Yesterday I did a post on What Size Handbag to Choose – one of the commenter’s asked about handbag placement, should you wear it at your hips or under your arm, down the side of your body and what happens when you wear it across your body? The answer lies in knowing your body shape and…
One of my lovely readers Karen sent me this email: I do think we can and should each find our own personal style and be comfortable with it. I do not understand the large size that handbags have become. If I carried a currently stylish handbag, it would be 90% empty, and I’m not sure…
What are the guidelines for layering tops? Many people tell me they have no idea how to do it, so here are some quick tips. 5 Tips on How to Layer Tops 1. The underlayer needs to be tighter than the overlayer (unless it’s very soft and blousy and doesn’t add extra bulk or show…
How often do we see magazine articles on the essential wardrobe items that everyone must have? How often do you actually agree with them? I’m often asked what I think these essentials are, but given that people’s lifestyles, tastes and personalities differ, there are very few garments that I would class as essential for everyone.…
In this post I’ll help you choose earrings according to your face shape. Hopefully after my last few posts you’ve now got more of an idea of your face shape. Remember, these are guidelines only, and very few faces are exactly shaped. In many ways, what is most important to figure out is: Answer these…
Hi Imogen, A question I’d love for you to tackle in your blog some time if you feel like it: I have an hourglass figure, with big boobs. I look best in necklines that are reasonably low (although not barmaidy!). For example v-necks and deep wrap tops with camisoles underneath are both really flattering. They…
I don’t know about you, but I love the look of high heels. And I’m more than happy to wear them when I know I’ll get to do some serious sitting down. But if I know I’ll be walking anywhere, then I tend to opt for either a kitten heel or flat. Often when I’m…
While I was in Sydney at the AICI conference, I shared a hotel room with my lovely friend and image consultant colleague Jan from New Zealand. She was kind enough to let me take a happy snap of her outfits (missed a couple of days sorry) to share with you here. This was on Saturday This is…
Have you thought about setting yourself a wardrobe capsule challenge? What’s this? Well, it’s where you decide to limit what you wear in your wardrobe to just a few items for a week or longer. Project 333 is the well-known known version of this (where you take 33 items and wear them, and only them…
Whenever I’m going through a wardrobe and sorting it out for a client, I’m always making sure they have a few basics that will make the rest of the wardrobe work. So what is a basic and what am I looking for? To me, a basic is something that you need to make…
How to wear leggings seems to be a highly googled question, and what sorts of shoes work with leggings is a hot topic, so here is my 2c on the subject. Here are some ideas: 1.Ankle length (left) – work best with high vamp shoes and sandals, either in a colour that…
How does your lifestyle influence your clothing choices? The first step to discovering this is to do the following exercises to further break down your lifestyle. What do you do with yourself? How do you fill your time? Where do you go? Who do you see? Take some time to answer these questions to help…
“Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.” Gore Vidal In this post you were asked to figure out where you are now with your clothing – it may be a great place and where you want to be, or it may not be. I like…
Yesterday I asked where confidence in appearance comes from – and many commented that lack of confidence can stem from negative comments made during childhood. These comments seem to burn right into us and are often very hard to shake off as we grow up – we take them as gospel truth, rather than just…
Yesterday we talked about giving your wardrobe a good purge. Until you’ve done this stage it’s impossible to work out what you do and don’t have, and if you really do have nothing to wear. Firstly, if your favourites are still wearable, but starting to wear out – put them…
So many women will lament that they have ‘nothing to wear’ yet their significant other may say ‘but you have a wardrobe full of clothes’ – so why the disconnect? Usually this is because they need to do a big closet purge, get rid of what is not working, and discover the holes so…
The other day I posted on breaking the style rules, and I thought that I’d post some more ways to do it. Knowing your rules (or as I like to think of them – as Style Guidelines) is great as you will be more empowered when making choices shopping (hello? how much money have you…
This morning I did a wardrobe audit for a lovely 53 year old client. She’d already thrown out a pile of stuff before I got there, but we managed to get rid of another 5 garbage bags of clothes that were no longer working for her. Like most ‘middle ageless ‘ (thanks Rosina) women,…
After my post on Highlighting Your Assets, some commenters seemed to have trouble working out what their assets are, they’ve spent so long being told about and focussing on their ‘flaws’ but never ‘assets’. I see everything as an asset, and don’t believe in flaws. It’s just that some assets you may want to highlight,…
Focal points are created by detail on clothing – whether it’s colour, shiny fabrics, pockets, distressing on jeans, ruffles, pattern, belts, beading or jewellery. You can use detail to draw attention to your assets and away from areas you’d rather people didn’t notice. You can see from this collection how the details draw…
Recently blogger Embellissiment asked how to choose a watch to go with outfits, and whether watches are ‘jewellery’ or something else. Basically, I think that watches are an accessory but like a shoe, a more basic, every day essential accessory (yes I know that your mobile phone has a clock on it, but a…
