No Room for a View at the Office

How to succeed at business: If you’re looking for the latest fashions, common sense tells you not to look in an office. Businesses are in business to make money, not to allow their employees to parade around in distracting attire. This is why experts say that when dressing for the conservative office, the key is to fit in and look like an extra on “L.A. Law” rather than a Fly Girl on “In Living Color.”

“Most office environments are conservative, and you need to mute the colors you’d ordinarily wear,” says Lisa Burke of Burkewear Fashion Apparel at The City Shopping Center in Orange. “Darker suits and skirts add to your presence. Save the brightly colored outfits for nice casual wear.”

If your personality doesn’t match the grays and navies your boss requires, add a flash of color with accessories: a tie, scarf, earrings or a hat. Don’t be afraid to show a little style, but don’t stick out too much either.

Hot foot: Indoor basketball courts have always been made of wood, and basketball shoes have always been white--until now. While the courts are still grown in forests, the most popular shoes running across them are black. This is because the “street look” has influenced the official street sport. The NBA champion Chicago Bulls as well as many college teams now wear black Nikes and Reeboks.

But while it’s fine wearing black shoes when playing a pick-up game, should you keep that white pair around for casual wear?

“You can wear black sneakers with just about anything you’d wear white with,” says clothing consultant Martin Dean of Costa Mesa. “But you have to decide what you feel comfortable with.”

Although most people would feel OK wearing black high tops with gray sweats to run some errands, they’d probably feel funny wearing them with a pair of designer jeans and nice shirt.

The best solution is probably to keep your black shoes in the gym and the whites in the closet. Besides, after a tough basketball game, those shoes are going to need time to air out.

Straight and true: In the ‘60s, a girl wanted hair so straight she’d fold her locks in a towel, set her head on the ironing board and iron out the curls.

The craze hasn’t resurged to those proportions, but straight hair is definitely coming back in style.

“They want it straighter but shorter than it was in the ‘60s,” says hair stylist Rick Majors of Newport Beach. “Permed or frizzy hair of any kind is becoming a dinosaur.”

If you’re looking for a straighter look, but you still want some body and wave to your mane, try an enriching, body-creating conditioner after shampooing and be sure to blow dry your hair completely dry. Damp hair left on its own has a tendency to dry with a little curl.

But for your own safety, if that should happen, save the iron for a wrinkled blouse.