What to Wear on a Date

After polling both myself AND my husband, it was conclusively agreed that effortless conversation was the number one social indicator of a successful date.  And an easy conversation begins before you ever part your lipstick-stained pout.

Following are four steps for successful speaking in clothes:

Step one:  Mirror
Simultaneous head nodding and mutual head tilting are physical manifestations of an intangible connection.  Strengthen the link via wardrobe.  If he is East Coast prep and you are West Coast bohemian, consider the nautically striped maxi dress.  Find points of fashion commonality and gently orchestrate efforts to look like a couple.

But don’t forsake your genuine nature but do make token acknowledgments of the culture you are visiting.  This includes the company and the environment.  Even if you wear high-heeled slippers to bed, be willing to adapt to casual encounters.  While it’s better to be overdressed than under, aim for a variance of under ten percent when compared to your surroundings.

Step two:  Don't Speak in Trends
Women use fashion-forward clothing to stamp out their social hierarchy, but most men don’t speak exotic fashion dialects.  Make sure you send him social cues in a language he can understand.  Happy banter begins with common language, so reserve the harem pants for your girl’s night out.

Step three:  Avoid Sartorial Expletives and Raiment Rambling
Your clothing should make an introduction, not dominate the conversation.  While you may see the plaid jumpsuit as a perfect translation of your inner core, wait for a more committed relationship to share it.  Just as tackling religion and politics isn’t advisable on an introductory date, neither are overly bold or personal clothing items.  Hint at your rich soul through whimsical accessories rather than virtually flashing your date with a neon mu-mu complete with screen-printed traffic signal.

Step four:  Be comfortable 
The only thing equivalent to the repellant power of sweat pants is a preoccupation with clothing restrictions or potential wardrobe malfunctions.  If it requires double sided tape, overly constrictive undergarments, or other acrobatics, opt out.  It’s very difficult to be charming when you are simultaneously sucking your abdomen in and tugging your skirt down.

Likewise, don’t corset your natural style.  Now is not the time to audition for a new role.  Prepare your best, genuine self then shed your self-conscious glances in the mirror.  Focus your energy on investigating the other person.

Live in the Beehive

I will be hosted by my native state next week Tuesday, January 24th through Saturday, January 28th.

If you reside in the home of the Great Salt Lake, in either the Salt Lake or Provo vicinity, and long for a face to face, tete-a-tete styling session, please contact me at reachel@cardiganempire.com to schedule either a mini or full appointment.

So You Want to be a Fashion Stylist

(British Vogue Editorial 2008)

Think you have an eye for fashion?

Top 5 Reasons to Register for Wardrobe Strategies at MCC taught by yours truly:

1. Upon completion, you can wage battle against Rachel Zoe and her nefarious battalion of size 0 Zoebots (all armored with darkly tanned skins and large sunglasses)
2. TEC 245 counts toward an Image Consulting certificate. Said certificate would look very smart framed in a gilded gold frame in your personal styling office.
3. A Friday morning dedicated to dressing up makes a lovely elective, perfectly accenting classes like biochemistry.
4. I will teach you everything I know and a few things I don't. My goal is to glory in your future success.
5. You'll be prepared to make the world a prettier place

Spread the word to your collegiate fashion smarties. Registration closes, and classes start, Monday, January 23rd.

Wardrobe Strategies, TEC 245
M 7:10 PM - 9:45 PM, 3 CR

Syllabus includes: body type dressing, color analysis, personal styles identification, closet cleaning, wardrobe maximization, shopping strategies, and much more.

What to Wear to a Job Interview

In another life, I reigned countess professional
Business suits stapled my high school senior year,
favoring a briefcase over a backpack.
Graduated in Marketing,
added the MBA acronym.
Interned with GE,
job offer from Accenture.
Vice president before the age of twenty-five.

Doubt not what may appear to be an unassuming fashion flirt at present.  Trust me when I say, I can help you dress for a job interview

Step one:  Determine the dress code
Somewhere in the eclipse of the last decade, dotcom scruffies partnered with premium denim manufactures and admitted flip flops, screen printed t-shirts, and short pants into the corporate closet. Fortuitously, inevitable economics and time-honored taste burst that bedheaded bubble, yet in the rubble we are left with only hazy shimmering hints at what used to be clear dress code boundaries.

Thus savvy employment pursants assume the role of industrial anthropologist and ask insiders about day to day dress.  Established vocational vestiges are direct indications of corporate culture.  If the office standard includes jeans, t-shirts, and high tops, don't dryclean your suit.  Adopt the office orthodox but elevate it ever so slightly with a blazer.

Arriving in the cultural equivalent of either a prom gown or pajama knickers shows a lack of regard for the trade's traditions.

Step two: Add yourself
Don't forget to bring yourself to the interview.  Secure every uniform snap, but add a touch of your own charisma: a brooch on your blazer, a scarf on your satchel.  Mix three parts conformity with one part creativity to stand out and above the competition.

And should the costume you assume for the audition makes you feel self conscious, perhaps you should reconsider your character choice.

Step three: Orient your details
Now is the time to indulge your OCD tendencies.  A run in your stockings translates into sloppy phone etiquette.  A missed button on your shirt sleeve indicates a tendency to miss deadlines.  Shoe scuffs construe a propensity to send e-mails san-spellcheck.

