Discovering Women: appearance

I've been wanting to do a post on accessories for some time, since there are so ways that they can convey your personality. This post provides general guidelines for using accessories and matching them with your outfit, and has a slight bias towards the well groomed and classy image. Therefore, if you are going for a specific kind of look (eg Rockstar, Rapper), this might not apply to you.

The accessories that I cover briefly in this post are:

Scarves
Finger Rings
Cuff Links
Chokers/Necklace
Bracelets/armbands/wristbands
Watches
Belts
Shoes
Sunglasses
Ties

Scarves: The best type of scarves for the hot and humid weather in Singapore are the thinner varieties. This means that the silk or pashmina/cashmere scarves. 100% Pashmina is expensive because of the light weight and quality of the wool, and there are many knockoffs around. For social arts purposes, however, it is ok to get a cheaper (Non 100%) variety as you are going for effect rather than quality.

Some good ways of wearing a scarf can be found here.

The colour of the scarf should complement the shirt.

Finger Rings: It seems that anything that matches your outfit is acceptable here. Rings are generally shiny so they should match the rest of the outfit (ie silver ring with silver necklace/buckle etc).

Which finger(s) are good to wear rings on?
There is a lot contradictory advice on the internet on which fingers are suitable for wearing rings. Some sources claim that wearing a ring on the thumb is masculine while others say its a no-go. Most say that the index finger, middle, and ring finger (on the left hand) are suitable. Wedding/Engagement rings are usually worn on the fourth finger of the left hand, while commitment rings are worn on the fourth finger of the right hand, so if you're wearing a ring on the fourth finger it might give off the wrong signal. This came from the mistaken belief that the fourth finger had a vein that led directly to the heart(Vena amoris). Lastly rings worn on the pinky finger symbolise an affiliation with a particular class in society or an association, like engineers when they graduate in canada. Gives new meaning to the term engineer-ring. haha.

If you would like to cold read someone who is wearing a ring on a particular finger, refer to this.

You can view many ring types here.

Cuff links: Most shirts come with cuff buttons now so there is no real need for cuff links unless you want to look dressy. Cuff links can only be worn with shirts that come with a double cuff/french cuff (ie with button holes but no buttons) and not any normal shirt. Some shirts come with a cuff button and slit for cuff links, and you can use those as well. A great look with for cuff links is with a suit, like James Bond below.

Chokers/necklace: The necklace chain should not be too thick or too thin, something like a dog tag chain is good. The chain should be tucked in the shirt and not worn outside. The pendent should carry most of the weight of the piece and should be around the size of a dollar coin. The pendent should not be too shiny or contain gemstones, those are for ladies (unless you are going for a rockstar look).

In terms of length, the pendent should sit about a forefinger's length below the adam's apple.

A choker should not be the core piece of an outfit. If however, the choker is the central piece, the rest of the outfit should be basic. That mean's T-shirts or plain long sleeve shirts.

When wearing a choker, the impact of it should be against a bare neck (which acts like a canvass). Therefore, wear them with V neckline shirts. Don't wear them with turtle neck or crew neck shirts because they will compete for attention.

You can choose 4 or 5 main necklace types here and here. If you are going for a chain of precious metals, gold is preferred, followed by silver, and then platinum/steel/titanium. The last few ones give a more rugged look.

Credits: Men's style guide, helium

Bracelets/arm bands/wristbands: For a more rugged or tribal look, leather cord or bracelets made from hemp or rope are a good way to go. Otherwise, you can go for bracelets made from precious and non-precious metals, and a good writeup on them can be found here. Personally, I prefer a tribal look as the bracelets can be stacked on the wrist to create a "thicker" look, especially with beads.

leather cuffs or wristbands, especially rocker-type wristbands, are also a good way to add "bulk" to the hand to create a more masculine look.

Bracelets are more of a secondary piece and so should complement the core piece of your outfit. It should also match the shoes and belt, and the watch, if you choose to wear a watch with it. The bracelet should complement the watch and not it if worn on the same hand, and this means that the bracelet should be smaller than the watch in terms of size. If worn on the other hand, it should match the watchband in terms of colour and thickness.

