面对衣橱的困惑

你是不是也有这样的经历：要出门去参加重要活动，可是拿不定主意穿什么衣服最合适？香奈儿和范思哲等著名服装设计师们对时尚规则又有什么样的说道？ 

"I have nothing to wear!" You might have said to yourself, feeling slightly distressed, wardrobe door wide open, hours before going to a party or important event. Casual or formal? Is this too flamboyant? Should I look more demure?

How strictly should we follow fashion rules?  'Never mix patterns' is one of them. Clashing prints might make Coco Chanel spin in her grave but gets the seal of approval of some stylists nowadays.

"It's edgy," says Martine Alexander, adviser to British TV actresses. "Matching everything makes you look like you've tried too hard. Style should look effortless."

Well, just be careful not to make people's eyes go funny when they look at you, I say.

Men have the issue of white socks. "Unless you're exercising there is absolutely no appropriate moment to wear white socks," says Alex Bilmes, editor of the men's magazine Esquire. And he adds: "These types of rules exist to make sure fashion innocents don't make such a bad mistake."

We all know that white socks are usually bulky and may look cheap. But there's a long British tradition of men wearing socks with sandals so… Maybe critics should put a sock in it and let us wear what we are comfortable with.

When you look a particular way you are sending a message about yourself. It's not a good idea to go to a job interview wearing shorts or showing too much cleavage. Or going to the market in your pyjamas. But, whatever you wear, do it with confidence.

Designer Gianni Versace said it all: "Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, and what you want to express, by the way you dress and the way you live."