Personal Fashion Tips

10X10 STYLING CHALLENGE ROUND#2 !!

Posted March 5th, 2019 & under Capsule Wardrobe, Colour theory, Personal Style, Sustainable Fashion.

I thoroughly enjoyed completing my first 10x10challenge back in January more than I expected, so I’ve decided to do another…

So welcome to my February 10×10! (in March). February always gets me like that, ending so abruptly!

Anyhoo, for this wardrobe outfitting challenge I chose a feminine palette of apricot and blue – who knew they worked together? I threw in a couple of patterns and a couple of items with a back story (you know how I love a back story) and voilà, my second capsule wardrobe was born! Happy birthday!!! Ha.

Wardrobe Planner Ratio

Ratio is key!! My ratio of tops to bottoms was 5:3 respectively and because I had planned my outfits, I knew I could wear ALL 5 tops with ALL 3 bottoms creating 15 outfits no problem. This was largely because I had stuck to a colour palette, although the palette was a little more unexpected than your typical capsule wardrobe which kept it exciting and a little more experimental.

However, not everything has to work together so don’t let this hold you back, you only need to generate 10 outfits, or even 9 is still great!

Clothes Style for The Real World

But then the Sydney weather kicked in…

It rained. The sun came out.

It dropped 5 degrees and got windy and continued in this manner for days which meant I didn’t wear my silk camisole so my capsule reduced from 10 to 9.

This forced me to layer up my remaining tops, suddenly I had to wear a shirt as a jacket!

Why Outfit My Wardrobe?

And this is the whole point of the 10×10 outfit challenge. It doesn’t really matter – well not to me – if you don’t quite create 10 outfits, the whole concept is to stop thinking ‘items’ and start thinking ‘outfits’ so you :

Encourage you to mix and match items you’ve never paired together
Experiment with mixing color, patterns or textures
Increase your outfit choices
Make your wardrobe work harder, reducing your cost-per-wear
Expand how many ways you wear an item
Breath new life in to a piece because of the way you’ve paired it
Bring you more satisfaction and enjoyment
Gives you a greater understanding of WHY you wear what you wear

And that’s exactly what fashion should be all about, satisfaction & enjoyment!!

Find Your Style

The other vital factor to this concept is how it makes you accountable for the AMOUNT OF TIMES YOU WEAR EACH ITEM OF CLOTHING.

This also helps you realise what you’re NOT wearing and why which is so helpful when making purchasing decisions – helping you find your fashion style.

Fashion Stylist Shock

I work as a fashion stylist and I was even surprised I created so many outfits from my remaining 9 pieces! I managed 18 different looks!! YES! 18!! It was like buying an album and discovering 8 bonus tracks!! ha.

BUT WHAT SHOCKED ME MOST..

What actually shocked me was that my 2 favorite outfits created were BRAND NEW TO ME!!

I’d never thought of putting these tops & bottoms together and that’s because they had been bought over a period of 20 years! I hadn’t joined the dots!

It was only due to the 10×10 challenge that made me try them as an outfit and they are 2 of my all time favorite outfits I can’t wait to wear!!

Staying True To My Personal Style

A key factor for converting so many ITEMS-TO-OUTFITS was due to staying try to my personal style. Because they have a similar look and feel to them, they’re easier to combine!

And just a side note – have you noticed that neither of my 10×10 capsule collections contain a black piece of clothing or accessory!?!

Teaching clients how to combine colours other than black is a vital part of my personal styling service

Wardrobe Makeover DIY Style

Now, as I’ve mentioned, colour is a key factor when curating a mini-wardrobe but this is something you can influence. My pale denim skirt didn’t start out life as a pale denim skirt, I gave it a bit of a 2-stage wardrobe makeover:

Bleaching it
Transforming jeans into a skirt

Have you ever thought about giving your denim a makeover? Here’s a few fashion tips on how:

TRANSFORMING CLOTHES IN TO AN ACCESSORY

I work as a personal stylist so it’s my job to think outside the box so I decided to see what happens when I gave my top a fashion makeover and turned it in to a scarf…and I loved the result!

My scarf-slash-top worn with jeans-slash-skirt

It’s silk so it’s comfortable for wearing around the neck and when I decide I don’t want ‘Metallica’ scrolled across my boobs, I can cover the graphic with a more feminine floral scarf-slash-top. Brilliant.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you have to magically turn clothes in to accessories but the point I want to illustrate is:

HOW LITTLE YOU ACTUALLY NEED IN YOUR WARDROBE TO CREATE INTERESTING NEW OUTFITS

As long as you have chosen flattering, versatile items!

Hair Scarf Styled 3 Ways – & NONE Of Them Are In My Hair!

Talking of accessories, hair scarves are a key fashion trend but don’t restrict their use to just the hair. Ultimately it’s just a long piece of fabric so be playful with it’s uses.

Here’s my leopard print scarf worn 3 different ways…and none of them in my hair!

Just because you bought it as a hair scarf, doesn’t mean it can’t be a belt scarf, or a hat scarf?

If you have a similar scarf, then why not try and use it as a belt (I’m not too proud to admit I only managed to tie this round the smallest part of my waist on a ‘good’ day), tie to your bag to strengthen your outfit or update your hat with a new pattern?

Travel Capsule Conundrum?

This process is THE perfect way to create your own capsule next time you travel. You’ll feel more organised and less stressed as you’ll only be taking pieces you’re actually going to wear, knowing they mix & match.

It only takes a little bit of wardrobe planning!null

Fashion Tips On Planning Your Capsule Wardrobe

So for all of you out there wearing just 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time (I’m assuming you’ve read my home page?) I encourage you to take part in this 10×10 outfit challenge, or YOUR version of it which might mean 10×9 or 12×10 – some people have been working to a 15×15 clothing capsule and that’s cool too! (It looks great btw).

