Style
Style
275: What you can do in less than an hour to improve your style
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Am I right in thinking you’re here because you want to improve your style?

What I’ve learned over the 18+ years I’ve been working with women to help them define and uplevel their style is that there is way more to it than you may think. From personality to colouring, body shape, proportions and scale, and of course you can’t leave out lifestyle, location and culture – all of these have an impact on what you choose to wear, what harmonises with you and what works for you.

So given that overwhelm is an easy place to get to, I wanted to give you one small action you can do in less than an hour to help you immediately improve your style.

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Sort One Small Section of Your Wardrobe

That’s right, wardrobes can be overwhelming, particularly if they are stuffed full. So rather than trying to tackle the whole wardrobe in one go (without a professional image consultant to help you through the process), just taking a small section of clothing, like items, and assessing which of these are the best is the way to go.

Start with Your Jeans

Most of us wear jeans (if you don’t, then start with your trousers or what you wear most frequently and have a number of).    Pull them all out, check the drawers, what’s hanging and what may be on the top shelf or stuck behind something else.  Put them all on your bed, make sure you’re well-hydrated and have a good full-length mirror available to you and that the lighting in your room is bright so you can really see if the colour is working for you.   None of this, standing on the side of the bathtub trying to see your lower body because you don’t own a full-length mirror (and please, if you don’t have one, get one, stick it on the back of the bedroom door, the wardrobe door or on a wall in the place you get dressed as you really need to be able to see your whole outfit!),

Try them all on.  

Don’t skip this step.  Yes I know it’s a pain but you really can’t assess a garment fully if you don’t put it on and see how it’s fitting your body today.  How it looks on you today, with the body you have today is what we are assessing now.

Run your own personalised criteria past each pair – your criteria should at least include:

  1. Does it fit my style recipe?
  2. Do they fit well?
  3. Are they comfortable?
  4. Do they harmonise and flatter my body?
  5. Does the colour work with my colouring and colour palette?
  6. Are they still in good condition?
  7. Are they still in fashion/do they make me look, current and modern?
  8. Would I buy them again today?
  9. Would I rate them an 8/10 (or more)?

 

Once you have assessed each pair for your criteria, if they tick all your boxes then they are definitely a keeper.  But if they start falling short you need to decide are they still earning a place in your wardrobe?   Remember this is a valuable space and you don’t want it filled with junk.

Refresh and Renew

  • Maybe there are pairs that are great but have faded away and maybe a dip in a dye bath would revitalise them?
  • Maybe the colour isn’t great, but the cut and fit are both perfect and you can overdye them to a new colour?
  • Maybe they just need a small alteration – the hems taken up, the waistband taken in and then they will fit all your criteria?
  • Or there may be some other customisation you want to make to the garment that would give it a new lease on life and have it tick all your boxes.

If so, then these are small easy fixes that you shouldn’t put off (don’t put it back into the wardrobe) instead, make sure these happen!

 

Remove and Release

If you’ve kept your best garments and possibly the 2nd best (if you really have to), the 3rd, 4th and 5th best need to be released from your wardrobe.  Now sometimes this can feel scary, particularly if you have emotional attachments, and long-held subconscious messaging about “lack” and “not having enough”, so you may then want to bag or box up these garments, and put them somewhere out of your way so you can no longer see them and write a used-by date on that bag or box.  If you haven’t really missed or pulled anything out between now and that used-by date, then you never open the box or bag again, they go straight to the donation point.    Just like out-of-date food is much more easily removed from your kitchen, out-of-date clothing is not something you want to keep in your wardrobe.

There is fascinating research that shows the minute you touch something you are more attached to it than when you haven’t touched it.  And even seeing something makes you more attached, which is why if it’s out of the way, not in view, you’ll find it easier to let it go than if it’s something you regularly come into contact with.

Releasing the garments that no longer work for you (for whatever reason) will give you more space in your wardrobe for good stuff, and means that when you are getting dressed each day, you will look more stylish as you have gotten rid of the pieces that make you feel frumpy and blah, the ones that don’t make you look or feel great.

 

Your aim is for a wardrobe where every garment you grab makes you both look and feel great – so you need to get rid of what’s not working!

 

Rinse and Repeat

Now that you’ve tackled one section of your wardrobe, you can start with a different one. It could be tomorrow, or next week, that’s up to you.  But a little bit at a time is the best way to move you forward and not have you feel overwhelmed.

 

Want Your Own Personalised Style Guidelines?

If you’re still unsure of what harmonises with you physically – body, colouring, scale, texture etc, and how to express your personality through your style so that you feel totally comfortable in your clothing as they feel like you (rather than that common experience that women have when trying on clothes in stores and realing that “it’s not me”, but being unable to define what IS you), then my 7 Steps to Style program is for you!  It will give you the style education you need to finally nail down what does work for you today, and have you create your own personalised style guidelines so that you know exactly what you’re looking for and give you the confidence to make great style decisions for you as you curate your wardrobe, one that reflects your personal brand image.  

 

What You Need to Know About Pants and Why They Fit So Bad

How Do I Look More Attractive and Stylish and Less Frumpy?

If You’d Like to Define Your Style and Discover Your Colours

If you’re sick of wasting money on clothes that don’t work and you know there is a better way, then join my 7 Steps to Style program and get the right information for you and your style.

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