ankle boots in Rich Toffee; price $CDN 365.

3. Budget wink: Vivai Regina Pro boots in black/red (and many other colours), of water-repellant fabric. Price, $CDN 206.

Cartner-Morley saves her full Miranda Priestlyesque scorn for the middle-aged woman in "drapey, oatmeal-coloured loungewear that you might fondly imagine makes you look refined and mysterious", but in fact makes you "nearly invisible". I avoid the "Coastal Grandma" aesthetic not because of its low visibility, but because those clothes enervate me. I feel like a saltine cracker dabbed with a bit of mayo.

Shortly after I read the piece, I was on the métro, where I noticed three woman in similar palettes, but expressed so differently. One wore a crisp white sari embroidered with summer flowers, one was in funky crocheted pants and a pinstriped shirt; another had put together a retro outfit of different hues of pink from cats' eye glasses to peony-hued lipstick, to a top and pleated skirt. Each was "interesting", but in her own way.

Cartner-Morley reminds us that our clothes say hello, but that greeting is then interpreted through the filter of the onlooker's history. That's why someone aiming for "interesting" may look bizarre to one onlooker, and release ardent admiration in another. It depends who's looking.

 That day, I wore a pink and green cotton midi dress in two block-printed fabrics. 

The woman in the sari turned to me, smiled warmly, and said, "India!" My dress connected with her, moving my hello from a declaration to a dialogue.