What an honour!! Writing a guest post for Inside Out Style

A blind chick writing about fashion on her own blog is unlikely enough, but what are the odds of being asked to do a guest post for one of the web’s best style bloggers? That’s exactly what happened when Australian image consultant Imogen Lamport of Inside Out Style approached me about contributing to her Stylish Thoughts series. I was stunned and flattered in equal measure and naturally agreed to do it. You can read the results right here.

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Live by Request: Developing my style identity

Today’s post comes courtesy of Julie, who posed an interesting query in the Suggestion Box

I’m very curious to know how you have developed your style persona?
How did you know you prefer modern classic clothes and develop your old Hollywood look?

Most people I know developed their style identity through observing people, whether they were friends, family members, movie stars or just wworkaday folks going about their business. It’s natural to take a fancy to a look and decide to emulate it. If I tried to go that route, though, I’d have to embrace stripes in a big way, since my days would be spent doing jail time on groping charges. Tactile cues take the place of visual ones for me, and my sartorial choices stem directly from what I find pleasing under my hands. Except for that vital substitution, though, I suspect my style identity evolution followed much the same course as most people’s.

I’m not sure exactly how someone develops a sense of aesthetics or how they come to conclude that look A appeals to them more than look B. I only know that such preferences start to take root with most of us pretty early on. That was the case for me. some of my earliest recollections involve tracing shapes in books, handling household items and generally starting to furnish my mental picture gallery with images of how the world around me looked. The items I kept coming back to time and again were the ones that I could imagine clearly in my mind after feeling them. The vision I had in my infancy may have left me with some capacity to retain mental imagery, because that’s what I’ve done all my life. When I think of, say, an apple, I have two levels of recollection. One is to recall the exact shape of the fruit in my hand, the texture of its skin etc. The other is to actually picture how it would look sittig before me on a table. The image is based largely on the details I ascertained with my hands, as well as bits of information dropped by sighted friends (the mental picture will change whether the apple is red or green). The clearer my tactile impressions and the more detailed the visual descriptions, the more vivid my mental image becomes. This doesn’t matter in the least for apples, since they all wind up looking the same anyway, but the mental picture process is integral to my style evolution.

Essentially, I don’t feel comfortable wearing things that I can’t picture clearly in my head. My mental gallery is expanding all the time, pushing my stylistic boundaries as it does so, but when you get right down to it, I still struggle to embrace looks that fall outside of my tactile comfort zone. By definition, tailored, classic clothing with clearly defined lines are much more pleasing under my hands simply because they’re structured in a way that makes it easy to note garment details. They contour my body, which of course gives me an excellent idea of their shape. They lack excessive embellishments, which frequently feel distracting under the hand and compete with the flow of an outfit in my experience. The details I can make out, such as necklines, sleeve styling, collar type, pocket placement and the like, are important features to take note of in any garment and are particularly easy to pick out on garments with clean lines. And of course, many classic garments tend to be made in higher-quality fabrics, which can lure me in on their merits alone. I grew up with classic garments in the closets of all my family members and developed a discerning touch when it came to the types of details noted above. Classic was my comfort zone, and I had to reach adulthood before I developed any degree of curiosity about looks beyond this admittedly narrow scope.

Nowadays I’ve branched out considerably. I’ve come to enjoy and even sport looks you wouldn’t have found anywhere near my body in the past. Just as sighted fashionistas adjust their eye to knew looks, I’ve gained tactile familiarity with moto styling, slim-legged silhouettes, billowy blouses, empire tops, ruched dresses, handkerchief hems and even colour-blocking. All of these elements have crept into my style as I tried to keep myself from getting bored with my wardrobe and maintain a current vibe with my sighted friends and coworkers. Even so, it’s those mental images formed early in life that remain my benchmarks for fashion decisions. I have a turquoise bib necklace that I enjoy wearing, but still prefer my chunky or multilayered pearl necklaces best because they’re easier to picture. The jacket that warms my heart most at the moment is a tailored black blazer with interestingly-shaped buttons, easily styled cuffs and a subtle ruffle trim that elevate it from the status of a true basic. My leather moto jacket, which comes out to play at least three times a week, still can’t dislodge that more classic blazer from atop my favourites list, simply because the touch-friendly details make it that much more enjoyable to wear. In a similar vein, I’m slower to adopt of-the-moment patterns because they rarely appear in a form that I can touch. Is it any wonder that, when I first embraced animal print, I acquired a zebra dress with raised stripes over a leopard blouse whose design could not be felt?

