Can Redheads *ever* wear red?

In the past week two Redheads caught my eye with their bold red hair and even bolder red dresses! It got me thinking, can Redheads ever wear red? Isn't it supposed to be unflattering? Because Melissa Gilbert and Bryce Dallas Howard did not look horrible at all, quite the opposite.

They both looked stunning in their dark red dresses and with their red tresses. 

(do you see what I did here? *wink*wink* )

Actress Melissa Gilbert, better known as Laura from the Little House on the Prairie, tied the knot for the third time on April 24th. The unconventional bride probably thought "third time is the charm" and she decided to celebrate her big day in a strapless scarlet gown.

Another actress and my Redhead of the week, Bryce Dallas Howard, looked gorgeous in a sleeveless scarlet dress at Tribeca Film Festival. She kept her accessories simple and black and matched her lipstick to her dress.

I own only two red tops, because I can never find the right red for my hair. Even though the rules for wearing red for Redheads are simple.
If you are a natural Redhead or have your hair died in any shade from auburn through copper or even carrot red, the best red colors on you will have a hint of orange inside. Pick colors such as tomato red, poppy red, brick red, anything that is warm and you can clearly see the "orangeness" inside. 

If you are a Doll with dye like me, and your red hair comes from a box, try darker hues of red such as plum, maroon, raspberry or wine, anything that looks almost like purple. Your darker red hair in shades of pomegranate, mahogany or burgundy (I love these words!) will look best in red with a hint of blue. 

Something like this: 

  

Picture is from WineFolly.com. 

Pretty easy, isn't it? So fellow Redheads, don't be afraid to match your clothes to your hair anymore. Once you will find your perfect red you will wonder why you never did this before.

XOXO,

The European Redhead

Redhead of the week: Bryce Dallas Howard

Bryce Dallas Howard is back on red carpet! I must admit I was not that familiar with her work until she starred as the lovely Miss Hilly Holbrook in The Help, the character I love to hate because of her ugly personality but admire because of her looks and styles. The hair! The clothes! The southern drawl! And now the redheaded actress is back to promote her TV movie Call Me Crazy: A Five Film that she directed so I am excited we get to see more of her and her redhead fashion.
Talented Bryce is one of the few natural Redheads that go darker and darker in color with passing time and I'm pretty sure this Redhead has an awesome colorist, who keeps it natural, but fashionable. I really appreciate she did not go the blonde or light brown route as some other natural redheads but keeps it bright, shiny and RED! And she has a wardrobe to match.

As Miss Hilly Holbrook she totally broke the "rule" about redheads not wearing pink and she was stunning in bold daring prints. Do you notice they are all green based? With small amount of complimentary color, the green in both dresses brings attention to her red hair.

Little amount of green looks always great on a Redhead, as a print, whole dress, jacket or an accessory. Bryce looks stunning as a Greek goddess in dark emerald dress with golden jewelry.

As a natural Redhead she also loves to wear blue, however lighter shades of blue like powder blue or baby blue go better with paler makeup and lighter shade of red hair. With darker, auburn colored hair, is wise to choose navy, indigo, midnight or royal blue to wear close to your hair.

But some colors don't look good even on a beautiful Bryce. Pale pinks, yellows and peaches was her out.

Black color is tricky. It can look great, but further from the face. Notice that on the first picture is Bryce radiant and looks lively, but the jacket even with the help of  bright makeup and big necklace washes her out and makes her look very very pale? 

Don't be afraid to wear lots of colors even with bright shiny red hair. Find colors that suit you, experiment or choose clothes with smaller amounts of colors you want to wear but don't yet dare. Just follow Bryce's lead as a face of colorful Kate Spade campaign and add pops of purple, red, yellow or pink into your closet.

XOXO,
The European Redhead

Office Appropriate Redhead

I was working in an office until last December. I was excited, because I always wanted to work in an office, wear nice clothes and makeup and HEELS! But soon I realized how my casual clothes are not work appropriate and my office appropriate clothes are not casual. So I had to start shopping smart.

The dress code was business casual, no flip flops or jeans, no shorts. We were encouraged to wear pantsuits, dresses, high heels and button downs. And I thought, NO WAY! There is no chance I can pull off a pantsuit without looking ridiculous. I like to look sharp, but more "I work for a magazine" sharp than "I work for a corporate office" sharp. So I experimented with my looks and was able to sneak in printed denim, brown boots and some (more or less office appropriate) color combinations. 

1. Conservative look. When working in an office, you can't go wrong with a fitted button down. Just combine it with whatever else and you look put together and professional. I started with a good fitting button down shirt. I found mine at New York and Company, they still sell similar model, although in different colors. I picked green because as a Redhead, I love green the most. White or cream would be too plain for me, as I planned to wear it with neutral bottoms. A simple button down can be combined with pants of different lengths and styles and accessorized with heels, belts and necklaces. 

2. Bring on the color! I bought a bright orange slightly see through shirt from Old Navy thinking about wearing it with jeans and shorts. This shirt is the perfect transition piece between work and casual wardrobe, because it can be easily worn for a shopping trip, but also for work. Again, I am wearing it with neutral bottoms (black, beige and yes, grey),  but switching up the shoes, belts and scarfs. I still look polished, but more fashionable and less "stuffy" as I would in an orange button down. 

