Learning Your Shapes and Colors

Call me a slow learner. I've always loved clothes and fashion, but it took me until I was 35 (I'm 35 now) to really figure out that you need to learn which clothing shapes look good on your body, and which colors look good with your coloring, and you need to wear those and eschew all the amusing but unflattering clothes that are trying to lure you with their odd little siren songs.

Those shapes, for me, include dresses and coats with a waist or a belt, little cropped jackets and cardigans, and a long time favorite of mine, full skirts--

A recent discovery for me, in the catalog of flattering shapes, is the high-waisted, pleated, tapered-leg pant. Frumpy grade school teachers in the 80s gave me a lingering bad impression of such trousers, but the current trend for them has shown me their merits. And this is the thing about finding your shapes: you tend to find them when they're trendy, but if they're really good for you, you go on wearing them long after the trend has passed. And I have a feeling that's just what I'll be doing with this long-legged Lois Lane-ish look--

Shapes I have learned to avoid include the tank dress, the wide-legged cropped pant, and the pencil skirt.

Likewise, there are colors I need to steer clear of (at least if they're going to be anywhere near my face)--all shades of beige, brown, off-white, gray, and purple.

And colors to embrace as the dear dear friends they are: pinks, reds, yellows, oranges, turquoise blues and kelly greens.