Most Common Fashion Questions

A recent survey of letters from readers, combined with site meter data, reveals the top six fashion questions bothering What To Wear This Very Second fans:

1) Should I ever wear green eyeshadow, and if so, when and how?

2) What should I wear with a bubble skirt?

3) Are asymmetrical haircuts back in vogue yet? ("The waiting is killing me.")

4) If the invitation says black tie, do I really really really have to get super dressed up?

5) What should I wear on a second date?

6) "what to wear when fat"

Here are our answers, plus some tips on how to find solutions to similar quandaries:

1) Yes, please wear green eye shadow at will. The age of Strict Eye Shadow Guidelines and Regulations is in the past. Haven't you noticed the rise of embarrassing reality television and constitutional crisis? Pretty much anything goes.

2) Bubble skirts (and dresses) have a soft, slightly inflated hem. They remind us of tulips and ballerinas, so they look sweetest with feminine footwear--slim flats and dainty heels. Just My Cup of Tea always hunts down the cutest, cheapest shoes.

3) Yes, asymmetrical hairstyles are so in right now. (For women more than for men.) Also, one-shoulder dresses and bathingsuits.

4) If the invitation says black tie, wear a black or midnight blue tuxedo if you are a man; a formal dress of any length if you are a woman. A wonderful source of accurate and witty answers to men's "500 most pressing" satorial questions and "dilemmas" is at mens.style.com, in a section authored by someone called the Style Guy.

5) Depends on whether you're going apple picking or out to dinner...Wear something nicer than you wore to the first date. Please be more specific in your letters to Jeepers.

6) Cheese doodle hats and deep fried trousers. (At our sister's wedding this past weekend, our little cousin Will suggested that when we get married, our dress should be made entirely of cigarettes.)

Coming up: what 2 wear in space, when 2 wear boots in summer, and a contest/search for the best Fashion Disaster Anecdotes. ("My inappropriate skirt length nearly cost me my life.")