3. Breaking the rules was definitely on my mind when I was choosing this outfit. I could not pass one of my favorite sales ever - 5 for $20 at Wet Seal that they have from time to time. Every single item on their clearance racks is $4 and you have to buy in amounts of five to get the deal. My shirt and turquoise jeans are from this sale combined with pink belt that was attached to H&M shorts and zebra printed pink scarf from Walmart. Technically I was not breaking any rules here, no blue denim, no exposed flesh, no casual flip flops or anything like that. Just a simple retro outfit that can easily pass for a work appropriate outfit :)

How do you dress for work? And if you work in the administrative field, happy Administrative Professionals'  Day! 

XOXO,

The European Redhead

Casual in Crimson

Casual in Crimson by withmyeyesopen featuring a bangle bracelet

Temperley London gold top, $1,365 / VILA , $78 / Maison Martin Margiela denim skinny jeans, $410 / Oasis ballerina flat shoes, $30 / Collections bag, $44 / R.J. Graziano bangle bracelet / MAC Cosmetics bright lipstick, $30

Redheads in the news

Quick round-up of redhead related news:

Seems like Rachel McAdams inspired many beauty editors to think about how to go red! Huffington Post is raving about her ravishing hair color, Fashionista has a list of everything you need to know about going red and The Daily Makeover has some advice about how to take care of your red hair.

How To Be a Redhead had a fun fashion/beauty evening FOR REDHEADS only and I'm loving it :) Too bad they usually cater to natural ginger that I'm totally not, but every redhead is a good redhead, not only dolls with dye.

 Bryce Dallas Howard is a red carpet stunner and she talks about postpartum depression. It is her first red carpet appearance since 2011 and I love to see her smiling and healthy!

Isla Fisher landed a cover of the Fitness magazine.

Brooklyn Decker celebrated her 26th birthday with a wish to be redhead. You go girl!

A teenager got attacked because he had red hair. How sad...

April showers bring thrifty powers

I went to Goodwill yesterday and I spent a whooping $10 on a gorgeous dress, dark slim jeans and a Calvin Klein shirt. Ten dollars on three pieces combined.
People often ask me how big is my closet. I always tell them it could be bigger ;) But because I love shopping at thrift stores, I can shop often and I do it a lot. I can afford to rotate my clothes quite a bit, because if I can spend $10 on three pieces in my closet, why would I go to a mall or a department store and spend $50 or more? I can stretch $50 into five months worth of shopping and get 15-20 new shirts, skirts or pants, not just one.
I was really shopping just for a nice sundress, because last time I saw a nice purple printed GAP dress, it was sadly a size 2 than I'm not even on a good day. I found a bright white polka dot sundress with tags still on it! It's really not a brand name, Blu Sage is apparently a JCPenney brand, but instead of $60 I paid $3. Yay me!

And I plan to wear it just like this:

I am forever looking for a good fitting pair of jeans, because I have a dream about buying jeans and cutting them up into a pair of cute denim shorts so I can have them in many different colors and levels of distressing... Once I have seen my favorite Diva jeans from Old Navy at Goodwill but before I could snatch them, they were gone. Imagine my happiness when I found something looking very very close as the Divas! I couldn't really read the label but they fit so good! The length is perfect for flip flops and sandals and they fit slightly higher on my waist, which is perfect, since my battle with muffing top is never ending. Only good fit can solve it (even the skinniest supermodels have it!) so on muffin top means a happy Redhead! Quick googling at home revealed that I am a proud owner of Bill Blass jeans that are not available anymore for at least six years and numerous women across America mourn their loss because they loved the fit. Yes, they fit great!

Someone in the fitting room before me left their unwanted clothes on the rack, so I took a quick look and I found a nice printed Calvin Klein blouse. I tried in on just in case, one never has enough Calvin Klein clothes, and I was amazed! The color of the blouse was stunning on me! I was wearing black cropped skinny pants and a set of stacked bronze bracelets and with the blouse on I could step into my old office and I would look totally appropriate.

Something like this:

I have VERY similar bag and shoes. Of course I bought it!

Do YOU love shopping at thrift stores? What is your favorite find?

XOXO,
The European Redhead

Redhead of the week: Isla Fisher

One of the Redheads I keep forgetting about, because she keeping her personal life tightly under wraps and if she is not promoting a new movie, she is NOT on the red carpet, is Isla Fisher. This Scottish beauty was born in Oman and raised in Australia, has published two novels, starred in many movies (The Wedding Crashers, yay!) and is getting ready to shine in the Great Gatsby as Myrtle Wilson. To boost the movie release sometimes this summer, Isla landed a cover of the Fitness Magazine and talks honestly about having kids, working out and eating right.
To celebrate a rare magazine cover with a Redhead on it, let's look at Isla's fashion choices on the red carpet and out-n-about.

Isla is a Warm Autumn and she knows her colors! You can find her mostly in shades of grey green, grey stone and light grey. Grey seems to be her favorite!

 

Isla also looks gorgeous in green. Since she is not the pale type, she can wear snow white and she does it a lot. 

Warm Redheads like her can also wear red, but only the true clear red shade like this. 

 What about Isla in blue? Yes, another favorite color of the talented actress! 

This cute redhead does NOT look good in yellow, orange or black - they either wash her out or make her look super old. Would you say Isla is almost approaching 40? Not in the blue dresses above... the black one is a different story.

 And since I love redheads in purple, I can't help myself but feature a picture of Isla in purple. She does not seem to wear this color much in favor of cooler greens and blues, but she wore it at least once :)

 Very regal, don't you think? I can't wait for the Great Gatsby movie to be released, I am really curious how are they going to play her coloring in the light of the roaring twenties fashion. Until then, keep it red and shiny!

XOXO,
The European Redhead