I don’t know how accurate Julie’s incredibly kind description of my look may be, but I do know my style has a decidedly classic bent. I’m ok with this so long as I keep finding ways to stay current and have fun with the whole process. Hopefully I’ve done something to explain why my wardrobe and image have shaped up the way they have.

Stil classic after all these years

Thanks for the great question, Julie! If any others want to follow her lead, I’d love to see more comments in the suggestion box. I’m not shy about questions, so if there’s a topic you’d be interested to see me cover or even something you’ve always wanted to ask a blind chick, fire away!

My favourite dress silhouette...with requisite modern touches

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Magic Brands

CAVEAT: Sorry for the sideways pictures in this post. We don’t know what’s going on, but we’re working on fixing it!

I’m not always a big one for brand loyalty. I couldn’t care less whether my peanut butter sandwich contains Kraft or Smuckers jam, I’ve been known to have both Royale and Cottonelle tissues on my night table, and my clothes have been washed with everything from Tide Liquid Fresh to Sunlight Powder and a lot of things in between. But every now and then I stumble upon a brand that hits all the right notes and inspires lifelong loyalty in this fickle customer.

I don’t know about you, but nothing psychs me up more than stumbling onto my personal magic fashion brands. You know how it goes. You walk into a store, grab a handful of items, then alternate between gasps of shock and squeels of joy as piece after piece slips onto your body and settles into a glove-like fit. Styles you thought were incompatible with your body type settle effortlessly over your problem areas. Colours that make you radiant and that are nowhere to be found in lesser stores populate the shelves. Those accessories you’d dreamed of for months and despaired of ever finding are positioned right by the counter as a casual afterthought. You want to scoop up armfuls of clothes en route to the cash screaming “budget be damned, I’ll take it all!”

Everyone has these individual fashion meccas, and I currently have two — one on either side of the border, no less.
The Halogen brand from U.S. retail giant Nordstrom. has recently blown me away with the quality and fit of their relatively affordable pieces, while closer to home the offerings at Laura Canada feel like they’ve been designed and cut specifically for my body.

Busty girls everywhere can attest to the fact that woven tops and jackets are notoriously hard to fit, particularly if you throw a defined waist into the equasion. If it closes at the chest, it looks like your torso went on a camping trip and pitched a tent. If it fits through the lower body, you’re likely to be recruited by the next Hooter’s manager you come across. So imagine my delight when I recently ordered two Halogen jackets from the Nordstrom Anniversary sale. Not only did they fit perfectly, but they felt great and fulfilled my number one criterion for styling myself!

It fits!!

And so does this!! Please ignore bottoms 🙂

Woven tops, particularly those with button closures, pose similar challenges for the well-endowed. Enter Laura Canada with their great offering of crisp, high-quality summer tops that actually make me feel polished and appropriate. The sleeveless blue impressed me so much that I promptly duplicated it in white! The selection of bottoms was equally exciting for a tall girl like me who struggles to find capris, or clams as I’ve taken to calling them, that hit me at the right point between my knee cap and the widest part of my calf (the secret is to buy them in petites). .

Pant length and pattern and fit, oh my!

More proper clam length? And a woven top in a signature colour that fits right? Yes please!

These are just the basics of what my two current magic brands can do! More on their myriad wonders in another post.

So what are the brands that make your heart skip a beat and your credit card cry out for mercy? How about on the other end of the spectrum…are there brands or stores that consistently fail to deliver the goods for your body and style?

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When in doubt, listen to Aretha!

There are dozens of reasons why people try to dress well and are willing to put effort into devising appropriate outfits for a variety of occasions. Most of my reasons are directly informed by my blindness, and dozens of others were discussed in depth over on YouLookFab in a fascinating thread on why people want to look their best. One of the common themes emerging from that thread is one that resonated strongly with me, but seems to miss the mark with a lot of others I’ve encountered lately. Is the notion of showing respect through clothing choices going out of style? Based on a few recent experiences, I’ve got to wonder if more people shouldn’t crank the Queen of Soul’s classic anthem for the spelling impaired while getting dressed!