First time round, select your most versatile pieces within a similar color palette and if you create 10 outfits from them easily, then swap one out to something more unusual and see how this changes your outfit?

If you’re sick of getting stressed every morning before you’ve even left the house, planning a capsule wardrobe is something you should consider!

Give it a whirl!

Also read my article on my first 10×10 challenge which offers more practical fashion tips on how to curate your perfect capsule

EVEN IF YOU ONLY CREATE 2 NEW OUTFITS, WEAR THEM MONTHLY AND YOU’VE WORN THEM 24 TIMES MORE THAN YOU WOULD HAVE. THIS MEANS YOU DON’T NEED TO CONSUME 24 NEW OUTFITS TO FILL THE GAP!!

If you’d still like some help on putting together YOUR capsule wardrobe then contact me for a chat about how I can help make your purchases work harder for you.

It’s All On My Instastories, So Why Aren’t You?

See all my videos over on my instastories by clicking through to Instagram here. There’s loads of fashion tips including how to help clothes fit to YOUR body shape and fashion trend insight!

Drum Roll Please!!

So here’s the first viewing of all 18 outfits I created during my challenge and close-ups of the bonus 5 that aren’t on my insta grid (there’s 12 on my grid and the other extra 1 is using my top as a scarf shown above) ….

THE VERY BEST PART..

You know the very best part of this process is that i’m SO excited to re-discover the rest of my wardrobe that I haven’t looked at for the best part of a fortnight…… [this next part is to be said in the accent of Carrie Bradshaw from SITC when she opens her wardrobe and squeels ‘hello lover!’]

HOW TO DRESS YOUR ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES : HATS & SUNGLASSES – part 1

Posted February 21st, 2019 & under Accessories, Fashion Tips, Fashion Trends, How to wear the essentials.

Here’s the first part of everything you need to know about wearing hats & sunglasses!!

Personal Styling Essentials

Working as a personal stylist in Sydney, I know how ESSENTIAL these 2 little accessories are. I’ll let you in to a secret, I only owned 2 pairs of sunnglasses and 1 baseball hat before moving to Sydney…yet I now own about 7 of each (read : 10)!!

I did start by writing ‘summer’ essentials but then I then I realized we wear our hats & sunnies all year round here in Australia so lets not box them in to one season.

Below shows how a baker boy hat works for summer AND winter:

Image from Lack Of Color
Image from Pinterest

Personal Style – Hats

The UV is so strong here all year round that I rarely go out without a hat, they really have become a part of my personal style but at first, I was a little unsure of how to wear hats as they felt like quite a statement and because they were an after thought – I was making a pretty rubbish statement!!

This was because I didn’t have the right headwear in my wardrobe and needed to invest a little time purchasing a few different styles to work with my different looks, fast forward almost a decade and I now consider a hat as an integral part of my clothes style.

Your Fashion Style

My personal styling services are about exploring YOUR fashion style. Some people are ‘hat people’ [enter Boy George, Beyonce & Samuel L. Jackson] and find it easy to experiment because this accessory is part of their iconic personal style, yet others (like moi) struggled initially and felt like fashion trends we ‘wearing me’, so here’s my fashion tips outlining how to buy hats:

Personal Shopper Tips

Wide Brims

As a Sydney stylist, I say the wider the better!! Hats need to offer a practical defense against harsh Australian UV. I know there are LOTS of other hat styles but being a practical stylist, my professional wardrobe advice is generally one with a wider brim.

Dense Material

No, not a fabric with a low IQ, I mean choosing a denser material so it’s an actual barrier not just diffusing sun rays, particularly important for summer hats made of straw or similar. Hat Guide UK, have a fantastic website that tells you, among other interesting information, all about the different types of materials hats are made from, some of them might surprise you!?!

More tightly woven fabric also helps retain the shape better and look for stiffened fabrics so the brim doesn’t sag after a few months, unless this is the look you want?

Talking of saggy brims…

Fashion Trends

Jennifer Lopez at the Grammy Awards 2019

Wider brimmed hats look more contemporary and because they’re on-trend, there’s more choice of style, color and fabric, hurrah! Don’t think you have to go as far as J.Lo at the Grammy’s this year (see right), but in my opinion a Panama looks more modern than a fedora these days. Not sure what I’m talking about? Then have a look at this fantastic headwear directory from @akaitsume that breaks down the lingo:

Colour

Being a colour consultant, I know how incredible clients look when wearing shades that flatter their features and this is especially true when wearing hats as they sit right on top of our eyes, skin & hair! It’s also a giveaway when wearing a hat to realize that the ends of your hair have got so light, they no longer connect with your roots!! No? Maybe that’s just me.

Size

The most flattering size of hat is dependent upon your body type as you want to echo the scale of your physique, so:

If you’re petite then stick with a petite hat such as a bucket, beret or visor

If you have a fuller figure or taller then you suit something larger scale, more of a statement like a boater, cowboy or large panama style

Fit

Most specialised hat brands will tell you to fit larger and pad it out, but I prefer mine to fit snug – not tight – as I want to be able to wear it in windy weather without the need for an embarrassing tie underneath!

Seasonality

In an ideal world, as a personal stylist I’d plan your wardrobe so you have:

Summer : straw hat x 2 – 1 x dark colour and 1 x lighter coloured

Winter : felt hat x 2 – 1 x dark colour and 1 x lighter coloured

This means that what ever your outfit, you’ll have a hat that works WITH your fashion style, which means you’ll be more confident about popping it on, reducing your cost-per-wear!

