Some women make the mistake of buying a really ornate and heavily-detailed dress with lots of embellishments, and then choosing a very intricate hairstyle and lots of jewelry with
heavy, dramatic make-up effects. The end result is that they look TOO made up. It’s overdone and the viewer is left unable to find a focal point for the look.
For the best results, pick a primary and secondary focus for your look. If your dress is heavily embellished (lots of glitter and sparkle) and you want everyone to really appreciate
your dress, then choose complimentary jewelry, make-up or hairstyle as your secondary focus, and let the remaining two aspects take the background.
Then again, maybe you want to show off the brand new hairstyle you’ve gotten. So pick a nice, simple gown and have your make-up professionally done, then accessorize the look with
some simple jewelry pieces.
The bottom line is that you want to make sure that you’re giving the aspect you want to put on display the center stage. And when in doubt, remember that “less” is often “more”.
Extra Tips:
There are a few extra tips that can help you in dealing with Formal situations. They are as follows:
• Balance is important. If your dress has a lot of volume in the upper parts of the bodice (such as from puffy
sleeves, or broad shoulders or collar) you want to keep the hair up and in a simple style. You can use
adornments in the hair, but you want to avoid creating the “ice cream cone” effect where you look too
top-heavy.
• Low-cut dresses, backless dresses, and strapless dresses are all suitable vehicles for wearing longer hair
or loosely-coiffed up-styles. In fact, a loosely-gathered twist up-style with wispy tendrils brushing along the
neck can make for a very alluring look.
• If you opt for a classic or vintage garment for an event, make sure to keep to the spirit of the style period
you are wearing. For instance, if you choose a vintage gown from the 1960s, wearing a hairstyle that
matches the mood of the period will be terrific and complete the effect. Otherwise, you risk creating an
anachronistic look that will cause you to appear somehow “off”.
