I hate shopping now. I used to be a “good enough” buyer and now I know what I want and can’t find it. I’m not sure if I’m being too picky or not allocating enough time or not going to the right stores, but I’m frustrated at having needs I can’t fulfil. For example, I…
Let me tell you why I don’t drink coffee or tea… Whenever I tell someone that I don’t drink coffee (or tea) the reaction I get most of the time is “Oh, you’re good!” as if it’s because I’m more virtuous than they are. It’s just that I’ve discovered that caffeine doesn’t agree with me…
What is your process for morphing your style rules change – such as body shape, colouring or lifestyle changes that happen to us all over time? Change happens to us all and how we deal with it is something can be tricky for many of us. In this video with Jill Chivers of Shop Your…
Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe and I discussed some of our mental processes in putting together outfits each day here. We talked generally about how we think about what to wear and then in a broad way how we made decisions. But I know you also want to know, what are the exact steps…
How do you put your outfits together each day? What’s your process for getting dressed? These are questions that Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe and I have been asked to discuss, our own processes (and we talked about choosing colours here), what we think about, what goes through our heads each day. A Systematised…
aka What You Wear Matters I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from people over the years things like: “Why does it matter what I wear? It’s what I create or produce at work that matters!” “Women shouldn’t need to have to dress a certain way to be considered accomplished and capable! I…
So you’ve got an LBD or LDD (Little Dark Dress which is a wardrobe staple) and you want to wear it with some colour to make it look more different. It may be that you need to wear it to a few different events where you’ll see a bunch of the same people and you…
Having spent years working with clients in their wardrobes and helping them find their individual style, what I’ve noticed is that too frequently what’s in our wardrobe is related to the past, and not to the future. When you think about moving forward in life, moving towards your goals and dreams, then your wardrobe needs…
It’s a lie that to be stylish you have to be born with an innate talent for it. Sure some people are naturally more stylish, but I know plenty of people who have learned how to become more stylish using much of the information I share on this blog. Do you feel that you should…
Sponsored by Airpufs I have a reasonably sized shoe collection (my husband would say large, I say reasonable) which I’ve gradually acquired over many, many years (actually I still have two pairs of shoes from the mid 90s). One of the reasons I have so many is that when I was about 19 years old…
Social media, Instagram in particular, is changing the way many women consume clothing. This is the topic of discussion with Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe in our video. The ubiquitous outfit photo that is posted daily on Instagram creates a pressure to turn over your wardrobe, or just acquire more and more new items…
As humans, we love balance. It gives us visual equilibrium and relates to our physical sense of balance (this is why we like our pictures to hang straight on the wall). Balance Points and Clothing Carla Mathis (image consultant and author of The Triumph of Individual Style) wrote about Balance Points in her book and…
Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe and I were asked about how to be comfortable, have a practical wardrobe but still be elegantly stylish. In this video we discuss some strategies to create a wardrobe that is both functional and comfortable yet stylish. Fabric Selection to Be Comfortable and Stylish Comfort and Ease Do fabrics…
We live in a coloured world. We wear colour, we choose colours to live with in our houses, we are surrounded by colour. It plays a vital role in our lives. It determines colour palettes for fashions, interior design, moods and emotional states. We can use colour to create illusion and as a symbol for…
The Personality of Patterns in Scarves This is the topic of the video Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe and I discuss, though the personality of prints and the discussion on fabric choices extends into other clothing elements outside of the scarf! So how do you express personality through your patterns? Patterns Classic – stripes…
How do your shoes communicate? What is the personality dressing style of your shoes? In this video with Jill Chivers of Shop Your Wardrobe, we discuss and show examples of different shoe styles and elements of shoes so you can learn how to interpret your shoes and what they are communicating. What are The Design…
To finish up my Frocktober efforts at styling dresses in different ways I’ve been raising much-needed money to support the life-saving research of the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation who are working hard funding scientists to find an early detection test for ovarian cancer. Please support my fundraising efforts here… every dollar makes a difference (and…
Style is something that a lucky few are born with (or appear to be born with) but the rest of us have to learn. Fortunately, you can become more stylish … it’s just not going to happen in a week (or even two, but you can learn a lot in two weeks). Like any skill,…
Frocktober continues and I’m sharing more dress styling ideas for you to try with your own dresses at home. Please make a small donation to my fundraising efforts to help find an early detection test for ovarian cancers which is a silent killer of many women. Your donation will help save lives. And I want…
Hats come in all different shapes and sizes. They were very common back in the 1950s when it was polite and the right thing to do, to wear a hat when outside of the house. Here is the photo I mention in the video that my father took in 1958 at the corner of Russell…
Accessories can be a great way of adding contrast in your outfit. You can add interest with pops of colour in accessories and create focal points for which to draw attention and encourage the eye to linger. You can raise your colour contrast. You can raise or lower your value contrast. This is why accessories…
