10 Simple Ways To Improve Your Style - Better Outfits & Feeling Better In Yourself

Hello guys welcome back to my channel. I really wanted to make this video to be a little bit of a helping guide to those of you that want to dress better, want to feel better in themselves and maybe you're feeling like you're in a little bit of a rut. I get a lot of messages from people from all different walks of life, all different backgrounds. I get new mums that feel like they've perhaps lost their style. I get people that have gone through weight changes and then suddenly don't know how to dress their new body. I feel people that have suddenly lost all their confidence and they don't feel comfortable in the clothes they used to feel good in or people have suddenly different budgets and they just don't really know where to spend their money, what they should be investing in and I thought I would sit down and make this video of how I really simply improved my style over the years. Now I know improving style is probably subjective and there's going to be people that watch me, watch my channel and probably think I don't like your style. That's absolutely fine. I think this is more about personal style and that doesn't have to be necessarily with what other people perceive as good. For me it's about feeling happy and comfortable in the way that I look and I genuinely hand on heart can say that the outfits I am wearing today, making this video in 2024, I really do, I feel great in them and I don't feel, I mean hopefully, I'm not going to look back at these one day and cringe, maybe I will, but I really feel like I've stepped into my own comfortable era with clothes knowing what suits me, knowing what I feel good in. You know it might not be to everyone's taste but I feel great and that's the main thing. So I wanted to do this so that I can give you guys that feeling if you are struggling and you want to know some little just tips and tricks to helping you just feel better in the way you dress. So hence I'm sitting down and doing this video. I really hope you enjoy it guys. I hope you can take away a few nuggets of information and yeah this is simply 10 ways that I helped to improve my style over the years. Number one, it sounds really simple but you need to actually discover what you like and I feel like the best way to do that is to look for inspiration. We're very lucky in today's day and age, we are living in an online world, we have social media, I feel like we're surrounded by constant inspiration, maybe too much, maybe sometimes it's a little bit overwhelming, but I do feel like it's important to really narrow down on what you perceive your style to actually be so that you can then look at your outfits and look at your wardrobe and look at what's missing, where is the disconnect between how you want to dress versus how you actually dress. Now for me personally, the easiest thing for me to do is either a Pinterest board or an album on Instagram. If I see outfits that I like, I will save them and then when you get an overall bigger picture of what look and style you actually like, you can then start to draw similarities and start to make conclusions. So for me, I know my likes and more importantly, I know my dislikes. I know for me, I prefer a neutral palette in my wardrobe, I don't mind the odd pattern here and there for an occasion, but day to day I feel really comfortable in neutrals, I like my classic silhouettes, I also really love my tailoring as opposed to more girly feminine fits. If I'm going to wear colour, I've realised that I really lean towards earthy tones such as the khaki greens, the browns, the rich caramel colour and the colours I tend to avoid are reds, purples and pinks, they do nothing for me. If I show you my Pinterest board, you will see across the board there's a lot of neutral, a lot of fairly simple looks, simple but effective. So make your Pinterest board and look for the similarities. Is it a similar colour theme? Is it a similar item? Maybe you've found yourself saving all of the looks that feature skirts and you've realised you lean towards skirt outfits. Whatever it is, it will really help you hone in on the way you actually want to dress. Number two, you need to get dressed every day. Now I know that sounds so strange, I'm not suggesting you guys are staying in your pyjamas all day every day and if you do, good for you. I mean actually get dressed, think about your outfit, plan your outfit and wear an outfit that makes you feel good. I know to so many of you that might seem either easier said than done or you know you might be thinking I don't have time to think of an outfit to put together every day. I can promise you putting together an outfit every day might seem like a lot of effort. You have to keep doing it, exercising that muscle, keep repeating it until the thing that feels like a lot of effort becomes effortless and you will get up every day and it will be like you're on autopilot and you will be able to throw together a good outfit because you're used to it, you know what suits you, you know how to show up for yourself. If you save your outfits or you save your outfits that you actually put some thought into for a special occasion, for the weekend, for a birthday, that's when you're going to have your meltdowns and your panics because do you