These 70's photos of Elsa Peretti show how effectively she dressed to present her personality, expertise and vision.  As a jewelry designer for Tiffany her clothes needed to be creative yet basic enough to serve as a backdrop for her designs. Basic means plain non-decorated. And as helpful as these items are, a wardrobe that contains only basic white t-shirts and shirts is frustrating.

Creating a personal color palette isn't about choosing right or wrong colors. The process of creating a palette of your genetic portrait colors and your souls colors goes much deeper to reveal who you are. This process takes you into a new world where you learn self acceptance of your genetic makeup and are inspired by how harmoniously your soul colors relate to your natural self.  If chic is about successfully combining clothing and accessories...elegance is you shining though. Elegance reduces clothing and accessories to the essential...so the woman is seen first.

Style is dress, colour, body language and voice because people see us in 3 D. The more aware we are of our visual and verbal communication style...the more effectively we can impact and influence our audience. Beyond content (which is clearly crucial) it is important to think about the level of energy you wish to bring to a situation.

The woman on the left may or may not know that simply from looking at her people will presume to know:

• Her level of professionalism and credibility
• Her level of ease with upper management
• Her confidence and comfort being visible
• Her education and experience

On this nippy November morning the city was aglow in Parisian neutrals: grey, cream and gold. I was expectant as I turned the corner into Avenue Marceau. Growing up in Vancouver in the early 70's the word Paris transported me to this enchanting world with Saint Laurent at the center of all this elegance. And on this late Friday afternoon I joined a mostly female crowd (aged 25-75), all waiting to be transported and uplifted into a beautiful mythical world.

I originally posted this in 2013 based on Yves's famous quote "Fashion fades and style is eternal". Timely, since I just arrived back from Paris and a visit to 5 Avenue Marceau.