Intriguing and Alluring

How does one dress in an intriguing and alluring way?  Those words in our vocabulary even sound old fashioned.  Does anyone even use those words anymore?  And do they mean an attitude or an outfit?  I guess most of us dress for work appropriate but I wonder how many of you even know what your work dress code is?  Mine is open to interpretation,  When working your way up the ladder it is always best to take the cues from the position you are working toward and dress accordingly.  What about those of us who do not have to consider that kind of HR scrutiny?  Do you dress more like Betsy Johnson or Nina Garcia?  Or Heidi Klum?  Tim Gunn has the same eye as the What Not To Wear crew and to me that is just plain wardrobe 101.

Can you get away with being a non-conformist?  It is not easy and people have told me they have lost their job because they wore the wrong kind of earrings to the board room.  It is so easy to dress safe.  Watch the Q. or HSN or look at the mannequins in the windows of the Gap, Ann Taylor, J.Crew, and (yawn) take your ques from there.

If you want to dress to express yourself.....where would you go?  How would you do it?  I have to shop in the Jr. Departments to find anything even remotely interesting to fit my personality.  Everything else seems like tried and true staid and non-creative.  Since I have never been able to afford cashmere or any fine fabric type clothes that are considered well designed and well tailored so that might be a different world.  But in my realm where clothes are just one of my many expenses I need to be frugal.   My budget  only allows me to choose from the H & M, Forever 21, and Jr. Departments at the major department stores.

Can you write your own rules for dress up and take risks, or is the fear too great to get it wrong?  And who's to judge?  I don't even go places where anyone cares how I dress so I just do it for me.  It would be hard for me to look in the mirror and say, oh yeah...intriguing and alluring.  But the fun is in the challenge for me and my artistic endeavor just as others like to create a garden or interior design or a painting etc.