Styling your outfits is a lot like spaghetti and meatballs.

You can have great clothes (noodles) and you can have gorgeous accessories (meatballs), but what pulls the whole thing together and makes the dish a classic? The spaghetti sauce. Without that sauce it would be a plain old, non-colorful dish.

Styling is what takes a black dress from plain to “You” through the right accessories, hair and makeup.

And while it’s a subject as wide as you want to make it, for now I’m going to focus on how to pick up the knack of accessorizing.

I’m going to do this as much as possible, because this is the one subject I hear people have the most trouble with. Good news is, I believe you can develop and eye for it. You just have to work at it (and when I say “work” I mainly mean read The Spiff everyday and tell all your friends how great it is so that they read it too *wink).

Let’s start with what’s pictured and I’ll take you through my process.

This is a dress I practically stole from JCP for $8*.

When I look at this dress, I see that one of its cool features are the sleeves and those little metal details. Immediately I know I’m going to wear my hair up so as to show off the sleeves.

If I’m putting my hair up I’ll definitely wear earrings because it provides a perfect opportunity to show some off, but it also means that I’m not going to go with ornate earrings because (again) I want to let the straps take the attention.

These small silver hoops are the perfect accent because they echo the metallic color of the strap details, without being too overwhelming. Another option would be black hoops, as they would be present but “disappear” behind the metallic straps and not take away from their coolness.

Truly, the key to styling is knowing what and how to emphasize one thing. The key to bad styling is emphasizing way too much.

I hope this helps, and just know that I’ll continue to post things like this. If you have any specific questions or things for me to cover, you may email me at Elizabeth@thespiff.com or include the hash tag #thespiffknows in just about anything on anywhere (it’s like the bat symbol, really).

*No actual stealing was involved, as I did shell out $8. I do not condone stealing, I endorse sale shopping.

Remember Girls Night Out at West Town Mall is this Thursday at 6:00pm! Show up for a fashion show, great giveaways and one AMAZING emcee ;)