MEAGHAN SMITH PERSONAL STYLIST

The first thing I noticed when I looked at the images from this Oscar de la Renta show, was the emphasis being put on the waist.

Practically every piece in the collection is designed to show off the beautiful female shape.  Nothing is shapeless or boxy.

Yep sure, these women modelling Oscar’s clothes are twenty something glamazons, but playing up the waist is not just for the tall, slim and young.  It’s for everyone.

Just last week I worked with a lady in her sixties who had been paying so much attention to her tummy and hiding it under tent like tops and dresses, that she didn’t even realise she had a waist.   When her husband returned home and we were still working through her wardrobe, she called out to him,

“Meaghan’s found my waist *Fred”    (*not his real name)

Some people don’t think they have waists…but I like to prove them wrong.   I’ll point out exactly where it is and then I’ll show them what styles they need to wear to accentuate their curves.

What I also noticed in Oscar’s resort collection was that the waist is being brought to our attention by the use of vintage inspired waist belts.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, belts are not just for holding up your trousers. Belts can show off or create a waist, completely jazz up and change the look of a piece of clothing and artistically pull an outfit together.  Like a piece of jewellery or a fabulous shoe, a belt is something you can use to demonstrate your unique personal style.

My best suggestion for searching for belts similar to those in these pictures is to rummage through op shops, vintage stores or search online at eBay (Australian & International) or Etsy.

While keeping your body shape in mind – not all belt styles will suit all shapes – start collecting in time for spring/summer.

Are you wasting your waist or have you worked out how to accentuate it?  If so, what’s your best tip for doing so?

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image via here

Lisa Wilkinson knows what looks good on her.

At 52 she looks fit, healthy, strong and stylish.  While her style might not necessarily be mine (or yours) what I love is that she knows how to dress to accentuate her best features.

All of us have something lovely about us – despite our age, size or shape.

Beautiful hands, amazing skin, great hair, a tiny waist, slender ankles, a good bum or as in Lisa’s case – toned shoulders.

It’s up to us to figure out our best features and then play them up.

Lisa knows she has good shoulders, so she wears clothes that draw attention to them.  (Barbra Streisand is another celebrity who often wears styles to bring attention to her shoulders as you can see here)   That’s what clever, stylish dressing is all about.

Too often we just look for faults. We search for them every time we look in the mirror.  We look to see how many more wrinkles we have, we look at our bellies, we look at big busts, our upper arms or our thighs that aren’t like they used to be.  We focus only on the negatives.

What about, just for a change, next time you look in the mirror and when you’re just about to search for a new grey hair, you ask yourself..

What do I like about myself?

What’s lovely and unique about me?

What am I neglecting to show off as best I could?

When I’m working with someone for the first time, I’ll have them fill out a questionnaire so I can get some insight into them before we meet.  I’ll ask them lots of questions ranging from, How would you describe your current style?  How would you like your clothes to make you feel?  and What are the features you like the most?   Occasionally someone will say, “eyes” or “hair” but sadly, often women leave it blank.  Either they don’t like to brag about themselves or they simply can’t think of anything they like.

When I ask,  “What are the features you dislike?” – there is often a list as long as my arm.

So for those few hours that we spend together, shopping or trying on clothes from their wardrobe, my mission is to make sure that person can see themselves for what they really are. How lovely they are.   How clever and special and amazing they are – just as they are.  And then my intention is to make sure we, together, work out how to accentuate and show off their best features.  In doing so, playing down the bits they least like.

This is what Lisa does.  Nobody would know whether Lisa has a tummy or a bottom she’s trying to disguise because we’re instantly drawn to her great shoulders and arms and her beautiful face and smile.

What are your best features?  Have you spent time focusing on them and not just on the bits you don’t like so much.  Take some time to look at yourself differently in the mirror.  Pay attention to yourself.  Be nice and gentle, rather than harsh and critical.  Then go about learning how you can make the most of those great features.  Keep them hidden, no longer.

READ: “That Dress Lisa Wilkinson Wore” here

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 I received an S.O.S text message from a girlfriend this morning.

“Help!!!  I bought a dress online.  Black chiffon with a ¾ sleeve with lace and just a sack on me.  I did all the measurements and it fits but it is the wrong style for me. I am ashamed to say that it was very expensive”

Immediately I called her because I knew the dress she was talking about was for a function she was going to tomorrow and I knew she had taken my advice and shopped online. So I felt some responsibility.  When I spoke to her she said she’d done everything I’d told her to do.

• Taken her measurements to make sure it would fit
• Enquired about the return policy
• Asked questions about the fit
• Checked how long delivery would take
• Made sure the dress was her style
• Asked herself whether she’d be able to wear it in different ways and therefore be able to wear it on several occasions

She did everything I told her to do, BUT it soon became apparent during our chat, that she had neglected to ask herself (possibly the biggest and most important question)

“Will this dress flatter my shape?”

When the dress arrived, promptly and conveniently to her doorstep and she excitedly tried it on, the answer was no.  The dress did not flatter her shape.  In fact it did the opposite.  It made her appear bigger and boobier, than she is.  She “looked like a sack of potatoes”.  The fact is, she actually has a very voluptuous, womanly figure that would look amazing dressed in the right style and fabric.  But a dress like the one she had purchased made her look completely shapeless. Her boobs were squashed, making them look larger than they are, her neck looked short and her face looked chubby.  Worse still was the dress was over $300. This is a lot of money for her. Like most of us, she can’t afford to make costly shopping mistakes.

She’d finally taken my advice and bought something online and it hadn’t worked out. Certainly I felt a little bit bad that I’d encouraged her to dabble in online shopping and on this occasion it hadn’t worked out, but I reminded her that the most important thing when shopping in stores, online and even in your own wardrobe, if you want to find something to wear that makes you look and feel great, is to wear something that flatters your particular body shape

Fortunately, after she emailed me a photo of herself wearing the dress, I was able to give her a few ideas, (with the use of some cleverly placed accessories and a suitably shaped jacket) as to how she could make the dress work for her so she could wear it tomorrow.  But I was very quick to remind her that if she didn’t want to continue to waste her money on bad buys, she needed to learn and understand the styles that suited her body shape best.  Then she needed to get into the habit of assessing every part of the garment, until it became second nature and she knew immediately as soon as she put something on whether it was right or wrong for her.  Otherwise, she was going to have a huge wardrobe full of clothes that cost her a lot of money and that didn’t make her feel good about herself.

Ask yourself, are the clothes in your wardrobe making you look like the voluptuous, curvaceous, attractive woman that you are or are they making you look like a frumpy, shapeless sack of potatoes?

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You can read what styling services I offer here