How to Find Your Personal Style

Hi girls,

Angela has asked me to do a guest blog of wardrobe tips ahead of King’s Daughters Conference 2011. The plan for the day sounds so amazing I can’t wait to meet you all and I’m looking forward to talking about ‘On Beauty, Body And Clothes’.

The work I do is all based around introducing girls and women to Jesus, to His unconditional love and all He has done for us. Among other things, that has included me dealing with subjects like beauty and clothes because they are connected to the way we feel about ourselves which has everything to do with us knowing Jesus. But more about that at the conference…!

In the mean time, I wanted to tell you a little bit about the session I will be running during the dinner break: HOW TO FIND YOUR PERSONAL STYLE. I believe that because we are all unique, each of us has an individual style – our own taste and way of putting clothes and accessories together. I don’t believe that any one person’s style is better that another person’s. In fact I think that each person’s style is very precious – something no one else could ever have and no money could buy.

I’ll tell you why as well as it being fun, I think finding your personal style is a useful thing to do. (For one thing, it can have a lot of benefits on your wardrobe including saving you money!).

I’ll also tell you how it is that many of us get out of tune with our personal tastes, ending up with a style that’s not really ‘us’ at all but how that doesn’t have to stop us finding our true style.

And I’ll take you step by step through how to find your personal taste and develop it into a style of dressing. But if you’d like to make a start on this over the next few weeks, here’s how:

The first stage in finding your personal style – your own way with clothes and accessories, with decorating your house, planning a dinner party, or whatever – is getting in touch with your personal taste – your likes and dislikes. So begin to ask yourself: “What do I like the appearance of?” Begin broadly with any ideas that come to mind. They may be landscapes, films, paintings, a period in history. Jot them down.

Ultimately we will be creating an ‘inspiration board’ – a personal style scrapbook that is reflective of your own tastes, a collage of looks you love and might want to imitate. To begin, you will need to collect some cuttings.  Some of the following shops have free catalogues that you could order for cuttings. Otherwise you can print off images of things you like.

americanapparel.co.uk, aubinandwills.com, boden.co.uk, brora.co.uk,  cathkidston.com, crewclothing.co.uk, fatface.com, fcukbuymail.com, grayandosbourn.co.uk, howies.co.uk, jackwills.com, joulesclothing.com, katherinehooker.com, kew-online.com,  missselfridge.co.uk, next.co.uk, peopletree.co.uk, peruvianconnection.com, cashmere.purecollection.com, redoute.co.uk, sweatybetty.com, toast.co.uk, topshop.co.uk

Source things from everywhere which appeal to your eye. It may be a style of writing, a page from an in-flight magazine, a food wrapper, a book cover… And get inspired – you could take a trip somewhere like the costume galleries at a museum, go to the library to look in books and take photocopies, hire some films. Look for ideas everywhere you go. Look at postcards, greetings cards, nature colour swatches in paint shops…

Tear or print out pictures of clothes, accessories, fabrics and makeup you like and any other things you feel drawn to the appearance of. It’s good to share magazines with friends but important to do the cuttings ON YOUR OWN. Don’t be limited or put off by anything. Don’t even consider whether it would fit/suit you/be affordable. This is your opportunity not to say: “I’d have that if… I had more money, a different figure, a better social life, was a few decades younger, my husband would approve…” but your fantasy shopping trip!

Have a lot of fun! And come to the session at the conference with all your questions and ideas. I’d love to see how you’ve got on with your cuttings!

Lots of love,

Anna

PS Angela’s just done a brilliant blog about not conforming to what the world says when it comes to our appearance so it may seem strange that I’m promoting all these magazines and websites to you. However, for this exercise, they’re the tools we have available so let’s make good use of them!