The coolest girl at the party knows the secret: perfectly done is overdone.
You see this girl at every gathering, the one whose hair is a little tousled, whose shoes don’t seem to hurt. She’s not tugging at her skirt or sneaking peeks in shiny surfaces to see if her Spanx are showing.
The secret ingredient is ease, in the way she moves and in the way she wears her clothes. And even if she’s going out on a limb, taking a stylish risk — it’s a little one.
“Going to a party, you want to feel special, a departure from every day, and a little outside of your comfort zone,” the designer Rosie Assoulin said. But when you break it down, she said, you have to be more you than new — “perhaps 80 percent yourself and 20 percent something new.”
Laura Brown, the executive editor of Harper’s Bazaar, likes to start with one element she loves. For her, it’s a black Stella McCartney jumpsuit that “feels ’70s and saucy and pulled together at the same time,” she said. “You give yourself the luxury of being able to subvert it, add to it or take away from it.”
Cool girls often play up contrasting elements. If they’re wearing a feminine dress, they add a tailored jacket or mannish shoes. They may wear a bohemian blouse with something structured like a pencil skirt, a minidress with a maxi-coat, an austere style with whimsical heels. If their look is polished, they shake out their hair.
How can the perennially pressed magically develop this sense of ease? Pockets are good — in pants, a full skirt or a relaxed dress. You look more comfortable when your hands have a home. Avoid anything skin tight. It’s impossible to project confidence when you can’t sit down.
“Be able to breathe,” Ms. Brown insists. “Physically and metaphorically!”
The best advice of all: don’t try to be perfect. Confidence may just come from embracing our imperfections. “When you look too perfect, it’s kind of scary because it means you spent too much time,” said the stylist and fashion consultant Ada Kokosar. “Imperfection makes you more human and also more intriguing. You open a door for a story to tell.”
From :NYTimes
