On this page:
Not Everyone has a Sense of Color
Choosing Your Clothing Colors for the Day
Seasons Past Fashion Trends and Colors including Clam Diggers and Capris
Current Women's Fashion Trends
2010 Summer Colors
Summer 2010 women's fashions favor "off" colors - the red is bluish or fushia or magenta; the yellow is gold; the blue is more teal or aqua or turquiose towards cyan, and gray (grey) has continued, though not quite as strong as in the past winter and spring.
Any size any shape lady can enjoy the clunky cuff bracelet this season. Rhinestones, pearls, bangles and bands --- almost anything goes! There are elastic banded bracelets, open cuffs, and even bracelets with hinges!
Big prints are in, but spare yourself. It used to be said, "She's a big girl, she can wear that big print." Not true - especially in plaids and checks. No way. Avoid at the cost of multiplying the impression of your size.
Not Everyone has a Sense of Color
We aim to help both the color unconscious and those hampered from being reasonably fashionable by being truly color-blind.
One would like to believe this lady did not deliberately choose this combination.
Let's take a closer look.
The top and the shoes coordinate nicely. The pants would not have been my first choice, but excluding the socks, it barely misses being a fashion color crime. What happened with the socks?
Choosing your colors for the day
Limit your outfit to Two or Three colors
How do you choose colors that work together for your wardrobe?
Wearing side-by-side colors from the color wheel will produce a look that flows, unifies and likely slims. And the same is true when you wear tops and bottoms in different shades of the same color.
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| Choose 2 or at the most 3 of any adjoining colors on the wheel. Do not add another color! | Choose tints and shades of the same color, but remember if you choose a very light and a very dark piece, it will not have as much of a slimming effect. The most effective unifiying color combination is no combination - wear all the same shade of the same color. You can accent it with complimenting or contrasting colored jewelry. | Wearing 2 contrasting (also known as opposite colors) colors or very contrasting shades of the same color will not be slimming, and may add emphasis where you don't want it. And please do not add any more colors to your outfit. |
Here are a few color combinations that pretty much don't work together for women's clothing pieces: red with brown, red with purple, red with green, lime green with brown, green with orange, orange with purple.
Very few clothing colors are "pure". You can find purple-reds and orange-reds. You can find greenish blues and purple-ish blues. Unless the manufacturerer or store offers companion pieces, it may be hard to match or coordinate the colors. Greenish blues do not work with purple-ish blues, and the same is true for most any other color. Really look at what is called the underlying color shade or tone.
More to come later on choosing clothing colors that work.
Fashion for the Color-Blind
Let's do color shopping rules first.
If you shop in stores, be sure to ask the sales clerk what color he or she says the article is. Or you could ask another shopper! Refine the color identification. If it is red, ask if it is cherry or raspberry, or if it is green: lime or forest, etc.
Start a fashion color journal! If you are likely to forget what color an item appears to be to those who are not color-blind, write a description of the article in a book and note the color or shade in the journal too. Refer to it when choosing your outfit for the day.
Or separate your clothes and accesssories in drawers or shelves by colors you have had identified.
It is better to shop on-line or through catalogues! Both on-line shopping and catalogues tell you the color choices of the clothing or accessory. This saves you the trouble of asking someone to identify the color for you.
Then you can still use the journal or color separated approach to assembling your outfit.
The most common color-blindness is red-green and often the colors cannot be distinguished from each other. The lady pictured above may not have known the socks were the colors and pattern they really are!
Seasons Past Fashions Trends and Colors
2007-08 Fall and Winter Plus Size Fashion Trends
Color
No single color has burst on the scene for this fall and winter, but these are leading the pack::
Style
Empire waist tops have come on the scene big time, and that's good for us plus-sized women. These are longer tops that nip below the bust and flare out. Usually they are longer than last year's shorter tops and they can cover bottoms and upper thighs when long enough! They can diffuse an apple or banana middle nicely too.
2007 Plus Size Fashion Summer Trends Notes
Quiet Crochet
The trend has diminished somewhat, mostly to crocheted accented tops, some even with a fashion look of the 70's!
Unspectacular Summer
So far, this summer has not burst with anything particularly new - no stunning change in colors, nor style, except maybe a few more vertical stripes turning up in tops and pants - which is great for plus size clothes for us. Vertical stripes are almost always slimming!
I'm Seeing Spots
Seems many places are offering one thing with dots! It's more like a summer fun idea rather than a trend. I've seen dresses, blouses and even shoes in dots! These are great fun, but choose small or even tiny dotted patterned items - except for shoes - where any size dot will do. Large dots - 1/2 inch in diameter or larger will make the item, and you, look much larger.
Crop pants, capris and clam diggers
You've just got to see the fashion workshop about these!
2006 Plus Size Fashions - Trend Notes
Chocolate is in!
Well for me, chocolate is always in, but I don't mean the color. Shades of brown made a big splash in casual and dessy wear. Is this a good plus-size fashion trend? It depends on your skin tone, the shade of brown you choose and the style of the item you choose.
Clamor for Crocheted!
Crocheted tops and sweaters, jackets, even skirts trimmed with crocheted edges appeared everywhere. Is this a good plus-size fashion trend? Cropped anything isn't the most figure flattering for us, and it was hard to find longer crocheted sweaters that covered our hips. Crocheted items are good for cover-ups as they are cool on warmer days, but cover your forearm nicely. Sometime special care is needed for washing such as drying flat, and a little fabric softener helps with a sometimes abrasive feel.
Big Bag!
This is great for us! Large purses- almost as big as a tote or carry-all! These are proportional to our size. Forget the tiny handbags and go for one of these. The trick of course, is not to fill it.
Clams and Crops
Clam diggers, crop pants, high-water pants, and shorter pants by any other name that fall way below the kneecap and above the ankle gained enormous popularity this year. But the old addage, "what is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right", should be applied here. Observe other plus size women in these pants and notice how it visually redistributes all the weight upwards towards the middle and the "bottom". It is an out-of-balance style for us. They are wonderful for gardening!