Below shows how a floppy hat style works for summer AND winter:

Image from Pinterest
Image from Pinterest

Traveling With Hats

For formal occasions you would be given a hat box with your purchase, but traveling with casual hats I ALWAYS wear mine, then pop it in the overhead locker after everyone else has sat down!! Wooo betide anyone who attempts to open the locker and dent my hat!

Three Bird Nest & Inspire Uplift offer genius baseball caps with higher holes!

What’s The Best Hat For My Face Shape?

Ok, so there’s SO many guides about what head wear suits your particular face shape, but this also means that firstly you need to KNOW your face shape!

Goorin Bros has a fantastic face & hat guide, one of which is below, click here for more of their shape guides also note the advantages of ‘the tilt’.

Hat Help!! My Personal Shopping Advice

So I’m here to break it down for you.

My personal shopper advice is to initially try a hat style that’s medium width and height and that’s a classic rather than a fashion trend, something like a Panama or cloche hat, see above directory (although the latter can look a little dated if it looks to ‘costume’).
It’s also got a good mix of roundness across the crown and angles to suit most face shapes.

Bingo! Your new hat! It looks good right?

No? Then contact me and let’s chat about taking you on a shopping session to find your style!

STYLE TIP – If you’re new to hat wearing and you don’t want it to stand out much, choose a hat that’s tonal to your hair colour to build your confidence.

Fashion Trends in Headwear

Nowadays there are SO many more fashion trends for head wear it’s not funny, the use of skinny scarves, turbans, head wraps, hair jewellery etc. all encourage us to experiment with our personal style by adding another element to our look we might not have considered a few seasons ago?

Have fun with it!

STYLE TIP – The only thing to avoid is it looking too ‘costume’ or ‘dress up’, try and stay authentic to your personality style.

Brands to try:

Cheap Thrill

Ace Of Something – affordable, on-line fashion led range with a great choice of colours
Sportsgirl –affordable hat range for the fashion led

Wallet Friendly

Lack Of Color –fantastic mid priced brand with a great range and edge
Johnny Was – local brand who you might stumble across at Sydney markets
Perez – specialised supplier of genuine Panama hats and handmade products from Ecuador, again found at Sydney markets

Savvy Splurge

Akubra – an iconic Aussie brand made right here in Oz for the serious hat wearers among us
Strand Hatters Sydney –stock hand-crafted head wear from around the world

Found this helpful? Then let me know! x

HOW TO DRESS YOUR ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES : HATS & SUNGLASSES – part 2

Posted February 24th, 2019 & under Accessories, Fashion Tips, How to wear the essentials, Personal Style.

Come with me as we delve deeper in to the world of sunnies…

How To Wear Sunglasses

Don’t you love sunglasses, or more accurately, don’t you love how effortlessly sunglasses cover a multitude of sins. Big night out last night? Grab a pair of sunnies. Child kept you up all night? Grab a pair of sunnies. Want to add edge to a rubbish outfit, grab a pair of sunnies!!!

Sunglasses are like the superhero of accessories!!

My prerequisite to purchasing is that spectacles pass the ‘hair test’, if they don’t double as a head band, then they’re not coming home with me!

Personal Stylist Advice

Don’t you find that one of the most difficult aspects of buying sunglasses is that the tinted lens means you can’t see what you actually look like!

My personal stylist advice? Take photos of you wearing them for a few different angles and send them to a couple of friends to help decide.

Ultimately they have to feel comfortable on your face. I’m a professional personal shopper and even I struggle!!

Personal Shopper Tips

Here’s my run down on how to buy your perfect sunglasses:

Colour

The shade of your sunnies are KEY!!!!

As a colour consultant, we chat about sunglasses and reading glasses during our session which is REALLY helpful as we all wear some kind of glasses on our face. Do you struggle with why heavy black sunglasses don’t suit you? It’s probably because, like many of us, you don’t suit black so it’s important to find out what shades DO suit you, particularly as buying glasses can be quite an expensive investment for some people.

I love seeing those glasses wearers that rock a pop coloured frame and it’s generally because they’ve undergone a color consult and have the confidence to know what tones flatter. I can do this for you!

Size

As with hats, you want to keep the scale of this accessory in keeping with your body type, unless you go for a statement pair which I categorise as a ‘fashion look’ rater than a ‘flattering look’, read below:

Petite, slim body shape or delicate facial features = finer frames such as metal in small sizes with lighter lenses

Fuller, taller physique = heavier, wider or darker frames with deeper lens shades even some decorative feature on the side to make more of a statement

Kate Moss looks stunning from a FASHION STATEMENT point of view but the large black sunnies overwhelm her fine features from a FLATTERING point of view

Width-wise, reading spectacles ideally would be the same width as your face, the narrower set they are, the nerdier you’ll look, but with sunglasses they can be a little wider set and the bigger they are, the more Hollywood film star you’ll look!

Fashion Trends

For about a decade or two thanks to fashion stylist Rachel Zoe, the fashion trend has been towards oversize sunnies as the thinking was, they made your face look smaller and slimmer – remember Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie pre her style makeover? This is still a key look and statement sunnies do offer instant glamour, great for new mums who have approximately 1.5 minutes to get changed and out the door!

However nowadays there is a newer trend towards a smaller, more retro French girl style, and who doesn’t want to look like a trés chic French girl?

Fashion Style

In the same way that you want to choose a hat that represents your personal fashion style, glasses should too. If your style is:

CLASSIC = opt for a timeless style such as aviator or rectangular

EDGY = try the straight-top statement style or retro cat eye?

What Sunglasses Suit My Face Shape?

