Primadonna Style: The Art of Accessorizing

Accessories may only seem like small details, but they are often what makes an outfit. When used correctly, they have the potential to bring a boring outfit to life. Of course, it’s also easy to misuse accessories and ruin an outfit. Here’s a brief to guide to using accessories well.

Suit the occasion

Accessories need to match the occasion. There’s certain jewelry you may wear on a night out but wouldn’t wear to work. Getting this right isn’t always easy and certain items like handbags can be difficult to match to an occasion, although sites like YourStyleExpert.com can certainly help to get it right. On top of formality, also consider elements such as the season, your mood, and your goals.

Be matchy-matchy

It’s okay to match accessories so that they all fit a certain style or color. You might not want to match them to the same color and fabric as your outfit as this might be overkill, however, when just focusing on accessories it can help to add a pop of color or a flourish of style. The uniformity also helps – you don’t want all your accessories to be different styles and colors as this might come across as cluttered and messy.

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But feel free to mix metals

Whilst you may not want to mix certain accessories stylistically, mixing metals often can work well. Once avoided for being tacky, mixing gold and silver bracelets and necklaces is now chic according to the likes of Stylecaster.com. You can even get away with mixing chunky and slim jewelry together. Just be careful with stones as too many contrasting gems might not work as well.

Don’t use too many accessories

It’s possible to over-accessorize. There’s no real set number as to how many accessories you can wear before your outfits looks cluttered – it generally has more to do with how bold these accessories are and how busy your clothing is. You might only want a couple of accessories if you’re wearing a busy dress with lots of texture and color. Meanwhile, if you’re wearing a plain white tee and jeans, you might be able to get away with lots of accessories from a big hat, and belt to a scarf.

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Be careful with statement pieces

Some accessories are statement pieces. This may include a wild hat or a chunky necklace with a big blingy pendant. You don’t want to wear more than one statement piece in most cases. Sometimes you can get away with two. Whatever the case you don’t want too many statement pieces – people won’t know where to focus and you look will be chaotic. Be wary that your clothing itself could be considered a statement piece, in which case you might want to keep all accessories subtle. For example, a sparkling glittery dress is likely to steal all the attention – you don’t want to also wear a crazy hat as it could end up making your whole appearance look cartoonish.

Thanks for reading!