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It's possible, too, that the attention being drawn to that collar is instructive, just for that reason. The overall softness of line and presentation is lovely, but it does to some extent leave the subject indistinct from the background. (Squint down just even a bit, and much of the figure disappears into the background.) I fussed around in PhotoShop a bit with this (just playing, nothing postable) and darkened the darker parts of the hair, especially those areas that were already identified as quite "dark" (as next to her face, on the viewer's right), and it definitely seemed to pull the woman forward, out of the background.
You especially asked about plein air portraiture, but I think some considerations apply to any venue. I might not have, for example, let the top of the head align with the top of the line of grasses, or had any tall grasses or plants "emanate" from the head. I airbrushed a lot of that out and I thought the effect -- emphasizing the figure -- was quite substantial.
Cheers,
Steven
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