WHAT ARE YOUR CLOTHES SAYING ABOUT YOU, I WONDER?

Do you know instinctively what suits you? Can you throw together a fabulous outfit in minutes and feel good and comfortable all day? 

If not, don’t worry, you are not alone.

Great personal style is usually something you have to find. But when you’ve found yours, it feels amazing.

In my work as an image consultant, supporting female business owners to take their personal style to the next level, (without pretending to be something they are not), I see our clothes as our packaging. 

Of course, it’s what’s inside that package that matters but you deserve to be packaged beautifully. 

And then it’s easier for the world to see you. 

The real you.

I’ve been supporting women with their personal style for over 12 years now and what has always fascinated me – more than the clothes themselves – is how our behaviour changes according to what we are wearing.

When you feel good in an outfit, you want to be seen. You walk along the street with your head held high, you make eye contact, you smile at strangers and it feels good.

And back in your office, you feel happier to hit ‘Go live’ and get on with inspiring your own community with your brilliance more often.

When you feel good, you can show up in a bold and deliberate way, the world responds to you accordingly. 

On those days when you don’t feel you look good, you are more reserved. You show up in a slightly less confident way – you might even not show up at all depending on how much this affects you. 

And guess how the world sees you? 

They don’t.

The truth is we are all beautifully different. Imagine how boring it would be if we all looked the same? 

But if you’d like to improve your ‘packaging’ and show the world your brilliance in a more deliberate way, you need to find your personal style. The one that lights you up and helps you to shine more brightly. 

In my work, I help female business owners take their style to the next level, without pretending to be something they’re not. I show them the magical benefits of knowing what they don’t yet know about what their true style is. 

It’s really hard to do this for yourself. 

You are too close to your own body and it’s very likely that you are WAY too critical about it too! Am I right? I bet you notice all that is beautiful about your best friends, don’t you?

3 Top tips for finding your style. The one that lights you up.

Get inspired. Go online and start looking for new ideas. Start with the clothing brands that you know fit you well. Click on the ‘new in’ section and see how they are showing the new season pieces. This exercise isn’t about buying all-the-new-things, its about seeing what’s out there and what appeals to you. Notice how they style up the outfits, with belts or (which aren’t for everyone, just so you know), the type of footwear and accessories.

Start a mood board. Pinterest is great for this. I build a mood board for all my new clients as a starting point to try new outfit combinations. And I encourage my Style Club members to do this twice a year, because even when they know their style, they want to keep it fresh. As your lifestyle or your work evolves, your style needs to keep up. When you show up in a work scenario in outdated clothes there can be a subconscious feeling that your ideas may be out of date too. You don’t need to follow fashion but I believe that staying current and up to date is important.

Find an ‘Outfit Formula’ that makes you feel good and confident. Then play. An outfit formula is a repeatable way of dressing i.e. A midi dress with trainers; jeans and a loose fit blouse or tailored trousers with a t-shirt. Once you’ve identified a good formula for your shape, see how many outfits you can create within that outfit formula using clothes you already own. Swap out one piece at a time and you might just find that you have more outfits hiding in your wardrobe than you realised! And when you are confident with that outfit formula, start working on another…then you can be more confident in your shopping if you know that you are bringing in an essential ‘ingredient’ of one of your formulas.

Let’s ACTUALLY find the style formula that works for you so you can get on with growing your business and changing the world! 

Helen Reynolds

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Helen Reynolds is Actually’s Style Partner. If you’d like to learn more about working with Helen, you can visit her website. She has a brilliant FREE video training series: 5 easy style tips to look your most fabulous self which you can sign up for here: https://helenreynoldsstyle.com/5-tips/ 

Helen is also running a fabulous new Masterclass online in May to help women to learn about their true style and get direction on the colours, cuts, fabrics, styles and the ways to accessorise that will always work for them. 

 ‘Nail Your Personal Style & take your Brand to the next Level’ is happening on Saturday 29th May 2021. If you want to learn exactly how to identify the right pieces and outfit combinations to help you to shine more brightly, you can sign up here: https://helenreynoldsstyle.com/masterclass2021/