Fashion rules to break

April 23rd 2009

by Lily Stein

I wouldn’t be mistaken if say that you have heard at least one fashion rule your mother and grandmother considered unbreakable.

Among those could be: Shoes and bags must always match; Never wear tights with open-toed shoes; etc.

Women’s shoes: Crocs Rio – Yellow

Nine West – Rainbow Large Hobo (Watermelon) – Bags and Luggage

LAUREN Ralph Lauren – Amaya (Royal Patent) – Footwear

You’ve probably heard them so often that even now when fashion has completely changed you still believe these rules are applicable.

However, if you want to be trendy you have to understand that most of those fashion rules are outdated and false. Forget about these once and for all.

Here is a list of rules you can safely break now:

• Shoes and bags must always match.

We have already written about this and now repeat once again: shoes and bags don’t have to match!

City Style Belted Satchel

You shoes and handbag must go with your clothes but not each other. When they look great with your outfit, feel free to choose any colors you want.

Diane von Furstenberg Sable Crisscross High Heel Sandals

I can’t even imagine myself trying to match all my shoes to my bags, that’s quite impossible!!! I will probably find two or three combos but no more. So, don’t even start!

• Don’t wear black with brown or navy.

This rule is one of those which I have always believed to be true. But nowadays it doesn’t work anymore!

If you think reasonably you will understand that black, brown, and navy are all neutrals. This means that you can wear them with pretty much anything, including each other!

• Avoid wearing red if you’re a redhead.

This rule has some sense of course but it doesn’t mean redheads should avoid all red tones. It’s true that some redheads shouldn’t wear some shades of red, but it’s all false that they can’t wear red at all. If your hair is red, be careful to select reds which work with your natural hair color.

The shade that’s wrong will look too intense, and possibly mismatch your skin tone. Just try to find out which red tones don’t work for you, and which do.

• Never wear tights with open-toed shoes.

As you know this season has opened us the great variety of ways to wear open-toed shoes. And many ladies worldwide like wearing these with tights and pantyhose ignoring the rule our grandmas used to follow strictly.

All you need to do is to tuck the seam of the tights under your toes making sure it doesn’t show.

• Never wear suede or leather in summer.

A complete nonsense! I can’t even think of leaving my fave bag out for summer season! Since most of the world’s best shoes and purses are made of leather, it really makes no sense that we wouldn’t be able to wear them all year round.

And leather jackets which are a hot trend? And leather pants… I won’t have enough courage to put all this stuff in the closet.

If you still feel that the rule must be followed just pick lighter weight fabrics and go with lighter colors of suede and leather for the summer months.

• Don’t mix metals in your wardrobe.

My Mom has always told me not o combine jewelry pieces made of different metals or having various gemstones encrusted.

Even when I was a kid this rule seemed to me ridiculous and now I see how true I was wearing my silver and gold pieces together.

Don’t be afraid to layer gold, silver and bronze bangles together! This looks great and is right to wear. Don’t ever think that you can’t wear them because it’s not “allowed”.

These rules might have been appropriate for those times they were invented at. But now we are free to develop new unique styles and no rules can stand in the way to that. Do what you want.

The only thing that matters is whether you like it or not!

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