I’ve attended a number of weddings already this summer, and those occasions have clearly demonstrated the wide array of fashion standards people apply to these occasions. I personally believe weddings require you to put your best foot forward as a mark of respect to the bride and groom. With some luck, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime day for them. They have spent hours working through guest lists, logistical arrangements and endless other details in an effort to make the day as special as possible. Regardless of the vibe or venue, most couples have also dedicated significant financial resources to their special day. To me, it’s imperative to dress in a way that acknowledges both the significance of the event and the extraordinary efforts required to make it happen. To my way of thinking, turning up in jeans would send the message that this occasion is no more important than a get-together at a local bar. Unless the bride and groom have specifically indicated that they’re going for a casual vibe, I’m going to arrive in a cocktail dress and heels with my hair done and my evening makeup in place. I take my cue from the venue to some degree, but I happen to believe this type of dress code is applicable regardless of the location. Just because the festivities aren’t being held at a posh venue doesn’t mean they didn’t require a significant financial commitment. Dressing up for a wedding is just a fundamental mark of respect in my book. My boyfriend is of like mind and insists on wearing suits to all but beachfront weddings. But based on what we’ve seen at the first two weddings of the season, our approach is far from universal.

My boyfriend took it upon himself to do some people watching and made some discoveries that left our collective jaws agape. Men wearing golf shirts? Check. Women in dresses more suitable for poolside barbecues? Uh-huh. None-too-dressy capri pants? Mm-hmm. Jeans on both genders? You bet. Even flip flops were in evidence. The real winner had to be the woman who turned up at a beautiful waterfront yacht club sporting denim cutoffs and a spaghetti-strap tank top. I realize that some people are trying to contrive a dressy appearance from within narrow budgets and limited wardrobes, but you can’t convince me that shorts and a tank were the best she could do. There are bargans to be had, and even making the effort to pick up a simple pencil skirt and blouse on sale would show greater appreciation for the bride and groom. It’s a privilege to be invited to a wedding, not a right. The outfits my boyfriend spotted didn’t reflect that fact at all.

In general it seemed easier for women to miss the mark with their clothing options, probably because we have such a vast array of fashion options at our disposal. But men were by no means exonerated. My boyfriend was particularly affronted by adults wearing juvenile-looking ties that were either tied too short or featured patterns you’d expect to see on a six-year-old at his first formal function. He contends that only collared dress-shirts fit the bill for occasions like this, while acknowledging that jackets may be a bit hot at certain outdoor venues. I’m personally delighted by his sartorial standards and was thrilled when he wore his suit despite some relatives’ assertions that “khakkis and a golf shirt would be just fine.” Our outfit choices were directly proportional to the amount of effort the bride and groom put into their wedding day, and we could therefore enjoy the weddings confident in the knowledge that we were paying them the respect they deserved. We were by no means the only ones who chose to dress up, but even if we were, I don’t think either of us plan to change our approach any time soon.

The situation is a little merkier when you enter the realm of what I’ll call hybrid dress codes. I usually balk a little when I see things like “cocktail casual” or “biker chic,” since that involves striking a sometimes tricky balance. My personal strategy is to err slightly on the dressier side of the scale in question. The outfit I wore to a recent “cocktail casual” party, for instance, featured one of my smarter-looking day dresses that got sassed up with cocktail-worthy accessories. According to my fellow party-goers, that strategy served me well and my ensemble fit right in.

A wedding held at a more casual venue still calls for a dressier getup

When wedding bells ring, this is the kind of thing we wear

What do you think. Are my boyfriend and I old-fashioned in our approach to things like weddings? What’s your strategy for occasions like the ones I’ve described? And what do you think of hybrid dress codes…are they liberating or maddening?

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Making the Dress — too boring for reality tv, but good enough for me!

I suppose it’s inevitable as you march through your 20’s that you’ll hit that summer where just about everyone you know decides to get hitched. For me, it’s Summer 2010 — everyone and their brother is running, not walking, down the isle! With no fewer than four weddings to attend in a two-month span, I knew it was time to give my outfit some serious thought — the couples involved all make unprecedented commitments of time and money for these affairs, and it’s only respectful to put your best foot forward (a rant for another entry, perhaps)? 🙂

While I am an unabashed girly girl and love getting all dolled up, nothing brings out my body image issues faster than formalwear. So I decided to spare myself the indignity and demoralization of fruitless shopping sprees and painstaking alterations and splurge a little…I decided to get a dress custom-made.

The first part of the process was easy for me — I knew exactly who I wanted to hire for this job. My local tailor employs a delightful seamstress named Tania who has an academic background in fashion design, prodigious skills with a needle and the all-important ability to make style choices based on her clients’ needs rather than her own preferences. I had only tapped into her talents once before when I needed a very specific type of top to match a skirt and was most impressed with the results.

