Style Harmony

Think about your life 10 years ago.  Where were you?  Were you married already?  Did you have children?  What was your job?  Who were the friends you spent the most time with?  What hobbies did you take part in?  What kind of exercise did you do?  What type of car did you drive? I could ask questions on and on about the past from 10 years ago or any number of years and, chances are that to some degree, the answers to some of the questions would be different than they are today. I've said it before, and I am going to say it again:  Time seems to fly by faster and faster with each passing year.  As I write this blog, I am in complete wonderment over how the first month of the new year is already gone. We JUST celebrated the New Year!!  But that is the way that life goes - it will keep changing no matter how much we may want to resist it. So, when I talk about Style Evolution, what do I mean?  I want to begin with the definition o...

Social Media can be so fun. As a creative person, I love seeing what looks and outfits other people put together.  I know that my friends who may be less-creative agree as well.  The difference is that many times a creative person will use what they see online as inspiration whereas someone who has less creative abilities may use the outfit and literally copy it.  Easy-peasy, cut-and paste.   There are so many influencers out there who are paid by brands to sell items.  Influencers are creatives who are monetizing their creativity.  It's super smart!  They have the chops to know how to put looks together, they take the time to style and take the perfect picture and write the perfect post that makes you want what they are representing.  Influencers are good at what they do:  influencing!   Think of it like this.  Let's say you work for a company and your company sells a financial product.  You are responsible for the m...

 When you head to your closet each morning, what do you do to pull your outfit together?  Which of these sounds like your routine: Grab a top, a bottom, and a pair of shoes and you're done, or Grab a top, a bottom, a pair of shoes, some jewelry or accessories, and head to the mirror to make some outfit "tweaks" If #1 is your go-to, you are getting dressed.  If you answered #2, you are styled. Styling makes ALL the difference when it comes to stepping into your closet each day.  It is what adds personality to your looks and gives them that little something extra that makes your outfit get noticed (and makes you feel better, too 😉). Before I get into some tips for being styled, let's talk about WHY it matters. Our relationship with our clothes is a complex one.  There is an entire field of study all about the Psychology of Fashion and I NERD OUT on this stuff as a Certified Style Coach™!  Firstly is Enclothed Cognition.  This was a study performed in 20...

Happy New Year!  It's always so hard to fathom that another year has come and gone as we look forward to a brand new year.  What is so refreshing about the New Year is that it feels like a clean slate.  We can begin anew with new intentions and goals.   In the previous post, we explored the importance of reflecting on your 2023 and setting intentions for 2024. If you missed that post, you can re-visit it here. As I promised in my last post, we are going to take our reflections from the past year and dive deeper into two powerful tools for personal growth: choosing a "word of the year" and keeping commitments to yourself. Choosing a word of the year is going to change how you look at your intentions.  Remember, we are not making resolutions, we are setting intentions because they are more flexible when life throws curveballs at us.  Living your life by focusing on one particular word that you want to live by is extremely transformative.  Your ...

The end of the year is always such a busy time. There are so many things to do and I am going to suggest that you add just one more to your list.  I believe it's important to take time for reflection. Let's face it, the years seem to go faster and faster with each passing one and it's easy to forget or "misplace" all that you have accomplished in the past year. Many times when people talk about reflecting back on the past year, they think of it from a place of negativity.  They think that reflection is about what DIDN'T get done, but I encourage you to reflect from a place of positivity. By reflecting on both the things that you did AND did not get done, it will allow you to evaluate what that means.  Is it really something that is important to you?  Do you need to remove that thing from your list or make a new commitment because upon reflection you realize just how important it is? By reflecting on the past year, it allows you to tap into personal growth. Thi...

  Winter is upon us, and with it comes the promise of cozy nights by the fire, snow-covered landscapes, and festive gatherings. But winter can also be a fashion challenge. How do you stay warm and comfortable without sacrificing style? Introducing the Cozy Chic Winter Challenge! This fun challenge is designed to help you embrace the beauty of winter while expressing your personal style through stylish and comfortable looks. Each day, for the next week, step into your closet with one goal in mind: to create the cutest cozy looks imaginable! Ditch the sweatpants and sweatshirts and let's have some fun with winter colors and textures. This is a completely go-on-your-own, DIY Challenge, so read on to hear some tips for upleveling your style this winter! When you think of winter, what images come to mind? Most likely you think of crisp and cool settings such as snow-topped trees, the red and green that appear around Christmas, or the icy blues you see in the daytime sky. Take these ...

 Imagine holding onto a beautiful, vintage style key and sitting in front of you is a door with a world of possibilities behind it.  Now, imagine the feeling of putting that key in the lock and not turning the key to walk through the door.  There is so much amazing potential behind the door and someone has given you the key, but you say to yourself "I am not going to turn the key and open the door.  I can't possibly be ready for what's on the other side.  I will never open the door because I'm comfortable with my life now and I don't want it to get better." Can you imagine??? How much are you missing out on because you are stuck in a loop of closed-minded thinking?  What could be possible for you if you saw the key as a gift to explore new places you have never been and to experience things you have never experienced? I find that as we get older, many times, we become more set in our ways and tell ourselves and others that "I have been doing it this way f...

So, I am guessing that, like me, you have received about 145 million emails since the day before Thanksgiving with the BEST SALE OF THE YEAR in the subject! On Black Friday, I opened my email and bulk deleted about 50 emails thinking I was through...then in popped another 50 brand new, unread emails. The hardest part is that is is all so tempting.  And before you know it, your credit card is smoking from all the sales.  It is a really great time to buy things you have been wanting, but that is the key:  buying things you have been wanting. Because the sales are just SO good, it's easy to see something on sale that you don't really need and think it's just makes sense to buy it because it's such a "good deal".  The problem with that thinking is that buying things you don't need is NEVER a good deal! Since retailers are going to continue to offer up sales through the rest of the year to entice you to buy, I wanted to offer up some suggestions that will hop...

 No one regulates sizing when it comes to fashion.  Unlike the drug industry, which for obvious reasons, has a system to regulate medicines you ingest, that is not available in the fashion industry.  You may be saying, "Yes, Michelle, but drugs and clothes are different."  While this is VERY true, one of the things that clothing impacts more than anything for women is their self-confidence.  I see it in my job every time I work with a Client.  It's no WONDER shopping for clothes is an experience many women dread and try to avoid! Did you know that the average clothing size for an American woman is between a size 16 and a size 18.  Per a Time article, 67% of women wear a size 14 or higher. Yet, once you have reached a 16, you are considered "Plus size" and it's more difficult to find clothes that fit well.  In a study done by a company called Quartz, they found that a woman with a size 31 inch waist can go home with a pair of pants ranging anywhere...