McHenry Fashion County

Archive for April, 2010

When you are sewing for yourself, selecting fabric is so important and selecting the colors to suit you is even more important.

Not all of us can afford to have our colors done, but you can experiment with this.

When in a fabric store, take a bolt of fabric to a mirror, put it up to your face, more across at your shoulder. take note of how it affects your skin tone and take particular note of your eyes.

If it is your color, your skin should look a very good color, you wil look healthy and your eyes bright and alive. If it is not your color, the the ‘color’ will drain from your face and your eyes will look tired and dull.

You can do this with what you have in your wardrobe right now.

All colors have undertones, and the color experts have classified them for fashion as “warm” and “cool” or the latest “silver” and “gold”

To determine if you are a silver or a gold, place the metals one at a time against your skin and see which is the brightest, that brightest one will be you.

If you like a particular color and you don’t think it fall into your colors, this may not be true, you may still be able to wear it.

Most colors have an undertone, these undertones are what determines whether the color is “yours” or not.

Colors have a warm undertone or a cool undertone. If you want to wear that color you love, then find the fabric that has your “undertone” and this you will see by “laying” the fabric on you, by that I mean, draping across you and seeing the result, if your skin takes on a healthy glow, then that is for you, if it makes your skin look sallow and dull, then leave it where it is.

You will have a “power” color too.  The power colors are mainly  black, navy, grey and brown.  One of these colors will suit you better than the others, The one you always feel good in, and makes your skin tone and eyes bright and healthy.  Many people think black is the all powerful color, not so, if it doesn’t suit you it will have the opposite effect.

So try navy or brown, once again if the color drains from your face, don’t wear it.

Once you have established your power color, when you really want to make a statement, go for that job interview, wear POWER.

If you can afford to have your colors done, then I would suggest you do just that.  Knowing you are wearing what suits you, will give you confidence beyond anything you have known before.

I’m not sure if they are still doing it, but Gract Cosmetics have fully trained color consultants and while this is not a plug for Grace Cosmetics, I do know they used to do party plan makeovers.  Not sure but you could check out your phone book to see if you have a Grace consultant in your area. A party like that can be a lot of fun too, for you and your friends,

The color consultants are listed in the yellow pages too.

Have some fun finding your colors, watch your confidence grow.

There is something about a pair of sunglasses that makes them arguably one of the most quintessential ‘must-have’ items of all time. Not only are they immensely practical, offering protection from the dangers of the sun, they are an enormously versatile fashion accessory, available in a huge range of styles, colors and prices to suit every pocket. Given their worldwide popularity, sunglass manufacturing has become a very lucrative, but highly competitive industry and while some manufacturers rise and wane in the public affections, there is one company that remains forever synonymous with the eyeglasses that protect our eyes from the rays of the sun: Ray-Ban

Although Us President, Benjamin Franklin, is often credited with inventing eyeglasses (he was the one who developed the first bifocal lens in the 1780′s), the first reading glasses were developed in Italy, as early as 1260. People continued to be fascinated by all things optical throughout the centuries that followed, then, in the mid-eighteen hundreds British scientist James Ayscough began to research tinted glass, and the possibility that such technology may be used to improve vision impaired eyesight. As successful as he was, it was not until 1929 that the idea that glasses could filter the sun’s rays was given any serious consideration. At that time, U.S. optical company, Foster Grant, began to develop the idea further, until finally, later that same year, the first ever pair of sunglasses were sold from a Woolworth’s store on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

Recognizing that the new technology could be beneficial to their pilots, the U.S. Army Air Corps asked another prominent American company, Bausch & Lomb, to develop eyeglasses that would protect the eyes from the dangers of the glaring sun, when flying.

It was U.S. eyeglass company, Ray-Ban, who really ran with the concept. In 1936, using the newly available polarized lenses, and a wide frame that offered maximum protection from the sheen of an instrument panel, Ray-Ban began to produce a lens that banned the sun’s rays. Some three years later, this model of sunglass so popular with pilots, became readily available to the American public. Ray-Ban ‘aviators’ were born.

As Americans came of age, so too did their eyewear. Throughout the war years Ray-Ban continued its working partnership with the Air Force, creating Gradient mirror lenses that managed to be both highly practical and fashionable at the same time. There was something about that American flyer in his tough brown leather flight jacket, whose sunglasses hid his eyes. Ray-Ban had just made sunglasses sexy.

Ubiquitous in the 1950′s, sunglasses became more than just eye protection. Worn by A-list celebrities in Vegas and Hollywood -stars whose every move was scrutinized and emulated all over the country- sunglasses became a fashion accessory, and Ray-Ban was quick to accommodate the growing trend for new designs and colorful frames, which they marketed to women in particular.

Keeping abreast of space-age technology, the company developed shatterproof lenses in the 1960′s and the popularity of sunglasses continued to rise when fashion icon Jackie Kennedy was often seen with her trademark, oversized frames. On the silver screen, sunglasses were becoming an essential part of any actor’s costume, with movie stars like Peter Fonda and Audrey Hepburn, playing stylish, sunglass-wearing, characters who were able to hide their eyes from the audience and remain convincing.

Ray-Ban continued to develop new styles and designs in the 1970′s and 1980′s: their ‘Wings’ model was indeed a forerunner to the very modern, half-frame, lens of today. In the era of American TV cop shows, like Starsky & Hutch, and Chips, the mirrored lenses once so popular in the 1940′s, began to reappear. Ray-Ban was retro.

Stylish and modern, funky and retro, Ray-Ban remains at the forefront of sunglass manufacturing to this day, no mean feat when one considers the competition out there. Undoubtedly, the company will continue to have staying power in the industry, because throughout the decades it has evolved with the nation to give people exactly what they want for their eyes: the reliable protection of a hi-tech pair of sunglasses, and the serious ‘cool’ of a damn sexy pair of shades.