Happy Birthday to Jules

I enthusiastically heart the beautiful and clever writer of Pancakes & French Fries.  Check her out and win a Customized Fashion Look Book from CE.

How to Smile for a Photograph

Our goal is to master such an effortless grin

1) Practice makes photogenic

One of the most camera pleasing persons I have the pleasure to know really pretty well has a hard drive full of self portraits.  Photos from web cams, snapshots taken at arm's length, timer-delayed shots.  Since this self-proclaimed model was an adolescent, she visually cataloged every handsome hair day or fetching ensemble with a few snappies of herself.  The results: missy knows the angles which flatter her features, how to instantly differentiate between pouting and perplexed, and photographically foremost, she has mastered her smile.

Posing amateurs like you-sies and me-sies can commence in front of the looking glass, but for robust results collect two-dimensional images of your mug on that digital camera of yours. Without the cost of film, you can pose, purge, and practice without price. 

Like a crooked Cary Grant

2) Build a smile wardrobe

One frock won't suit every occasion and neither will a single smile.  From tender closed mouth moments to raucous full grin occasions, you'll need a small wardrobe of smiles to appropriately express each exposure opportunity.  

Start by mastering your natural smile.  Your lips should unveil your upper teeth while cloaking most of the lower pearls.  Extending to around the incisors, aim for about twenty percent more expression than you might expect.

To call upon your expression apparel, let us summarize the philosophy of Mr. P. Pan: keep a happy thought in your pocket.  Then pull it out before the photographer flashes.  You can also warm up your smiler with a quick chuckle immediately before the shutter yawns.

After you've mastered your basic beam add at least another pair of options to your portfolio.  Whether it's a quirky smirk or a coy simper, find something that exhibits your unique entity.

Someone wishes they had applied liner

3) Smile with your eyes

If you're just s-mouth-ing, you won't show happy.  Start sm-eye-ling by coordinating your eyes and mouth.  Far from  limiting you to a trite, traditional emotion, a range of possibilities are available.  While some slightly squinted rainbow eyes will shiny up many a lens capture, you can also experiment with looking up for innocence, slyly to the side for curiosity, or marginally down for a shy effect. 

And don't forget your eyebrows.  While lifting them lightly will help your smile appear natural, there are a full range of expressive possibilities available through these horizontal strips of hair.  Just keep practicing and continue to expand your smile wardrobe.

Post-script: To avoid shutting your eyes as the aperture exposes, close your peepers as the photographer counts down.  For red eye termination, focus on a bright light, thereby shrinking your pupils and the surface area available for retina reflections.

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The 3DWhite full bodied line includes:

• Crest and Oral-B 3D White regimen includes the Crest 3D White Pro Effects Whitestrips ($50 for 20 doses)
• Crest 3D White Vivid Toothpaste ($3.25 - $.4.25)
• Crest 3D White MultiCare Whitening Rinse ($5.89 & $7.29)
• Oral-B Pulsar 3D White Advanced Vivid Toothbrush
• Oral-B Advantage 3D White Vivid Toothbrush ($3.49 & $6.99)

Family Photo Giveaway Winner

Below is our Family Photo Giveaway Winner

click on the winner's selected category to school yourself on assembling a merry holiday memory.

 

Grand Prize Winning Winner
in carefully conceived Textures & Patterns
making monochromatic anything but monotone
Alyson Young of Young 'Uns

Photogenic proponents that must be shared
(not only because they are adorable, but because they are instructive):

 

 Honorable Mention
Best Analagous Color Scheme (Blue, Purple, Green)

Nicole of Five Peas

Honorable Mention
Perfect Seasonal Skin Exposure

Miss Melissa

Honorable Mention
Optimum Prop Usage

Lady Lauren

Black Friday Special

Enjoy a
Cardigan Empire sable colored special. 
Email me by midnight, November 28, 2010, Monday, November 29, 2010 for 30% off your Cardigan Empire fashion service of choice. I will respond directly with a discounted invoice.

(includes Fashion Lookbook, Shopping Session, Fashion Package- Lookbook + Shopping Session, Closet Cleaning, or a 90 minute class for you and your favorite ladies).  