know how many times I've heard people say it will get to some special occasion and the most common phrase I hear is I just don't know what suits me anymore and it's because you forgot, you're not doing it every day. You know it's like algebra, we do it at school and we learn it, we leave school, we never do it again, we forget how to do it. You have to practice these things and make them just part of your everyday blueprint of life so even though it will feel like effort in the morning, actually start thinking about your outfits every day and show up for yourself and start dressing. Number three, probably one of my favourite tips and something that helps me out endlessly. If I'm stuck on what to wear or if I need some inspiration or I want to remember how something looks, I will go back onto my own Instagram account and I will scroll and I will look at pictures and videos of me in outfits and it's because I'm very lucky, I naturally document a lot of outfits, it's part of my job. However, my advice to you is to document your outfits, you don't have to upload them, you can have a private secret little album on your phone but every single time you get dressed and you show up for yourself and you like your outfit, take a picture of it in the mirror and just hold on to it. It's genuinely a learning tool so when you do come to putting outfits together, all of a sudden you'll have an album full of photos of outfits. Now, I'm going to come back to this point in a little bit because it's important, however, bear with me for now. It will also remind you of the clothes you actually have so when you're out and about shopping and you see something you might like, you'll actually be able to dip into your album like your online wardrobe and say to yourself, actually I don't need that, I've got this or oh I like that and that actually fits me better than this one in this outfit photo. I can see how I look here and I look better in that. I'm going to buy that and I'm going to get rid of that one when I get home. It keeps your wardrobe current, it keeps your wardrobe full of clothes that fit you well and make you feel great. Which leads me on to my next point of stop impulse purchasing. One of the biggest mistakes I see people doing is seeing an outfit maybe on Pinterest or Instagram and then going out feeling like they need to buy the entire look before, number one, questioning is it actually their style? Two, do they actually have the pieces already in the wardrobe? Most of us don't need more clothes, most of us just need more ideas on how to wear those clothes. So before you go out and buy the next viral thing that you've seen on TikTok, ask yourself first, how could I style this five different ways? Do I have something that's already similar in my wardrobe? And also give it a couple of days, save it to a wish list, don't buy instantly and if you still really want it then fine, it might not be an impulse purchase. So remember when I said about documenting your outfits, that's going to really help with my next point and possibly one of the biggest game changers for me and that is to establish your outfit uniforms. I've spoken about outfit uniforms on my Instagram a lot but an outfit uniform is essentially just an outfit formula that is your go-to, your safety blanket and your fail-safe signature look so to speak. So one reason I said to document your outfits is to look back and look at the outfits you tend to lean towards, that might be one of your outfit uniforms and you can vary with this. So for example, if you're a jeans t-shirt blazer kind of girl, you don't have to wear the same jeans and the same blazer every day, you might wear a black blazer one day, you might opt for cream in the summer but it's that outfit formula that stays consistent and you just know, right, that is one of my go-to looks but it's also just easy and you can change up the fabrics, the colours, you will still look different but you'll still feel like you. Okay, the next one and I feel like this is a biggie and this is something that I feel like definitely takes some time to learn and that is to balance your proportions. Now this is not about your size, it's not about being skinny, this comes down to body type. You can have someone that is a size zero but they can still be pear-shaped, they can still wear outfits that are unflattering. This is not exclusive to size, everybody has a body type and it's about discovering what your body type is and learning how to dress for that. For example, if you have a long torso and shorter legs, you're not going to want to wear jeans that cut you off at the ankle, all that's going to do is accentuate the shortness of your legs and you're going to look at your outfits and you might not be able to work out why it's not working and that will be it, you're just unbalanced. Now for me, I have a fairly athletic figure, I'm very straight up and down, I don't necessarily have wider shoulders or wider hips, I barely have shape to be completely honest and I have a very short torso and very long legs, therefore if I wear something high-waisted on my bottom half and then something cropped on my top half, that whole body shape is just accentuated, my torso looks even smaller, my legs look even longer. One thing that I definitely started doing over the last few years was investing in