Friday, September 3, 2010

Your own personal style

I read a really interesting post this week about understanding your own personal style. It really got me thinking about my own style and the fact that I feel that there is a gap between my style and what I aspire for my style to me. I'm not someone who follows trends but enjoy some elements of current fashion. But mostly I aspire to be "stylish", classifying my personal style as "Elegant and sophisticated with a twist" with the twist being interesting elements such as a bright scarf, funky earrings or sassy heals, although it's something that's been missing in recent years. I just love classic looks and timeless elegance. Thanks to the stylings of Mad Men (and many of the awesome sewing bloggers out there) I'm becoming a fan of vintage, mainly late 50s and early 60s (but not as far as the swinging 60s).

So now that I've declared my style to the world, it's time to unveil my master plan to build my ultimate wardrobe, or should I say sew my ultimate wardrobe! I have an awesome book the Lucky shopping manual which is split up into chapters by type of clothing article and gives recommendations for the minimum you would need in each category and then the extras you would need if you wear a lot of that clothing type (eg if you're a pants girl like me, have more pants than skirts). It also includes tips for styles that flatter and photos of different types of that type of clothing (different collars, cuffs, styles etc...) and designer profiles. It's a great book that I recommend and will form the building blocks for my wardrobe. I plan to find patterns in my stash and also new patterns to get wardrobe coverage, then I'll find the fabric and then sew it up! It's still in the planning stages but something that I'm really excited about it!

Another great book is The Pocket Stylist which helps you find your body shape and suggests the styles that flatter your shape. Once great tip for determining your shape is to take a photo and print it A4. Then cut it out and look at it from the back. It helps you to identify your shape without any "distractions" that may influence what you think your style is.

Another great tip I learnt was to find out if you are short or long waisted. You use measurements to work it out and it helps identify styles that fit. I always thought that I was long waisted because tops are always too short (except for recently as it's the current fashion that tops are longer) but then I discovered that whilst my waist may be longer than most peoples, it's actual short based on my proportions. Very interesting stuff! It made me realise why short tops don't suit me as it makes me look even shorter waisted!

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