How to dress up ANY casual outfit easily

What if I told you that you can dress up any casual outfit using a very simple formula? I call it the DRESS method, which stands for Define, Refine, Embellish, Structure, and Style. I'm going to show you how to use it step by step in this video so you can elevate your casual looks easily and effortlessly because honestly, we all want ease, and this method makes it so much easier. So let's get into it. My name is Mei, and this is Elegance Feed. Okay, first things first, let's make sure that we're on the same page. So let me define what I mean when I say a casual look. A casual look is one composed of basic pieces and worn to casual settings, such as home, running errands, casual meetups, coffee dates, going to the supermarket, and things like that. And here, I'm not referring to athleisure wear. I'm not referring to workout wear worn as a casual outfit. I'm not referring to leggings or sweatpants because these are athleisure items and they're not really casual. They're like below casual in terms of formality. So dressing up a casual look means going from casual to smart casual, going from wearing basics to elevated basics, which I will talk about later in the video. So here, you're increasing the dressiness, the formality of your outfit. And by the way, if you want pre-planned outfits for you, grab my Effortless Elegance eBook, which has 30 days worth of elevated casual outfits already pre-made, pre-planned for you. And it goes perfectly with the method that I'm going to teach you in this video, so these two go together. For the purposes of this video, I'm going to use my AI-generated model to demonstrate this process step-by-step for you. So please meet my friend, Allison. Allison is just chilling at home. She's wearing a very casual, basic outfit, a fitted top, jeans with sneakers. It looks decent, but she can do better. So let's help her out. Starting off with the D in dress, define. Define your base. This is what you're starting with. This is the base that makes up your casual outfit. So determine what that looks like. Do you want to do a top with pants, a top with skirt, or a dress? And regardless of what your base is, what you need to do here is to make sure your base is solid. So this means, are the items that you're wearing good quality? Do they fit you well? Are any of your undergarments showing? Are there any panty lines or bra lines? Is it wrinkle-free or at least well-kept? All of these elements make a good base for what's about to come next. Now the R in dress stands for refine. Refine the pieces. Swap out basics for elevated basics. And by the way, I have an entire video on elevated basics, which I will link below. But basically, elevated basics are basics with a twist. They have a nice twist to them. It could be the neckline, it could be some style elements, it could be the print, it could be the cut. Or it could be items that are generally worn in smart casual settings, like polo shirts. So here, I want you to look at the base that we just talked about and determine which items need to be elevated. Which items do you want to swap out? So here are a couple of examples. If you're wearing a t-shirt, swap it for a fitted top. If you're wearing a hoodie, swap it for a cardigan. If you're wearing blue jeans, swap them for dark jeans, and I'm going to talk about that in a second. Go for light colored bottoms because they instantly elevate your look. If you don't like light colored bottoms or they don't work for your body shape, you can go for dark colored bottoms like brown, navy, gray. I don't recommend black because black is very strong. It's a very strong color and it's very formal. It's associated with formal wear. So I don't recommend wearing it in casual settings unless you like it, then by all means go for it. And swap your sneakers for flats, loafers, or any casual shoes. So in Allison's case here, there are two items that we need to swap out. The first one is her blue jeans. So instead of blue, we're going to go for dark navy, a dark wash jean because it looks chic, it looks elevated, and it doesn't mess up with the color palette of the look. And this is why I don't like blue jeans. I personally stopped wearing them after I was living in them for the majority of my life because they just mess up with their color palette and they always dress your outfit down instead of up. So if you want to make your outfit polished, chic, and elevated, don't go for denim. It's not the best choice here. If you absolutely want to do denim, then go for a dark wash like this or do white denim. The second item is her sneakers, which I will swap them for flats. And look at this. It already looks so much better. Moving on to the E in dress, which stands for embellished with accessories. So here you want to add your belt, your jewelry, your watch, your sunglasses, your scarf, whatever that is. Out of all of the items that I just mentioned, I would say jewelry is one that can