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Big Fashion Misconception #3

Ready-to-wear actually is ready to wear. In fact, an affordable perfect fit right off the rack is as impossible to find as a Hermès Birkin bag on sale. Great tailoring (and thus clothes that fit you perfectly) is the single most critical factor in raising your style profile. One universal truth about women with great personal style is that their clothes fit really fit. I'll show you how to find a tailor wherever you live, and how to ask for the alterations that will transform the fit of your clothes from passable to perfect.

I love fashion magazines. They are visually exciting and can be great entertainment, but their mission is not to instruct you. Their job is to report what is new and what's next. Their goal is to produce exciting fashion pages and to service their advertisers. Selling ads keeps them in business. When a designer spends a lot of money on advertising, implicit in the bargain are numerous editorial mentions. Entire stories may promote his or her newest designs, meaning that much of the information and advice you get will always be weighted in the direction of the designers with the deepest pockets (regardless of the appeal of their collections). Ever notice that those token runway to reality clothes for your figure charts include mostly advertisers' clothing? That's business, but it can be a problem if it misleads and confuses us into buying stuff that is flat-out wrong for our individual shapes and proportions.

Let's not shoot the messengers, however. Designers need to sell clothes. They need to create runway buzz every six months to capture the attention of an excruciatingly jaded fashion press, store buyers, and assorted tastemakers who they hope will photograph, buy, and wear their newsmaking riffs on the new season.

This is no mystery to me. I've styled many stories for fashion magazines and been a part of this very cycle, so I realize just how confusing fashion can be. As often as not, the gulf between what makes exciting images and what you'll want to wear and invest your money in can be wide indeed. Add to that the celebrity factor: The media (entertainment television in particular) that covers the fashion beat has transformed getting dressed (as it relates to Oscar nominees and pop stars) into high drama. Why? Because fashion draws in women and we read, we watch, we listen, and we buy things to the tune of billions of dollars annually.

This showbiz view of fashion as consisting of red-carpet clothes, tour wardrobes, and sitcom costumes, has established the actress as arbiter of style. Most actresses I've worked with have enough pressure just performing their jobs. That the media focuses on them as de facto runway models every time they walk a press line or attend a party has produced an over-the-top, near hysterical take on fashion that couldn't be less relevant to real personal style. Style doesn't come with proximity to celebrity it comes from knowing yourself. That's where I come in.

What is a stylist?

In my career as a fashion stylist I've spent years learning about women's bodies, and the fabrics, styles, and fit that will create gorgeous images in front of the camera. I'm hired for my eye an ability to distill what I see on the runways, on the street, in films, in magazines, and to translate trends into clothing and accessory options for my clients. I spend time with private clients helping women figure out their personal style and choosing clothes that complement their body types and lifestyles. Whether you're a size 2 or 22, you can use a simple formula for finding the best possible proportion and fit to build a wardrobe that enhances your appearance.

Within my job description, I wear many hats. As a freelance fashion editor, who has produced stories for magazines here and in Europe, I conceive of a story idea (using a trend of the season) and choose the best clothes and accessories to illustrate the idea. I then choose the photographer, the hair-and-makeup team, and the model who will make it all come alive on the page. For print and television advertising, I choose the wardrobe that creates a stylish image of the woman who uses a product. Even when all you see on your screen is a flash of a neckline or a quick glimpse of an outfit, it is the result of racks of clothing options that have been considered by the team the photographer- director of the ad or commercial, the art director from the ad agency, and the client to arrive at just the right look. I've dressed actresses for all kinds of magazine shoots (both as models for fashion stories and for glammed-up portraits to promote their latest films) and as private clients for the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Cannes Film Festival. I've styled album covers for pop singers and opera singers alike, and on-camera wardrobe for talk show hosts, newscasters, and sports figures. Altogether, they represent a wide array of bodies from petite women like Julie Bowen and Courtney Thorne-Smith; to curvy women like Halle Berry, Cindy Crawford, and Angelina Jolie; to tall women like Diane Sawyer, Sigourney Weaver, Andie McDowell, Connie Nielsen, and Mandy Moore; to full-figured women like models Emme, Kate Dillon, and The View host Star Jones.

Working with women over the years, I've been asked the same question again and again: Why can't I shop for myself as well as a stylist shops for me? You can. I have written The Pocket Stylist to help any woman of any shape and size to shop for and wear the clothes that will fit and flatter her best. Think of this guide as your own personal stylist, on hand for a consultation whenever you shop. The Pocket Stylist has been designed to guide you through an understanding of fashion's fundamentals: the elements of proportion, fabric, and color that are the tools that designers use to make clothing that has line, shape, drape. You will come to know how these elements relate to your best silhouettes in any season, in any year.

I'll show you how to edit your closet and replace the discards with pieces that will raise your style quotient. We'll go on a virtual shopping trip and make choices together. I outline specifically how I shop for my private clients and myself and the indispensables no well-conceived wardrobe can be without. We will talk about the trends that resurface with regularity and that are worth investing in.

I'll discuss finding a good tailor and show you how to talk to him or her. Custom-made pieces are the stylist's secret weapon; you'll see how simple, satisfying, and unintimidating this process can be, particularly for women who find a good fit hard to find.

I will explore the critical connection between wardrobe, hair, and makeup and how all these things must work together for a woman's best style to emerge. Advice from hairstylist, author, and Allure columnist Kevin Mancuso makes it simple to get a good haircut. Bobbi Brown, makeup expert and CEO of Bobbi Brown Professional Cosmetics, explains how to find your perfect foundation and concealer, and then what to do with them! Sonia Kashuk, makeup artist and author, shares her tips for choosing the right tools and discusses classic combinations for lips and cheeks. Dida Paraschivoiu, the eyebrow and manicure guru behind the scenes of beauty commercials and fashion magazine shoots, explains perfect arches and nail tips.

I weigh in with my favorite foundation pieces for underneath-it-all for all sizes (straight from my kit bag), plus other tricks of the trade. The old saw about buying this season's hottest accessories and wearing them with clothes from past seasons only works when a woman understands context, proportion, and scale, and you'll learn how to bring a look together with accessories in all price ranges, as well as what to look for in investment jewelry new and old.

The Pocket Stylist is a portable guide to help you create a versatile wardrobe, assemble a closet balanced between well-edited trends and stylish practicality, and decide when to break the bank and when to save your money. Read on: you are now my client. Let's open my kit bag, metaphorically speaking, and start developing your "eye," so you can learn to shop for yourself like a pro.

Copyright © 2004 Kendall Farr

Tags: Fashion

About the Author

Kendall Farr is a fashion stylist and a former fashion editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications from InStyle and People to editions of Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and Marie Claire. She has dressed a number of celebrities including Sigourney Weaver and Diane Sawyer. Her work has appeared in ad campaigns and commercials for fashion and beauty clients including Revlon and Almay, among many others, and she has styled the clothing catalogues of upscale retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.