How to look elegant and dress elegant (part 3)

As it comes to accessories women have so much greater choice than men. The additional items to women's dresses might be: scarves, jewelry, shoes, gloves, umbrellas, bags, belts..and many, many others. An important addition to the women's costumes are also make-up and perfume. And here we have generally two rules: a) dress should harmonize with accessories, in particular color; b) additional items, including perfumes and make-up should be discreet in the morning, and more pronounced, and heavier at the evening.

In case of men the terms of choosing accessories are much more restrictive. There is less to choose but more mistakes to make. The rule is often spoken in the context of the "TBS principle". Only three elements because in opinion of some people there might be only three accessories for men: a) tiepins (exclusively for wristbands); b) braces (not ostentatiously displayed, but hidden under the jacket); c) socks (may be single or patterned, but must be matched to the colors of trousers or shoes and long enough to cover the calves).

A lot of effort is needed for a man to wear a jewelry. The main advice is not to wear gold chains on the wrist or the neck and ornaments on hands, except for symbolic souvenirs as wedding or engagement rings. The "TBS principle" says nothing about most important accessory to the male dress, as tie is. The tie is often called the jewel of male clothing hence worth paying attention to the most important related rules.

One of those rules is to choose ties from natural fabrics, i.e. silk (but we have to remember that it can't be too thin). When we decide on the fabric of tie we should think about it's colour that should be intense and only with small ornaments. This colour should be more intense than the colour of shirt and jacket. When we wear tie its bottom part should be shorter and its upper part should be longer and what's more, it's length should rich the belt. And tiepins shouldn't be to decorative.

And in the end we can count some common mistakes in formal wear like in example:

* wearing too short socks (man)

* having the same colour of handkerchief in the jacket as a colour of tie (man)

* wearing translucent blouses (woman)

* wearing sandals to suit and what's worse matching them with socks (man)

* wearing gold or silver shoes to an outfit different than evening wear (woman)

* not wearing black or white tuxedo but colourful one (man)

* wearing sport shoes to jacket, trousers or skirt (man, woman).