I’ve never claimed to be a stylish person, it’s taken me years of fashion mistakes to even come close to learning what my personal style is and what suits me and what doesn’t. And of course as you age and our bodies and styles change, it’s hard to keep up with what looks good on you. Throw into the mix that thanks to COVID and what’s now over 3 years of working from home wearing leggings and hoodies, it’s made me conscious for a long time that I have lost any ability to know what to wear for any social occasion any more!
After my surgery earlier on in the year I was determined to have some stuff booked to look forward to and that meant getting the right outfit for the right occasion. I absolutely love getting dressed up; putting on a nice dress and some heels (providing I’m not walking too far) and making a bit more of an effort than I normally do. The trick is to look like a broken packet of biscuits most of the time so when you do headbutt your makeup bag and go with what sticks, people notice a bit more.
Typical dark close I’m most comfortable wearing
A few weeks ago I got a little desperate and decided to book an online personal style consultation, which involved sending some mortifying pictures of yourself in a vest top and leggings to get your body shape and an equally mortifying make free selfie so they can see your skin tone, eye and hair colour. A couple of weeks later I got a very detailed pdf with my body type, seasonal colouring and tips on what types of clothes and make up suits me.
The results surprised me but not in the way I thought. I thought I understood my body shape and what colours suit me but turns out that I do and I don’t. They had me down as pear shaped as they said my shoulders are slightly narrower than my hips, however I always thought they were quite even which would make me hourglass. But terms of what shapes suit me it was no surprise to me that high necked tops/tshirts and anything that nips in my waist suit me. Which didn’t surprise me, and I have never looked good in a v-neck anything. Colour wise it was as expected; bright colours focussing on blues and pinks. I’ve never been a fan of pink for fear of looking too ‘Barbie’ but I can also concede that bright pink does look good on me, and as such I’ve started wearing it a bit more. I will just always find hard to walk way from monochrome, which I think just looks so stylish and I’m a total magpie for (no pun intended).
One bit I disagreed with slightly was the make up suggestions and that pinky coral lip colours suit me best – which isn’t the part that I disagree with. What I was like ‘hmmm’ about on that front was that you cannot tell me that a bright red lip doesn’t look good on a blonde.
Anyway, what all of this thinking, and analysing has made me do is to rethink my wardrobe a little bit and try and push myself out my comfort zone a little bit. Especially since I was stuck on the sofa for the first three months of the year and desperate to get out there and get my life back. One of the ways I’ve been doing that has been getting my legs out more. Believe me when I say I detest my knees and as such have always hidden them away. But there are so many nice short co-ords or summer beach dresses I love and that now I know suit me – are begging to be worn.
Our recent holiday to Greece was a great place to try all this stuff out in an environment I felt a little safer. After all, we all have those ‘I would only wear that on holiday’ clothes. I wore white shorts for the first time in years without fear of bleeding all over them unexpectedly. And when we came home we have an particularly warm spell, so I wore those shorts twice more, on an afternoon out in town (with a very lovely on brand pink top) and again to Bongo’s Bingo – where it was hotter than the earth’s core.
Taking all of this into consideration, I’ve tried a few tops from Shein which have small built in shoulder pads – something I would NEVER have contemplated a few years ago, just to see what difference they made to balancing out my wide-ass hips and I have to say, the first time I wore a shoulder padded top I got tonnes of lovely compliments! It was an ego boost for sure:
I’m also all about the jumpsuit at the moment, of which I’ve found a couple of really nice bargain Ted Baker ones on Vinted which have suited me really well and flattered my shape. Other than having to get completely undressed when you go to the toilet, they’re the perfect solution for us girls who suffer from chub rub and don’t like wearing dresses too often, this has also coincided with me fully embracing the current 90s trend that 14 year old me is thrilled is back in fashion!
So I guess this had all been a really long winded way of saying I’m not entirely sure I’ve fond my own personal style or my look and I’m not sure I ever will because I think deep down I’ll always just be a ‘jeans and nice top’ kind of girl. What I have discovered though is that:
- Pink is not the enemy if it suits you
- Shoulder pads can be the friend of us apple bottomed ladies
- I’m going to be braver with what I wear now I’ve had confirmation of what colours suit.
- Nobody but me cares about my legs so I’m just going to wear the bloody shorts
- The ‘nice top’ with the jeans is most likely going to be pink now
- You don’t actually have to have a ‘set personal style’ if you don’t want to, because style and trends change so you may as well just roll with it no matter what your age
- The red lippy is going nowhere