Step four: Go underboard
Avoid undue distractions: dark sticky lipstick on your teeth, maniacal hair tossing, strong, musky odors.  Makeup should be simple and pretty.  Hair should be neat and secure.  Scents should be clean and fresh.

Limit yourself to three accessories and select a bag and overcoat based on the fact that they will be the first and last thing your interviewer sees.

In short your interview outfit should introduce you from across the room, act as a reference in favor of your skills and abilities, then get out of the way.

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In the News: A Call to Resurrect Pretty

I present you meat for meditation:

The Death of Pretty

By Pat Archibald

December 21, 2011

This post is intended as a lament of sorts, a lament for something in the culture that is dying and may never been seen again.

Pretty, pretty is dying.

People will define pretty differently.  For the purposes of this piece, I define pretty as a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence.

Once upon a time, women wanted to project an innocence.  I am not idealizing another age and I have no illusions about the virtues of our grandparents, concupiscence being what it is.  But some things were different in the back then.  First and foremost, many beautiful women, whatever the state of their souls, still wished to project a public innocence and virtue.  And that combination of beauty and innocence is what I define as pretty.

By nature, generally when men see this combination in women it brings out their better qualities, their best in fact.  That special combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and defend it.

Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they prefer to be regarded as hot. Hotness is something altogether different.  When women want to be hot instead of pretty, they must view themselves in a certain way and consequently men view them differently as well.

As I said, pretty inspires men’s nobler instincts to protect and defend.  Pretty is cherished. Hotness, on the other hand, is a commodity.  Its value is temporary and must be used.  It is a consumable.

Nowhere is this pretty deficit more obvious than in our “stars,” the people we elevate as the “ideal.”  The stars of the fifties surely suffered from the same sin as do stars of today.  Stars of the fifties weren’t ideal but they pursued a public ideal different from today.

The merits of hotness over pretty is easy enough to understand, they made an entire musical about it.  Who can forget how pretty Olivia Newton John was at the beginning of Grease.  

Beautiful and innocent.  But her desire to be desired leads her to throw away all that is valuable in herself in the vain hopes of getting the attention of a boy.  In the process, she destroys her innocence and thus destroys the pretty.  What we are left with is hotness.

Hotness is a consumable.  A consumable that consumes as it is consumed but brings no warmth.

Most girls don’t want to be pretty anymore even if they understand what it is.  It is ironic that 40 years of women’s liberation has succeeded only in turning women into a commodity.  Something to be used up and thrown out.

Of course men play a role in this as well, but women should know better and they once did.  Once upon a time you would hear girls talk about kind of women men date and the kind they marry.  You don’t hear things like that anymore.

But here is the real truth.  Most men prefer pretty over hot.  Even back in 6th grade I hated the “hot” Olivia Newton John and felt sorry for her that she had to debase herself in such a way.  Still do.

Our problem is that society doesn’t value innocence anymore, real or imagined.  Nobody aspires to innocence anymore.  Nobody wants to be thought of as innocent, the good girl.  They want to be hot, not pretty.

I still hope that pretty comes back, although I think it not likely any time soon.  For every Taylor Swift, there are a hundred Megan Foxs, or Lindsay Lohans, or Miley Cyruses etc.

Girls, please, bring back the pretty.

And I query, How do we bring pretty back?

Relive and Relish: The Baby Wedding Movie

i would craft a clever caption here, but clicking keys could interfere with the repeated playback of mine and the babies' favorite new film.

i fiercely fancy float away films
their services  are of the reasonably priced variety
which means you can capture the best days of your life, even the ordinary ones
portfolio here

-----------------------

also float away films and i are palling up to capture
an entire set of body type films.
so if you have a body, in the greater Phoenix area, and you desire
a complimentary styling session, message me.

New Year's - The Musical - Twenty-Twelve Arrives

Twenty-Eleven brought a bushel and a peck of blessings, and I was determined to give it a celebratory bon voyage.

The Opening Act

(inspiration)

The Cast

The Result

Twenty-Four+ plates dirtied (because I despise plastic and paper) from Miss Saigon Sushi, Marry Poppin's Scones, 7 for 7 Mountain Man Stew (nice abbreviation no?), Hairspray Chicken Wings (hairspray modifying chicken as an inspiration rather than a dressing), West Side Story Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes, and a myriad of other broadway belly fillers.

Musical charades were performed, everyone sang at least a bar, and most of us kept our eyes open until the New Year rang in.

My Costume Breakdown

Garcia Dress, Anthropologie 

Sequin Front Cardigan, Banana Republic

tutorial for False Eyelashes and Cat Eye Liner

And I should have gotten a bumpit to achieve a sixties inspired coif, but we learn from our mistakes.

Add a comment telling me your favorite musical

 And teeth-trim your nails anticipating the upcoming Dress for a New Beginning Feature:

Job Interviews

First Dates

Newborn Babies

The Rest of Your Life

Or please do submit your own request in the comments

Let Cardigan Empire fashion your resolutions.  Commit to a Fashion Package: combining a theoretical look book & a practical virtual shopping session

And a Soul-Full New Year

Carrie is a soul that bears no smirk of judgement, malice, or selfishness.  Her smile is always sincere and her hugs are legendary.

Sunday is a perfect day to visit a dear, genuine friend with

an essay

that took me five months to write.