Nice work, Tania!

I came to her with a fairly good idea of what I wanted — I envisioned a turquoise dress, since it’s a colour that’s both on-trend right now and a classic for my complexion. I figured it would also be a good four-season colour, looking appropriately summery in hot weather and introducing a dash of colour to winter gatherings. The amazing ladies at the YouLookFab forum, who I involved from the start, were in total agreement about the colour and even had numerous suggestions about the ideal style.

Much as I loved their suggestions, I decided to let Tania have the most input in the dress — this was her baby and I had enough confidence in her to give her, if not carte blanche, then at least carte creme.

She agreed that turquoise would be a good colour, but produced three options for me to show my “fashion consultants” and be absolutely sure. The turquoise received unanimous approval over the bright blue and emerald green options.

With colour instructions and style suggestions in hand, Tania went out to acquire fabric, which she fortunately got for a song during a store clearance event. She chose a semi-sheer turquoise silk and a slightly more green lining. The effect of the two layered together, she assured me, was a saturated turquoise shade that would play well with my paler skin and dark hair.

I was promised the whole would be greater than the sum of its parts

Tania took my measurements at my first fitting and had constructed a very basic skirt and top by the second one. Using those prototypes she refined her measurements and could focus on the mor interesting stylistic elements. She went for a double-layer of silk in the skirt, creating an overlay effect that comprises about three-quarters of the dress. I loved the breezy feel of it and ok’ed that without hesitation. To maintain the same effect on the top she proposed the innovation of a halter detail, something I had never sported before as a result of my general curviness. While wearing the skirt and top separates, she passed a piece of fabric over the appropriate places to show me what she had in mind. I could feel that the halter formed the same type of overlay that was already incorporated in the skirt and liked the idea of maintaining symmetry between the two halves. . I had been insisting on some sort of sleeve to cover my less-than-ideal arms, and she assured me she could make the two potentially conflicting design elements work together. So I let her go ahead with the halter, slip on one sleeve and take a picture so I could get some feedback.

I told you it wasn't complete! 🙂

The picture I posted over on YLF generated some intense discussion, from which I took away the message that the halter detail and the elbow sleeve were working at cross-purposes. The ladies unanimously felt the drama of the halter was compromised by the sleeve. When I called Tania to ask her opinion, she said she too felt the sleeve needed adjustment and proposed a shorter one using just the semi-sheer silk fabric. This struck me as a reasonable compromise. By the time I came back in she had prepared the sleeve at the right length, stitched most components together and moved the halter in a little bit to make the bodice more streamlined.

Getting there...

I was perfectly cool with this adjusted version and gave her the goahead to finish it up, which meant just putting in last-minute touches (including fabulous keepers that snap around my bra straps and hold them in place — a particularly useful feature with such a low neckline)! The length and lightness of the sleeve gave me the tactile elusion of going bare-shouldered while still providing the coverage I wanted…SCORE!

My styling dilemmas are too boring to be relived, either in my brain or in writing, so I will wrap this up by showing you the final product as it appeared at one of the weddings. The light fabric and low shoulder and necklines were exactly right for the balmy breezes and scorching sunshine in which the ceremony took place, and I suspect I was one of the most comfortable people in the area. The fact that it was custom-made meant it felt absolutely perfect on my body, and the comments I got suggest that Tania created another winner.

Voila!

The process had its stressful moments (at least for a chronic overthinker like me), and it doesn’t come cheap, but overall it was one I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat again. Sure it’s as complex and calculated as the creation of your average 90’s boy band, but the combination of lovely fabric, unique styling and perfect fit ensures it will have a long and hopefully successful career as my go-to cocktail outfit (longer than O-Town’s, anyway). 🙂 It won’t even need to do a chair dance in three years to keep itself in the spotlight!

Thanks to one and all who offered input on this new wardrobe favourite..and special kudos to the amazing Tania, if she ever reads this!

