How to Dress Better

While there are no hard-and-fast rules of fashion , most style authorities agree on a few basic principles. These hold true, no matter how cheap and tacky your clothes are. In other words, these are the five commandments of the fashion Bible:

Always look neat and clean.

Make sure your clothes fit.

Don't overdo trends.

Keep ultra-bright colors away from the face.

Ignore lame cliches.

Always Look Neat and Clean

This just makes sense. Unless you're going for the just-rolled-out-of-bed rocker look, it's best to keep your jeans unfrayed, your shirt unstained and your shoes unscuffed. Grunge is over, so live with it. Take good care of your clothes, making sure you follow directions such as "dry clean only" and "wash with like colors." Polish your boots. De-fuzz your sweaters. Even if you can't transform yourself into the world's snappiest dresser, you can always improve your appearance by looking well-kept. Go on, make your mama proud.

Make Sure Your Clothes Fit

It's known as the "quadruple breast" syndrome, and we hear it's highly contagious. Never heard of it? It occurs when a woman chooses to wear a bra that is at least one size too small, resulting in cups that, well, runneth over. Ill-fitting clothes are a fashion no-no, whether it's pants that are too long, skirts that are too tight or jackets that are too short. Resist the temptation to forgo buying one size larger simply because it's not the size you "usually" wear. Sizes vary from designer to designer, so stick to what lays nicely on your body. Repeat it like a mantra: Smooth lines, smooth lines, smooth lines. . .

Don't Overdo Trends

Let's say leopard print is "in." In an effort to look oh-so-chic, you go out and buy a hat, blouse, skirt, bag and shoes--all in leopard print. Bad move. Experimenting with fads is fun, but head-to-toe isn't the way to go. Similarly, don't saturate your wardrobe with any single style or silhouette. Cargo pants are cool, but not if they're the only kind of pants you own. Moderation is key.

Keep Ultra-Bright Colors Away From the Face


No matter what your skin tone, you won't look good (trust us) in a neon green sweater. This doesn't mean that you have to skip the loud hues all together. Simply incorporate bright items into your look as low on the body as possible. Remember: Florescent yellow shoes, not a florescent yellow top. A hot pink clutch, not a hot pink scarf. Let your face star in its own show.

Ignore Lame Cliches


Chances are, you've heard them all: "Don't wear white after Labor Day." "Make sure your shoes match your bag." "Never pair stripes with plaid." Well, we're here to say that it's all a bunch of hogwash. In today's "anything goes" fashion arena, it's important to be creative and open to new ideas. If this means ignoring old adages and overstepping traditional bounds, so be it.

Now we're going to directly contradict ourselves: Even though we just told you to avoid cliches, some fashion mistakes are always wrong. Take our word for it.

* Never wear head-to-toe denim. (Silly, maybe, but true nonetheless. You'll look like a convict or a cowboy.)

* Never wear sneakers with hose.

* Never wear pleated jeans.

* Never match your makeup with your outfit.

* Never wear black velvet in the summertime.

* Never overdose on a single fabric (don't wear nylon bottoms with a nylon top).

* Never wear large costume jewelry.

Hot or Not?

When Fashion Trends Die

It's a fashion follower's worst nightmare -- worse than looking fat, more humiliating than wearing the same dress as another party guest -- it's the dread of looking last year.

Fashion trends, sometimes referred to as fads, are notoriously fickle. The fashion industry is always on the hunt for what's new, what's hot. For every new, must-have handbag, there's another that gets tossed aside like, well, last year's trend.


The Fashion Cycle

First, there's the emerging trend (the American Marketing Association refers to this as the "distinctiveness" part of the cycle where the trend is highly sought after. You know this as when you see that great hat/dress/shoe on the runway, red carpet or music video.
Next, comes what the AMA calls the emulation phase, where everyone wants a piece of the trend. You'll see it in fashion magazines, newspapers, internet and TV during this phase.
Finally, the trend becomes saturated in the market, usually at very low prices. With trendy items like a must-have designer handbag, the item becomes widely available as a knock-off.

Most of us will buy it somewhere between phases two and three. Only celebrities and fashion industry types have access to fashion fresh off the runway that hasn't appeared in stores yet, like in the first phase of a fashion trend.

At the second phase a look is often available in high-priced designer collections. Only in the third phase, when a look makes it to the mass market, does it become affordable for most consumers.

Twenty or 30 years ago it might have taken a few years to make it from red carpet to mass market, but today's manufacturers have put the fashion cycle into hyperspeed. Sometimes a hot trend makes it into lower priced retail outlets in as little as a few months.

In or Out?

Affordable trendy clothing (sometimes called "fast fashion") is a double-edged sword: it makes fashionable looks accessible to those of us on real-life budgets, but when the market is totally saturated with a look a trend loses its appeal. It basically helps to kill the trend quicker.

So how do you know how long a trend will last? A few general guidelines:

Generally speaking, most fashion trends stick around for at least a year. Some trends, usually the most understandable ones, last longer. For example, the personalization or initial craze started with Sarah Jessica Parker's "Carrie" necklace during season two of "Sex and the City" in 1998. The look saturated the mass market in the fall 2003 with initial handbags, sweaters -- you name it -- a full five years after it started.

One school of thought says that fashion cycles about every 20 years. Thus, the minis of the '80s have come back into favor now (as did the nameplate necklace mentioned above, which was hot then, too).

• A big part of deciding on how long a trend is viable depends on where in the fashion cycle you bought the trend. If you bought it as a knock-off or at a discount store, then you should count on it being in for just one or two seasons. Because the fashion industry often lumps together Spring and Summer, Fall and Winter, that gives you approximately six months of wear out of a look before it looks dated.
• Although there is no hard-and-fast rule about how long a fashion trend will stick around, you can bet that the more-difficult-to-pull-off looks (Uggs, large cuff jeans, trucker hats) are just fads that will fade. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have fun buying them, just know that they aren't looks that will be fresh this time next year.
• Buying power can keep a trend on life support. Sometimes consumers love a look so much they just won't let it die. Capris, crops, tank tops and flip flops are all examples of former trends which actually became wardrobe staples.
• The higher the profile -- boho chic and mod are recent examples -- the more likely it is that the trend will look dated by the same next year. Likewise, the more radical the cut, color or print -- microminis, army jackets, mod graphics -- the more certain that the trend will be long over by the same time next year.

The best defense against quickly changing trends is to have a wardrobe stocked with mostly classic looks: jeans, T-shirts, blazers, little black dresses. Use trendy items as an addition to a core wardrobe to give it some kick.