1 – Always remember that the client is YOU!
The first best tip for styling yourself is to keep in touch with your own feelings about things and don’t believe that your very first reaction is how you actually feel. Typically, our very first reaction is the one were conditioned to have and once you think about the idea a little longer your true feelings will come through. For example, you find a really interesting blouse in the store and your first reaction is to think, “I could never wear that”; after that thought you need to look at the blouse again and think about how you could make it your own and your next thought might be, “Or I could pair it with that gorgeous pair of vintage jeans I have!”.
Always keep in mind your own feelings and don’t let yourself be swayed by what is typical or what the “rules” say. Also, keep in mind that you’re not wearing your outfits for anyone but you, so as long as you like it then that’s it! There’s nothing else to say about it!
2- Have fun!
The next best tip for styling yourself is to remember to have fun! I have noticed that I style the best outfits when I’m excited about the clothes I have and I’m having fun and experimenting with what feels good and what looks interesting! The first tip for having fun is to find things that evoke joy inside of you! Mine is an easy one; I love when I can find anything PINK!
Once you find something that sparks a bit of joy, you’ll know you’re on the right track! How can you ever go wrong when you are guided by joy and creativity? Its impossible! Having fun for me is thinking up new and inventive ways to style my clothes or finding a new way to wear a piece of jewellery. For example, I found the most gorgeous bracelet in a thrift/charity shop, and I had the genius idea to make it into a choker, so I just attached another necklace to it and wrapped it around my neck and it was so perfect!
I urge you all to figure out what aspects you enjoy about dressing and putting an outfit together. Are you like me and enjoy the innovation and exciting parts of creating new ways to wear things or do you enjoy watching the whole thing come together? Or maybe you enjoy the hunt for the best bargain with the best items (I’m guilty of this too), or maybe you like to try out different styles and see what they do to change your perception of yourself! All of these are valid and as long as you’re enjoying yourself and being creative then you are doing it absolutely RIGHT!
3 – The most important part of any outfit is your Confidence!
The third best tip for styling yourself is to be confident! I know it may be difficult if you are struggling with your confidence so here are some ways you can fake it till you make it! The first is to remember that everyone has the exact same level of insecurity as you and since you don’t go round telling people you don’t like their outfits, why would someone do that to you? I have never had anyone come up to me to tell me that they disliked my outfit, or they didn’t think it suited me etc, but I have had loads of people tell me that they love my outfit, and they love how colourful I am!
I think were so afraid of negative feedback that we forget that positive feedback exists as well, and people are more likely to offer positive feedback than negative. But if the improbable happens and someone does take offence to your outfit then its important to realise that they’re allowed to not like it because they never put it together; it wasn’t their creativity but yours that created your amazing outfit so their opinions on the matter are void and have absolutely no effect on your amazingness.
Even if you aren’t quite there on the confidence front; you can think about it like this, you’re not living to please anyone but yourself and that translates well with clothes because you’re not wearing clothes or dressing your own body for anyone else but yourself and what feels and looks good to you. In that way we should all be so confident because we already won over our critic; Ourselves!
4 – “Rules” don’t exist.
This next best tip for styling yourself is so important to remember. Rules are so last season! Rules have no place in a creative space and fashion is basically creativity of self-expression! If you are constantly being corralled into boxes of rules that say you can’t mix metals or you can’t wear a statement lipstick if you have statement eye makeup then how are we going to grow? What poppycock!
I find it so important to think critically and ask why? Why can’t I have statement eye makeup and a statement lip? The answers are usually negligible, something like “Oh you don’t want to overcrowd your face and hide your features”. My response to that, “Well since they’re my features I can do what with them!” I think that the most important thing you will ever learn in life is that it is Your life and it’s Your body and face and clothes etc and no one else will ever be the same as you so why should anyone else have anything at all to say about your choices. They have their own choices to worry about.
5 – Accessorise like there’s no tomorrow!
The last best tip for styling yourself is to accessorise accessorise accessorise! This is a common theme on my blog; but I love accessorising! And it’s too much fun for me to keep it a secret! I want everyone to know the joy of collecting a fantastically personal collection of jewellery that will always have a place in your self-expression. Its not like clothes where you can really only wear 1 pair of pants/trousers at a time, but with accessories its like the more the better! I can wear upwards of 10 bracelets at a time, as many necklaces will fit on my neck, as many belts as I can fit on my waist and that’s just jewellery!
I am also in the middle of collecting a gorgeous scarf collection that I use in my hair, as a neck-tie, as a belt, or I even just tie it into a bow and stick it to my sleeve for a bit of texture! I’m saying all this to try and get your creative juices flowing. When it comes to fashion and having fun; enough is never enough! There are always more uses for an item and there’s always more ways to wear something! In reality we should never really be bored with our clothes, but the agendas of the world would prefer us to buy something, wear it once and then buy something else! But that way of thinking doesn’t serve us as people or the world we live in; it hinders our creativity for a start and then it ensures we are consistently giving our money to large corporations who refuse to even pay their garment makers a proper wage despite being ludicrously wealthy themselves.
The best thing you can do in today’s modern world is rely only on yourself; get in touch with your own wants and needs and make things happen for yourself. No one else is going to make things happen for you if you don’t at the very least believe in yourself and your worth as a glorious human being on this earth.