my accessories, particularly things like handbags and belts. Now I'm of the strong belief that you can wear something from one of the most affordable shops on the high street and you can make it look 10 times more expensive by just having a really lovely bag and lovely accessories with the outfit. I truly believe that accessories can make or break a look and vice versa, you can wear a super expensive outfit and completely ruin it by wearing a cheap looking bag and a cheap looking belt. Notice I say cheap looking and not actually cheap because you can get some absolutely fantastic affordable accessories nowadays that really do look a lot more expensive than they are. The reason I say though to invest in your accessories is you're going to get the cost per wear out of them. It's all well and good buying that expensive dress, how much are you actually going to wear that dress versus a belt that you may use almost every day with your shorts, your trousers, around your waist and your handbags, which will complement all of your outfits. So definitely invest in a really great, I would say a great black bag and a great tan bag and belts to match. I know I used to be guilty of buying fast fashion, little cheap colourful bags that would just go with certain outfits. I hardly got any wear out of them, they were really badly made, they didn't look that great and I realised looking back they were really just ruining the vibe of an outfit and now I've started investing in my classic capsule wardrobe accessories. I really feel like my outfits as a whole have just levelled up that little bit. So with that, this is your official sign from me, you need closet clear outs. When you improve your style that inevitably means that you're going to stop wearing certain things and the problem is when you hold on to them it really jades your vision when it comes to putting outfits together. If you actually have a wardrobe that's just full of clothes you don't wear anymore, you don't reach for anymore. So for me, I have given up wearing certain things, I've realised I don't like me in them anymore. Ripped jeans, I used to love a pair of ripped jeans and I'll be honest I haven't wore a pair of ripped jeans in the longest time. So I got rid of them all and I'm not necessarily suggesting that that's what you should get rid of but for me I really pinpointed that I don't reach for them anymore, I don't need a wardrobe full of them and another thing is perspex heels. I used to be a huge lover of a thin clear see-through heel and now I really don't like them so I got rid of them. So make space for this new version of you and make space for everything in your wardrobe that should look and make you feel great. Another thing that really helped me to improve my personal style was to stop falling for every single fashion trend. Now I'm not saying you can never have fun with a fashion trend, however you need to have the basics established first. What I'd call your desert island product. So if you were to have all of your clothes taken away from you and you honestly sat down and asked yourself if you had to start again from scratch, what would be the first 10 things that you'd buy? Are they in your wardrobe? You might actually find out, actually I don't even own a pair of those trousers but I'd really want them if I was going to start my wardrobe again from scratch. So make sure you have your desert island products first, make sure your basics are in order. If you have a wardrobe filled full of mismatched trend items you're never ever going to be able to build, as I've mentioned in my previous points, your outfit uniforms, you're never going to be able to work out what actually you like. So just make sure you become more driven by your classic pieces first and not necessarily what's on trend. And then finally, I feel like this is a huge one, you need to actually just take care of yourself. Now this is irrespective of the outfit you choose to put on that day but I think there's a lot to be said for establishing a really good skincare routine, taking care of your face, be it whether you wear makeup or not, taking care of your hair and doing your hair and wearing those products that make you feel put together, whether it's perfume or having your nails done. Using products that complement your natural features and make you feel put together regardless of the outfit you're about to put on, because I guarantee it will just elevate any outfit that you decide to wear that day. Have you ever seen those girls on TikTok that literally just look clean and fresh and put together and just ready to go? And they will literally just be wearing a loungewear set. But what are the differences that you notice? It's usually that they have done their hair, clean nails, got their lip gloss, their mascara, and as I said, not saying you have to wear makeup but just wearing those products that make you feel great. I feel like having your hair look good or clean nails, it's like the sprinkles on a cupcake. You can have the main cupcake which is your outfit but a little bit of sprinkles just adds that bit of pizzazz and who doesn't like sprinkles? So you know. Okay guys, I really hope you enjoyed this video, my 10 simple tips for improving your style. I'm going to wrap this video up here so as always I'll see you in the next one. Bye guys!