Watches: This really depends on the look that you are going for. Something with a nice watch face and strap is good, especially if its interesting. As usual, choose a leather watch band for a more party look, and a metal or silver band for a more formal look. Watches with a big face look more rugged. If you're going for a dress watch, it should as simple as possible, nothing digital and without the functions like a stopwatch or an altitude meter. As far as watches go though, there's no need to be a watch snob. Apparently, most girls can't tell the difference between the high end watches, so they won't appreciate the subtleties in the difference between a Philippe Patek and an Omega.

Belts: Black or dark brown is good. A casual belt should be worn if pairing with jeans and sneakers. Belt leather should match shoe colour, metal buckle should match watch or other metal accessories. See some tips from esquire here on choosing a belt.

The thinner the belt, the classier it looks. The thicker the belt, the more casual it looks.

Shoes: Black or dark brown is good. Invest in a good pair of shoes. Women always look at your shoes.

Longer shoes will make your legs look longer

Sunglasses: I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, so I’ll point you to a great article here. Generally, silver rims are flattering for guys with dark hair. Black rims are great for a sporty look. The top of the rims should line up with your brow lines. The frames should should sit close to the side of your face, and when you smile, your cheekbones shouldn’t push up the sunglasses.

Shades can make your eyes look bigger.

Your shades should also match your face shape, and there is a great guide here and another one here. If you don't know your face shape, you can refer to the link on Fashion and Appearance (I): Hairstyles.

Lastly, you can get a pair of sunglasses that match your personality here. Don't wear your sunglasses indoors. And make sure your lenses are polarised to protect your eyes from the UV light.

Ties: Avoid novelty ties. The tie know should conceal the collar band behind it, otherwise it is too loose. Match a solid tie colour with a shirt with stripes. Match a stripe tie with a shirt of solid colour.

Credits: esquire

General Fashion Rules:

Always match your belt with your shoes. By match, I mean the same colour.
Best to wear a dark colour for the bottom, and a lighter colour for the top.
If you are wearing a suit, a general rule of dressing is to match metal with metal for all shiny accessories. This means that matching the belt buckle with the ring with the cufflinks etc.
It's always better to be a bit over-dressed than under-dressed.
Your socks should match your jeans/pants and not your shoes
Never wear more than 3 colours at the same time
Never wear more than 3 pieces of jewellery at the same time

Learn about colour coordination here. To know what matches as analogous and complementary colours. What's a hue, tint, shade, neutral colours. This is pretty important, in my opinion.

In addition, consider these tips for wearing accessories with a suit here.

As a final note, checkout the fashion articles from Kinowear.com, which are very much tailored for people from the social arts community. This is a very useful resource for improving your fashion. The author, Jae, is a qualified member of the Association of Image Consultants International (www.aici.org)

Happy New Year!
Echelon

Singapore Dating Academy: AURA

In the social arts, appearance is importance. One of my sticking points is finding the right hairstyle for me. This has been difficult, and a lot of hairstylists have asked me what I want when I'm in the salon. The problem is, I don't know what I want, because I don't know what suits my face and features. After months of trial and error, I've decided to do some proper research and condense what I've found here, so that my readers may benefit and choose a hairstyle that flatters them.

If you're completely clueless, like I was, a great guide to hairstyles and terminology can be found at Hudson's guide to Men's Short haircuts. There's also a Hudson's guide for facial hair and grooming, but I didn't really bother about that since I don't have much facial hair.

So basically, you want to pick a hairstyle that accentuates your best features and covers your flaws. The features that I will address here are:

Forehead
Ears
Eyes
Mouth
Neck
Overall face shape
Body build
Side profile

1. Forehead

If you have a high forehead (like me), it's generally good to consider fringe/bangs styled forward onto the face in the style that you choose, to minimise the amount of forehead visible. If you have a low forehead, style your hair away from your face, either backwards or to the sides.

