MEAGHAN SMITH PERSONAL STYLIST

When you haven’t spent time thinking about, defining and developing your own style, there’s the possibility that you’ll adopt someone else’s.

You might be buying the same things your girlfriends or colleagues are,  wearing clothes your mum or your husband have bought for you,  or copying the style of a character on TV.

Of course that’s perfectly ok if it feels right for you – but often it doesn’t.

It’s quite common to hear, when I first meet a client to do a Wardrobe Overhaul,  that they have lots of clothes, but not really anything they want to wear.  Chances are this is because their wardrobe is full of someone else’s style.

Think about it.  You wouldn’t have a collection of music that wasn’t your taste.   You wouldn’t have art on your walls that wasn’t your taste.  So why collect clothes that really aren’t your taste.

Here’s a good example.

I can imagine there are women all over Australia with pieces they’ve bought purely because it looked like something similar to what Nina Proudman wore, on the show Offspring.

This is great if your style is a little bit bohemian.  You can use Nina’s style as inspiration for what to buy and how to wear your clothes.  But what if it’s not really your style.  What if you’ve just bought maxi skirts, vintage tan belts, scarves and denim jackets because you like Nina’s quirky character and how she looks.  (Think about this: Would you like this style so much if Billie was wearing it?)

What then happens when the show finishes or you discover you’re really not a bohemian dresser at all and your wardrobe is full of Nina’s style – not your own?  You feel confused and frustrated with your wardrobe and feel that nothing works and if you’re anything like me when I was making costly mistakes before I worked out my personal style, you feel annoyed at yourself for spending all the money you did on things that weren’t right for you in the first place.

If you think your wardrobe might be full of someone else’s style why don’t you make 2018 the year you define your own authentic personal style.   Being clear on your personal style and the look you’re wanting to achieve, makes shopping and dressing so much easier ….and it can save you a lot of money.

Book in for a Wardrobe Overhaul (where we spend time together defining your personal style) here 

You can read what styling services I offer here

Follow me on Instagram here

Go back to basics.

Sometimes people who love fashion and have lots of lovely clothes, have neglected to buy basics that tie everything together – they find them boring to shop for.

When you build a stylish wardrobe think about building it up from the bottom. Start with the staples first, then when you’ve filled your wardrobe with those, you can begin to add the interesting pieces that help create your authentic personal style. .

If you’re opening your wardrobe each day, seeing rails full of clothes yet feel like you have nothing to wear, it might be that you’re missing the basics. (Flattering jeans, great t-shirts, knits, pants, etc,etc) .

I think back to the days of when I worked in banking and how I dressed to fit in.

I liked to put my own spin on things occasionally, but generally I just wore a similar version to what everyone else in the office was wearing.  As you can imagine, it was a fairly conservative  environment.

Occasionally when anyone attempted to wear something a bit unique or different, there were often “knock down” remarks.  I still remember the day I wore a scarf tied around my neck (to try something new) and I was asked if I had a job interview at lunch time as an air stewardess – which made the whole (male) dealing desk laugh – and made me whip it off before I could even get back to my desk to hide.

Of course there was a dress policy to adhere to, which I can completely understand and always complied with, but looking back I realise there was still room for me to interpret the standards in my own way.  I wish I had made the most of that, explored my personal style earlier and learned to feel confident not being so predictable.  You see when I left the organisation I was quite lost and confused.  My corporate identity and the uniform I’d grown comfortable in, was gone.  I had to re-establish how I wanted to look…and it took quite a while.   It took me some time also, to feel comfortable to be different, yet authentic to who I was and not worry that I wasn’t conforming to how everyone else dressed.

So the question is, is our personal style hindered by the tribe we’re associated with?

For example…

Would you love to wear a chic suit to work, but everyone else wears cargoes, jeans and t-shirts?

Would you like to go to the pub in a dress and heels, but all your friends only ever wear jeans?

Would you like to wear more modern, fashionable pieces, but you think you’d stand out too much among the other school mums?

Would you like to try something different, but feel pressured to fit in and worry too much about what others think?