As with hat guides, there’s several, ok hundreds of different guides to help you choose a style of glasses based on your face shape and a lot of them say slightly different things or can get a bit scientific, so let me break it down for you, if you have a:

ROUND face shape = you suit glasses that are squarer
SQUARE face shape = you suit glasses that are rounder

This is because you want your sunglasses to create the opposite effect of your face shape

OVAL face shape = lucky you! Pretty much all shapes will flatter
HEART / OBLONG / DIAMOND = styles that echo your natural face shape suit you best

This guide from TravelModa.com I found on Pinterest is pretty good:

Or this one from GlassesUSA who offer further explanation by clicking on this link

Cat eye sunglasses that emphasise the angle of our cheek bones whilst offering a combination of round AND straight lines, generally suit most face shapes so this is a safe style to choose if you’re unsure. Just play with the scale and shade to best suit your features and personal style

Unflattering Fashion Style

Ok, so this combination of hat & sunnies is an example of wearing unflattering styles for her face shape which is square.

GLASSES = too wide and rectangular, they should have some roundness to them.

HAT = too small and triangular for her square face

How To Match Hats WITH Sunglasses

Now, we’ve nailed the perfect hat styles from part 1 and now you know your ideal sunglasses, what about wearing them together?

Try to echo the essence of the hat in the sunglasses, so if you’re rocking a baseball hat, avoid 70’s Woodstock sunnies !

Take Bella Hadid here, for a supermodel she isn’t selling this ‘off duty model’ look to me as it’s too much of a mish mash of fashion styles. [ps: isn’t it reassuring that even a super model can look pretty ‘average’ sometimes?]

Remember, in practical terms, the bigger and wider the sunglasses, the harder it is to actually wear a hat with them!

Here’s an example where the glasses are SO BIG that they can’t wear the hat properly on their head, it tilts right back and could easily fall off if she look up, so if this isn’t the look your after, consider this. I have a similar pair and get very annoyed they don’t pair with any of my hats!

*Sunnies are so big, the hat can’t sit on her head properly*

Never get it wrong again!

How To Accessorize Outfits WITH Hats & Sunglasses

Now let’s consider your clothes style, how do we combine these accessories WITH your clothes?

Good Fashion Style

Below are some examples from Pinterest of when all elements are working together, good combinations of hat, sunnies AND clothing. These people have committed to the ‘look’, even the example without sunglasses shows how her jewellery compliments the feel of the hat, creating a strong look with a strong sense of identity.

70’s Boho
French Girl Chic
Rock & Roll
Ethnic
Classic
Ladylike

Personal Shopper Secrets

I’ll let you in to a personal shopper secret I tell clients when I plan their wardrobes, I suggest buying 2 (or even 3 depending on your needs) of the above types of ‘sunglasses & hat sets’ that work together and more importantly, represent your personal style so you always have a ‘set’ on hand for wherever you’re going.

Which personality style/s are you?

Need help with discovering the answer? Then contact me today

Wardrobe Planner

The sunglasses you purchase may be the same style you wear all year round, but you wear them with your straw hat for summer, then swap the hat for a felt or leather version for winter and voilà, you’ve updated your look with only 1 purchase, not 2.

Not everything needs to be new just because we enter a new season.

Instagram

Now, I’ve found this rather fabulous instastar Rita Tesla I want to introduce you to…

I’m not saying I LOVE her personal fashion style, but what I do love is how she has hat & sunglass ‘sets’ that compliment each other in terms of style and colour – AND compliment her outfit!!

I’m not suggesting you need this many, she clearly gets product ‘donated’ to her (lucky girl) but take a few cues from how she combines her accessories WITH her clothes. It’s pretty good without being too ‘matchy-matchy’ (and I can’t say that phrase without having James Corden in my ear from Peter Rabbit – have you seen it? ….sorry, I’m digressing).

Rita is Russian, hence the cold weather styling, but she really nails different combos and is awesome inspiration for accessories, some of which is actually quite trans-seasonal!

Image Consultant Theory

However, as an image consultant I know that you can have all the style theory in the world, buy YOU have to LIKE what YOU look and feel like in these accessories, so my professional stylist advice is:

GO TO A SPECIALIST SHOP AND TRY SOME ON !

Get a feel for them, explore, take some photos. Hats and glasses are like personal shopping with a capital P & S!

STYLE TIP – experiment with lower priced pieces and the items you wear on rotation, buy better quality versions when needed.

Brands To Try:

If you have a few more minutes, have a look through my Pinterest ACCESSORIES board for lots of style inspiration as well as practical guides to help you find the perfect hat and sunglasses.

….let’s just hope the sun comes back out!

Get in touch today if you want to improve your personal style and learn how to look better, effortlessly x

*All images from Pinterest unless otherwise stated

WARNING!! KONMARI DECLUTTER SYSTEM

Posted February 4th, 2019 & under Capsule Wardrobe, Detox your Wardrobe, Sustainable Fashion, Wardrobe Makeover Services.

So in principal I love and agree with KonMari declutter system devised by Marie Kondo, you might have heard about it since her netflix series ‘Tidying Up’ has launched and become a cultural phenomenon?

In very basic terms, Marie encourages you to remove anything from your home that doesn’t ‘spark joy’.

I think that cleansing your surroundings periodically sheds a skin and is a vital part of evolving.

However, I do have concern about those people that might take it too literally, particularly when it comes to a wardrobe makeover.

Wardrobe Makeover

I firmly believe that most things in your closet should make you happy, but I also believe that there needs to be a second phase to the questioning, something like:

DO I NEED THIS PIECE TO BUILD OUTFITS?

The problem with only keeping items that ‘spark joy’ is that the plainer, often more ‘boring’ articles of clothing can get removed in the process and with it, the building blocks of your closet.

