Styling 101 - Week One

The first step to finding your style is to work out what you like. You need to focus and clarify your style within yourself. I find the easiest way to do this is to look through magazines, newspapers and the internet. Cut out items of clothing or photos of items that appeal to you. Whether it is "I like that and I can wear that" or "I like that but I'm not sure if I can pull it off", cut it out and put in your book. Magazines put styles together on how to work certain pieces. If you like the whole look cut it out if not cut it out anyway, glue in your book and make a note of "I like the top/skirt/pants/colour/etc..."

You can separate the pictures into Dresses, Skirts, Tops, Pants, Coats, Jewellery, Accessories, Bags, Shoes. I would start with 2 pages per heading. If you fill the pages up then just start another page. The purpose of this is to get you to focus and narrow in on styles of clothing that you like. You may think you like certain things but realise it's not who you are anymore. And that's ok. This part may surprise you and you will learn a lot about yourself. It will also help you learn what styles and colours flatter you most.

Another way to find your style is to know whose style you like. Is there a celebrity that you always seem to like what they're wearing. My celebrities are Elle McPherson (Bohemian), Giovanna Battaglia(Classic with a twist),this is the style I most relate to. I also love to see what Olivia Palermo(Eclectic Classic) and Sofia Coppola(Masculine) are wearing. Yes they are all different but that's ok. I like to take a bit from each to satisfy my different personalities.:-) You may only like one or two or more, and that's fine. However to start off I would recommend two. So get on the internet and search images of a celebrity whose style you can relate to. Start a Pinterest Board with the images you find. I have a few Pinterest boards on 'Looks I Love' (these are for style inspiration), 'Giovanna Battaglia', 'Sofia Coppola' and 'Fashion Finds' (these are the pieces I am looking for). I love to keep a hard copy as I like to refer back to it over a cup of coffee or tea and add, remove and re-evaluate. A client of mine has the saying "Elle McPherson is my person"!

With iPhones these days I take photos of images I see in magazines in reception areas and print out at home or add to a Pinterest board. Previously I would do the cough and rip!!! Dedication!

So for this week 1 you need to do 2 easy steps to get you started:-

- firstly, go through any magazines, newspapers or any other material you have and it doesn't matter if they
  are a few years old as fashion goes around and around and around and cut out fashion pieces you like,

- secondly, look for celebrities style you like or can relate to, study what their wearing, what is it about their
   style that you like?

Finding your style should be easy and fun but will require work on your behalf. If you put the work in and stick to it you will get the results you want. Maintaining your style is easy and effortless.