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On the plus side…

It may sound foolish when someone puts off confessing something that’s immediately obvious with a simple glance. I am not a skinny girl, much as I might wish to be, and my size has caused me considerable angst over the past few years. Despite the fact that someone can note my size as easily as they spot my blindness (my silhouette and my guide dog make both facts equally apparent), I have always balked at the idea of admitting that I am a plus-sized woman. I haven’t let my denial shape my clothing choices — my preoccupation with fit drove me to the plus-size/woman/above average sections at most stores years ago, but admitting that I had exited the realm of mainstream fashion was a blow to someone who has always struggled with body image. Even at my slimmest I was never what one could consider small, though I was comfortably in the size eight to 10 range. My struggles with weight have escalated as I aged, taking a sharp turn for the worse when I moved out on my own. My abject failure to keep my weight in check caused me powerful feelings of inadequacy. I was raised on a healthy diet and knew full-well what constituted a good food routine, but as I discussed before, my culinary skills are entirely self-taught and a certain amount of trial and error was required. When the trials went poorly, I’d cop out and just order in. And even as my experiments met with more success, it took me ages to learn to use callory-intensive ingredients in the right ways. By the time I got it right, the damage was done and my figure had changed.

A long spell of self-castigation ensued during which I struggled to come to terms with my new and not-so-improved body. I hated sitting on public transit for fear I was crowding those around me. Walks with my guide dog were marred by fears that everyone was staring at the ungainly, chubby blind chick who was hogging all the sidewalk space. Getting dressed in the morning became a nightmare, and even meetings with my adored family became anxious affairs. Their criticisms of my weight and appearance, though warranted to some degree, bit deep and compounded my emotional state. My most unfortunate urge to indulge in “emotional eating” would then kick in, and to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, the circle game was afoot. My fashion choices suffered along with my self-esteem and social life. The idea of showing off my upper arms filled me with dread, I was convinced I had no waist to showcase, and I was loath to expose my tree-trunk-sized calves for any reason. But gradually I decided to approach my size much the way I handle my blindness, i.e. trying not to be frightened by the status quo and resolving to make the most of my present situation. Weight loss takes time, and I already resented the feeling that my life was on hold until I tipped the scale at a more reasonable number. I forced myself to start seeing my slender friends again and was greatly relieved at their understanding of my uncharacteristic lapse. I tried to ignore my unhealthy thoughts when out in public and began focusing on proactive steps I could take to improve my appearance. Angie and the You Look Fab community have been invaluable in helping me to make the most of my current physical assets and keep my style current. If I can’t have the body I want at this very second, at least I can wear flattering, up-to-date clothing that boosts both my confidence and my style quotient. I still don’t love my calves, but I wear knee-length dresses and summer pants at a more flattering length because life’s too short to hide completely. I rejoice in the fact that I have a proportionally small waist and now actively try to highlight it, and my upper arms will see the light of day if the weather gets hot because I’m just entirely too cranky and unpleasant to be tolerated if I’m overheated. 🙂

Being attractively dressed and looking polished has become even more important to me in recent years as I strive to overcome the negative social stigmas associated with being overweight. My size and my blindness have put me at two social disadvantages, and although one is of my own making, I feel an extra onus to counteract the stereotypes they evoke. Being entirely realistic, blindness does present some limitations and fatness (for lack of a better word) can sometimes accurately convey an impression of laziness,, carelessness or lack of productivity. Taken in tandem, the two could combine to form a deadly first impression — one that I am eager to dispell from the get-go. Many blindness-related limitations exist solely in the imagination, and being overweight should never at any time be synonymous with the negative associations I’ve mentioned above. Weight struggles have myriad causes and just as many effects. In fact, some people take pride in their size and are able to conduct their affairs with total confidence.

I envy these people, for I can never join their ranks. I loudly applaud the size-acceptance movement for the emotional liberty it has granted hundreds of people, and I delight in the fact that size-biased industries like fashion are finally starting to take a more broad-minded approach.
But my current size does not make me happy. It threatens my health, dampens my confidence and curbs my enthusiasm for some of my favourite pursuits. I am working towards long-term weight loss, a process which can be both empowering and demoralizing. My occasional failures can take an emotional toll on me and cause me to withdraw from ventures I am genuinely engaged with. When this blog falls victim to one of those spells, plese understand where it’s coming from. I will try not to let those lapses happen often, and it is my hope that coming out as plus-sized, so to speak, will help hold me accountable in a variety of ways.

Thank you for getting through this admittedly self-indulgent rant. A lighter tone next, I promise. 🙂

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Cosmetic Details

Jenny asked me a question as part of a discussion over on You Look Fab — she wanted to know how I go about applying makeup and dealing with my grooming in general. Thanks for the question, Jenny, I’ll be happy to answer it!!