Personal Stylist

As a personal stylist, I frequently visit wardrobe’s that lack these more simple pieces because we tend to look past them when shopping in favor of more interesting, colourful, detailed clothing and accessories.

We don’t always understand the value they add to our wardrobe because we might not have been show HOW to wear it.

Read more about my MAKEOVER PROCESS and WARDROBE MAKEOVER here.

Personal Shopper

These ‘building blocks’ are often the main focus of the list we need to look for during our personal shopper session in order to complete a fully functional wardrobe.

Imagine if you used to own these pieces but removed them because they didn’t ‘spark joy’ and now you have to spend your months budget replacing them all!?!

And then consider effect on the planet??

So please, before you throw out that less interesting item that doesn’t evoke fantastic memories, consider it’s versatility in creating fantastic outfits.

Ask yourself:

wardrobe makeover sydney — *Photo from KonMari website*

is it flattering?
can it be layered?
does it work with pants AND skirts?
would it be wearable through most seasons etc?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to one or more of these, then DO NOT DISCARD IT!!

Give it the opportunity to ‘spark joy’.

If you need help to declutter and give your wardrobe a makeover, then call me for a chat.

1 Shockingly Simple Fashion Tip

Oh, and if like lots of my clients, you don’t like the thought of discarding so many of your clothing & accessories, then have a read of my 1 shockingly simple fashion tip to help you mini-cleanse quicker than you can say ‘Kon Marie declutter system’.

#10x10challenge – WHAT’S IN YOUR WARDROBE’S SYDNEY?

Posted January 19th, 2019 & under Capsule Wardrobe, Fashion Tips, Personal Style, Sustainable Fashion.

You know me, I love a challenge, and when that challenge involves a styling a capsule wardrobe, i’m even more excited!

Have you heard about this 10×10 DAY CHALLENGE on instagram? It’s where you:

> select a 10 piece capsule
> create 10 outfits
> post it to your grid

Simple!

Thousands of people around the world are trying it so you can get some real life outfit inspiration, and to me that’s the very best kind – EVERYDAY OUTFIT INSPIRATION.

#summer10x10

Mine is an everyday summer capsule wardrobe for Australian weather (although this sporadic Sydney rain has been throwing a spanner in the works!)

If you need some more casual summer outfit inspiration then click on my pinterest board.

So, I took to my closet with my little helper (my 5 year old daughter)
and put my wardrobe stylist skills to the test!

Here’s some of my 10 outfits (well, 11 actually) complete with style hacks to offer simple fashion tips when building your looks, as well as my final 11 outfits I created. And now i’m FINALLY on insta-stories, you can get loads more behind-the-scenes video action!!

13 Things I Learnt From My 10×10

I can honestly say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed planning my outfits for a 10 day period and here’s why:

1. Great to have a choice every morning, but a limited choice

2. Reduces decision making, feeling overwhelmed or stressed

3. Saves time

4. Encourages me to create new outfit combinations I might not have thought of

5. Encourages more ways to style a garment ie. knotting my t-shirt rather than tucking it in

6. Forces me to try accessorising & layering to add outfit interest

7. Makes me accountable for the versatility & comfort of my purchases as these are the attributes of frequently worn product

8. Makes me value my second hand pieces even more because they’re more unusual and it sparks joy when putting them on

9. Surprised that such an inexpensive capsule created 10 (actually 11) outfits, therefore I value them more

10. As a professional wardrobe consultant, I know I don’t need rails and rails of clothes, yet this process still made re-evaluate the quantity & quality of what I have in my closet

11. Helps define your personal style – more on that below

12. I’m actually excited about wearing some other items from my wardrobe now I’ve given them a ‘rest’ and not looked at them for 10 days.

Do Your Clothes Need A Rest?

Resting your clothes relates back to my previous blog where I was chatting about how to organize your wardrobe. Often there are pieces we can remove immediately from our closet to ‘rest’ but then there’s others, those that you wear occasionally and think you should keep in your wardrobe but don’t bring you joy so you’re not sure why to keep them?

That’s what this 10×10 challenge forces you to do, to look at the rest of your closet and ask

‘do I like you enough to be part of my next 10×10 challenge?’

If the answer is ‘no’ then maybe you’ve identified these other items you need ‘rest’ and pack away for a few months?

This is exactly the process I workshop with clients. I create a capsule of their favorite pieces, generally around 25/30 pieces, show them how to wear them in loads of different ways, breath new life in to them and then ask my client how they then feel about their less favored pieces.

This is generally the response I get:

Thank you so much for all your tips and follow up resources – they are truly wonderful! I even did a further wardrobe edit after you left – I noticed there were still a number of items I was holding onto that just weren’t right (style/colour etc.)

Zoe McLaughlin, 24

Clients are happier to let go of pieces once they’ve been shown that they have enough choice, versatility and fun from their 30 piece capsule I’ve created!

Personal Style

So let’s discuss personality styles because, for a lot of clients, it’s an area they want to focus on during our session.

For this 10×10 challenge, you have to select just 10 key pieces from your belongings, but by further selecting what pieces to wear most often during those 10 days, you really get to understand your unique personal style, ie, do you:

> do you gravitate towards ‘basics’ or trend led pieces

> do you embrace colour or neutrals

> do you feel most comfortable when covering or accentuating a particular body part?

Be honest with yourself, learn what you naturally gravitate towards and let that guide you when making future purchases.

It’s easy to dress the version of us we imagine in a parallel life – a ‘celebrity version’ if you like – one that could wear higher heels, swan about on a yacht dressed in colourful silk resort wear, dress head-to-toe in white all day everyday….or is that just me..?

This links back to the reason I touched on earlier about why this 10x10challenge is so useful, because when you search the hashtag is offers REAL OUTFIT IDEAS! Not the ‘celebrity version’ like a lot of what’s on the gram.

What Shocked Me Most

So I said I’d learnt 13 lessons, yet I haven’t shared number 13 with you. You know the best part of this process that was an unexpected bi-product? The fact that it’s made my daughter think about the number of shoes she has and the number of times she wears them as well as engaging her in conversations about excess and sustainability.

Usually her shoes are half hidden at the bottom of her wardrobe and it’s only when getting them all out lined up next to each other, that we can fully appreciate how many there are!

Sustainable Fashion

Thinking more about the amount of clothes we have versus the amount we actually wear is quite shocking. This process proves you don’t need many items to create exciting outfits and that we can push the combinations we co-ordinate a lot more when we have to. It forces you to give yourself a StyleSense WARDROBE MAKEOVER!

Ethical Fashion

I’m a mindful stylist who supports the slow fashion movement in trying to reduce mindless consumerism which my generation are particularly guilty of, so reeducating the next generation is what it’s all about.

We need our purchases to be more considered, think about how we will wear it, have we already got similar in our wardrobe and to encourage people to ‘shop in their own wardrobe’ before heading out to the shops as there’s always something we’ve forgotten about hiding at the back to rediscover!!

Challenge Your Fashion Style

After work-shopping with clients, I LOVE to challenge some of them by requesting they:

buy nothing new for 1 year

buy no floral prints or black clothes for 1 year

wear a certain skirt or jacket fortnightly for 3 months

SO MY CHALLENGE TO YOU IS TO TRY THIS 10×10 CHALLENGE

What’s the worst than could happen if you plan your outfits, you only create 9 outfits? You need to swap a piece? Who cares? It’s not just about the goal but the process and how that changes your habits and outlook.

Wardrobe Planner Advice

So, I can’t let you go without offering some fashion tips before joining the 10×10 fashion movement in curating a capsule closet:

> STICK TO A COLOUR PALETTE – this doesn’t mean it has to be just black, white & grey but more that it needs a simple colour palette ie. navy blue, white, bright blue & orange. All these shades work together as well as in 2’s and 3’s

> RATIO OF TOPS TO BOTTOMS – you need more tops than bottoms, considering we generally launder tops more frequently

> CONSIDER VERSATILITY – this doesn’t mean items have to be boring, but just consider how easily they will outfit with other pieces in terms of colour, shape & pattern, particularly because the 10×10 challenge capsule closet is about mixing separates, not dresses

> ACCESSORIZE SMARTLY – choose a versatile shoe & bag as there’s really only room for 1 each of these and this might highlight an a gap in your wardrobe …all part of the learning curve!

> CHECK THE WEATHER REPORT – first and foremost our clothes must protect us! Therefore, my last point is to make sure you pick climate appropriate pieces!!

Learn more about WARDROBE PLANNING here

So here’s my #summer10x10 capsule. Jump across to my instagram for a closer look and I look forward to seeing your capsule soon!

MY FASHION TIPS BLOG HAS BEEN VOTED ONE TO FOLLOW IN 2019!!!!

Posted January 18th, 2019 & under Fashion Blogger, Fashion Tips, Personal Stylist Sydney, Wardrobe Makeover Services.

…and did I mention, also voted one of the best 15 style advice blogs… on the planet!?!! Read about it here

Thank you Feedspot Blog Reader for featuring my fashion tips blog !! I am one of only 2 Australian stylists voted for and the only personal stylist from Sydney!

Personal Stylist in Sydney

I now work as a stylist based in Sydney, but I’ve accrued over 18 years global fashion experience dressing women (and men), so I love being able to pass on my personal styling advice to help make dressing more satisfying for others.

I genuinely believe that no one should feel crappy or overwhelmed about the way they dress.

Fashion Tips Blog

To be honest, when I started as an image consultant, I didn’t quite realise just how much fashion insight I had, well, I did, I knew I had a tonne of international experience, but I didn’t realise how much of it other people didn’t know – but why would they if they haven’t worked in the fashion industry???

Because I have been designing clothes most of my career (read my bio here) it means I understand them intimately, including:

garment construction
the cost of producing clothes
what to spend out for and when to save your pennies
why certain clothes look/are more expensive than others
print & pattern knowledge
fabric expert able to advise the most versatile to the most breathable cloths
design details & clothes style
how clothes should fit
why some clothes don’t fit (DON’T blame your body type)
how to tailor clothes for minimum cost
fashion trends, fashion cycles and understanding what constitutes an investment
how design teams work and how that effects what you buy
sizing advice

In fact, as a professional stylist, I can help you with pretty much ANY ASPECT OF FASHION, STYLE & CLOTHING you need to compliment your personal style

So, if you or a friend needs fashion tips on how to dress, style advice on fashion trends that actually work for real people, or a personal shopper service in Sydney, then contact me for help, or click ‘follow’ on facebook page and my instagram style.sense as my insta stories are proving popular too!

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET’S START IMPROVING THE WAY YOU LOOK & FEEL NOW!!

Oh, and congratulations to all the other global winners of this fashion blog vote too 😉

HOW TO ORGANISE YOUR LIFE

Posted January 5th, 2019 & under Capsule Wardrobe, Personal Styling Service, Sustainable Fashion, Wardrobe Makeover Sydney.

OK, maybe that’s a slightly broader topic than I can cover in one blog, so I guess what I want to talk about is how to organize your wardrobe…

How To Organise Your Wardrobe

This time last year I wrote a detailed step-by-step guide on how to conduct a WARDROBE DETOX (click & scroll to the bottom) containing practical fashion tips resulting in a full wardrobe makeover, including helpful storage solutions.

