Think of your outfit and look as a sentence with which you express yourself to the world. If your individual garments are the words of this sentence, then accessories are the punctuation. And it is worth remembering that punctuation is often the only thing that stands between language and noise.
Accessories are incredibly valuable additions to your wardrobe, because they can be used with many different outfits and to achieve many different effects. Accessories have a special place in the history of fashion, and come in a staggering variety of forms. Still, they can be loosely divided into two main types – those that are worn, and those that are carried.
Carried accessories are rarer these days, and mostly take the form of handbags, purses and clutches. In days past, they used to be far more common. Walking sticks and canes were once a key fashion accessory for men, and most types of carried accessories that do not have an obvious practical purpose are used today only as status symbols. Worn accessories are far more common nowadays, and include jewellery, hats and headwear, even wearable devices and glasses.
So, how do we make the best use of all these accessories to improve our look? The first thing to keep in mind is colours. Colours have rules, and while it is possible to break them in ways that are beautiful, this doesn’t happen by accident – you need to know the rules well enough to break them. Having a colour wheel like this one around when choosing your accessories can help you to learn the rules of colour and how to break them the right way. Matching all of your accessories in colour, and making sure that colour goes with or contrasts your clothing colour is a classic style that always works. If you feel comfortable, you can even explore playing around with high contrast or monochrome colour schemes. Even clashing colours can work if done right and in moderation.
Using wearable accessories like hats or belts lets you not only play with colour, but alter the whole silhouette of your look. A belt in the right place can change the whole feeling of the outfit, and the right hat can accentuate a look without distracting from it.
Another very important part of wearable accessories is jewelry. You should make sure the jewelry you wear works with your skin’s general undertone – yellow metals like gold and bronze work well with warm undertones, while lighter metals like silver or white gold are perfect for cooler undertones. Don’t like the type that goes with your skin? Don’t worry, you can offset the clash by incorporating more of the desired undertone into your outfit. So, if you have a more caramel skin with a cool undertone, but prefer gold, then just make sure you add plenty of warmer colours to your outfit.
Never underestimate the power of accessories to change your entire look, and let you wear the same outfit again and again without ever feeling like it isn’t the first time out in it. A good collection of accessories also expands the possibilities of a minimalist wardrobe, and allows you to wear things that you like or that look especially good on you with a variety of different outfits and looks.
Love always,
Zaynah
Shop : www.zaynah.co.za
Instagram : @zaynah_offical