My approach to hair and makeup is really quite minimal for reasons that are both personal and practical. A fuss-free cosmetic routine absolutely fits my personality which shuns excessive fakeness, and my inability to see what I’m putting on my face or creating on my head pretty much demands a simple approach. I’ve always opted for hair styles that I can assess with my hands and tweak using just a round brush and hair dryer. My current bob cut fits that bill perfectly: if parts of the hair are flat, I can feel it immediately and simply fluff it up with the brush. If one side is falling lower on my neck than the other, I can play around until I’ve gotten it back into cymetrical lines. I’m all about natural hair texture, so I use no products on my head except on *very* special occasions when I’ve let my hairdresser take over.

My approach to makeup is similar, though a little more nuanced. I put the bulk of my effort into making sure I have good skin, not messing about with cosmetic combinations that just give me a handful of unreliable quick fixes. While I’m not a hippy-dippy person by nature, I have discovered the joys of natural skin care and have made Evan Healy my skin care solution of choice. Her products are genuinely natural, not faux-organic like “Kiss My Face” and that ilk. 🙂 Her simple products, which feel incredible and smell even better, keep my skin soft and hydrated. I cleanse twice a day and moisturize only in the morning, allowing my skin a chance to breathe at night (the natural oil produced while you sleep is often enough to keep your skin healthy. Try it)!

Over time, though, I’ve come to accept the fact that my face could use some additional polish. This is one instance where I had to put myself entirely in the hands of professionals, try out their recommendations and see if they passed muster with the reliable style critics in my life! 🙂 I allow someone to shape my eyebrows every six weeks or so, since I know they’d wind up resembling a ploughed farmer’s field if I took on the task myself. When it came to acquiring makeup, I decided to compile two sets — one for every day use and another for more festive occasions. My day-to-day cosmetics come entirely from Mac , a brand with sky-high approval from friends and professionals alike. My makeup regimen takes about 30 seconds to complete — dab on concealer as needed, put on minimal blush, apply lipstick and go. Powders, primers and all that extra business are just not on for a variety of reasons: they would undermine the natural look I’m going for, and I just flat out can’t be bothered! Ditto for mascara, which isn’t really necessary with my naturally long, dark lashes.

A couple of visits to the Mac counter were sufficient to sort out my every-day makeup choices. The friendly salespeople made a few consistent recommendations and hooked me up with a neutral-warm concealer , a subtle mineralized blush , and a versatile lipstick in a purplish-pink shade.

Applying makeup is a very tactile exercise, at least with these particular products. Concealer is the easiest of all — find the blemishes on your skin, touch the tip of your concealer pen to the area, then blend it in with no more than two fingers. Sure I may miss the occasional spot that can’t be detected through touch, but that’s absolutely ok — I’d rather have the odd natural spot than look like a painted lady.

Makeup experts taught me how to apply blush by showing me exactly where the apple of the cheek is located. That area is much more defined if I put on a ridiculously huge smile. My cheeks bunch up, allowing me to easily define the boundaries where my brush should go. I’d rather under than over-do it, so I swipe the brush over the compact once, do three to four strokes in a downward motion across the area in question, then repeat the procedure on the other side. I keep the number of strokes balanced for each side of my face to ensure cymmetry where possible.

Lipstick is also a breeze — just follow the contours of your lips. A lot of people have observed me as I put lipstick on and said my technique differs from the sighted approach. I’m not sure exactly what most people do differently, but I’ve been assured the results look comparable.

Every-day makeup

My approach for dressier occasions doesn’t change too much. I substitute foundation for concealer and apply it all over my face, swap out the neutral lipstick for a more dramatic dark red shade, apply subtle eye shadow and use a different blush. A makeup specialist selected a Chanel foundation as the basis of this look, since it matched my skin tone beautifully and was childishly easy to apply with its liquid consistency and pump dispenser. I just put a bit onto my fingers, dab it onto a couple of areas of my face, then blend all over with my fingers. The creamy texture makes it easy to spread and leaves me with no doubt as to which areas have been covered. The Chanel Tweed Ambre blush was similarly easy to apply, with its streamlined design and convenient brush. I just follow the same technique as I do for my every-day look, being careful not to put on too much. Eye shadow is probably trickiest for me, but again a knowledgeable makeup salesperson came to my rescue and found relatively neutral shades in user-friendly pencil-style applicators. I didn’t automatically know the shadow had to be applied on both the lid and the skin covering the brow bone, but that’s what experts are there for, right? The lipstick routine is the same as above — I’ll just put on an extra layer for evening looks.