For High foreheads, try:
- square bangs
- A sweeping bang which goes across the brow is a good styling option which will balance out any extra length that a high hairline/larger forehead can add to the face.

2. Ears
If you have protruding ears, you will want to find a hairstyle that will cover your ears to at least half way down. People with large or protruding ears can still show off the lobes and disguise their size by hiding the top area. This is because many people do not have evenly balanced ears, and one ear may protrude more than the other(like me). Ideally, the top of your ear should align with the eyebrow and the bottom should align with the nose. Your hairstyle should not draw attention to your ears, and do not cut your hair too short behind your ears when choosing short styles.

In the long run, however, if your ears really stick out like Dumbo, you might want to consider otoplasty as a solution. Brad pitt reportedly underwent this procedure before.

3. Eyes
Check if you have Close Set Eyes - where the space between your eyes is shorter than the length of one of your eyes). Close Set Eyes may also give off the appearance that your eyes are too small. If so, style your hair forward on the sides of your face, and this makes the face more normally proportioned. Adding volume on the side makes the eyes appear wider.

With Wide Set Eyes (like me): Keep the hair away from the face, and avoid volume on the sides of the hairstyle. Keeping the style off the face increases the amount of skin visible on the outer sides of the eyes and makes the the balance seem in proportion.

4.Mouth

Small mouth: Consider a shorter, blunt cut to draw the line of the face inward and make the jaw seem less wide and more balanced with the mouth.
Wide mouth: Choose longer sweeping styles that avoid crowding the face, but still act as a frame for the face as a whole

5. Neck

Long Neck (like me): Avoid styles that are too short and up-swept at the nape(back of the neck). Try keeping longer hair on your neck.

Short Neck: Cut your hair shorter at the nape. Try a style that is mid level with your neck or above it in length.

6. Overall face shape
This is arguably the most important factor in determining a hairstyle, and there is so much material on this factor. There are roughly 8 face shape types, and you can find your face shape here. (Mine's Oval) Once you have determined your face shape, check out some styling guidelines here.

More on face shapes...what makes someone attractive? (from The Pretty Project)
The symmetrical face....

Superficially, there is a formula for facial beauty involving symmetry … It happens to be the standard for learning to draw portraits. The eyes are just above half of the way down the front of the head and should be 1/5 of the width of the face. Ears should lay flat to the head for the most part and extend from mid eye to the opening of the mouth. Lip edges should line up with the pupil of the eye, no thicker than the closed eyelid. The nose should be at the base just larger than the eye width and sit not too far above the lips. The bridge of the nose should extend straight and not be too protruding or flat. The chin should be gently rounded and smooth. The face in general should be oval shaped with smooth skin and clear cheekbones. And the eyebrows should be tame and separate, but not too thin.

Unfortunately for our perpetually youthful-looking friends of both sexes, babyfaceness isn’t associated with attractiveness.

Lastly, there's an interesting video here from the discovery channel about what constitutes attractive facial features.

7. Body Build

Slim Body Build (like me): Choose a style that is bigger in proportion. A style that is fuller and has more volume. Adding waves and curls will help. Layering is good as well.

Average Body Build: Anything is good for you

Large Body Build: Don't choose a style such as a full high hair as this will make you larger. Don't choose wavy or curly hair. Try short cuts!

Original source here.

8. Side profile

For flat features, choose a style that pulls the hair back from the face and add volume along the top and back to add depth to your profile.(ie spiky hair) A short layered, or graduated cut styled with additional volume can have the desired effect.

original source here.

If you don't wish to understand any of this, you can just use the online simulator here to help you pick some good hairstyles. They'll even compile a short report based on your inputs and recommend some good hairstyles for you. If you're in the Aura Academy, there is also the option of having a one-on-one fashion consultation for an additional fee.

So for me, I have determined that the best hairstyle for me is one with bangs on my face to minimise the forehead, hair that covers at least half of my ears, some volume on the side(ears>eyes), some length on the back of my head covering the neck, and layer the haircut. Something like that: