Last week I read
several books on self makeovers!
Why? Rut Rut Rut!
Not
in the spiritual sense; (more on that another time). It
is more about finding what you
want to ‘look’ like (which, in hindsight, is a pretty self absorbed thing to do, ahhh well!).
‘Gala Darling’ (on her blog) suggested a book
called ‘Style Statement by Carrie McCarthy’ which provides step by step instructions
to find what your personal style could be, and how to achieve it. I read the bare-bones of the book on Amazon (Amazon
gives a preview).
Carrie asks you to choose words that ‘fit you’. The first word you choose is your 80% word
(the one you are closest to already) and the second word is your 20% word (the
one you want to be more like).
There
were lists of words to choose from, such as: princess, stylish, earthy, glam, diva,
sparkle, etc.
If
you couldn't find a word to suit, you go out and find one
that does fit ... using dictionary meanings to discover if you
identify with that word.
Gala
Darlings words were ‘eccentric pop’.
My words literally hit me when I read them:
I am
a ‘CHERISHED
BOHEMIAN’ (with
a side order of feminine).
Cherished is the love of the preloved,
the sentimental and the delicately beautiful: objects that are good for the soul. So many
of my belongings are in this category!
Cherished is my 80% word.
Bohemian is to be a bit out of the
ordinary, disregarding conventional standards of behaviour, a bit eccentric. This is my
20% word.
I
qualified these with feminine.
I then found Brenda Kinsels ‘Fashion Make over, 30 days to Diva Style’ in the local
library.
Brenda does a similar ‘word association’
to Style Statement and then goes through her rules for changing. Below are the rules
I chose to follow.
1. Look at what you have in your
wardrobe and decide if it fits your style words.
I found that 70% of clothes I owned
were in dark colours – lots of black – safe and easy to wear. Thus the ‘rut rut
rut’.
2. Throw out anything that doesn't fit you properly, is tatty, hasn't been worn for years or doesn't suit the style words.
Done: major HALVING of the
wardrobe and shoes! Tough.
3. Throw out anything that is
not in a flattering colour.
This was really tough. I held every remaining item against myself in
the mirror to see if it suited my colouring. I had to be
truthful to myself.
The remaining black items stayed
because I can dress them up with coloured jackets or scarves or similar, but
some lovely thing were relegated to the ‘to go’ pile.
I also chose a colour palette/s
in Brenda’s book. These are my ideal colours to wear.
My cherished colours
My bohemian colours
4. Don’t save clothes for special occasions, everyday is a special
occasion.
I am soooooooo guilty of this: my
thoughts revolve around.... I can’t wear the gorgeous rose coloured cardigan, save
it for special times, the cream fur jacket, black cotton dress, taupe lace top,
white jeans, jade satin espadrilles etc.
Well, I am working my way through all of them as everyday wear. And I feel fabulous (and overdressed but hey......)
Adding this rule too: If you have natural colouring that is high contrast (for example black hair and pale skin, or pale, pale blonde hair and brown skin) you can get away with wearing bright, high contrast clothes such as black with white,tomato red or lime green etc. If you have natural colouring that is low contrast you need to have lower contrast clothes (I have olive skin, mid brown hair and eyes - very monochromatic. My big fashion mistake would be wearing citrus or 'pop' (sky blue , hot pink) colours. These clothes went out in the clean up.)
I am working my way
through my style rut!