So this year, I’m hoping you’ve done the big overhaul (??) and don’t need a huge cleanse, or maybe you don’t have the time or head space to commit to re-organise your entire belongings, so for you, I’m offering shockingly simple style advice.

STEP 1: WARDROBE MAKEOVER

The first and most crucial step when giving your wardrobe a makeover is to EDIT.

I can pretty much guarantee that you probably don’t need all that ‘stuff’ that is currently in your closet.

From my first hand experience as a personal stylist, clients retain lots of clothes & accessories that no longer suit their fashion style, some of which they no longer even like but keep because they feel guilty throwing them out, particularly when some items are still relatively new. I get it, I HATE waste, so here’s my professional wardrobe stylist advice:

Sustainable Fashion – Recycle Materials

Give unwanted pieces to a friend or family member
Swap at a clothes party – you could even host one? Works particularly well for accessories as they tend to fit a broader spectrum of body types
Sell and recycle the money (I do this frequently via Ebay or High End Facebook group for more expensive purchases – click for links)
Sell better quality/unworn/designer items to a to a dress agency who sells it for you for a percentage, Di Nuovo is a personal local favorite
Alter or make the item in to something new, so for example if you love the colour and pattern on a top but hate the sleeves, remove them! Voilà! A brand new top you will wear for $20 tailoring cost!
Give to a second hand shop to support local charity’s, Vinnies, Red Cross, or The Salvos

Any of these ways to recycle your textiles would not only eliminate guilt, but actually make you feel pretty good about supporting sustainable fashion in Australia and becoming more environmentally friendly. There’s an increasing number of sustainable fashion brands throughout Australia & New Zealand..but more on that in a different post!

Simplify Your Wardrobe

Another reason why editing is so crucial is because it’s counter-intuitive to try and find space for clothes and accessories you’re not actually enjoying? They just take up valuable space – and for Sydney wardrobes that means prime real estate!!

YOUR BELONGINGS HAVE TO EARN THEIR PLACE IN YOUR WARDROBE

If you approach your wardrobe/draws with this in mind, it drastically changes what your space needs to contain.

Keeping your closet jammed packed:

> Creates more creases and if clothes are creased, your less likely to wear them

> Means you can’t see the fantastic pieces you own as they’re covered by your fashion mistakes – if you can’t see it you won’t wear it!

> Overwhelms you, leaving you more likely to pick out the same thing you always resort to wearing

> Stresses you out when you can’t find the what you want!

Does this sound familiar?

Minimalist Wardrobe

The Minimalists are American authors, podcasters, filmmakers, and public speakers Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. The duo began pursuing the minimalist lifestyle in 2010 and have influenced thousands of people to do the same, to read more about them click here.

However, don’t think you have to go all ‘minimalist’ and throw out most of your closet when performing a wardrobe makeover – although I am able to perform the following styling service if this is what you need? :

HALVE YOUR WARDROBE

DOUBLE YOUR OUTFITS

However, cleansing your closet can be as simple as eliminating just a 3 pieces. Simply starting to remove just a few things no longer serve you is freeing, cathartic even. Getting rid of emotional baggage!

Don’t think it has to be a huge clear out where you try on every piece you own and decide its future, to be honest, you can probably identify certain clothing you’re not enjoying, instantly?

Am I right?

Personal Style

Be honest with yourself and where you’re at, if an item doesn’t represent YOU and your personal style meaning you’re always going to choose something else instead, then maybe it’s time to discard? We evolve as people therefore our fashion style needs to evolve accordingly.

Mini Wardrobe Makeover

Some of our belongings make us feel uncomfortable at certain times – if we’ve put on weight for example which most of us are guilty of during Christmas and New Year – but it might make us feel more uncomfortable thinking about throwing it out. Therefore a ‘mini-wardrobe-makeover’ might suit you better?

Below is actually my mini wardrobe detox I’ve just conducted consisting of 20 pieces that I’ve removed, not because I hate them, but because I don’t fancy wearing them right now so i’m giving them a ‘rest’.

Do Your Clothes Need A Rest?

Working as a personal stylist in Sydney, this is the fashion advice I give – ” sometimes, some clothes just need to be given a rest “. Don’t we all need a rest sometimes?

Obviously there are seasonal changes to our wardrobe to ensure it’s always weather-appropriate, which i’m sure you do every 6 months as you follow me regularly and know I endorse this 😉 so what i’m talking about is resting ‘other’ items you’ve fallen out of love with – pieces you’ve worn on heavy rotation, an item you just can’t quite outfit how you hoped or something you’ve simply ‘gone off’. Don’t just assume you have to throw these out.

Ask yourself the following:

DOES IT FIT MY BODY TYPE?

DOES IT FIT MY LIFESTYLE?

DOES IT MAKE ME FEEL GOOD?

IS IT READY TO WEAR? (IE. DOES NEED ALTERING?)

HAVE YOU WORN IT IN THE LAST YEAR?

If the answer is ‘NO’ to most questions, then try the sustainable fashion suggestions 1-6 above.

If the answer is ‘YES’ to most questions but you still don’t feel like wearing it, then perhaps give it a rest? Carefully store it somewhere outside of your functional wardrobe (although it can be shelved at the very top of your closet), then re-visit it in 3 or 6 months time depending on your comfort level and you might just find you now have the top to wear with that ‘rested’ skirt, or you forgot you had that lightweight knit and can’t wait to wear it again?

IT’S LIKE SHOPPING IN YOUR OWN WARDROBE

Which is free of charge. And that’s the best bit!

So why not start with just 3 pieces? You might find that over time, you feel more comfortable to remove a few more items because your not throwing them away, never to be seen again, but instead transferring them to a ‘rest pile’ therefore you can be pretty ruthless as it will remain in your home.

OK, So What Shouldn’t I Throw Away?

