Showing posts with label Image Consultant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Image Consultant. Show all posts

Saturday, 26 October 2013

When I am old...

Whatever your age, it is essential that you take your personality and lifestyle into account. On the whole, as we get older, we need a bit more or slightly weightier fabric, to help camouflage the lumps and bumps that tend to come from nowhere, and we are better to incorporate trends, rather than do the whole look from top to toe!

I always think it is worthwhile considering the elements of clothing that you enjoyed wearing in the past. For example, I preferred the seventies more hippy styles with crochet, wild colour and wacky patterns. So, to my reckoning if your personality and shape hasn't changed that much, then the probability is that much of this fashion will still work. Just make sure that you aware of how the original fashion may have been a bit revamped. A good trick can be to look at how the youngsters are doing it, then remove at least one of the pieces. Most importantly your make-up should be bang up to date so that you don't look stuck in a time warp.

When I am “Personal Shopping” or “ Wardrobe Weeding” what often comes up is the concern that ladies have of looking the same and not having enough variety in their repetoire. For sure you don't need ten pairs of black trousers, but remember that we do wake up and look the same! I have waited for the day when I wake up blonde and slim, but it hasn't happened yet! Therefore, it pays to understand what your assets really are and go with them! Classic has never done it for me, so why bother? If you are a girl, then be a girl! If you are sporty, you will probably find that high heel boots will work better than shoes. So you can alter your look, but always maintain what feels best.

Play up your best features in tops and bottoms that hug your curves in all the right places and camouflage the ones you don't like as much. With age our waistline tends to disappear a bit more, so it can be more important to find ways of creating the illusion of a waistline rather than opting for blazer styles, a shaped jacket will be more flattering.

Cover up unsightly flesh, but don't hide what may be your best asset, such as shapely legs or firm arms. Some older ladies are firmer and fitter than their younger counterparts! Invest in a few quality pieces that will run and run so make sure you really love these and play with a variety of accessories and - finally but essentially, spend money on lovely undergarments because these are more key than many ladies realise to making your wardrobe both flattering and stylish – hippy and braless will not work second time round!

My theory is that looking like mutton dressed as lamb is more exciting that mutton looking like mutton, where's the challenge and excitement in that??

isme


phase eight

Shades of purple should feature in all wardrobes, you don't need to be any particular age, but if you still fee sure you are past trying...read on!!

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickles for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

by Jenny Joseph




A red hat that will suit from Holly Young Hats! 

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Be Seen and Heard

As the recession filters more and more into every aspect of our daily lives, businesses are increasingly under more scutiny, as are you and your role.  Your profile and visibility become even more important, whether as a team member or individual pioneer.  Now it’s imperative to stand out and deliver.

My motto is “Be Seen and Heard”, set the scene, don’t follow the herd! This message is all about branding yourself or business in such a way that you have the impact and presence that attracts people to YOU! With every enterprise, this takes into account that you need to attract the appropriate business that benefits you and your customer/client base, it is a case of mutual attraction.

It is vital that you engage people in a positive and vibrant way. If you fail to recognise that it is human nature to identify with success rather than failure, your business is doomed! So, whether your business is booming or feeling the hideous drain of a dragging recession, you need to manage the perceptions that others have of you.

Look like a failure, you start to feel like a failure and the spiral will surely whirl downwards. Look great and feel great and suddenly you engage with a more positive energy which in turn attracts more visibility and engagement.

Whether on a more personal or professional level, you need to be seen, be consistent with who you or your brand is and make sure that people like what they see! This of course means that you have to be seen to be proud and enjoy what you are offering. One of the biggest lessons that it is worth reminding ourselves, is that if we don’t like ourselves, why would we expect anyone to like us. Put that into a business model and learn to love every aspect of your product, even if that means you. Then you have some chance of sharing this love with a world that needs you and what you have to offer!

Clare delivers “Be Seen and Heard”  life coaching and personal or business branding sessions so that you can develop an authentic, attractive and visible profile.

Choosing the right colours and styles creates your most flattering visual effect!
(Photo George Greene @phaseeight Truro)

Wednesday, 26 September 2012

You can easily achieve glamour and style!

My passion for colour and pretty things is overwhelming and in my role as an Image Consultant, I am well versed with the logic, process and amazing buzz and feel good factor that can be achieved by understanding your colouring and bodyshape, yet I remain perplexed!

What is glamour and style? I constantly ask myself this because of the bemusing comments that I receive from, both people I know very well and those who I don't know at all! Last night, at my running group, several people commented how I always looked so glamorous and yet I could easily question that! I arrived, hair in a scruffy ponytail, very old top now destined purely for running or gardening, a shrug which is reduced to holes, so again simply worn for a bit of warmth and I had a large safety pin, obviously attached to my top as a back-up plan! The trainers are, however, new!

I go out walking and running in the rain and the mud, enjoy really dressing down on my camping trips and feel really at home when battered by the sea and my hair is covered in salt, yet still I hear the words glamour and style. For sure, I do not have the figure to prance around in my neat running pants or swimwear and my tan is entirely "homegrown"!..as are my nails! In this given state should I not be scared to be seen by my pupils of style and image, you would have thought so!

More surprisingly, after the local carnival my friends decided to continue the party in town. The decision was taken that we either all changed back to our glad rags or stayed in fancy dress. I was not amused when the vote was made to head into town as Zombies!

Can you believe that even with my clothes in holes, my make-up purposely messy and fake blood all over me, I received compliments about how nice I looked and I was supposed to look dead!

I can only guess at why because I don't have the answer. What I think it must be is that over a period of years of knowing what colours and styles suit, even what is ancient, in tatters and I am wearing for really messy still works! I do not have the perfect face or figure or even a massive income, but something about understanding yourself really works, even when you aren't trying. There comes a stage when you don't feel right in anything that isn't really you, yet you can be as dolled up as you like or as dressed down as you choose.

Whoever you are or want to be, you can easily achieve glamour and style by learning how to simply be comfortable in your own skin and always dress for YOU!

These pictures are hardly glam!!




Favourite Style Books