How I Started My Journey on Styling Unique Yet Difficult Pieces

I’ve always been a mild, not so over-the-top kind of dresser, but one thing is for sure – I’ve always loved the bold looks that go on the runway, especially those that were carried out by John Galliano, the master of eccentricity himself. We all know that the designers in John Galliano’s era are all masters of avant-garde unique pieces.

And as the years go on, contemporary runway fashion has also evolved to accommodate the weird and the ugly, and I like that very much. While my eyes are definitely pleased with all these awesome, strange and otherworldly looks, the challenge comes when it’s about translating these showpieces, runway-only looks onto the concrete pavement for the everyday person. In this post, I’ll be sharing some of the ups and downs I’ve had in fashion and styling, particularly in the department where I work my way around getting unique looks and pieces to work (while minusing off the feeling of insecurity that comes with wearing unique pieces/clothing, because, let’s face it, that’s the reason why I’m writing this post and you’re reading it in the first place.)

Tip #1: Consider the Period/Era of the Item

Consider the period/era in which that particular piece would be worn as a normal piece of garment. For example, I recently purchased a Shrimps bag called Rosa, a bag I’ve been dreaming off for a few months and have finally got my hands on them. It’s made up of faux pearl beads with a single rose pattern on the front and back of the bag. It also sports a double handle, also made of beaded faux pearls. I knew when I first saw it on the Shrimps website that it was the most gorgeous bag I would ever own (if I got it, and I did) but it will also be the most difficult bag to wear out, for several reasons.

The Rosa bag was a bag made up entirely of pearls on its exterior, and such a bag has not debuted on the streets of Singapore, not debuted meaning that the pearl trend that seems to have plagued the western countries have not made its mark in Singapore as of yet. That also meant that if I were to take the Rosa bag out, I’d literally be the first (or one of the first) to wear it out on this tiny island country. The intensity of the stares that I would be getting as a result of this unique little bag could literally pulverise me.

But, knowing the period of when such an accessory, such a design, could probably be from, you’d be able to extract some 21st century version of that era’s style. In this example, I first thought of the purses carried around by flappers of the Jazz Age, but these purses where soft as opposed to being hard and being able to stand on its own, and they were also made of really tiny beads, sometimes called seed beads. And because I knew this wasn’t exactly the bag that looked like the Rosa bag, I continued my research.

I landed on this page which stated that the faux beaded bags we have now probably and more than likely originated from the 1950s, the period in which plastic became affordable and hence, being made bigger than seed beads, the current hard-shaped beaded bags we have now are as they are, with a bit more of a modern update.

Now that I knew from which era the beaded bag came from, I went on to find out what women of 1950s wore with the beaded bag. More specifically, I went on to find out what women’s fashion and style trends were like during that era. Some significant style trends were puffy sleeves, cinched waists and ballooning bottoms (gowns, if you like), these three style trends very obviously focusing on the hour glass shape. Now that I have deduced some trends and silhouettes of the era, I can pull them up to the present day and curate a modern version of that look with the Rosa bag.

Tip #2: Consider the Colour Palette

Consider the colour palette of the piece in question. One of the easiest ways to break the barrier between finding a piece difficult to be worn and finally wearing it is to make notes on the colours that are present in that piece. There are two ways to go about this: first, by doing a colour-pick on the piece and then matching your outfit to the colours you’ve identified, and second, by wearing complementary colours of the colours you’ve identified. Taking back the Rosa bag as an example, I have identified three main colours from it, that being white, dark green and a kind of reddish pink.

With these colours in mind, I would then pull out clothes of these colours from my wardrobe and begin the mix and match session while also pairing them with the bag to see if they looked good together. Naturally, sticking to the colours found on the unique piece and wearing them with the unique piece itself would be the easier option, but if you’d like to try something not too straight-forward, matching the unique piece to complementary-coloured clothes is another way to go.

Tip #3: Consider the Item’s Material

Consider the material of the unique piece. Personally, and in my own time, I have experimented with matching different materials together to achieve a more textured overall look, something that doesn’t look plain or flat in a way because you’ve got a myriad of materials to bring the whole look to life. With the Rosa bag, I first start with materials that look similar to it. This is obviously a no-brainer. As the faux pearl beads of the bag are made of shiny plastic, I would think of satin or silk as my first choice. Going down the ladder of similar materials, I would also pull in organza, tulle and perhaps a polyester blend that has a gleaming quality on its surface.