Evening makeup

Of course, on really special occasions like fancy weddings or swankier industry functions, I’ll just bite the bullet and let someone else do it. 🙂

So, Jenny, I hope that answers your question. But now I want to throw the floor open to you guys. This is the system I’ve devised so far, but I’m always open to new suggestions. If you don’t think these looks are working for me, speak up and tell me what’s not floating your boat. If you think there’s a shade that’s either too present or too absent from my arsenal, name it. I’m at your mercy! 🙂

P.S. For those who are interested, a site called VisionAware has compiled a really great resource with detailed, descriptive makeup application tips for the blind. I’d never seen this guide when I was figuring out my own technique, but I can absolutely vouch for the pointers they provide.

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Easy pickups

No, not me! 🙂

I’ve mentioned in the past that some fashion purchases are easier to make than others. Among the easiest for me are those accessories so dear to most feminine hearts, shoes and handbags. There’s some rich irony at work — I hate shoe shopping with a passion because of my absurdly wide, size 10 feet, but have a very strong track record when it comes to picking out flattering, fashionable styles on my own. I’m sure it’s because shoes are so very tactile. Put your hands on a favourite pair of shoes and you can instantly feel whether it’s clunky or dainty, the shape of the toe, the height of the heel, the style and amount of ornamentation, the height of the vamp and all those other saliant, shoe-tastic details. I personally favour clean lines, moderate, stable heels and designs that aren’t too embellished. If I feel tons of straps and a towering heel the width of my eyelash, I’ve passed it by faster than you can say Jimmy Choo. The only wildcard is colour, and again here my preferences are classic. I fell into a black rut for awhile, but even as I branch out I prefer to find more neutral options that go with a variety of outfits. A natural reaction, I guess, for someone who finds the shoe-shopping process demoralizing at times. Metallics are my hew of choice right now, usually in pewter or silver to coordinate better with my jewelry. Red and white are other colours that appear in my disorganized pile…I mean wardrobe. Of course the real deciding factor is comfort, and that depends entirely on feel. If my foot is buldging out of a shoe or feels pinched, I know immediately and reject the item out of hand. The shoes I bought the other day illustrate my methods and preferences perfectly. I was on the hunt for silver ballet flats, ideally with a bit of a wedge for maximum versatility. It took about two minutes to identify the pair that fit my aesthetic criteria (sans wedge) and half that time to realize the comfort factors were all in place, too.

A lot of the same factors come into play when choosing bags, which I find a much more enjoyable occupation. I’m more willing to experiment here, but my love of clean lines, high-quality fabrics and interesting textures almost always carries the day. Rather than fit, I focus on how a bag feels on my body (where it hits once on my shouldder, the shape under my hand, etc). Excessive ornamentation turns me off here too, and I tend to lose interest if a bag is either under or overly structured. My boyfriend probably thinks I should pay more attention to whether or not a bag will stay on my shoulder once it’s put there, and indeed that is starting to influence my thinking and probably explains my most recent purchase — a small cross-body bag in gorgeous quilted black leather with a silver chain strap.

New shoes and bag in action

How about you? What fashion-related items can you pick out easily and still feel good about the next day? 🙂

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Adventures in Style: Follicle Follies

I’ve talked before about my need to rely on others for some aspects of my style. The process has worked fairly well on the whole, but every now and then the approach leads to some hilarious misadventures. Take yesterday, for example.

I’ve been going to the same hair stylist literally my entire life. I was introduced to her as a baby in a basket, received my first toddler trim at her hands and continued to frequent her unpretentious, reasonably-priced salon from the time I was old enough to make my own style decisions. I felt more comfortable in a mom-and-pop operation than in a fancy shop; I felt someone who knew me since childhood and understood my major style influence was a lot more likely to listen to my requests. She’s also come to understand my occasional hnervousness about trying new hair styles, realizing that concepts like this are particularly hard for me to grasp. Hair is one area where my sense of touch is pretty much useless. There isn’t much correlation between the way faces and hair feel and they way the look to others (a face that sighted people described as heart-shaped just feels kind of angular to me, for instance). Hair cuts are the same way — other than length and very general shape, I can’t tell them apart, nor can I figure out which style would suit a particular face shape. My hairdresser gets this and has gained my confidence over time. I now let her take the odd risk with my hair secure in the knowledge that she’ll never knowingly stear me wrong. She’s not great at describing the work she does, but she’s excellent at making choices that suit me down to the ground.

