About Those Long Necklaces

Some of you asked me to explain why I kept talking about my "failures" to wear long necklaces with certain outfits in the last post. So let's talk about what long necklaces bring to the fashion table, shall we?

February 17:

We see here a very simple - verging on plain - outfit. There's nothing wrong with simple, of course, and there are a few things that are making this outfit simple rather than plain (which is really something to avoid). First, we have a rich color in the shirt, which warms the look up against the cold black. Next, we have an interesting layer effect with the long sleeve shirt under the short sleeve cardigan. And finally, we have the long gold owl necklace.

What the necklace is doing for the outfit is breaking up the huge BLOCK in the top half. When I use the word "block" in this context, I mean that it is a large area of body/outfit that has nothing whatever that is visually engaging. Ways to avoid a plain BLOCK include:

1.  The pattern of a piece of clothing.
2. Layering clothes of various colors, cuts, and/or patterns.
3. An embellishment in the design of a piece of clothing.
4. Accessories like brooches, necklaces, scarves, etc.

In the case of necklaces, only a long necklace will actually visually break the block - anything shorter, staying close to the neck, isn't going to do much good. So THAT is why I say sometimes that an outfit really needed a long necklace.

Let's look at some other blocks that were broken up by necklaces...

February 22:

  
This breaks up the block of the white sweater both with the yellow blouse at the neckline and with the statement necklace. (And the combo of the yellow blouse + blue necklace was great for a blue&gold day!)

March 12:

The denim jacket also helps break it up, simply by adding a new color and texture, but the necklace does great for when I'm not wearing the jacket.

March 13:

And then we have another example of where I should have been wearing a necklace. Sigh. I'm still working on it. (Other than the "block" of navy, I really liked this outfit. I liked the shoes with it especially.) 

So there you go - more than you ever needed to know about long necklaces! Here some of my favorites I've found recently:

1. New York and Company
2. Target
3. New York and Company
4. Target