2016 Style Reminders

2016 Style Reminders

I promise you. This post is not about New Year’s guilt-trips resolutions. These reminders are my perennial, never-fail, tried and true personal styling tips. If you follow this formula for classic style I can assure you will look and feel better, and shop smarter ALL year round. So what are you waiting for?…

Al’s Top Styling Tips

 

  1. Define your style, and continue to refine it over time. This is your fashion DNA, and what I may have already tried to help you define during your Personal Styling Session. There are no real rules at this point…it’s about working out who you are what image you want to project.
  2. Where only what you love – What makes you feel comfortable and what you feel expresses you. Stay true to this, and your wardrobe will follow.
  3. Love it or leave it! If you’re not absolutely in love with it, don’t buy it! (The #1 Rule – See below)
  4. Understand your body shape and the best silhouettes colours, textures and fits for you. Whatever your shape, know that there are clothes out there that can really flatter you, and you should never settle for less than anything you LOVE right there on the spot.
  5. Insist on fit. Arrange to have alterations made in store right then and there if at all possible. Otherwise don’t even take it home before you go past the alterations shop on the third floor. The most wonderful garment ever created won’t look good if it doesn’t fit.
  6. Go to the right shops – not necessarily where the sales are – Go where they have clothes to fit your personal style. Be sure you are well-rested, fed, watered, have enough time and are preferably alone. Wear some makeup and spend a bit of time on your hair. (Sounds odd, I know, but when you catch a glimpse of yourself in fluor0-lit fitting rooms you’ll be very glad you did!) Wear comfy shoes & bring along your fave “gut-suckers” foundation knickers. MMS your Personal Stylist (me!) if you’re not 100% sure, rather than asking the 15 year old who’s been trained to up-sell and will tell you look “amaaaazing” in a paper bag!
  7. Look for colour and fabric first. Then silhouette. Then size. Then price. Style Counsel Tip: If it’s a bit exxy – i.e. more than you were initially wanting to pay – but you know you will get lots of wear out of it, that calculation can be made to work over the longer term. See point#6.
  8. Think bang for your buck but only if it ticks all the other boxes first (see Style Counsel’s Three Rules for Shopping Smart below)
  9. Think outfit, not item. Put each piece in the context of your wardrobe. If you fall in love with a piece that can’t be worn with at least 3 other pieces you own, or that you’ll probably never have an occasion to wear, pass it up.
  10. You don’t need “lots of stuff” when you have the “right stuff”. Buy the best you can bring yourself to afford, especially in core items (investment pieces). Concentrate on fewer, better pieces that mix and match with lots of seasonal cheapies thrown in along the way…

Style Counsel’s  3 Rules for Shopping Smart

There is an art to shopping. Honestly there is! And only the smart come out on top!

  1. Only buy it if you absolutely LOVE it. Let it buy you! If you walked away, you know you’d regret it. You’d probably end up calling the store to ask them to hold it for you to pick up tomorrow anyway…you get the drill!
  2. Will it go with at least three other items in your existing wardrobe? You have to be able to list those items pretty quickly without giving it too much thought. If you can’t, rethink your purchase.
  3. Can you afford it? Will you get bang for your buck? If it’s expensive but it ticks the previous two boxes and you know you will get wear/use out of it for a long time, then it’s considered an “investment piece” and may very well be worth it!

3 Responses to 2016 Style Reminders

  1. Dearest ‘Big Al’…

    And I DO love it, but more so for the fact that you wrote – personally – to me… or at least I THINK you did!

    Al, you ‘reached and affected’ me in a way that no person… NO person… has done in a very long time… when I least expected it… or thought I needed it.

    So much so, that every time you post on Facebook, I must read it… see how you are… what you are thinking… and – I must be honest – ache that you are in hospital again… having to soldier on… enduring – very bravely and valiantly – ‘something’ that just does not need to be happening to someone as beautiful, important and oh! so very, very special to this world.

    Alison, I will give birth to my first child in and around 27 February, and would dearly, dearly welcome any opportunity you may have to catch up. I realise we are only relatively new acquaintances, but I – for some reason – ‘miss’ the fact that my only contact since the Australian Celebrations Training Day has been at arm’s length.

    Warmest regards, a hug and my love & best wishes,

    Anna Staines xo
    Marriage Celebrant – Momentus… for moments with meaning

    • Oh bless you Anna! You are a gorgeous soul and I’m so glad you enjoyed the post!

      Your bubba is due soooo soon! I hope you are resting and feeling well and all is ready for little bean’s arrival?! I can’t wait to hear the good news!

      Will definitely try for a catch-up but between hospital visits/treatment and a myriad other tests going on at the moment, I’m not exactly sure when..but watch this space. I’ll do my darnedest lovely!

      Travel gently…stay well and gorgeous, inside and out xxx

  2. Belated Update:

    Hi Anna! I just reposted this one (three years later) and it stll stands true for me (and I hope you?!).

    I hope your bubba (well, by now, probably not quite a bubba?) is well and that you and yours are all happy and well.

    Cheers, Big Al 🙂 xx

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