Fabric Swatches: See how different fabrics fit with each other

Looking at this list of materials, they may not necessarily look good together. I also like to point out that it would give you a better visualisation of how different materials look together by physically pulling them together and do a material swatch to see their compatibility. For example, organza and satin might not resonate with you in your mind when you pair them together, maybe they might look a little too much when you put them together because there’s too much going on. But when you physically pull an organza top and a satin pants together, they might just look fine. You might even notice that materials aren’t the only factors contributing to the agreeableness; perhaps it’s the silhouette or the cut of the garments that balance each other’s excess.

See also how different fabrics complement each other

Moving down further, we also want to consider the fact that materials can be not just matching to the piece in question, they can also be complementary to it. Take the Rosa bag again: say I chose a silk-satin pants. With this choice, I am able to choose complementary materials for my top, and some good materials to go with a silk-satin garment is easily cotton and poplin, the latter being my favourite material to pair with almost any other material because of the vintage milkmaid vibe it carries, which gives an outfit a whole other character and story, and also transforms a modern-day look into something that gives it a twist from the past.

With this complementary way of matching in mind, you could stretch this tip as far as you want, as long as you’re happy with your style choices. Be warned though, putting too many variables in an outfit might give not a character to your person, but take the character away entirely all because the outfit’s focus is being snatched away. In other words, the theme of the outfit has diluted, which is not something you want.

Tip #4: Consider the Silhouette and How You’d Like to Wear It

This tip might require a little fashion or styling intuition, or a little bit of research or personal knowledge. There is literally no textbook answer for pairing a certain silhouette with another. The only back-up resources we both have is the vast experimental results the world of fashion and clothing have provided us, and the only thing we need to do is dig them up.

If you haven’t noticed the way some silhouettes look good with each other and others don’t, let me drop you four matches that you should be able to incorporate into almost any outfit. Here are the four not-so-secret formulas to achieving an intuitive balance to your look:

1. Slim top + wide bottom = upright triangle
2. Bulky top + tapered bottom = upside down triangle
3. Slim top + tapered bottom = slim rectangle
4. Bulky top + wide bottom = wide rectangle

At this point of your journey to curate a look that incorporates a unique piece, you would already have some ideas on what other pieces you could wear with it. But if you’re still feeling unsure about it, form up your chosen pieces into the formula above and try to match the unique piece to each of the four formulas. This might give you more insight into the kinds of silhouettes that really don’t work and the ones that could potentially work.

Tip #5: Consider the Theme/Style You Want to Fashion the Unique Piece With

Finally, the one thing none of us should forget, not even for a second when we enter the world of fashion (if not experiments), is our own personal preferences — literally ourselves. For example, you might have gotten yourself a fashionable vintage item but your own style leans towards the more gothic, moody or film noir vibe. Experiment with your style and the unique piece till you find the perfect balance between your style and that of the item in question. Also, don’t fret if something doesn’t click. Sometimes, all it takes is for one outing with that experimental look to finally see what’s wrong with it so that you can fix it. This happens to me plenty of times and I always come up with a solution after that first wear.

And finally, to fill up any gaps in your outfit, you’d want to put in essential clothing or wardrobe basics in there. I’ve elaborated on timeless wardrobe basics in these three posts: Wardrobe Basics Part 1, Wardrobe Basics Part 2, Wardrobe Basics Part 3.

Conclusion

All things considered, curating an outfit to include unique (as opposed to curating an outfit around the unique piece) has its own brand of fun. On the other hand, it’s somewhat like a kind of muscle that you have to grow and keep using so that that muscle has a mind of its own while still keeping to your personal ideals. In time, you’d be able to not only come up with outfits that are applauded by the status quo, but also outfits that are totally against it but still applauded for its awesome individuality because you worked hard at training that fashion intuition muscle of yours. Also, you definitely won’t fear owning a few more stranger-than-quirky pieces anymore.