Hertfordshire Lifestyle Magazine

If you want to be belle of the ball this season, then you need that special dress to make men's eyes stick to you like glue and other womens' go green with envy.

The trick is to put all the seasons’ fads and trends to the back of your mind and go for something that will really suit you.

Think about the image you want to portray – is it sexy, sophisticated or romantic? And think carefully about the colour because if it doesn’t suit you it can drown you out or pale you into insignificance.

Knowing what suits you is all about knowing yourself. Take into account your personality, skin, hair and eye colour. Is it light, dark, bright or muted.

Take Beth for example, she has blonde hair, blue eyes and a pale complexion. She would find that medium tones suit her best because as a general rule of thumb, brighter skins and high contrasts between hair, skin, eye colour can allow more intense tones to be worn.

So Beth, who has low contrasts between the colours of her features would look her best in cool, clear colours like shell pink, aqua or jade.

Rebecca, with dark hair and eyes and pale skin has high contrasting colours so she would suit warm colours like true red, peach or soft violet.

Creating a more classical look for Rebecca was easy because it allowed us to use black, a very safe colour plus we also found her perfect red which make her look fun and sexy.

The best way to find your perfect red is to hold up a range of colours to your face. The one which brings out the colour in your cheeks and enhances your eye and hair colouring is perfect.

For me, I have a chocolate brown complexion, dark eyes and black hair. I can wear a wide range of warm to cool tones but as my complexion is neither very dark brown nor very light brown, I must avoid extreme colour intensity. Bold, bright and deep tones and a sleekness in the fabric to enhance curves are all important to give you that x–factor.