Fashion Boot Camp

Two lucky students get style make overs

Turn on the television or simply walk down the street and anyone can see that fashion victims engulf us like a bad, faux-fur wrap. Instead of hoping my readers simply follow my fashion pearls of wisdom, my quest to spread the knowledge begins with two young JMU ladies who won our annual Fashion Breeze Make over by yours truly.

My quest begins with freshman Alex Meador, who was nominated by her fashion-concerned roommate, freshman Kristen Angster. Before starting her first year at JMU, Alex began the popular Weight-Watchers program and lost an amazing 80 pounds. Although the program did give Alex a sexy new body, she never gained a confident new self-image, according to Angster.

Our second winner is bubbly sophomore Lisa Mathews. Lisa admits in her application that she had no fashion sense at all because she never had a mentor — such as myself — to show her the ropes of achieving fashion greatness. Therefore, Mathews' current wardrobe consists of bland jeans and old T-shirts. As for her makeup routine, let's just say that Ozzy knows more about brushes and application than this poor soul.

Our make-over madness begins at Tangles, a popular hair salon among JMU students. At the salon, located on Port Republic Road in Harrisonburg, both girls were treated to complimentary hair modifications. Alex's mousy brown hair was changed to a deep red that would complement her pale complexion. Then, she was given lighter red highlights to provide depth to her hair. As for Lisa, her dark tresses were lopped off to reveal a cute, layered cut with side-swept bangs. The ends of Lisa's hair were razored to achieve a slight flip with lots of bounce.

Makeup application was extremely different for both girls because they each have different skin tones that demand certain colors. Alex has a light complexion with yellow undertones, which puts her coloring on the cool side. People with cool coloring, such as Alex, look best in darker colors. Therefore, eye shadows that are beige, brown and black will bring out her eyes the most. Rouge should be light and be either peach or pink, but not bronze. Bronze powders on cool skin will make her look like a fake-tanning experiment gone wrong. As for her lip color, shiny pinks and peaches with blue bases will look the best.

Lisa, on the other hand, has olive-coloring, meaning she is blessed with skin that looks tan year-round. Therefore, Lisa falls into the warm category for her complexion. When people say warm colors, it is best to think of fall colors such as rusts, browns, tans, bronzes and lush burgundy colors. Starting with her eyes, she wore dark brown shadows with brown eyeliner to complement the natural darkness of her eyes. Her cheeks were brushed with bronzer for a sun-kissed look, which acted as a substitute for blush. For Lisa's lip color, she wore light brown lipstick with golden undertones for daytime, but she can switch to a darker burgundy color for a "night on the town" look.

Finally, the last — and my favorite — aspect of the make over were clothes, the backbone of being fashionable. To properly assess these girls' lack of style, a trip to their closets, "Queer Eye" style, was in order. First, I began with Alex, who needed some tips on how to dress her newly acquired frame.

After braving the harsh terrain of her closet, it became clear that this girl had some major shopping to do. Most of the clothes she had were bought when she was heavier. Therefore, her large sweatshirts and oversized T-shirts look like deflated life rafts. My advice was to take the nicer clothes, like pants and suits, to a good tailor for some inexpensive nipping and tucking.

As for the rest of her clothes, I suggested that she drive to the middle of nowhere and drop them off as though they were a bunch of fraternity pledges. She needs to focus on clothes that complement her great figure instead of hiding it, now that she has a new body to show off.

Next, Lisa wanted to know what types of clothes would look good for her body type. As we were sorting through the fresh-faced beauty's clothes, we realized that she has few red and brown shirts that would look great on her tanned skin.

I also discovered that Lisa tends to hold onto clothes just a little past their expiration date. Trust me, clothes do not have feelings, therefore once they become stained, ratty or worn with holes, it's time to throw them out.

Finally, I suggested that Lisa stop hiding her curvy figure with frumpy, shapeless sweaters. Instead, she should try more form-fitting outfits that hug her shape and also have details such as belts, gatherings and other accents that draw attention to the outfit and not her body.

Now that Lisa and Alex have cut their tresses, powdered their noses and examined their clothes, they officially have survived and graduated from my fashion camp and are ready to take on the world with nothing but style.