Style is a journey, not a destination.
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It’s a journey that you progress through your entire life. What is stylish on an 10 year old is not stylish on a 20 year old. Your personality develops and changes. You grow, learn and evolve, as should your style too.
Style is not one-size-fits-all approach to dressing.
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There are many, many stylish women in the world. Commonly named style icons include Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Onassis, Jennifer Aniston, Iris Apfel, Jane Birkin and the list goes on and on. These women all have their own interpretation of style. It relates to them, and that’s why they are stylish.
Style is about you, your personality, body, colouring, lifestyle. It’s not a prescription that can be given to you by a stylist. Sure a stylist can help you discover your style, but it should be an inside-out process not an outside-in one. This is why so many ‘makeovers’ don’t work, as they are someone else’s vision expressed on that person, rather than a discovery of who the person is and how that can be reflected authentically through their appearance.
There is no “list” of clothing that will make you stylish.
Style requires you take into consideration:
- Your unique body shape, proportions and variations.
- Your colouring
- Your personality
- Your lifestyle
- Your grooming
- The fit, fabric and construction of your clothing.
Fashion is not style.
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Fashion, clothing, accessories, shoes, makeup, hairstyles are the tools to help you have style. You choose the tools that work for you and express who you are. Remember, inside-out.
Developing your style takes time and it’s like a river that changes direction, meanders and moves all the time. It’s not static, and neither should your style be. When we become static we become dated and stuck. A style that may have worked a decade ago may not work today. Just as an 18 year old doesn’t want to wear the clothes of an 8 year old, we need to reassess our style as each year passes to notice what is still working and what should be let go of.
I adore watching women discover their style. I love seeing them discover for themselves what does and doesn’t work. I love noticing how much more confident they become and how they metamorphose as they rediscover who they are, often forgotten as years slip by and they subjugate their style for practicality or parenting, or fitting in a skin that may or may not be relevant now.
A good stylist can help you discover what works (give you advice on your body-shape, proportions and variations, how to flatter your body and colouring, how to camouflage and create distractions with clothing and accessories), they can steer you in directions and expand your fashion horizons, but they can’t do it all for you, as you are the one who makes the decisions each day of what to put on your body. They should ask you lots of questions to understand what it is that you want to achieve, how you want to express yourself, how you want to be perceived and what will work for your lifestyle and the best ways of working with you. My clients are often surprised at just how much work they have to do in a style consultation. They assume I’ll just tell them what to wear. But if I don’t understand who they are, and this requires some though and consideration on their part, I can’t give them advice.
I can teach you how to be a magician with your clothes and accessories, how to focus, how to deflect and how to create illusions. The right colours will take a few years off your complexion. Using some illusion tools can make you look a little taller, shorter, curvier or more slender, whatever it is that you desire. But I can’t turn a middle aged petite woman with voluptuous thighs into a twenty year old supermodel, and nor should you want that. Style is not about being young and tall.
Style is not just for the young and slim, every woman can have style.
Accepting who you are today, the body you have today, the age you are today and what is available in fashion today will help you feel and look more confident and radiant, rather than mourning for a lost youth, body, life or style from another era. Love yourself today. Remember that you should embrace those wrinkles, you’ve earned them. Love your current body, look after it and dress it with kindness, thought and care that reflects who you are today. When you do this, you will have style.