And this discount can be applied to pretty little holiday gift certificates.

How to Dress for a Family Photo: Add a Prop

AdoreVintage

Add apotheosis to your own family fashion shoot by including an inanimate extra. Expose your memory to film in Grandpa's orchard, allow each child a treasured snuggly escort, or use the family sailboat as a candid portrait backdrop.  

However, take caution.  Prop inclusion can easily go astray and if you wish to avoid someday seeing your portrait on Awkward Family Photos, avoid the contrived using the following three truisms*:

1) Don't give the prop undue attention 
Holding an element uncharacteristically near the face or adding digital drama to it post-process are sure fire paths to future regret.

2) Present props in a natural setting
While a boardwalk bred ice cream cone is native as sand to the beach, it looks awkwardly out of place in the sterile studio.  If everyday life wouldn't bring your element and environment into concurrence, carefully consider your defiance of nature.

3) If in doubt, favor furniture

Chairs and chaises, beds and boxes, if your prop can accommodate staged seating, it's immediately innate.  Select furnishings that partner your personal panache whether its an Eames lounger or vintage elementary school desks. 

(*I've seen people that have broken all of these rules successfully, but generally speaking I recommend at least considering them before you break them.)

Finally one of the bestest places to pilfer photography inspiration is magazines.  Scour editorials and consider opportunities to recreate your favorite spread.

Oh, and forget about saying cheese. Think about a pretty pair of shoes instead. You want to emanate natural bliss and footwear has a much higher chance of precipitating felicity than fermented dairy.  And did I mention that your shoesies will most likely show? Don't overlook this functional accessory.  Tell Uncle Eunice to leave his dirty cobbler-wear in the garage.

The giveaway winner will be announced on Monday, so enter yourself now!

Allow Cardigan Empire to style your kin for their next Family Photo. Click here to book a family-sized virtual shopping session.

How to Dress for a Family Photo: Pattern Play

Happy Thanksgiving Fashion Pilgrims!

Florence Welch & The Machine

 Creative playfulness, unexpected essentia, the province of patterns.  If you choose to advance your family portrait into the realm of pattern, choose supporting ornamentations.  Select simple patterns like small florals, pinstripes, and polka-dots.  You and your dear ones are the photographic Prima Donnas so don’t surrender the spotlight to a bright ikat. 

Also consider the placement of patterns.  One pattern is all one family member should likely sustain.    If possible, refuse your patterns immediate contact. Solids provide critical white space for your family assembly.  

Keeping all your patterns in the same color family can add further sophistication. The more colors, patterns, and people you introduce, the greater chance for ocular disjoint.

Speaking of adding more members to the photograph, more people should directly translate into more motif caution. Whereas a spattering of stripes and florals will not overwhelm a family of four, it could enact a pictorial cataclysm in a family of fifty.   

Patterns can practice spotlight thievery, just when your rosy cheeks are ready to shine, Auntie Clementine’s fluorescent brocade bares its brilliance stealing the shutter’s concentration. Squelch the focus filching by opting for unassuming solids. Solids are natural supporting actors, allowing visages to take the lead.

For large or extended family portraits,  a similar range of solid colors makes it easy to identify confederate members in your extended family portrait. Clothing doesn’t need to match exactly, but it should blend.   Individual garments ought to share similarities in hue (pigment), value (light/dark), and/or chroma (purity). A palette of ocean blues (similar hue), bold primary colors (similar value), or ashy pastels (similar purity) would place each family member on equal color footing.  However, if you place cousin Sally in scarlet and niece Brenda in beige, there will be talk of favoritism. Sally will bloom and Brenda will recede into an angst filled background.

The final step arrives tomorrow, to your color theory and pattern play, add props.

And if you haven't yet entered this week's giveaway...

Allow Cardigan Empire to style your kin for their next Family Photo. Click here to book a family-sized virtual shopping session.

How to Dress for a Family Photo: Color Schemes

 Precursor: Pasted somewhere in your family album is a visual collection of white shirts and khaki pants.  Well maybe the shirts are black and the pants are denim, but the optical philosophy persists.  Your family is dressed in uniform, making it simple to identify the confederate members.  While there's nothing distasteful with this strategy, particularly when extended groups are involved, perhaps you long for something unexpected, maybe you've nibbled at accented neturals (ie black and white with dashes of red).  The following post is intended to present a feast of fresh photographic possibilities.

