Updating your look on a budget... Is this possible??? YES!!!

A girlfriend recently said “how on earth do you update your wardrobe on a budget??!!” Although I immediately blurted out “ACCESSORIES” like I was some extra on the Lego movie, a light bulb moment ensued. How many people are waiting for more money or a better body to update their wardrobe??
Another friend completely refuses to let me dress her because she doesn’t like her current body shape and keeps saying she needs to save up so she can spend a lot on the update. Being "unhappy" with your shape, in particular, is exactly this time to update… And lets face it you will never have a "spare" $2000 for wardrobe maintenance. By changing a little you will look better, act more confident and best of all feel better. We all know how good it is to receive compliments from our peers. As for the budget – there is no point in loading your credit cards, know your dollar figure and stick to it. The priorities will naturally rise to the top – which is not a bad thing at all.
So how do you update your wardrobe when you are feeling less than fabulous with your body… Start by my reading body issues blog. It is all about dressing to your shape. 

So how do you update your wardrobe on a budget?  What many stylists don't tell you, it is easier to shop with bigger budgets.  In particular you can delve into the “designer” shops that have capsule wardrobes which work well together.  However this usually results in 3 pieces coming home rather than one piece.  It is more of a challenge to sift through the racks in Farmers, K-mart, Max and The House of G (Glassons) to find great pieces at a fraction of the price.  BUT they do exist.
Here are 3 simple rules I follow in the budget shopping challenges:

• Most important rule of all DO NOT buy it because it is a great price on sale. If it is something you need for your wardrobe and will wear and fits well – you have a bargain. If you are buying something on sale because it is on sale you have just wasted money.

• Go with a list of what you need to fill your wardrobe gaps, what your body shape suits, what colours you want. Really challenge your self to buy what you need rather than the items you find easy to buy… All you “Jacket specialists” and “habitual jean buyers” stand up now!!!

• If you are trying something on really think about what else you have to wear with this potential new piece. How many times have you brought a top that looked great with the shop pants, jacket and shoes but you can’t quite get it to go with anything you currently have.

Stay tuned for some great examples.  Or better still, send me examples that you have found!
xA

Zarina Cashmere Coat by Repertoire

Popped into Repertoire today and found they had some coats on sale...  Like this one - the Zarina Cashmere Coat.  Was $495 now $345 and its only just getting cold!  Lots of stock, some on sale, some delicious lace pieces (for under coats) and plenty of colour!  Go and check it out.

Hail the new alternative to "Home Pants"!

In all reality tracksuit pants were my friend shortly after I gave birth to our first child.  I think this was a bit of a shock to "husband" as I don't believe he had ever seen me in tracksuit pants and now I was buying them in sizes that would have fitted my old self AND him.  They were definitely not the cool versions from Adidas or Nike, they were far more like the biggest sizes found in Glassons, in that soft comfy grey fabric.  NOT NOT NOT attractive but oh so good.  They also hid the post child birth sanitary requirements I was confronted with at the time.  You know the ones you could literally surf to china on!  Anyway I digress.

Track suit pants are, in my opinion, not outer wear.  They should be reserved for home.  In fact I had a great friend told me she refers to them as "home pants".  She will NOT go to the letterbox or answer the door in them.  I follow that same philosophy.  Whilst terribly comfortable they are not flattering and after more than a handful of washes they send your butt outline to the southern region of your leg outline!

So what is the alternative when you literally want a "home pant" feeling but need to nip to the dairy early in the morning or rush the kids to sport practice???

Hail the new version pyjama/harem pant.

Moochi Forgotten Pant

Moochi Lead Pant

 
Some of our designers tucked up in their offices have possibly had a hectic day where their uber tailored trousers or gorgeous skirts have been so uncomfortable that they have realised there is a NEED for a stylish relaxed pant.  Now I hear you say relaxed pants have always been around but not quite like this.

The harem pant was once the domain of hippies and early 80's gym bunnies (surely you remember MC Hammer - can't touch this...) .  But now we see great cuts that really can flatter the derriere and in styles/colours that will work with a t-shirt or a tailored jacket.

So keep your pride in tact and your butt outline in the northern region of your legs and enjoy the new harem pant!

xA

How well do you look after the basics?

I'm not talking about getting your 5 + a day or making sure you have regular beauty therapy appointments, its more about keeping your key, basic pieces looking sharp.

Are your white T-shirts still white and holding their shape.  Are you blacks really black?  Does your "go-to" black jacket have shiny lapels or missing buttons on the arms.  And Oh I hate to sound like my dear old Mum but are your shoes polished and scuff free??

Each season I get out my basics and review them.  Often I spend one months budget on a VERY unsatisfactory shopping trip to replace my basics; white T-shirt, black singlet, black pants, slip grips for my shoes that have worn away, nude bra…  It is no where near the excitement as coming home and hanging up a new coat or spraying gorgeous new red suede heals BUT when you are racing out the door with your basics looking FABULOUS it all pays off.

How is it we have become a nation of UNDER dressers?

At the airport recently I noticed there were two groups of people; t-shirt, comfy pants and track shoe wearers were group one and the business suit attired made up group two. Now you can change comfy pants for jeans and t-shirts for casual polo style tops but that summed up a plane load of people!
The sad part of it all was the business suited lot looked like a really boring group of people with a strong ability to make you fall fast asleep if you were in a presentation with them.  As for the other lot...  Shabby, mumsy, unloved.  I understand some people where there for work and felt they needed to be "suited" (more on that one later) but surely this was a great chance to see some smart casual dressing... Nup!
The term Smart Casual - is mostly reserved for celebrities like Sienna Miller, Jessica Alba, "IT" model Carla Delevigne (who is in her early 20's so she doesn't really count) and ONE in the "36 + GST" years old category Elle Macpherson.  I find this "style" very hard to get right.  I understand suit/business dress dressing and I get exercise gear but there is a grand canyon in between those two!   I would love to say I've mastered shabby chic but in reality I find it very hard to look cool without loosing my personality or looking a bit more hobo than bo-ho! So for me I stay away from shabby chic.
For me that look is reserved for those individuals who are naturally shabby chic!  You know who you are.

