Tutorial Tuesday - How to Wear a Scarf

Wow...where were we? Oh yes, my trip to Paris. I wanted to share the single best fashion tip I picked up while there - wear a scarf...always wear a scarf.

This bit of fabric can mean the difference between looking a mess (or at the very least blah) and looking polished and put together. Really, there is very little effort involved.

I had heard stories of the elusive and confusing scarf before I left and scoured the Internet to learn how to tie this thing, but found very few articles. So, I tied it best I could and paid attention while I was there...all for you.

So, here is what I learned about How To Wear A Scarf:

A small square tied once around your neck is the quintessential "french chic" scarf...um, except I only saw the flight attendants and women in suits wearing a scarf this way. But it's still cute:



Better yet, most ladies tied a small scarf onto their purse strap to bring some color into their outfits. (Warning: I did this and lost a scarf in the cemetery as it must have slipped off my purse. Darn.)



I saw a woman in a cafe wearing a filmy scarf like this and she looked so elegant. It was wound once around her neck, then one end was fed under the piece around her neck and pulled out to hang over while the other end hung straight down. It was lovely:



A funky woman pulling a suitcase onto the Metro gave me a variation of this. She wound it around her neck once, then tied the two ends in a low knot. Cool. No really, it was hot down there to have all that fabric around your neck:


This is the most simple and straight forward, yet equally lovely. Fold your scarf in half and place around your neck. Feed the loose end into the loop the fold forms and pull. You can wear this as tight or as loose as you'd like. This works well with a long scarf.


This is a little more fun and funky. It actually a silk waist belt I got years ago that had no buckle. This is Friday night out for sure. Just wind a slim scarf around your neck once and let the ends hang free while you sip champagne and boogie the night away:



On a cooler day, they used a fuller scarf. Wind it around your neck once then begin to make a loose knot with the ends...just don't pull the second end all the way through. You get a little bump that sticks up in a cool way and short ends hang down:



This same scarf on a warmer day when you want your hot neck exposed (like in the metro!). Just wind it around your neck once from front to back, bring the loose ends back to the front then pull the part around your neck down into a cowl. Now, tie the very bottom of the loose ends:



Finally, wind a linen scarf around your neck twice and knot loosely. Leave one loose end in front and fling the other over your shoulder in the back:



Okay, that is all. Oh, wait...you love the colorful orange and red scarf? You want to know where I got it? Target. But after my trip, I prefer to call it Tar-jay. Yep, $19.00 and a LOT of snobby rich people commented on it. Go get one, you won't be sorry!