Clare Maxfield

Where Image Matters

How the Rebellious Woman will Accessorise

It never ceases to surprise me how many women have a subversive streak that will reveal itself in their accessories. Accessories are a way of playing with other personalities without becoming fully immersed in that style. With this in mind many women will have their main personality that they dress in and then they will experiment with other looks and moods through their accessories. To understand your own personality, if you don’t know it already. Do the quiz here.

General description

Rebellious Accessories

Your accessories will be subversive, dark and have a distinctly antagonist air to them.

Black, silver and red will be your feature colours, with red more of an accent.

Leather will feature heavily as will black resin and silver pendants, chains and metal work.

Glasses will be black acetate with no ornamentation to them.

Your jewellery will feature lengths of black leather with pendants featuring skulls, spiritual symbols of both a dark and light nature.

Your belts will be very heavy leather and possible studded with flat or posted studs. they will be at least 3 cm (1.5inches) wide or wider. Nothing skinny and delicate for you unless it is layered.

How you will express the other personalities.

Rebellious accessory variations

Classic – Your look will be dark but missing the subversive symbology and stud work.

Creative – You could push the envelope on your image towards the dark or be quite playful and incorporate cartoon character designs into your overall dark image.

Dramatic – Whilst you will still favour black, your accessories will be limited to a couple of large statement pieces and your look will be more streamlined.

Elegant Chic – When this urge captures you, you will exchange your black for dark charcoal and limit your accessories to only one or two pieces.

Feminine – Black roses, leather and lace, long earrings, knee – thighs high boots with high heels. You will bring a softness to your look or play out the temptress role.

Natural – Your clothes will say all that you have to. If you wear a leather thong around your wrist or neck, you won’t remove it. It is part of you. All that you wear, necklaces, bracelets, rings will stay in place, always.

I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the posts on how each personality will wear her accessories. What she will choose and how she will reflect other personality styles. If you wold like to read more about how to wear and select accessories download my ebook on Playing with Accessories here.

How the Natural woman will wear accessories

The Natural woman is by definition a woman who likes simplicity doesn’t like fussy frilly items. That does not mean she won’t wear accessories. In fact, she can wear some very striking pieces. Continue reading to discover exactly how the natural woman likes her accessories.

If you are unsure of your own personality, do the quiz here.

General description

Natural Accessories

Your accessories will be minimal. Watches will have leather band in black or brown.

Jewellery will be kept to a minimum. You will wear a wedding band if you have one and your engagement ring on special occasions.

You will have one handbag and quite possibly, if you are a true natural, you will be wondering why anyone is reading this post. I won’t take it personally.

You will have all that you need for all occasions. A bag for every day and one for special events. A special pair of earrings for formal nights and another simple set of studs to keep your ears from closing over. You will wear with pride any special necklace your family or your partner has given you and that will be about it. You don’t like rings because that could involve you caring for your nails over and above just keeping them trimmed.

You are likely to dress your outfits up with scarves as they have a dual function of modesty in summer and warmth in winter. 

How you will express the other personalities.

Natural Accessory Variations

Classic – You will wear heirloom or pearls you received as a gifted carry a slightly better and more stylish handbag than you might otherwise.

Creative – Go wild, you will string something long and wild around your neck. Leather straps as necklaces and bracelets with colourful beads will feature in your collection.

Dramatic – You are most likely to exhibit drama in your handbags and belts and shoes over jewellery. Larger pieces will be fun for you to wear and add that extra touch you are looking for.

Elegant Chic – Not such a stretch really – You’ll have canvas or suede loafers in your wardrobe and your scarves will be square and knotted around your neck.

Feminine – You will wish your hands were prettier and if they are not your best feature you will have a feminine pen and maybe wear a plain chain around your neck.

Rebellious – Watch that you don’t become too butch looking unless that is exactly what you are after. Who am I to say? You accessories will be functional and black. You will not wear too much decoration

If you would like to know more about accessories and what will work for you as well as the other personality types. You can read them in e-book, Playing with Accessoriess.