The Allen family is led by an artistic matriarch who carefully orchestrated a harmonious yet unexpected color scheme for her Autumnal family photo.   While she is collegiately papered in chromatic proficiency, the rest of us can benefit from a crash course in color theory.


First the Color Wheel

Our primary colors, as learned in our elementary education, are red, yellow, and blue.  Every other color on the wheel is born from a combination of these hues.


The first generation of genesis are secondary colors.  When two primary colors are combined, a secondary color dawns.  The next lineage of colors is tertiary, created by mixing a primary and secondary color.


Finally, it is relevant to register the left side of the wheel as cool and the right side of the wheel as warm.


Now, on to our harmonies:

I Monochromatic

Monochormatic: Consisting of variations in lightness and saturation of a single hue.

In the preceding specimen, the entire ensemble sprouts from the same red-violet base.  Monochromatic harmonies are clean and elegant.  To keep them interesting combine textures as well as tints (hues created by adding white), shades (hues created by adding black), and tones (hues created by adding gray).  For example, combining the opulent velvet magenta shade with the gauzy rose tint.

---

II Analogous

Analogous: Colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel.

The pointed pair above illustrates a soothing analogous color harmony.  The scheme shares a common violet core but introduces variation by mixing more blue on one side and red on the other.  Not only does this combination cross hues, but it also bridges the warm/cool boundary which further enriches the effect. 

---

III Complementary

Complementary: Pairing colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. 

This intrinsically attention absorbing harmony adds natural vibrancy.  When used judiciously it can add energy and interest.  Desaturating one component (the blue in this sample) allows the opposing golden orange to dominate and shine. Using tints, shades, and tones as well as secondary and tertiary color combinations also keeps the scheme from appearing trite (ie a primary red again a secondary green Christmas combination).

---

IV Split Complementary+Triad

Split Complementary: A variation on the standard complementary scheme, this harmony uses a color and two colors adjacent to its complementary.

The harmony visualized in the foreground of the image (left-front daughter in blue-violet + right-front baby in red-orange + emerald green grass) provides high contrast without the strong tension of a straight complementary scheme. 

And let's just acknowledge here and now for all you smarty britches, that this citation is not a perfect split complementary.  The color compound should include red-violet instead of true violet, but I like it and as the owner/writer of this blog, I say, "close enough.")

  

Triad: Combining three colors equally spaced around the color wheel. 

This harmony illustrated by the upper tier of image representatives (son in blue green scarf and yellow-orange plaid + daughter in red-violet jacket) offers rich  contrast while retaining optical balance. The trio is not as visually demanding as the complementary scheme, but it shines in balance and interest.

---

V Tetradic

Tetradic: Arranging four colors into complementary pairs  

The dominant colors within the image form a harmonious tetrad.  The varying shades of red violet shine against the yellow-green grass. The blues and oranges conflict just enough to create dynamic interest.  And as a whole they balance each other beautifully.

  So can you identify the color harmony represented by this adorable cherub?  (Hint: consider the brown as a neutral acting as background to the true chromatic star)

Now that you've graduated color theory, return tomorrow to thank fashion for pattern play.

And don't forget to color your chances in favor of winning this week's giveaway.

Allow Cardigan Empire to style your kin for their next Family Photo. Click here to book a family-sized virtual shopping session.

How to Dress for a Family Photo: Skin & Faces

I Fleshy Magnets

The most important feature of a family photograph is the faces. Faces are quite useful at identifying individuals, and although Aunt Agatha’s tricep may sport unmistakable definition, it should not be placed in competition with Uncle Alfred’s countenance. Flesh is an eye magnet, so use is judiciously. Allow the cranial handful of inches squared to shine by opting for concealment over exposure.

Not to say you need to pack your opera gloves, just leave your bitty skirt and strappy top in the bureau (or combine them with thick stockings and a cozy cardigan).  The skin you show should be strategic (ie "the portrait neckline"), it should bring gazes back to mother's twinkling eyes and son's missing teeth.