Thus I find myself stuck in a no mans land of "smart casual". What the hell is that meant to mean??  Who knows what they really mean by smart casual when it's on an invitation?  At one recent event smart casual was jeans and a jacket. At another it was business suit minus the tie. How was I supposed to know that!  Of all people I thought I should have been able to pick it. I do LOVE the fact that we are not samey samey clones but our preference NOT to stand out in a croud and our nations culture of black is best has us in style limbo.
I'm still treating this "smart casual" ethic as a "WIP" but here 3 main pointers that I've learnt about smart casual so far:

• Mixing smart and casual is good - jackets or tailored crisp shirt with jeans.  Casual t-shirts with tailored pants.

Taylor Sequence Jacket - Black

Rag and Bone Jeans

• Choose your accessory thing - for me it's shoes. I LOVE different shoes. Whacking great heals in lime green with jeans or my orange pumps with black pants. If you are a jewellery person select your fav's and wear them with pride.  Putting on your favourite accessory will give an edge to any outfit and instantly lift your comfort level.

Chie Mihara

• Make sure the main part of your outfit suits your occasion then mix up your style.  Distressed jeans with a tailored jacket, tailored pants and sneakers (NOT running shoes but sneakers) or a suit with a much loved t-shirt.

Hope this helps a bit.  Most of all if you turn up in distressed jeans and a great tailored jacket with your favourite shoes and everyone else is wearing black pants, black top and black jacket - they might just be thinking how cool, comfortable and stylish you look!
xA

Body Issues??? Take a concrete pill!

NO one really has the perfect body.  Some get close but not as close as I think, apparently… 

Husband and I were looking at a magazine article on a favorite model citizen of mine and I casually mentioned that she had an amazing body.  Husband at that point grabbed the magazine and looked at her, hard, a lot, from all angles, then flicked some pages and after quite an inappropriately long period of time (in my opinion!) he said, its ok but its not very real.  A BIG discussion was then entered into about what is a great body, how men view women’s bodies and so forth.

Later that week I took the mag to a girls catch up and casually mentioned the same thing.  Totally different result – “ooh yes her thighs are amazing”, “she has such a flat stomach”…  “I wish I had her figure” was really the general consensus.  Summing up several hours of discussion with both groups – it seems men just think differently and women are way too hard on own body image.

So yes I still would love thinner thighs, a flatter stomach and no double chin but without a lot of surgery I don’t think I’m going to get there.  Thus I have decided we need to take a concrete pill, put on our big girl pants, harden up (which ever statement suits you best) and learn to dress so our positives are accentuated.

Now the first think I hear you all say is “positives”???  YES we all have great areas.  You might need to ask your friends (your really good friends) what they are, but find them and LOVE them.

Whether you subscribe to the theory of dressing for your body shape (pears, apples, rectangles and hourglasses unite!), or whether you like to follow the theory of dressing your body shape so it looks more like the ultimate hour glass figure, choose a theory and stick to it.

Hello World!

 

After years - literally years of badgering from girlfriends I have decided to put fingers to keyboard and start writing about one of my great loves - fashion.  Not the cat walk, latest and greatest off the pages of American or British Vogue sort of fashion.  But the sort that is reasonably affordable, really comfortable, fun and above all makes us feel better!  the sort of fashion that makes you go, "humm how is it that some people always good great".

So how did this all start?  With the ultimate insult from one of my nearest and dearest...  “You know who I mean - the one that always looks mumsy”

This was a statement my husband first made when we were sitting in a café  (DINKS of the highest proportion at that stage) and he was talking about a mutual friend.  Now almost 9 years on, two children, a wealth of life changing experiences and now put in that situation my husband knows to choose a number of OTHER words to describe people we know.  But it did make me wonder; what leads our husbands, mothers, friends (or not so friends!) to describe people as “mumsy”?????  And the second part to that has to be why does it hurt so much!

For me “mumsy” is the epitome of how I DON’T want to look.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids, 10 years of marriage, pregnancy, child birth and walking through the minefield that is raising 2 children has challenged me more than any of my previous career situations!  I am in constant in awe of what mothers can and will do every single day.  And in even more awe of mothers who do this AND work full time.  I just don’t want to look as tired, exhausted, stretched, bewildered, stressed as I feel!

I have thought deep and hard whether this is because I want to mask these feelings to other mothers – some of whom see motherhood as a competition…  but no.  I just want to look as good as I can to give me that extra edge – for my own personal gratification – to face the challenges of every day life.  This is for me, not my kids, not my husband, not anyone else.
What ever your reason, the challenge lies there.  How on earth do we find functional clothes that can withstand the occasional vomit or brush with a slightly wet painting that your child wants to bring home NOW.   I have pondered this long and hard.  I have looked and looked and looked at other mums to see what they do and I think there are a few keys.  Which is why I’m entering the big scary world of blogging!

I’m not an authority but one who loves shopping and genuinely loves to help girlfriends dress.  A bit like the breast cancer charity tag line – this is really about “looking good and feeling better”.
I hope you enjoy the tips, be inspired to make little changes and above all else get a bit of a laugh from the posts that will follow.
xA