FASHION: Prêt-à-Porter a la Second Life - Lacy Muircatle Reporting

Staff Reporter • Monday, July 26, 2010

Style and image, so what is yours? 

Style is a deeply personal expression of who you are and every time you dress, you are asserting a part of yourself. Image is the foundation of visual credibility, personal presence and non-verbal communications. Research has shown that when you project an image of confidence, you are more likely to succeed both professionally and socially.

I want to hear from you, let’s put a style and image list of essentials together. I’ll make suggestions as to mine and you add to it or tell me why I am wrong. So not necessarily trendy items, but items that can survive season after season, that have seen you through thick and thin, items you can always turn to with confidence. Items that alternately comfort you when you are down after a rough day and that in turn boost your confidence to greater heights when you are feeling great after a fulfilling day. Items that have a place in your heart, and things that represent the yin and yang of your personal style.  

We all know fashion fads come and go, but inevitably there are those items that are always part of the rotation.

The aim therefore is that our list becomes a sort of shopping list or guide to the items we think every man or woman should have, obviously it won’t be the be-all-end-all. There can be no Ultimate list, as that would go against the very nature of fashion and style and the frenetic rebelliousness inherent in a seriously stylish man or woman wearing that perfectly unexpected mix of colour and texture. Style is dangerously unpredictable.
Our list will be a guide, a barometer of industry items that have withstood time and seasons, fads and trends.

Here goes the beginning of our list:

AA-line dress: a true a-line dress is narrower on the top and flares out gently toward the bottom resembling the letter A and thus the name.

The thing with an A-line dress is that it will work for you on your best day and it will work for you on your worst day. It will work for you when you don’t know what to wear and for all occasions. And no matter what, it will flatter your figure. That is a lot for a fashion item to give you. Yet, it demands so little in return, just a few bold accessories, a great pair of shoes and maybe a pair of tights. But that is it. It is no-fuss dress and maybe that is why it was the must-have dress of the ‘60s when fun and free spiritedness was favoured over the formality and structure of the prior decade.

It is advisable to always have a black A-line in your repertoire as a ‘just in case’ dress.  As in just in case you are invited out on an impromptu date and only have five minutes to get ready.

The A line trench coat in the picture is from S0phie's Choice Design

Main Store:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Craggen%20Maw/179/82/36