And as you prepare your visage, make it to look like it usually looks.  Applying a few liberal moments and a handful of holding spray spritzes is fine.  But avoid the temptation towards extravagant hairstyles or unconventional rouge routines.  Keep your locks and smile as natural as possible.  This is a keepsake of your and your dear ones, not training in trend capture. 

Come back tomorrow for a lesson on blending colors on film.

And don't forget to cast in your hat to win this week's giveaway.

Allow Cardigan Empire to style your kin for their next Family Photo. Click here to book a family-sized virtual shopping session.

How to Dress for a Family Photo-Giveaway Closed

The family photo: an opportunity to squirrel away a flitting twinkle in time with your dear ones. However, the more individuals (particularly infantile individuals) in a lens's frame, the greater the chance of ocular rivalry.

Fear not, your family photo can be a momentous memorialization with the help of this week's fashion tips.

sponsored by:

And to initiate, we're offering ladies laden with a child-filled cornucopia, a fashion harvest from Japanese Weekend.  Succeeding skirt is belly bulging salvation.  Wear it from the day your test reads two all the way to your travail filled trip to the hospital. It's the perfect foundation for your fertile family photo.

or if you prefer, opt for your own Cardigan Empire authored and customized Fashion Lookbook:

You can choose to have either the Japanese Weekend Skirt or a Cardigan Empire Lookbook.  To win, send me your family photo.

Name:
Email Address:
Blog/Facebook/or other Online Address
Prize Choice	Japanese Weekend Pencil Skirt Cardigan Empire Fashion Lookbook
Family Photo (retro or recent)

Good luck my photogenic females!

Plus Size Giveaway Winner

Tara Lynn, French Elle

Invisible no more, this woman is the giveaway winner:

Lorena!

Congratulations dear!!  May you spend many a fashionable day in your new Tiefront Kimono Top

Plus Size: Tips Set II

Tara Lynn, French Elle

As we continue the "how to dress plus sized fashion series", may I present two more foot falls towards full figured fabulousity.

1.  Go longer for leaner

Hinder any thought of breaking up your shapely silhouette. When presented with the opportunity to crop the length of your jacket, boot length, or trouser leg, politely decline.  When tempted by the allure of a complementary purple and yellow skirt and cardigan set, consider an analogous purple and blue combination instead.  

Keep the eye moving along the full length of your figure.  Achieve this visual path through monochromatics, a dark denim paired with heels, or a long overcoat.  In essence, fewer optical interruptions in your outline creates visual height.  And the taller you are, the leaner you are.  While you want to break apart horizontal breadths you want to extend vertical lengths.

2.  Don't ornament
(or at least only do it selectively)

What others have to borrow or counterfeit you copiously own.  Rejoice in your abundance.  Let your luxurious affluence speak for itself.  And where your body thrives, do not ornament.  Avoid ruffles, embellishments, or other volume-adding extras.  Clean sophistication will eliminate the any conflicts of interest.  

And when and where you do choose to adorn, pick garnishes in proportion to your figure. Rather than a sickly, spindled stillheto, opt for a robust yet reasonable platform.  Rather than a delicate pendant, elect a chunky bib. Your shoes, jewelry, handbag, and all other accessories should be as prosperous as your fortuitous figure.

More well fed fashion served again soon.

Don't fail to enter the Plus Size Giveaway. 

A personalized, Full Figured Fashion Package: combining a theoretical look book & a practical virtual shopping session

Plus Size: Tips Set I

Crystal Renn, Harper's Bazaar

In precurse, body types are unchanging whether your size falls above or below the number dozen.  And the tips following will sleek and slim any size, but they are particularly propitious for our plus size petticoats.

1.  Skim, don't swallow or squeeze

There is no monster in the plus size closet.  No one knows what size you wear except for you (and your stylist).  But everyone can see if you're squeezing or shrouding into a size that doesn't suit.  

It may be that half your figure crosses into a different department.  Your torso or trunk may prefer a wider cut.  Your lower level may opt for a fuller fit.  Or you may be consistently voluptuous from head to toe.  Whether you're plus size or petite there is no shame, and there is a department better dedicated to your needs.  So wipe the shame from between your eyebrows, and taste what has been prepared for your palette.  Self discrimination is never pretty.

