Accessories are definitely a girl’s best friend when it comes to creating a stylish look. Why? Because accessories are cost effective additions to elevate an outfit, taking it from ‘thrown together’ to ‘put together’. They create endless opportunities to experiment with and to ‘own’ your look and are a perfect way of expressing yourself. Take one dress and style it five different ways with different accessories and you have five different looks. Take one set of accessories and five different dresses and you’ve created a boring look and a damaged bank balance!
I always suggest to my both my colour and my style clients to invest in a few new accessories to experiment with the advice I have given them in their 1-2-1 consultations. Introducing a new colour palette into your wardrobe can sometimes be daunting, although comprehensive advice and ongoing support is always given, but it’s fun to try a colour that’s new to you in a scarf, before committing to a jacket or more considered purchase. Charity shops or vintage stores are a great place to start. Affordable, sustainable and fun!
So let’s be clear on what constitutes an accessory in terms of personal style. This list is certainly not exhaustive but is fairly comprehensive.
Bags
Belts
Eyewear
Footwear
Hair Accessories
Hats
Jewellery
Makeup
Scarves
Watch
The most poignant of these is perhaps jewellery.
Some tells a story and has huge sentimental value. Some is chosen to reflect how we’d like the world to see us, to share the personality we have – to make a statement about who we are. Others are current and fashion trend inspired. Jewellery is intrinsically clever in that it has the power to envelope us in sentimentality or to add fun and lift mood, the moment we wear it. It also has the ability to boost confidence, something I’m passionate about. In my darkest days where self esteem was at an all time low, wearing interesting jewellery was part of my armour. A mask I’d wear to deflect from me but to elicit interest and conversation where introversion and lack of confidence silenced me. In fact, my first business venture was in the world of jewellery. But that’s another story for another day. Suffice it to say I’ve always been a magpie drawn to pretty, sparkly pieces, large and small.
So how do we choose jewellery?
Style Personality
Style Personality is something I talk about a lot. By identifying our style personality we can more effortlessly create outfits that feel aligned to us and the look we want to create. Whilst I don’t advocate style personality as a blueprint or as a label, it can be a good start point. The ways in which each style personality will choose and wear jewellery can be summarised as:
Classic
You steer towards matching or coordinated looks and prefer accessories that compliment your outfit without shouting for attention. Classic jewellery is small and refined, not too much bling or detail. Quality rather than quantity is the mantra of a Classic style personality.
Natural & Relaxed
Relaxed jewellery is chunkier, made from more natural materials, more matte and has had less ‘processing’. As an ‘outdoorsy’ type, practical accessories that are reflective of hobbies and interests will be perfect for this style personality. Handcrafted jewellery designed to look more natural and rustic, which goes well with this subdued style is likely to work well.
Creative
A ‘creative’ will probably have a good eye for aesthetics and use it to mix and match interesting shapes, colours, and textures. Shopping in vintage or antique shops and a love of anything quirky and unusual, is a large part of this personality. Creative jewellery may be made from unusual materials, be asymmetrical, have a handmade appearance, or be made from materials that wouldn’t be ‘expected’ to be put together.
Elegant
The elegant style personality cares about the small details like the perfect lip colour and will probably prefer jewellery that has some sheen, and also boldness.
Feminine & Romantic
This persona LOVES accessories, anything that adds texture and movement. Feminine jewellery is sparkling, intricate and pretty.
Sexy
The Sexy style personality is likely to enjoy dramatic, bold jewellery which is larger in scale and might be brightly coloured. It has presence.
Your mood can also be influenced by your jewellery choice too. Do you want to feel ‘glamourous’, ‘classy’, ‘boho’, ‘girly’ today? Then choosing jewellery to influence that mood can be highly effective.
Scale
The jewellery we wear is most flattering when we choose jewellery that is appropriate to the scale of our body architecture, choosing pieces that match the size of our frame. To avoid that ‘pea on a drum’ look choose large scale, statement jewellery if you have a larger frame. Conversely, tiny jewellery will best suit a petite frame.
Other considerations such as height and shoulder width can also be important in assessing the scale of jewellery to complement your look.
Tall ladies can carry off large scale jewellery because their height facilitates this. People with big, bold personalities often select oversized jewellery to reflect their ‘large’ personalities.
The famous Ebbinghaus illusion guides us to choose jewellery that matches our frame so that when we put something large against something large it appears smaller but put something small on a large frame it looks out of balance.
The same applies to facial features and face shape will also influence the most flattering jewellery for you. Accessories to suit your face shape is an inclusive feature of my 1-2-1 styling services, where face shape is analysed and recommendations made accordingly.
In essence, “Big girls need big diamonds” Elizabeth Taylor.
Colour
In choosing jewellery we need to consider also the colour of the metal and stones or beads and this is greatly influenced by our skin undertone. If your skin has cool, pink undertones then silver is your best choice whereas a warm, yellow based, olive skin will be complemented best by gold jewellery. Rose gold, being a combined, ‘pink’ gold can be worn by all skin tones. The same can be said of stones and beads, so cooler shades – blue topaz, ruby, amethyst - will be more harmonious for those with cool, pink based skin and warmer beads – jasper, citrine, amber - will work best for those with yellow undertones.
Necklines
Different styles of necklines will suit different necklaces. In simple terms, mirror the line of the neckline with the shape of the necklace, so when wearing a v-neck, choose a necklace that ideally matches the shape of the V, a classic pendant works well. An off-the-shoulder or strapless neckline looks amazing with a choker or collar style, whereas for a square neckline look for pendants with an angular or geometric finish to harmonize. High turtle or roll necklines will be flattered by a longer, pendant necklace and a cowl neck has sufficient detailing so a simple pair of earrings will work well to avoid a busy look. A sweetheart neckline, favoured by many brides, will be complemented beautifully by a curved necklace or a lariat style that has width to balance the open decolletage of this neckline.
Focus on the shape of the neckline and let the embellishments follow. As a general rule, your necklace should end a couple of inches above where the neckline begins.
Think about the occasion
In just the same way that you would choose clothes for a particular occasion, you need to select jewellery, matching the same level of refinement, in exactly the same way. If you’re dressing up for a special celebration, party or date then elegant pieces are the way to go. If you want a more contemporary look then combine plastic, brightly coloured jewellery with formal evening wear or team your jeans and biker jacket with sparkly ‘bling’.
Choose a focal point
As with all accessories, the eye will be drawn to where the detail is, so be sure to place any jewellery on/in an area you’re happy to have attention!
One accent point will make the outfit look curated, so beware of the decorated ‘Christmas Tree’ effect of wearing too much jewellery in too many places! Try to avoid overloading your look and instead complete the look with jewellery. For each outfit, I’d advocate choosing one or two categories – earrings, necklaces, bracelets – to be dominant. This means avoiding wearing a pair of large earrings and a chunky, statement necklace together. This will leave the bottom unbalanced. Instead, consider a bright pair of earrings with a simple necklace. If you want to use both things, big earrings are best worn with a large bracelet and rings. One item should stand out and other pieces complement that accent.
For a contemporary vibe, if you like to dress boldly and draw attention to yourself, consider choosing a combination of several large pieces of jewellery together. For example, not one massive ring, but 4 or 5 large rings at once. Not one wide bracelet, but 3 or 5 bracelets at once, always stacking in odd numbers. And remember wearing lots of bracelets creates an arm party and “attention to the wrists takes the eyes from the hips”. Your wrists are likely to be the slimmest part of your body, after all.
As Iris Apfel so famously said “Jewellery is the most transformative thing you can wear”.
