Are you in a style rut?
The symptoms:
- have you travelled outside Canada in the last two weeks?
Wait… shit, that’s the wrong survey.
Do you feel like you’re always going for the same comfort piece in your wardrobe?
Do you low-key feel like blah when you get dressed?
Have you stopped saying “damn, I look good.” when you look in the mirror.
I want you checking yourself out in the mirror every damned day. Narcissus be damned, let’s get you feeling like the bomb.com…. Can I say that on the internet?
Are you the AT-HOME CLOTHES ADALINE
Do you find yourself wearing sweatpants and hoodies every day? Lounging around from one over-sized tee to another? No definitive sleepwear/athletic wear/ day wear?
Then you, my friend, are AT-HOME CLOTHES ADALINE
Your go-to excuse: IT TAKES SO LONG TO GET DRESSED.
We play this game of “oh, but it’s so much work to put on clothes.” Is it though? Is it really? How long did it take you to put on that pair of leggings and a hoodie? And now how long would it take you to put on a pair of pants and a sweater? Same amount of pieces. Same amount of time?
The story we’re telling ourselves though is that by putting on the pants and the blouse we have to “look nice” which usually means hair, makeup, shower, maybe not in that order but the whole getting ready ritual. Which in all reality doesn’t take that long anyway. What if we changed that story from, “It’s going to take so long and I have to look nice.” to “I’m going to take fifteen minutes for myself to show myself care and love.”
There’s so much talk going on right now about #selfcare and spending hours in the bath or putting on a facemask. Vegging out and spending three hours binging Netflix, but what if instead, you introduced microdoses of self-care into your everyday routine?
Okay, so here’s your challenge. HIDE ALL YOUR GO-TO COMFORT CLOTHES. That’s right. I said it and I meant it. From 9-5 or whatever your work-day looks like, you’re going to hide your hoodies, hide your at-home clothes and you’re going to force yourself to get dressed. At the end of your workday, you can put them back on. I’m not that much of a monster, and let’s be honest only a third of you will do it anyway. Keep your sleep clothes for sleeping though. This is super important. Keeping your designated sleeping clothes for sleeping it will become part of your nightly ritual. Sleep clothes, brush your teeth, scroll Tik Tok for 20 mins, go to sleep.
What to expect:
- More productive workday
- Proper relaxing time
- Sleep better
Are you the BODY-CHANGED-BETH
Are you the one going through your closet and nothing really fits right now? Baby, COVID19lbs, got super into exercise and lost a bunch of weight and now you’re not really sure what looks good on you? No matter the reason, has your body changed this year making you feel like nothing looks good on you?
Your go-to excuse: NOTHING LOOKS GOOD ON ME SO WHY EVEN TRY?
First, and this goes without saying, but obviously, I’m going to say it: YOUR BODY IS BEAUTIFUL. IT HAS CARRIED YOU THROUGH A ROUGH YEAR AND IT IS A CHANGING, LIVING, ORGANISM AND THAT’S TOTALLY COOL. Okay, now that that’s out of the way. When you look at your closet how is it making you feel?
Are you feeling discouraged or shame? Those are not good feels we want when looking for something to wear! Ask yourself, how do you want to feel? Happy, sexy, strong, feminine.
CHALLENGE PT.1
Go through your closet and discard all those clothes that do NOT make you feel like your words. If your word is: “feminine” put aside all the clothes that make you feel “masculine”. We’re only keeping the cream of the crop and clothes that make you smile.
Fashion is all about math, I know that’s not what you want to hear. If you want to hear about how fashion is not math then go check out some style blogger’s post who will give you cookie-cutter examples of what to wear *as long as you have her exact body shape and proportions.
Still here?! Proud of you. Fashion is about proportion, contrast, and shape. When your physical shape has changed, your proportions will feel off. This is why you think nothing you have looks good. Things that don’t change: your height and your lines. The lines you’re looking for are your bust, waist, hip. (yes, as you get older the bust line may drop slightly but you get the basic idea.) Things that do change are your volume, or where you carry your weight.
To start learning your new proportions start by looking at your body and choosing your favourite body feature. Shoulders, boobs, booty, waist, whatever it is that you know is just a bit better than everyone else’s (you have one so shush.) now we’re going to use this body part to highlight and build your wardrobe around.
Now comes contrast. Which is making something look smaller or drawing attention somewhere by detracting from somewhere else. Meaning - in fashion speak if we want to make your waist look smaller, we make something else look bigger. No more hiding under oversized clothing. This goes right into,
Volume. Volume is where we add shape to accentuate the contrast. If we have a part of our body that we don’t want to draw attention to, put zero volume there. Do you have broad shoulders? Yes? Okay, so let’s not wear the shoulder pads. Volume on volume makes that part of your body look bigger and will draw attention to it. Instead, add volume to the bottom have to balance out your shape.
Need more detail? Click here for my style journal where we walk through all the steps to mastering your style through first identifying your identity and style pillars.
CHALLENGE PT2.
Play. Try on all your remaining clothes, shopping your closet till you find shapes and textures that suit your new smokin bod. Remember to be objective, you’re not going to look like how you used to look, you’re looking like how you look now. Go back to those style words you chose. Does this outfit make you feel feminine? Does it show off the part of your body you’re loving?
What to expect:
- Self-confidence that could rival Beyonce.
- Subtle and uncontrollable checking yourself out in windows of cars as you walk by
- Sense calmness when you look at your wardrobe.
Are you the TREND-CRAZED-TRACY
Look at your closet. I know you’re reading this on your phone, so off you go.
.
.
.
I’ll wait.
.
.
.
Okay, good. Now, looking at your closet, do you have a; tie-dye piece, crop top, something neon, animal print *insert animal, shoulder-pads, and or something pink? (It was a big colour for the last few years).
Your go-to excuse: BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE BORING
Here’s the thing about clothes. Clothes are a representation of you, for sure. They are a way of telling the world who you are without having to speak. BUT. Clothes are clothes. If YOU are not a boring person, even if you showed up in an all-black potato sack, you wouldn’t be boring. If you’re the girl who’s constantly chasing that next trend but feels lost in a sea of HERO pieces with no connecting through-line here’s what I want you to do.
CHALLENGE:
Figure out your style pillars. This has nothing to do with clothes and everything to do with who you are and what you want to say. Journal, think about, voice-note, whatever works for you the following questions:
WHAT IS MY LIFESTYLE (MONDAY TO FRIDAY, WEEKENDS, EVENINGS)
WHAT IS MY VIBE OR IDENTITY WORDS (mother, athlete, kind. Think about when people describe you to someone else, what do they say?)
WHAT DO I WANT TO FEEL WHEN I GO OUT INTO THE WORLD.
Pick your top word from each category. These are your style pillars. Now, maybe you identify with BOLD for your vibe, but LAWYER for your lifestyle. You may love neon but it’s not work-appropriate. Can you work neon in your accessories? Weekend attire etc? Think about realistically which trends you genuinely love and donate the others.
Going forward, pick only trends that work with your style pillars and reevaluate each season.
What to expect:
- Clearer sense of self
- More money in your wallet! cause you're only gonna spend money on clothes that fit your style pillars. We like money.
- Removal of "omg, but I have nothing to wear" sentence from your vocabulary.
Did I get you out of your style rut? Did you just toss all your clothes? I got you there too. Click here to see my favourites of the month.