How the Feminine Woman will Accessorise

The Feminine Woman may be born that way, or after years of struggling in the corporate world, will have shed her Classic exterior to reveal a soft feminine woman within. Wherever you are in your feminine journey, you will relate to some or all of these accessories. Femininity is an element of our personality that women may express in a small or very large measure. It is a very indif=ciula personality and like the classic can appear in may guises.

If you are unsure of your own personality, do the quiz here to get an insight into what style might be your primary personality.

General description

Feminine Accessories

Your accessories will be ladylike and romantic. Delicate filigree work will feature in your gold jewellery. Pearls and other beads will feature in a  size that is balanced to or under scale to your personal scale levels. (see the next section for more details on scale)

Enamelled pieces will be found in shades of metal with pinks, mauves, mint greens, creams, whites, pastel yellows and all other delicate shades.

Glasses will be metal with decorative arms, your pens will be gold, silver or cream with an engraved finish.

Handbags will be soft and not heavily structured in soft shades.

Your shoes will generally have a heel and will be found in all shades in our wardrobe to co-ordinate with your outfits and your handbags.

If you wear hats they will be large enough to keep the sun off your face and still pretty enough to be a fashionable accessory.

You will love pretty brooches and lovely scarves. You might even tie your scarves onto your handbag rather than wearing them on your body.

How you will express the other personalities.

Feminine Accessory Variations

Classic – You will scale up your jewellery. Favouring pearls and chains and wear more structured brooches over the feminine ones you also enjoy.

Creative – More colour will feature. Your glasses may lean towards a Dame Edna wing over a more delicate finish. Brooches could consist of larger butterflies, cameos or flowers in an array of mediums.

Dramatic – You will move from metals to resins in your jewellery choices and they will be more substantial in form and function. Your handbags will be in pale patent leathers as opposed to soft malleable leathers.

Elegant Chic – You’ll wear loafers with your trousers instead of your heels and ballet flats. Bangles will replace delicate bracelets and layers of delicate pieces will be replaced by one moderately substantial piece.

Natural – You won’t be wearing much jewellery at all. A wedding band and engagement ring if married, you will carry a beautiful handbag, but express your personality in the colour of the clothing you wear as opposed to layering up with accessories. What you wear will be sentimental.

Rebellious – You love Valentino’s studded shoes. The minute you saw them you had to have them Feminine and bad girl all at once. If by the time you read this they are passé, something equally wild and good all at once will have your attention. A hint of patent leather feeds your wild side.

If you would like to know about accessories and how to make them work for you, your personality and your body scale, get the e-book now.

How to Reveal or Conceal your Belly

Our stomach is one part of our body that many older women would like to hide away from the world. When we are young it can be a sense of joy. It is firm and flat and girls love to wear cropped tops, two-piece swimsuits and figure hugging dresses to display their belly to the world. As we get older gravity, childbirth and life in general, takes its toll and a slimmer, less obvious belly displayed, or should I say, concealed from the world.

This does not mean that it is time for the muu-muu is a must. It just means that with proper styling you can retain the impression of a slender line through the clothing that you wear without the need for strangling corsetry.

To detract from

How to conceal your belly

To detract from your belly and mid section use the following techniques and wear the following garments

  • Loose tops
  • Matching tops and bottoms
  • Empire line dresses
  • Short necklaces
  • Signature necklaces
  • A-line or wider skirts
  • Straight leg trousers or wider
  • Open jackets
  • Princess seams
  • Sheath dresses
  • Contrasting shoes
  • Bags carried under the armpit or in your hands.
  • Internal columns of colour in your outfits

For further information on what NOT to do, look at the images for focusing on your belly and ensure you do not do them..

Focus on your Belly

To play up and bring attention to your stomach and mid-section use the following techniques and wear the following garments.

DRessing to reveal your belly
  • Belts in all shapes and sizes
  • Contrasting tops and bottoms
  • Crop tops
  • Bolero jackets
  • Long necklaces
  • Handbags carried level with your waist
  • Bracelets
  • Tucked in tops
  • Waisted dresses
  • Straight and pencil skirts
  • Straight and skinny leg jeans
  • Prints over the belly

For further information on what NOT to do, look at the images for detracting from your belly.

If you’d like to know more about what suits you personally you can download any of the books in the Style in 7 Series. This post comes from the Everywoman’s Guide to dressing Your assets.