The Clothing
The Questions
The Signing
The Crowd
Clinton Kelly was the reason for the crowd at Macy's this Saturday afternoon. Seeing as though we can't seem to make things on time, we were 5 minutes late and the place was already packed. The laid-back event started off by Mr. Kelly sharing with the crowd the latest achievements in his life (the show "The Chew" has been picked up for another season and "What Not To Wear is now going on 10 seasons). He then got right to it by asking if someone in the crowd was brave enough to let him critique the outfit they were wearing. Surprisingly, many people raised their hands. You can see (in the first picture up top) the poor soul that was picked. Being very sweet, but pretty humorous, he asked what it was she was wearing on top, she replied that it was a floral sweater set. He then looked behind her sarcastically, "oh and it has a hoodie!"
"And what shoes are you wearing? They look like potatoes."
"But I wanted to wear something comfortable since I was going to be walking around City Creek!"
"You can still dress comfortably and look stylish."
Here he segued into displaying spring fashions he picked to highlight different elements that many people don't get right. He talked about color blocking (a big Spring 2012 trend), belts, jackets, hose, patterns etc. All of the clothing was very workable and main-stream for many different body types and ages. He gave out good pointers like if you're using only color in your outfit, also throw in a texture to mix it up (like the green dress with the orange bag up top...the texture was in the leopard pumps). Or how it's old-fashioned to match all of your accesories. If you're wearing a red belt (like the one pictured with the leopard print dress) he relayed that you may be tempted to start matching your shoes and your bag, this you don't want to do if you want to keep it more modern. He also talked about age appropriate dressing. The lady in bright blue up top, kept it simple and was wearing hose that were the color of her legs. This he noted that she was doing perfectly. He said many people ask him about the appropriateness of hose. They can help make a look more polished, but if you "wear them because you hope to make your legs look more tan, you should run far, far away from them."
Questions were in order after the clothing segment. One asked about jeans not fitting her well because she had what she called a "skinny waist but bigger butt and thighs" (her friends started laughing, "but I do!"). She'd rather go skin tight on her bottom portion than baggy in the waist. Here he made a good point; it's much easier to have a tailor make two small darts in the waist and have a great pair of jeans for 10 years than walk around for the next 10 years trying to find the perfect pair of jeans. Another asked about belts, another about being top heavy, another about brightly colored jeans and if she was too old to wear them (which her daughter had made mention of). "Always buy clothing that fits. Being top heavy doesn't mean that you always need to try and cover it up. Also when you buy clothing that fits, you know when you're losing or gaining weight." "Oh and the age appropriate question! I was hoping someone would ask this. Some things change for women when they get older, I won't say how old [he whispers "around 40"] I tell women 4 things to live by for dressing their age. 1. No cleavage for day wear (with evening, things are a little more flexible) 2. Nothing too short (the most you can get away with is mid thigh and that's pushing it) 3. Nothing that ever shows the navel. 4. No trends that ever resemble anything remotely hooker-ish."
And there you have it! We found his advice and the looks to be very classy and safe for women. If only people would take it! All in all, thank you Clinton for an enjoyable afternoon and for helping people have the confidence to dress more stylishly.
