Men and Women Fashion Tips -- Dress From the Inside Out

The best fashion tip I can give you is something I tell my clients. 

"Fashion is not about the clothes you wear.

It's about expressing who you really are.

So, dress from the inside out."  

When you dress from the inside out, it's important to ask yourself: what do I want people to know about me without saying a word?

Color Speaks

Use color to highlight your best features and send a message that you know yourself well enough to pick the best colors.  When you wear colors that complement your skin tone you will look:

• Younger
• Healthier
• More Energetic

How many times have you asked someone if she is feeling ill, when in reality, all that is wrong is the color she's wearing!

Here's an example of the wrong color 

Here she is wearing the right color, looking radiant and confident!

Style Matters

"A man has his clothes made to fit him;

a woman makes herself fit her clothes." -- Edgar Watson Howe

Women, we can learn something from men's fashion.  Men keep it simple and stylish. What's simpler than a suit?  Tailoring a suit to make it fit a man's body is a given.  Make a statement with the perfect fit, fine fabric and a pop of color in the shirt and tie.  

Quality, color, fit, and style.

Accessories Polish Your Look

What can you do with a scarf?  Hmmmmm.....let's see:

• Keeps your neck warm on a frosty night
• Adds a punch of color to an otherwise neutral outfit
• Good for hiding a drip of salad dressing on your blouse
• Wrap it around your face to create mystery and allure

A good accessory for a man is a tie that marries his suit to his shirt, and provides a pop of color and sophistication.  For a woman, shoes can express her sexy, fun side.  An artfully crafted wide copper bracelet says artsy and interesting.

Confidence Pulls It All Together

"Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom."  -- Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching

How do you start gaining confidence?

• Trust your gut -- do you rely on other peoples' opinions or do you follow your instincts and do what feels right for you?
• Self knowledge -- the more you know about your coloring, your body shape (without judgment please!), and more importantly, what matters to you and brings you joy, the more confidence you will gain.
• Be authentic -- no more faking it!  Be exactly who you are twenty-four hours a day and you will decrease your stress and increase your joy.  Celebrate who you are.
• Dress from the inside out -- learn about the colors and styles that create a harmonious look and express who you really are. Then, walk into a room and OWN it!

Men's Fashion Tips - How to dress like you own the company

If you are Mark Zuckerberg, and worth $10 Billion you can show up for work in a worn t-shirt and jeans. 

The Borowitz Report, The New Yorker

But you're NOT Zuckerberg, so you will have to try a little harder to create an impressive image.

Style can be transformative.   One day you're a slob, and the next day you're a dashing head-turner.  This can be accomplished with a colored tailored shirt (your best color) underneath a great jacket, worn with a pair of wool slacks and a pair of leather shoes (your belt and shoes are the same color). Style is a form of communication. You are telling people what you think of yourself. A put together appearance tells the world (whether it's true, or not) you have confidence, credibility, and self worth. It will give you the edge every time!  When you know you look good, you feel good.

Best Way to Look Like an Executive

http://pinterest.com/fabuliss/men-s-executive-style/

Own your own style. Be consistent.  Always wear your colors and well-fitted clothing.  Create an image for yourself and buy clothes and accessories that reflect that image.  Be yourself -- you don't have to conform to the latest trends.  When you dress one step better than everyone else, you will get noticed when you walk into a room.


When you wear the colors that make your skin look radiant and healthy, you're going to look younger, healthier, and more energetic.

www.fashion-for-mens.com

Buy Fewer Pieces, Spend More Money on each Piece

• Cashmere sweater

• Leather-soled dress shoe - streamlined sole or chunky sole, your choice! Keep your shoes polished using Kiwi cream polishes. It's a time-honored ritual for good reason.

www.GQ.com

• A polo shirt underneath a suit jacket -- wearing a polo shirt in your strongest color underneath a suit is surprisingly, casually elegant

• Streamlined, pin-striped suit

• Dark-wash jeans

Shop at a Trendy Menswear Store to Find Out What's In This Year

You can always buy your clothes at H&M if you are on a tight budget, but if you want to look hip and turn some heads, walk into the more expensive men's stores and note the styles and colors they're showing this year. Then, go buy some lookalike, less expensive pieces. However, I'm still a big believer in the classic, timeless styles of good taste.  So, go easy on the trends!  If you look terrible in a fedora hat, don't wear it.  

How to start living the life you love,

Fall in love with yourself.

Nurture your body with love, nutritious food, and exercise. 

"I fall asleep feeling beautiful," she said to me. "Then, in the morning, before I leave the house I say five things I love about myself, like, I have really pretty eyes, or, those sit-ups are really working!"  That way I can go out into the world with that little bit of extra confidence. It's a feel-good protein shake that fortifies my soul in case someone messes with me."

Try eating mostly vegetarian for one week. See how creative and fun it is to fill your shopping cart with colorful vegetables and then roast, stir fry, steam, or eat vegetables raw.  This plate above is 3/4 vegetables with roasted potatoes and asparagus, heirloom tomatoes, sweet peas, asparagus, and sliced hormone-free beef tenderloin filet, served with Dijon mustard for zing.

Love your job with all of your heart. Have pride in it, do it 100%, and keep growing in it. If you hate your job, change it. Start something new, create it, market it, perfect it, and love it with all your being.

Build the life you desire by starting with small ‘dough ball’ changes so it's not so overwhelming. For instance, if you're a writer, a colleague of mine, Adele Sommers, recommends writing small metaphorical dough balls of content that you can stack in the freezer to be pulled out later when you are ready to create something like a book or workshop. By creating small dough balls one at a time, you are not faced with preparing ten loaves of bread all at once, and the task doesn’t feel so overwhelming.  

This also applies to lifestyle changes, and your dough balls could be things like starting to walk for twenty minutes every day, cutting out soft drinks, or writing short stories that will one day turn into a novel. The point is start out with small accomplishments that turn into the life you love.  What begins with a dough ball could end as a multi-tiered wedding cake!

   

Is your image helping or hurting you?

What does your image say about you?  Think about the last time you met someone for the first time.  What kind of impression did you make?  Some say it's wrong to 'judge a book by its cover.' Yet we all do it.  For good reason!  Our tribal ancestors had a few seconds to judge whether a stranger was friend or foe. If they judged incorrectly, they were dead within seconds!  We evolved this ability to judge quickly, mostly based on a stranger's size and clothing.  The size thing is obvious, and the clothing indicated whether he/she was a member of the tribe. Clothing still plays a significant role in our first impression -- the way you dress tells the world how you feel about yourself, so show the world you care.

Your image on social media is also important.  Social media gives you a voice.  Use it wisely. It is a powerful connection to the world.  Become a thought leader and change the world one thought at a time.  

Pay attention to your personal brand. Everything you say and do reflects who you are.

Create balance in your life by nurturing personal relationships, taking breaks and vacations often (short 1-day excursions revitalize your spirit), fitting exercise and quiet time into your daily schedule.

   

Enjoy the arts. Go to free concerts, attend art openings at your local galleries, take an art class even if you cannot draw a circle, or learn how to throw pots. Here's my sister, pictured below, throwing a pot for the first time.  She has always talked about getting a hobby, and one day suggested maybe she'd like to learn ceramics.  So, this summer, while we were visiting a pottery store, the owner asked if anyone would like to try the wheel.  I pushed my sister forward and said, "my sister wants to try it!"  Reluctantly, she sat down at the wheel, and proceeded to create a very nice vessel. 

Stop thinking. Start doing.