Some people like to follow the rules. And I’m normally one of those people! (I don’t even cross the road on the red man – wait until the green man! Safety comes first!) HOWEVER, I think there are a few occasions when you can break the rules.

Fashion, for me, is one of those places! The fashion world is full of rules! “Don’t wear horizontal stripes” “black is always the most flattering colour” “Always match your belt to your shoes” these are just a few of the things that are drummed into us (I’m not sure by whom? Our mothers? Or not. Clearly you haven’t met my mother..). BUT I think that if you know the rules well enough, you also can work out how to break them.

So, to help work out which ‘rules’ don’t really apply in fashion anymore, here are my top 4 fashion myths BUSTED!

1. Horizontal stripes are unflattering

Not always! Every woman is going to be flattered by vertical lines, don’t get me wrong, but a garment with horizontal lines can still create more of a vertical silhouette! Here is an example….

the long shape of this dress are far more dominant than the small horizontal stripe don’t you think?

The combination of the v-neck (and necklace), the line the draping over the waist and the fact that it’s a maxi dress makes this dress really elongating and flattering (on ALL shapes) even though the stripes are horizontal. As long as the overriding silhouette of the garment is VERTICAL, horizontal stripes are fine!  MYTH BUSTED!

2. Black is always the most flattering colour

Yes it does hide lumps and bumps better than most other colours, and it can be a slimming colour, but not everyone should wear BLACK! (At least not next to their face).

In the old-school “Colour Me Beautiful” books, only the lovely ladies with “WINTER” colouring can actually wear black next to their face – for the rest of you lovely ladies (apparently I’m a winter) there are other dark tones that will do more for you – grey, navy and brown are other options that will work closer to your face and flatter your complexion.

Black can actually drain your colour if you wear it too close to your face, it will make you look older, and more tired than you actually are! (EEK!!)

Remember this old gem from the 80’s? Well turns out it still holds true! Black isn’t for everyone so start reading!

Now in terms of slimming the rest of you, yes black can look slimming because it is a dark colour, and not every lump and bump stands out as much as if you were wearing a lighter colour, but you can also use other tricks to hide the lumps and bumps – prints, draping fabrics and CREATING VERTICAL lines are all other options for slimming down you shape.

So girls – give black a break every now and then! MYTH BUSTED!

3. Blue and green should never be seen (and other colours that ‘clash’)

I LOVE colour combos that are out of the ordinary – and one of my faves is MINT and NAVY – a play on blue and green. Mint and navy should TOTALLY be seen together in my opinion.

How amazing is this colour combo together! So fresh and fun! Pics courtesy of pinterest.com

The trick with colour combos is just to TRY them together! I love red and pink together too – it’s fun and fresh and a little bit out there!

Although, now that I have said all that, there are some colours that I’m not a fan of together – dark blue and black, or brown and black are not my faves, I think they are too similar, and too dark to work together – but again, that’s just what I think. – MYTH BUSTED

4. Jersey is a clingy, unflattering fabric.

I LOVE jersey fabric! No wait, I have to clarify… I love good quality jersey fabric when it’s cut well haha! I overheard someone in a shop once that refused to even try on ANYTHING in jersey because “jersey is clingy and unflattering” aughhh I just wanted to take her shopping with me and prove her wrong!

|| Sidebar: Jersey is that slippery-ish, really tight knit fabric that can sometimes feel like a t-shirt, but can sometimes feel a little more slinky. If you want to get technical, The Fairchild’s Fashion Dictionary describes it as: a classification of knitted fabrics that are made in a plain stitch without a distinct rib – make sense now? Good) ||

So where you can find good jersey cut well? Trusty go-to label, SACHA DRAKE is the queen of well-cut jersey! (Read more about why I love her here!). Sacha only uses the best quality jersey and makes sure it drapes over all the good bits and just flows away from the bad bits!

3 of my fave Sacha Drake jersey frocks! Florian dress in honey $119.40 (AU) Viola Dress in Indigo $229 (AU) and the Barbados Dress in floral print $137.40 (AU) click here to buy them all!

The other good thing I love about jersey fabric is that is it low maintenance – no ironing, folds easily and it’s MACHINE WASHABLE PEOPLE!!!

When you are trying on jersey clothes (I think it works best in frocks, but again – that’s just me!) make sure that you do have the right undies on (seamless will do) and make sure you look for pieces that have some room in them, nothing too straight and tight – you want to jersey to fall off your body in a flattering way – if you get that right then hey presto! Jersey IS flattering! MYTH BUSTED

As always, fashion is such a subjective subject! I’m a fan of having some guidelines when it comes to dressing for your shape and colour etc but I think that half the fun of fashion is wearing what you want because you look good! And if you look good, you will feel good!

Do you agree with these busted fashion myths? Are there other fashion myths you want busted? Or have you busted any of your own? Tell me in the comments below!

Cait xox

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