Personal shoppers provide three top fashion tips

Personal image consultant Valentina Saggese studied fashion and personal shopping at the Luxury Academy of Milan and has several years’ experience of show rooms and high-level clothing shops. She and her partner Alain Mehada, who has been a stylist for more than 15 years, offer their expertise in a broad range of situations for both men and women, whether you want to look great for a job interview, or you’ve made the decision to update your style. Here, Valentina and Alain discuss some fashion disasters that can destroy an outfit.

Current trends offer ideas for fantasy wardrobes, but they don’t advise us on how to combine pieces based on our body shape or daily lives. The choice of how to dress is left to us alone and, often because we are thinking of last season’s designs, we give little thought to everything else, thus committing style errors that can make even the trendiest garment unnoticeable. Here are three common mistakes.

• Intimate garments are often undervalued because they are dubbed ‘invisible’, as they’re covered by clothes. This is a colossal mistake. Dark underwear worn beneath a light outer piece can become inappropriately visible. The ideal answer is a laser-cut seamless option, which is comfortable and stays hidden.

The first thing to remember when buying bras is to find the right size. You’d be surprised how much the correct fit can change the visual effect of a dress.

• It’s fundamental to learn the difference between size and shape. We often fall in love with a garment on the rack, but when we try it on we soon realise it isn’t the right fit. The most common error is to buy a larger or smaller size. The final look will be distorted, as you’ll have a garment that is tight in one area and wide in another. It’s therefore imperative to have an understanding of the principles of body shape.

• A nice dress and high-heeled, open-toe shoes can be ruined by a pair of tights with a visible seam. You can find appropriate ones anywhere, but women sometimes get lazy and try to move the line underneath their toes. After a few meters of walking the seam shifts and it doesn’t look professional.

To find out more about Valentina and Alain’s services, email her at valentina.saggese@gmail.com, or visit valentinasaggese.com