Our Moms taught us the fashion rules, they were taught by their moms. Some of these rules made sense in the Old Times for practical reasons, others were the trends of those times. This post encourages you to evaluate the rules, and break them when they are old fashioned trends or due to practical reasons of the past. Read when breaking fashion rules is a Do.
- Old Fashion Rules to Dump
- Styling Rules Not to Break
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Old Fashion Rules to Dump
Who over 40 hasn’t heard her mother say
- You can’t wear red and pink together.
- Don’t mix gold and silver jewelry.
- Match your shoes with your bag.
- Don’t wear a summer dress with boots.
- Don’t wear white before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.
- Blue and green cannot be worn in the same outfit.
- Never wear brown with black or black with black or black with navy.
- Shiny clothes are only for the evening.
Sounds familiar, right? It seems like 35 or more years later, doing the Don’ts of yesterday became the Dos of today. Is breaking old fashion rules because the young oppose to the rules of the old that makes the forbidden to be exciting, being the new It?
Today’s outfit breaks two of my Mother’s rules.
It pairs red and pink and I am wearing a shiny robe as outerwear. Oh, of course, wearing robes anywhere outside the house was a No-No too. But she never said that. Thus, make it three broken rules.
Curious why Americans wear/wore white in summer?
Styling Rules Not to Break
However, while dumping old fashion rules can create an interesting look with a fashion-forward vibe, ignoring all fashion rules just to oppose makes no sense. Such rules are those that address creating a balanced look related to your body shape as well as the volume, and length of your pieces. I call these rules fashion’s nature laws. Nature laws like the first law and second law of thermodynamics or the conservation of energy and mass.
I would not go so far to say that one could not create an awesome look by breaking fashion rules that aim at balancing a look like those listed below.
- Never wear wide pants with wide tops.
- Never wear tight with tight.
- Never wear a micro-mini, short-shorts, or a mini with high heels at any age.
However, it is very difficult to create an awesome outfit that would make you to land on the list of the 10 Best Dressed Women. On the other hand, there would be very low risk to fail to make the 10 Worst Dressed Women list. Who wants to make that last list ever?
Which old fashion rules are you about to break? Let me know, I am curious. When you want to read more about breaking fashion rules you may like white after Labor Day and Leather on Leather.
Photos of me: G. Kramm
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