So when she and her equally-trustworthy assistant suggested I should branch out and get a few highlights, I figured I’d give it a shot. I know full well my hair could use some additional textural interest, and the growing number of grey strands doesn’t need to come to the world’s attention quite yet. 🙂

Me moments before leaving for my hair appointment

Despite my confidence in my stylists, ,however, my leariness was in full force yesterday when I went for my appointment. No matter how much I trust my style advisors, I still get nervous about branching out in major ways. It’s especially bad with hair, since I can’t just pop it off and swap it out for something more flattering if I’m not digging it. When I got to the salon, I emphasized time and again that I wanted the highlights to be subtle, unobtrusive, natural-looking etc. My stylist assured me that’s exactly the effect she was going for — something akin to the look you get when you spend a lot of time in the sun. Unfortunately, my nervousness spooked her, causing her to be extra cautious. When the colouring was done, the highlights barely showed at all!! 🙂

Me returning from my hair appointment...with the exact same colouring

My poor stylist was a lot more upset about this than I was. If there’s going to be a snafu, I’d far rather have it be less obvious than more so! That said, I felt all kinds of guilty for freaking her out with my own uncertainty, wasting a bunch of her time and leaving her disappointed with the results. I would have happily paid full price, but felt even more guilty when she didn’t charge me for the highlights at all! After the judgment she’s shown over the years, I should have had a bit more confidence in her ability to get the colouring right. But therein lies the balancing act challenge, which occasionally leads to amusing results like this one. Next time, I promised her carte blanche on my head…we’ll see how that goes!

For the record, the pictures above also showcase occasions when my reliance on others paid off. The cream straight-leg pants, black tunic and black patent ballet flats were items I chose myself based on fabrication, fit and feel, but the multi-strand turquoise necklace and short brown leather jacket were items selected for me by others. The black mock-croc guess handbag in the second shot was also picked by me (I told you I’m a sucker for great texture)!

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Dressing in the Dark, Part 4: So What’s the Point?

To stop blathering on about this subject, of course? 🙂

Thanks for sticking with me through this rather lengthy series despite warnings that it may get complicated! Your questions have given me fodder for some future posts, and I’ve loved hearing your input on this topic.

After wading through my previous posts, you may well wonder why I bother to try and develop a fashion sense of my own. Why should I care about such an ostensibly visual subject? Why go through the effort of devising strategies for something I’ll never fully understand? My answers are probably the same as those given by other style-conscious ladies, but as with so many things in my life, my blindness has informed my perspective. In this instance, my motives have made me something of an outsider in the blind community, with which I’m absolutely fine.

A person’s appearance and presentation are often a reflection of that individual’s personality. In my case, my quest for style reflects a variety of things; my interest in aesthetics, my desire to project a polished, confident appearance, and my fierce desire to fit into the sighted world. I learned early on that my interactions with sighted peers were strongly influenced by the way I looked, more specifically by my manner of dressing. If sporting unfashionable garb, I was far more likely to receive unsolicited offers of help walking down the street, to be spoken to in an unnaturally loud voice or simply to be treated as an anomaly. The discomfort that some people unfortunately feel towards disabilities can be reinforced in a variety of ways, and I firmly believe a sloppy appearance does nothing but further emphasize my “difference” from those around me. When I take time to pull myself together, on the other hand, I am tacitly accepting the terms of the world in which I have chosen to live — a world in which, rightly or wrongly, appearance matters. If I expect sighted people to treat me as a respected equal, I’d better be willing to meet them half way and learn to operate within a set of environmental norms that may not make inherent sense to me. Those norms include learning how to dress appropriately for the whole spectrum of life situations. My desire to distance myself from blind stereotypes has admittedly had a great deal with my decision to set my personal style bar higher. To me, looking good entails more than simply wearing clothes that are clean and don’t clash. Compiling a flattering, versatile and current wardrobe reaffirms my commitment to the lifestyle I have chosen and helps define the interactions I want in my life. It also suits my fastidious personality, appeals to my general interest in visual matters and has the capacity to bolster my wavering confidence. Plus, despite the occasional hassles and inevitable frustrations, fashion is fun, at least for me!

I strongly suspect I’ve fully tapped the existing well of interest for this subject, but if by any chance you’re wanting to know more about any aspect of what I’ve discussed, just let me know!

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