Reinvent your style – how to start
HOW TO BE FABULOUS, BRAVE AND STYLISH AFTER FIFTY - MAKE FASHION YOUR SECOND LANGUAGE
"Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn" - Coco Chanel
Before we even start to do anything, we do have a commitment to make.
Please say it and write it; I am committed to my life and I will do whatever is necessary to be satisfied with myself! I’m fabulous, brave, and stylish and I’m using fashion to express myself!
As a model for reinventing a style, I’m going to use 12 Commandments for Women by Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian designer, the biggest competition to Chanel, and famous for her red lobster pattern on clothing and accessories. She was bold in her opinions and if her "12 Commandments for Women" are anything to go by. In her autobiography, Shocking Life, which she published in 1954 just as she was closing up her famed shop on the Place Vendôme in Paris. She was not at all like others and still inspires costumers, designers, and artists from all over the world. Her 12 Commandments concludes with a list of guidelines she acquired from her career. It is an element alternately intimidated and intrigued by her fearless fashion approach.
12 Commandments for Women
by Elsa Schiaparelli
1. Since most women do not know themselves, they should try to do so. 2. A woman who buys an expensive dress and changes it, often with disastrous result, is extravagant and foolish. 3. Most women (and men) are colour-blind. They should ask for suggestions. 4. Remember, 20 percent of women have inferiority complexes, 70 percent have illusions. 5. Ninety percent are afraid of being conspicuous, and of what people will say. So they buy a gray suit. They should dare to be different. 6. Women should listen and ask for competent criticism and advice. 7. They should choose their clothes alone or in the company of a man. 8. They should never shop with another woman, who sometimes consciously, and often unconsciously, is apt to be jealous. 9. She should buy little and only of the best or the cheapest. 10. Never fit a dress to the body but train the body to fit the dress. 11. A woman should buy mostly in one place where she is known and respected, and not rush around trying every new fad. 12. And she should pay her bills.
Now we can start!
During the whole process of reinventing your style make a style/fashion journal:
Take a picture/video every time you change your outfit and write down how you feel. I found out that the easiest way to do this is to record a short video with narration about how you feel, where you are and where you are headed etc.
In mind have a picture of yourself in one outfit at a time. To know your style, you need to see a bigger picture, your own fashion month, which is why I highly recommend this next important step; making your own calendar. As seasons change you might need to repeat this task.
Tips:
As this is a new thing for you, taking pictures/videos, every time you change your outfit, develop the habit of recording yourself. Otherwise, the style you are creating could be forgotten! And you need to put yellow detailed reminder stickers on your big mirror, as you check how you look.
Also, I want you to pick up:
- 10 pictures where you like yourself and write down why, and what you were doing during that time. Print in big format one you like the most, frame and hang in your living-room!
- 2-5 pictures you do not like yourself and write why. It will be a great reminder of what to avoid in your new lifestyle.
- Find looks you like on Pinterest or color magazines
Create your board with all of the above and keep adding imagines you like through the whole program. It can be anything that makes an impression on you; a picture of a landscape, animals, sports pictures, art, pieces of fabric, etc. Put a board in a place where you can often see it.
Now your journey begins!
To be continued . . . . .
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