Finding Your 2013 Style

By Imogenl @ImogenLamport

Who am I today?

A new year is a time many reflect on their lives. What you want out of the coming year?  The start of a year is a good time to reflect on your personal style. Time to consider if the clothes that you’ve been wearing the past few years are still representative of who you are today and the person you want to be tomorrow.

Ask yourself:

  1. How do I want to be perceived as a person both at work and in your personal life (these may be different)?
  2. What do I want the world to know about who I am?
  3. Are my clothes still in great condition?
  4. Does my current wardrobe say what I want it to say?
  5. Are my clothes of a quality that says I”m ‘worth’ my wage/promotion/fee, or ‘I’m worth treating really well’?

The style of clothes you have worn before may still be completely relevant and reflective of your life and personality now, but they may not.  Many people get stuck in a ‘style rut’ and continue wearing garments that don’t make them feel great or give them the confidence they desire.

If you’ve had a life change in some way, such as going in or coming out of the workforce, having kids, retiring, graduating, turning a significant number it’s a good time to ask yourself the above questions as very often who we used to be is not who we have become or are becoming.

I’ve found over the years that the clothes I once wore, are just no longer me.  My style has almost completely changed and it is me now, not me yesterday.    Over these summer holidays I will go through my wardrobe again and run the criteria above over my clothes and will find that it’s time to let some pieces go.  They may have been favourites at one time, but are no longer ones that you love or reach for – it’s OK to let them go.

You may want to run all your clothes via a criteria that works for your life – in mine it’s “would I wear this in front of  another image consultant?”  This works for me as it weeds out the not quite right and not good enough quality clothes easily.

How do you want to be perceived and what is your criteria for keeping or letting go?

photo credit: pasukaru76 via photopin cc