Life Hacks: Top tips to spare the blushes around fashion faux-pas
We’ve all found ourselves in that embarrassing moment where we realise an item of clothing isn’t covering everything it should. Naturally, we usually discover this problem when we’re already away from home and far from a quick change of clothes.
We’ve all found ourselves in that embarrassing moment where we realise an item of clothing isn’t covering everything it should.
Naturally, we usually discover this problem when we’re already away from home and far from a quick change of clothes.
I was reminded of this recently when our Life/Style Editor Esther McCarthy popped up beside me in the office to share a trick she’d just used on her own shirt, thinking it would be a helpful Life Hack for our readers (and it was, thanks Esther!).
Esther realised after getting to work that her shirt buttons were gaping around her bust — not ideal.
While some of us might run around the office seeking safety pins or even Sellotape to close the gap, cool-headed Esther remembered a tip she’d read about ages ago.
Around the area that was gaping, she unbuttoned her shirt and re-buttoned it in the wrong buttonholes. By buttoning, for example, button number three in buttonhole number four and button number four in buttonhole number three, the criss-crossed buttoning closed her shirt securely in the spot it once was gaping.
It is an effective solution and one that, surprisingly for a technically mis-buttoned shirt, doesn’t draw the eye.
Quick, free and instantly effective: what’s not to love about a trick like that?
With that in mind, I thought I’d share some useful things that have saved me from fashion faux pas over the years and some items I keep in my handbag for emergencies.
Among my handbag essentials are safety pins, as mentioned above.
As well as helping to close unfortunate gaps in clothes, I find them useful for rethreading a drawstring through a hoodie.
When these slip deep into the fabric it can be frustrating, but it’s easily fixed with a safety pin.
Remove the drawstring completely and secure a safety pin to the end of it.
Feed the safety pin back into the hole in the fabric, pushing the pin forward and bunching the fabric towards it so it can make its way to the other hole.
Having a solid item like a safety pin to feel and move through the fabric makes this task so much simpler.
When you get the safety pin through the other side, remove it from the drawstring and knot both ends to prevent it slipping out again.
Another item you’ll usually find in my bag at events is double-sided fashion tape.
Again, this can be used to close shirt gaps for those of us wearing larger cup sizes, but I also find it useful to hold flowing fabric in place as well as making sure my neckline doesn’t dip too low for certain items of clothing.
Sometimes my precarious neckline won’t budge because I’m more tape than human but you can’t beat that sense of security — and I’ll happily take that over a night of constantly readjusting my clothes.
In a pinch, you could use fashion tape to take up the hem of some too-long trousers, but it’s not as long-lasting as the hemming tape that you usually iron on to activate.
Another wardrobe issue I personally face regularly is caused by my own clumsiness: food stains.
If I’m wearing white while eating, you can be sure some food will end up on the front of my top or in my lap.
Aside from wearing a toddler-style bib every time I eat, I’ve instead started carrying a handy product with me to quickly remove the stains.
I was influenced by TikTok, where people rave about Tide to Go stain pens. Available in the USA only, it always appears in those holiday ‘haul’ videos that I love watching.
I realised recently I could buy one online for under €10 so I decided to put it to the test in the name of journalism, and it works a treat.
Just apply pressure to release the cleaning agent and rub the pen against the stain until it’s gone.
It cleared up the stain on my skirt from the Korean chicken I ate at the Marina Market instantly, ensuring a permanent home in my bag.
