Readers Ask: Dear Lucky

A: The great Gigi Guerra, former Lucky operative and now super-important Madewell marketing director, solved this problem for me once and for all several years ago. Gigi can wear anything: She is skinnier than a rail, gorgeous and so oozing with coolness that she could make a fast-food-restaurant uniform look chic. One day, there she was, striding down the hallway in precisely the sort of shimmery, paillette-a-palooza short-sleeved shirt I gravitate toward...on New Year's Eve. Gigi had thrown it over a slim turtleneck. This solution seems too simple, but truly there is no catch: It works no matter how fancy the shirt. It takes it down a notch, counterintuitively, by throwing a spotlight on it. You can wear your sparkle-spangled shirt with a skirt, pants, even ripped-up jeans, just so long as you’ve got your turtleneck underneath; it'll look polished yet cool no matter what you do.