> Timeless women’s clothing in quality fabrics such as leather, sequins, velvet or denim as these rarely date

> Black doesn’t tend to date as quickly so I suggest to keep

> Vintage styles …as they always look cool and could double as fancy dress!

> Items with sentimental value and those pieces you want to hand down to your children

Shockingly Simple Fashion Tips

So you can see how easy organising your wardrobe can actually be.

JUST START TO EDIT A FEW PIECES…AND GO FROM THERE!

You don’t need to necessarily approach it as a 2-day-job, but instead just start to be honest about what you haven’t worn and ‘rest’ them to give your wardrobe a mini-makeover. Trust me, you’ll start to enjoy your edited wardrobe so much more when all you can see is great purchases, that fit you and are ready to throw on!

Contact me to make a booking here. See you soon!

ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR?

Posted December 31st, 2018 & under Personal Styling Service, Stylist Sydney, Sustainable Fashion, Wardrobe Makeover Sydney.

Here’s a 2nd little article I wrote for the incredible Mama Tribe.

It’s a bit about providing some everyday outfit inspiration, but mostly about trying to incorporate some of your ‘nicer’ belongings in to your day-to-day looks, have a read here.

IMAGE CONSULTANT

Because my whole business ethos is built around you wearing more of your clothes more often, I often tell my personal styling clients:

” IT’S TOO LOVELY TO SAVE FOR ‘BEST’ ”

I want you to shop in your own wardrobe before going out and spending more money on more ‘stuff”. It creates a more sustainable fashion environment which you can read more about here.

IMAGE CONSULTANT SYDNEY

Working as an image consultant in Sydney, I know that SO many of us are guilty of opening our wardrobes and thinking

‘I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!’

when the more accurate statement should be..

‘I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CREATE THE OUTFIT I WANT TO WEAR’

Cue my personal image skills!

WARDROBE MAKEOVER SYDNEY

So have a read when you get 5 minutes, maybe escape to the toilet for some peace and quiet and once the kids are in bed, open your cupboards, delve deep, you know, right to the back of your wardrobe or to the bottom of that draw and pull out something you haven’t worn in a while because your saving it for when you go somewhere ‘nice’.

When you find that item, give it a style makeover = a casual makeover.

STYLE TIPS:

Take advantage of my image consultant services and try out one of the practical fashion tips I suggest in my article to see if you can make that item more casual and therefore get more wear – and more importantly – more enjoyment from it.

Want to book in a personal styling session? Then contact me here.

SUMMER WARDROBE ESSENTIAL – WHITE SKIRTS

Posted December 12th, 2018 & under Personal Shopper, SS19, Top Tips, Wardrobe Makeover Services.

Working as a wardrobe planner, I believe every woman should have at least 1 white skirt in her wardrobe doing either of the following jobs:

> 1. white casual skirt
> 2. white formal/occasion skirt

A WHITE SKIRT IS LIKE THE SUPERHERO OF CLOTHES

They give your closet a summer makeover, instantly transforming your tops…. in to summer outfits!

It’s not a fashion trend, but a wardrobe essential!

Casual White Skirt

1. For a casual fashion style, you can’t beat white denim or cotton and they come in a variety of shades/shapes depending on your personal style and body type, here’s 5 of my high street fav’s:

Formal/Occasion White Skirt

2. Ideally, you would also have a more formal version for ss19 too, this could be for work or play (or ideally 1 that would work across both), depending on your lifestyle. I’ve picked my fav 5 of these too, some from the haute-street:

HAUTE-STREET (higher end high-street)

Fashion Tips – Keeping Whites, white

Some say that white is difficult to wear with kids because it shows stains, but so does black skirts when it’s covered in toothpaste, food or fluff!

My tip for keeping your whites, white, is bicarb of soda, it’s a wardrobe wizard as listed in my blog I wrote ‘8 Fashion Must Have’s’ which you can read by clicking on the link.

Summer 19 Makeover

So, simply swap your darker bottom-of-body for one of these white or cream versions and you’ve got summer dressing all wrapped up!

All white?

COLOUR CONSULTANT – BEAUTY MAKEOVER

Posted November 15th, 2018 & under Beauty Makeover, Colour theory, Personal Styling Service, Style Makeover Sydney.

With spring racing, Christmas party’s and new year all within a hop-skip-and-a-jump from each other here in Australia, finding the most flattering lipstick shade is an important part of your fashion style.

As a PERSONAL COLOUR CONSULTANT, I identify the most flattering colours to suit your individual features but this doesn’t start and stop with clothes, it extends to beauty and make-up too.

YOUR PERSONALISED COLOURS ARE THE ONLY SHADES YOU’LL EVER NEED!

Beauty Makeover

The whole point of wearing lipstick is to enhance your features, so by wearing the incorrect shade, it actually can have a detrimental effect!

My ONLINE CLIENT needed help identifying her ideal lipstick shades so she sent me through a few to look at…

Colour Stylist

My client is an AUTUMN so she has some natural warmth.

You can see that 1 & 2 flatter this client in different ways as they too have warmth to them, but colour 3 is too cool blue for her and dulls her complexion…and hair!!

If you saw shade 3 in isolation, you’d probably think it was ok but once you try a few shades on and compare, you can clearly see the difference.

Lean more about COLOUR here

Style Tips

I suggest that when (and if) you have a few spare minutes, pop in to a make-up brand and ask them to try a few lipsticks on you including different finishes – but take photos in the same light so you can compare one against another as this is when the winner is obvious!

You could even book in for a make-up makeover which may cost, but you’ll receive style tips and will be introduced to new beauty products as they’re improving all the time which in turn, improves the way we look for less effort. And we all know that’s a good thing.