Dressing according to my personal style and in my own way, does not mean I need to look fabulously eccentric as Iris Apfel does above – quite the contrary.  For me it means being confident enough that I don’t feel I need to wear lots of colors and dresses and patterns.  It means feeling that it’s ok to dress however I want to – whether it’s all black every day for a week, bright red lips,  and faded skinny jeans.   And it means not looking a particular way that others expect or would like me to.

Who knows one of these days I might return to the corporate world and feel the need to want to fit in again.   And it’s ok to do that, if that’s what I want.  There’s absolutely no right or wrong.

Are you interested in asserting your individuality or would you rather play it safe?  When it comes to how you dress, how important is it to you that you fit in?

You can read what styling services I offer here

Follow me on Instagram here

When people first meet me and discover I’m a personal stylist  I think sometimes they’re taken aback a little.

I’m not that impeccably groomed, blow-waved and meticulously manicured person they might assume I will be.  You see I aspire to be imperfect.

Those of you who are born perfectionists, as I am, will know it can be exhausting and stressful.  In a couple of areas of my life overcoming my (Virgo) perfectionism is still a work in progress, but when it comes to how I dress I think I’ve just about nailed it.

I like my hair to look undone (slightly messy even), my nails to be short and neat, and my jeans to look a bit worn in.  Sure I can pull it all together and look very well presented when I need to – I did it for over 20 years when I worked in banking – but these days you’re more likely to see me in my favourite black (sometimes faded) jeans, a Gap t-shirt and a blazer with my hair slightly tousled.  It’s my personal style.

Recently I was reading Nina Garcia’s, The Little Black Book of Style and came across a passage that resonated with me.  It was titled, “How to be imperfect”.

“I call it “The Kate Moss Factor”.   Kate Moss has this tactic down.  She never looks like she is trying too hard.  Something is always a bit off.  Her hair is messy, her accessories don’t match, her shirt is rumpled.  And yet, she always looks amazing.

It’s kind of painful to see girls so pristinely put together all the time.  Those girls that always look like they are ready for a photo shoot do not interest me.  I’m more interested in those girls who are less than perfect (perfection is overrated).  They are the ones whose hair is not flawless, whose outfits are not perfectly matched, who are somehow breaking the rules. Every time I see a girl who has mastered this tactic, I smile in silent worship.  They know how to live, these girls.  They know how to have fun and let their hair down.  They never look too perfect.  These are the girls who know the most about style”

It was during my first trip to Paris when (as Oprah says) I had a light-bulb moment.

Parisian women, well at least the Parisian women who caught my eye, were not over-groomed.   Certainly there were those walking their poodles with coiffured hair and  couture suits, but these were not the ones who inspired me.  It was those who were casually, yet stylishly dressed.  I realised it was all about how you wore the look.  If you stood and walked tall, ensured there was an element of uniqueness and femininity, dressed in clothes that flattered your body shape and did it all with confidence – you could be chic and elegant in a simple jeans and tee combo.

Ines de la Fressange, who masters this look beautifully,  talks more about French imperfectionism in this article here.  Of particular interest to me (as a woman in her 50’s) were her views on grooming.

“It gives you a lot of age if your hair is too done—I am fifty-four, and it makes me look much older. I think it is good to take care of yourself, but it shouldn’t show. I hate, for instance, when women have things on their nails, like a French manicure. I think that sometimes women do too much—they put earrings, and color, and necklace, and the lipstick, and fake eyelashes, and fake hair—it’s a nightmare.”

These are my style influences and this is my style – not my Mums, my sisters, my friends or my clients. Just mine.  Who are your style influences and what’s your style?  Have you spent time working out what your unique personal style is?   Have you defined it?   Understanding your personal style will help when you shop.  Knowing how you want to look and dress will mean that you won’t waste money on clothes that are not complementing your style.   It will make you feel confident and self assured.  By understanding how you want to look and the image you want to achieve you’ll fill your wardrobe with things you love and things that will make you feel confident.  Not understanding your style properly means wearing things that might not feel right and feeling uncomfortable and often self conscious.  No one wants that.

You can read what styling services I offer here

Follow me on Instagram here