Style Over Fashion

As a Style Coach™ it has become clear to me that many people do not distinguish the difference between style and fashion. In my mind they are two very different things and I’d go for style every time. Here’s why:

1) In many cases the current fashion will not suit you

Chose the wrong colour and you can look years older; wear something too tight and you can look several dress sizes larger; choose an item which doesn’t suit your body shape and you can simply look unbalanced and odd!!! Faced with a choice of wearing the latest fashion but looking average, or worse(!), or wearing something that suits you and makes the most of your physical assets I know which one I’d go for!

2) Constantly staying in fashion is very expensive

Most people would agree that, especially as you get older, it’s really important to wear well made, quality clothing which doesn’t come cheap! It’s usually manageable if you carefully choose classic garments which fit your style personality that you wear year after year, but if you have the added pressure of having to update your look every season this can become not only difficult but in some cases impossible!

3) Fashion can destroy individuality

If you blindly follow fashion then you’ll never really establish your own style personality. By the time you hit thirty you should have begun to understand what works well for you, what feels most comfortable and what gives you the most confidence. By sticking to this you create your own style personality and refine your individual look which tells everyone that you know who you are!

4) Fashion is rarely age appropriate

Let’s face it young people, especially young art students (!), can usually get away with wearing pretty much anything as most things looks good on the young. Take the extreme of a two year old girl who can look fabulous in a green dress, pink tights and red shoes! However as we get older it’s so important to dress to suit your shape, colouring and age as the wrong choices can make us look dreadful!!

I could go on but you get the idea. My advice is to keep it simple - work out what suits you best and if the latest fashion happens to meet these criteria then great but otherwise ignore it! Fashion is creative, exciting and lots of fun but when it comes to the serious business of looking good I’d go for style over fashion any day.

Alice Treanor © 2010

Maternity Wear

My first blog is going to be a bit of a moan I’m afraid! Being pregnant for the second time I am now seriously fed up with the lack of choice out there when it comes to maternity clothes. I had my wardrobe almost exactly as I wanted it before falling pregnant and it was really hard to give that up – almost immediately as it happens as I seemed to lose my waist at around week 5 with both pregnancies!

Whilst pregnant the first time I frequently felt frumpy and unconfident and so was determined not to let that happen this time. Easier said than done as it happens!

There seem to be a lot of baggy maternity clothes on offer – being a style to avoid at all costs if you don’t want to look like a humpty dumpty!!

The basic rules for your body shape still apply with a few slight adjustments to accommodate your growing bump. I’m an inverted triangle and so need to wear V-neck tops to draw attention away from my rather broad shoulders. My bump is all out front, which is no bad thing I suppose, but it seems to exaggerate my narrow hips and a lot of the clothes I’ve tried accentuate all the wrong areas and send me off balance.

The best choice I’ve found so far is from ASOS, who I generally love anyway for their large variety of choice and excellent customer service. From a customer service point of view I actually can’t fault them at all – they absolutely have it mastered! Items are always delivered promptly and they make it so easy to return unwanted items. I have used them a lot over the last couple of years and have never had a bad experience. The only criticism I would have is that occasionally the quality of the clothing could be improved.

Isabella Oliver sells fantastic quality clothing and their customer service is also good but I’ve struggled to find clothes that I don’t feel frumpy in. It’s really strange because I buy to suit to my body shape and personal style and their dresses always look great on the models but when I try them on I just don’t feel sexy. Given their prices are on the higher side the item has to be perfect and I have to admit I have returned most of the items I have ordered.

I have found a couple of things I like from Topshop but find that on the whole the selection is very uninspiring. Baggy items seem to feature quite heavily and I feel the choice is pretty drab. Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I want to wear bland, shapeless clothes!

Anyway, rant over but just needed to get that off my chest!! My poor husband has had a bit of a rough time this weekend as I’ve been having serious mood swings due to my general hatred for the items in my wardrobe, exaggerated by pregnancy hormones – sorry darling!