How to Wear Fashion Trends

"How to Look Trendy On a Budget - The Chic Way!"

On this page you'll find styling tips and tricks on how to wear the current fashion trends.

Fashion trends are a whirlwind. If you don't keep up with the latest trends, your style might look 'outdated'. But if you just slap on some trendy clothes that the magazines are saying are "hot" right now, chances are that you'll end up looking ridiculous!

That's why it's important to have a basic knowledge in styling and balancing out your outfits - this page will give you a helping hand in looking chic, well-dressed and trendy!

The latest fashion trends stir a crazy excitement every season and they change so fast that our wallets might have difficulties keeping up. So how do you get it right? How do you adapt to the trends?

How to Update Your Closet with the Latest Fashion Trends

In my opinion, looking chic and trendy at the same time means balancing your outfit so that it won't look overdone.

You need the right dose of trends and basics in one.

You can achieve that by wearing 50/50 basics and trends in one of these outfit combinations:

Wear a basic outfit (plain jeans, plain tee, etc.) and sprinkle it with the latest accessories
Wear a trendy garment (eg. a print dress) as a focal point and tone it down with basics (eg. cardigan)

Using fashion accessories can be cost-effective because they can completely change the look and feel of an outfit. Wearing a trendy focal garment on the other hand creates a stronger fashion statement which is a great way to draw attention to your outfit.

Now let me demonstrate how to work with these two outfit combinations:

How to Update Your Closet on a Budget

Looking stylish doesn't involve wearing expensive designer clothes. In fact, it's the little things that can transform your look. You can take a plain black top and turn it into various fashion looks - from classy to bohemian, trendy to urban, and even cute and quirky.

Fashion Accessories are Flexible

You know, cheap fashion accessories can do so much for you.

They can:

Using fashion accessories to create various fashion looks

Jazz up your outfit, add some *oomph* and make you look up-to-date

Add interest, texture and depth (great for creating a "hook")

Create different distinctive fashion looks

Your closet can easily be updated with fashion accessories. They're not always cheap (it depends on how much you spend! They can quickly add up), but the beauty is that they're flexible in creating multiple look. Compared to a trendy print cardigan, an accessory changes the mood of your ensemble.

How to Create Different Looks with Accessories

Let's say you want to wear a simple black dress. Depending on what kind of image you want to project, you can use accessories to achieve various looks to adapt to different occasions, mood and even climate.

You can keep it safe and classy without drawing too much attention - with simple diamond stud earrings, pearl bracelet, basic black pumps and a chic clutch envelope.

Basic black dress transformation. How to wear a casual, plain black dress

But if you really want to stretch your style envelope, experiment with various accessories to add bells and whistles to your black dress.

Here's how accessories can transform a black dress:

Basic black dress transformation. How to wear a casual, plain black dress

See how we can use trendy accessories to turn that black dress from drab to fab?

I know, I know. The accessories may cost as much as a trendy dress, but they're more flexible to wear with whatever basic clothes you have! Sure, you can wear a super-trendy dress with a couple of jewelry essentials, but style-wise, this method is way too restricted compared to the trendy accessories that can go with ALL of your basic basic wardrobe staples (such as a plain tee and jeans).

The beauty with trendy accessories is that you can customize the look of a basic clothing into different styles & fashion look for all kinds of occasions!

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The Right Way to Look Trendy

Styling with fashion accessories is the most cost-effective (not necessarily cheaper, but more flexible!) way to update your closet with the latest fashion trends. However using a trendy garment as a focal point of your outfit creates a stronger style impact which is useful for making an impression or simply having fun with fashion!

The 50/50 Staples and Trends

A combination of 50/50 staples (Wardrobe Essentials) and fashion trends is the way to go if you want to look trendy without having 'fashion victim' glued on your forehead. Too many fancy details distract the eye and scream FAD, but a well-balanced outfit says classy and chic.

Tip: A rule of thumb is if your outfit seems to take the attention away from the person wearing it and you feel uncomfortable, then add basics to downplay it.

If you want to save money, I suggest that trendy fashion pieces shouldn't take up more than 30% of your wardrobe. Maybe a bit more if you have the money. Compared to in-the-minute trendy pieces, basics are much easier to combine into multiple outfits.

How to Keep it Balanced with the Current Fashion Trends

Let's say you want to co-ordinate a bright print dress. It's perfect and reflects your true clothing personality, but it might come out loud or inappropriate for the occasion you want to wear it for.

That's when you use the Wardrobe Essentials to adjust and tone it down:

Instead of piling on trendy and busy details (left), select simpler closet basics that help balance out the loud look.

Notice how the classic pieces are balancing the overall look of that fun Missoni striped dress?

As you can also see, the plain solid colored accessories can downplay a heavily trendy dress!

Here are other ways to tone down a print dress:

1. For a rich but simple look: Gold hoop earrings, structured brown hobo bag and brown sandals

2. For a trendy but sleek look: Pearl stud earrings, simple pink simple handbag and tan ankle boots

3. For a classy-chic look: Pearl stud earrings, croc-textured handbag in dark neutral, black tights and black ankle wedge boots.

Check out the Latest Fashion Trends at the TCF blog:
(or dig into the trend-archives)

Click here to check out the latest fashion trends

More Shopping & Chic Inspiration at the TCF Blog:

The Chic Fashionista's Latest Trends Picks - Chic Runway Looks and Must-have Trends and Trendessentials

The Chic Fashionista's Chic Inspiration-blog - Outfit ideas, celeb style and trend styling tips

The Chic Fashionista's Stylish Finds - Latest trends and shopping picks, sales & discounts, link round-ups and featured posts & blogs/sites

Learn more about the fashion basics on how to look your best and dress stylish

Also check out the Style Makeover Shop!
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