But as you banquet, don't bury yourself on the other side of the spectrum.  A single copy of yourself should fit into your clothes.  Fluid, draping, bohemian threads may flatter pixies and pocket people, but you, my love, have presence.  It can not be cloaked.  Therefore, we must taper it, belt it, dart it, show it.

2.  Cut it into pieces

If you have a large compass to clothe, carve it into visually smaller pieces.  It is optically intimidating to digest large amounts of person at once.  A sumptuous steak should not be consumed in one bite, and neither should your fullest breadths. 

Clothing seams and stitches are your dividing boundaries.  For a full seat, always apply back pockets.  Then instead of one fleshy fanny, we have a left pocket, a middle, a right pocket, and the areas to the exterior of those pockets.  Deliciously tender and bite size.

Or if you have a bountiful bust, rather than presenting an uninterrupted turtleneck of bosom, try a v-neck sweater.  Which offers a succulent shoulder, a center of delicately exposed clavicles, and another succulent shoulder.  All more appropriately sized to our visual appetites.

For plus size fashion at its finest, may I recommend Igigi.  They offer office idealism, in a wide inventory of pencil skirts, shaped sweaters, all figure conscious yet professional. 

More well fed fashion served again soon.

Don't fail to enter the Plus Size Giveaway. 

A personalized, Full Figured Fashion Package: combining a theoretical look book & a practical virtual shopping session

Plus Size Giveaway (CLOSED): Fashion's Invisible Woman

Crystal Renn, Glamour Magazine

"The average U.S. woman, who's 162.9 pounds and wears a size 14, is treated like an anomaly by apparel brands and retailers -- who seem to assume that no one over size 10 follows fashion's capricious trends." Emili Vesilind, Los Angeles Times, March 01, 2009

My curvy, dear vixen your attempts to hide in elastic waistbands or baggy tunics must end.  This week we will dress you to your fabulous fullest.  

And we shall start with a complimentary top from Fashion to Figure. 

And to match your abundant curves, and abundant number of way to win.  Do one of more of the following and leave a confirming comment:

1) Share how you flaunt your full figure 
2) Choose an item of desire on Fashion to Figure
2) Follow Cardigan Empire

3) Refer a full figured friend to CE
4) Tweet or post about this giveaway

5) Embed a CE button on your blog or website

Robust tips for well fed fashion to come

A personalized, Full Figured Fashion Package: combining a theoretical look book & a practical virtual shopping session

 

Creative Ensembles: Opposites Attract Giveaway Winner

181818181818181818181818181818181818
eighteen

Robot to human translation....

StaciJ, the lucky winner of the Downeast Basics Opposites Attract Giveaway

Creative Ensembles: High & Low

A little fancy with a little cozy. 

High & Low by cardiganempire

Blooming Belle Dress
$210 - modcloth.com
Print dress »

Cottage crochet cardigan
$43 - shopruche.com
Crochet cardigan »

Lace Peak Socks
$18 - anthropologie.com
Lace sock »

fur-ociously flirty faux fur purse by Melie Biaco
$78 - shopruche.com
Pouch handbag »

Love Me, Love Me Not Necklace
$48 - anthropologie.com

Morning Web Earrings
$38 - anthropologie.com

FRYE Taylor Harness Boot

endless.com

Neither pretentious nor slovenly.

High & Low II by cardiganempire

Gap Petite Cowlneck Shirt
$35 - gap.com
Gap tops »

Golden Fleece Bolero
$158 - anthropologie.com
Anthropologie jackets »

J.Crew - Vintage slim jean in rustic wash
$98 - jcrew.com
Vintage clothing jeans »

Michael Antonio Women's Karilee Open-Toe Pump
$67 - endless.com
Michael antonio pump »

Monserat De Lucca Brass Fork and Spoon Earrings
endless.com
Brass jewelry »

And completely unexpected.

Channel your Ch'i towards a chance to win a Yin Foundation Piece!

Own your personalized, unexpected signature style with a harmonious Fashion Package: combining a theoretical look book & a practical virtual shopping session