I’ve shared the most popular and most commented on posts this year here, and now I thought I’d share the posts that I like the best and ones that can make a significant difference to your style. I’ve discovered that many of my favourite posts of the years are chats I had with Jill Chivers of 16 Style Types (and I know from feedback that you also love our chats too). Choosing favourite blog posts is a little like choosing your favourite child, but I’ve found a bunch of posts that I really enojoyed writing or thinking about, and topics that I think are important to consider.
21 of My Favourite Posts of 2017
1. Style Recipe Inspiration
Style recipes are so helpful in refining and defining your personal style Taking some time to get something down on paper is never a bad use of your time or energy as it really helps to refine and define your style which in the longer term will save you money, time and heartache. What’s not to love about that? This is why I was really happy to be able to share the Style Recipes of many of my 7 Steps to Style members, to show you just how different they can be – that there is no one right way of creating one and to give you the inspiration to create one yourself if you haven’t already (and of course, if you want help, the 7 Steps to Style members really do help each other with their recipes – coming up with all sorts of great ideas and insights).
2. How Not To Buy Crap Ever Again
How much money have you wasted on clothes that just don’t flatter, that you don’t love, or that are not representative of your personality? Do you find shopping a frustrating experience? If so, I have a few tips in this post on how to make shopping a better experience for you so that you never buy crap again!
3. How to Be a Style Magician
What is the art of a magician? Illusion and distraction! Learning how to use these two tools when putting your outfits together will instantly have you feeling like your body is flattered and that your outfits are more attractive.
4. What Pregnancy Can Teach You About Building a Fabulous Wardrobe
What can a maternity wardrobe teach you about creating a fabulous wardrobe for your life? These 6 tips will change the way you think about your wardrobe forever!
6 Things Pregnancy Can Teach You About Building a Fabulous Wardrobe
5. Where do you sit on the Fashion Continuum?
When you think about fashion, do you dismiss it entirely or are you the first in store wanting to get a trend on your back before everyone else (when it’s everywhere, you don’t want it anymore). This video post with Jill Chivers is a discussion about the fashion continuum
6. Your Closet Menu Checklist
Checklists can be super handy tools as they give you a few guidelines and parameters to follow when putting together your wardrobe. I created a downloadable and printable Closet Menu Checklist to help you figure out what you may need in your wardrobe – what you have – and what you’re missing.
7. How to Choose a Print with The Right Contrast For You
Jill Chivers and I chat prints and choosing prints with flattering contrasts in this video post. Sometimes there is stuff I think is obvious, but I’ve discovered that it’s not obvious to everyone, and Jill had a few “aha” moments in this video and I hope you do too!
8. How to Make Basic Outfits More Interesting
Another video post with Jill Chivers where we discuss how to add interest and detail to your supporting act outfits so that you exude style in your own way!
9. Turning Your Style Recipe into a Stunning Sartorial Dish
More on style recipes as I just love them and think they are so valuable. Hopefully, you’ve figured out your recipe, here I give tips on how to turn them into outfits!
10. Understanding the Power of Colour and How to Use it
You all know (if you’ve been reading Inside Out Style for more than a week or two) that I love colour. I’m a colour enthusiast. Yet I live in one of those cities where black is de rigeur and it breaks my heart as I know that so many are not taking advantage of the power you gain when wearing colour.
11. Is Fashion Wasteful? Are You Shallow for Caring About Your Style and What You Wear?
This is a super important topic. I’ve learned that style is way more than skin deep. That what you wear really can change your life in a positive way. It can open doors and can also impact you as it gives you more confidence and self-esteem. Yet many of us feel bad that we care… Jill Chivers and I discuss this in our video post here.
12. How to Put Together a Fabulous Outfit in Minutes
Discover my easy outfit formula that you can apply to your getting dressed process every day. Plus see a bunch of examples in how I use it to put together outfits.
13. Bored with Your Style?
Discover my 5 solutions to having you looking great every day if you’re currently feeling bored or stuck with your style. Find out why you might be stuck too so you can become more aware of falling into these traps.
Bored with Your Style? 5 Solutions to Have You Looking and Feeling Great Again
14. How to Layer More Stylishly
Jill Chivers (gee I love making videos with Jill) and I chat about how to layer. It’s a topic that I get frequently asked about so in two video posts plus lots of fabulous photos, we show you ways to layer and how to think about layering.
15. How to Wear a Multi-Coloured Item When You’re Not High Colour Contrast
I get heaps of questions about colour contrast and how to put colours together and even though I write lots of guidelines (not rules) here to help, I think it’s also important to work out how to break them in a way that is still flattering and makes you feel good.
16. How You Can Use Colour to Communicate For You
Colours communicate, so learning how to harness their power to your advantage is a great skill. Jill Chivers and I discuss ways on using colour to communicate in different environments, from business to social. What are your colours saying before you’ve even opened your mouth?
17. Should You Jump On The Current Fashion Trend Wagon?
How do you know when a trend will flatter and when not? The more you know about your body, colouring and personality, the easier it is to figure out if this is the trend for you or not. Get my tips here…
How to Decide if a Fashion Trend is For You or To be Avoided
18. Patterns Versus Solids – What Do You Need In Your Wardrobe?
Have you thought about your ratio of patterns to solids? Just recently I was doing a wardrobe therapy session with a client and we discovered that she had lots and lots of patterned heroes, but not enough solid supporting acts to actually create outfits.
Patterned Heroes vs Solid Supporting Acts – What do You Need in Your Wardrobe?
19. Stylish Thoughts – Czarina of Style
This is one of my favourite Stylish Thoughts interviews of the year. Why? Well because the fit is discussed and I can’t tell you how often people tell me that it’s just not worth getting an alteration to make a garment fit better, yet when you read this post you can see just how crucial it is and what a difference it makes.
20. Look Behind You!
Do you think about how your outfit looks from the back? It’s important to remember people see us both coming and going and sometimes adding something interesting to your back view really makes an outfit.
21. Why Vulnerability is a Sign of Courage
I’m not the best at being vulnerable (in fact I talked about it in this video blog post), I’m a thinker, not a feeler, and I like to logicalize (yes I’m sure I made that word up) my way around everything rather than feeling sometimes uncomfortable feelings. Yet I’ve learned that being vulnerable, putting yourself out “there” is a sign of courage and strength and not weakness (which I had always felt it was). I want to encourage you too, to allow others to see your vulnerability.
Love to know what your favourite posts were this year? Please do share in the comments!
My favourite blogpost by far was the Celebrity Contrast post in which you shared many examples of Celebrities dressing to their correct/incorrect value and colour contrasts. It was this post that really hammered home to me how dull I look when I try to deliberately tone down my naturally high value contrast level.
Learning that I am “predominantly dark” after reading this post and realising I look better in darker tones overall was a true lightbulb moment. Thank you for the time you spent looking for examples so that we could really see the difference. A really brilliant learning tool.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very stylish and of course a Happy and Healthy New Year!