be used for both casual and smart casual looks, unlike other accessories like a belt or a scarf. Once you add a belt or a scarf, you immediately move to the smart casual category. So if you want to keep your look more on the casual side, stick to jewelry alone, especially if you wear something understated like the earrings that I'm wearing today. I would say a size like this is perfect because they're not big enough to make a super statement pieces and they're not small enough that you can't even see them. So these can elevate any look, be it casual or dressy. These earrings are from Biwako and I would like to thank them for sponsoring today's video. Biwako is a Japanese heritage pearl brand and I absolutely love their designs. I mean, look at this. They just give a sense of individuality. They tell a story and they elevate your look. I have another pair from them, which is gold and these are silver. This is the benefit of having a neutral undertone. If you're like me, let me know in the comments. I personally love pearls. They are timeless, they're elegant and they go with everything. They're very versatile. So like I said, you can wear a piece like this with casual or dressy outfits. I had a client who has a very classic, timeless, elegant style, like super, super classic. And she asked me, how can I make my style more modern and current without really following trends or introducing items that just don't go with her classic style? And one of the things that I told her was to play with jewelry. And Biwako is a wonderful example of this because their designs combine modern with classic. It's like classic with a twist. So for example, pearls are classic, but a piece like this presents this classic element in a modern way. And that's why I love them. They offer silver, gold plated and solid gold options. And they actually have a sale going on right now until May 16th for Mother's Day, which is perfect because these make a great gift for mothers or anyone who's into elegance. Their quality, packaging and designs are all top notch. And honestly, I would be thrilled if somebody sent me a gift from them. So I guarantee you, your mom will love it. And the best part is if you use my discount code during their sale, May 20, you will get 20% off. Or if you're watching this video after the sale is over, use my code MAY15 for 15% off. And I'll leave all the links for you in the description below. Alright, back to Allison. Let's accessorize her look here. We don't need to do too much. So I'm just going to add a belt, a watch and a pair of earrings. I love how this is looking. Moving on to the first S in Dress, which stands for Structure. Structure with Outerwear. Now this step is optional. You don't have to do that. But I personally think that adding an outerwear piece to a casual outfit instantly elevates it and makes it look more planned, more intentional, more put together. And it just ties together the whole look. So you can do this with blazers, jackets, crop jackets, coats, trench coats, cardigans. And you can just drape them on your shoulders so you don't have to wear them like I'm doing with Allison here. It just adds an extra layer and makes the outfit more interesting. Quick tip. Adding a blazer particularly to an outfit is a great way to dress it up. It gives you that formal touch and it brings that office business-y type of vibe to a casual outfit. And finally, the second S in Dress stands for Styling. Styling your hair. I believe I said this in another video. Your hair can make or break an outfit. When your hairstyle complements what you're wearing, it complements the neckline of your shirt or your dress, it complements the vibe that you're going for, it instantly elevates your outfit. It makes it chic. It makes it intentional. So with our friend Allison here, we're just gonna do a ponytail. We're keeping it simple. Nothing that's too fancy. When I say hairstyle, I don't mean like an updo. I mean, you could do an updo if you want to, but you can just keep it simple. You can do a low bun, a high bun. You can do low ponytail, high ponytail. You can do half up, half down like I'm doing here. Or you can just wear your hair down if it goes with your outfit. Or if you wear your hair down, make sure that it's styled, whatever that means to you. It could be blow-dried, it could be curled up, it could be straight, whatever that looks to you. Just make sure that it's well kept. And this is the dress method. I hope it made sense to you and I'm excited for you to try it and start using it. Just remember the acronym and follow through the steps. And again, if you want pre-planned outfits, you can get my Effortless Elegance eBook that has 30 outfits for 30 days. You can just go through them. It has casual base with smart casual accessories, so you get the best of both worlds. So I'm going to leave that for you in the description. And that's all for me. Let me know what you'd like to see next and until then, stay elegant.