Frock advisor

My budget is far from limitless but I have a little bit to spend on a couple of good items and I want to look richer than I am. Where should that money go?

Richer than you are, you say. Let’s be clever about this, in real terms, wealth is the money you don’t spend, not the money you do. Yet we have a compulsion to present ourselves to society in such a way that we are perceived to be financially successful. In retail, the saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ has a special pertinence. Often, those that look rich, are just telling a very convincing story while the most unlikely candidates for expenditure have the capacity to surprise with their buying power.

When we Irish were getting used to the idea of spending money on how we look, on the training slopes if you will, we made the mistake of thinking that the more shiny, showy and obvious we were in our dress, the better. In this, our phase of greater maturity, we now know that less is more.

A further consideration is posed by the question; “To whom do you want to look rich?” It’s really, as ever, about knowing your audience. In generality, the cues for success for men the women are the same. They are the outer points, the style extremities. Coats, jackets, shoes, watches, bags and hair, your crowning glory.

Effectively, an inexpensive pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt teamed with some well-chosen gilding, can evoke the perfect balance of confident style and nonchalance.

Rich shoes are not try-hard, they will not make you five inches taller or proffer toe cleavage, they will not twinkle or shout their maker. They create their own virtue through craftsmanship and

materials and are as likely to be a simple flat as an elegant court, what they demand in expenditure, they return in longevity.

Women look at handbags in very much the same way that men look at watches; it’s a competitive battlefield. In this world, subtle branding and low-key design create the effect of optimum exclusivity.

Hermes, Celine, Chanel all appeal to very different camps. The more subtle the branding and low-key the design, the more exclusive the effect.

Rich hair is a very specific thing. It has to be glossy, bouncy and healthy but look like it got there all on its own. If you can see the residual indentations of the tongs, or smell the hairspray, it doesn’t count. One of the best products our lockadvisors have found to achieve the requisite volume and shine is Kérastase Volumactive Volume Expansion Spray, which also treats and nourishes heat-processed hair for an absolute triple-whammy effect. Consider yourself gilded.

There seems to be a new drop-waist shape appearing, what’s that about?

Oh yes, drop-waist, it’s the left field trend, the one that makes us tilt our heads like a puppy in passive scepticism. Three or so seasons ago, Vogue’s Anna Wintour wore boot cut jeans and the world took a sharp intake of breath. The accepted intelligence was that skinny’s were over and we’d all be wearing the retro choice of the fashion führer. Well we didn’t, because consumers will no longer be dictated to. We’re not saying that drop-waist won’t have a long- term effect on what we consider attractive, it probably will, because fashion thrives on change.

So, if you lust after “the new silhouette”, go for it, drop that waist for all you’re worth, but if you simply don’t like Marmite, don’t buy it.

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