Style Harmony

You're here! Congratulations because that is Step 1: Caring enough to want to make a change. Here's the thing, nothing changes if nothing changes. The biggest roadblock is if you aren't fed up ENOUGH with how you are feeling about your style (and likely yourself), you will never make a change. That's not you though, my friend, because you found this blog and opened it!  Step one is complete. Let's celebrate that! via GIPHY Here's what you already know. Style in your 40s and beyond (we will call this "midlife" going forward) is...different.  👉Our bodies are changing. Things don't sit where they used to. 👉Our priorities have changed. Most of the time, we aren't out all night at the bars. 👉Our lives have a new focus, oftentimes around our family. 👉Fashion and clothing is not typically geared toward women our age. It's commonplace for women who are in midlife to feel like they are lacking style or being left-behind, but that doesn't hav...

 I know you have thought it:  "How nice would it be to be a celebrity and have someone else style you?" What many women don't understand is that this is a service that is also available to them, too. If you are ready and motivated to make a change to your style, that is what women like myself do! So, what IS a Personal Stylist? What does one do? A Personal Stylist is trained professional who helps individuals develop and refine their personal style. Depending on the Personal Stylist, here are some of the services they may offer: Style Development: Personal Style is PERSONAL and needs to reflect the individual. Here is where the stylist gets to know you, your life, your vision, your goals, and then dives into your body shape, your personality when it comes to your style, and even your personal color patterns. Closet Edit: Once your personal style has been curated, we head into your closet and get rid of things that no longer fit, are dated (no longer in style), overly wo...

 Like Meteorological Fall, the Fall Fashion Season began on September 1st. And while we are only days into September, in true fashion form, Stylists who know their stuff are actually watching runways for Spring 2025 as we speak. Whoever came up with the term "Fashionably Late" was not actually talking about Fashion.  Who said it?  ME!  I understand that it is still pretty hot in many places, HOWEVER, the stores are ripe and ready for the Fall shopping season and as your Stylist, I want to make sure you are ahead of the game now. Today, I am going to share some tips with you as to how to begin to incorporate Fall into your wardrobe even though you still may be wearing sleeveless looks. Tip 1: Incorporate colors of Fall This is one of the easiest ways to begin transitioning your wardrobe to Fall. When you are shopping for clothes, the stores are in full fall mode. We are seeing beautiful olive greens, oxblood red, and deep chocolate colors in stores now. Begin to add t...

Fall Fashion season is here!  As the most beloved of fashion seasons, it's one that women long for. Like the long-awaited PSL, women clamor to pull out their fall clothing at the first sign of a chill in the air. Now, I am not a stylist that is super trend-driven. In fact, I'm quite the opposite. I believe that women should only add one or two pieces that are trendy to their closet each season. You may wonder why. My belief is that your closet should be very well-rounded with pieces that can last in your closet for years. With most trends, they become dated quickly. This means that your style becomes dated. So, is it as simple as avoiding all Trends?  If only. Understanding and incorporating a few trends is important to you having a style that feels current. There is an art to determining which ones you should add to your closet and which ones you should pass on. Here are a few quick tips to get you started: First, what is your lifestyle like?  A major trend right now is ...

It's Monday morning. You have a big day ahead of you with a really important meeting that you have been planning for the entire previous week. You have the perfect outfit picked out. You are getting the kids ready to go out the door for school and you are about to walk out the door when it happens. Right at the exact moment you go to take a sip of your coffee, your youngest kiddo bumps into you. Your coffee spills ALL OVER your blouse. You do not have time for this!  The panic sets in as you begin to think about what other top you have that is appropriate for this big meeting that goes with what you already have on. You run into your closet to quickly determine that the other blouse that would work does not fit. UGH! So you grab a simple t-shirt that doesn't look that great, but it fits and will "do". As you drive to the office, your mind is in chaos and you just don't feel on-point. There is an underlying feeling of stress and doubt running through your mind as y...

 Read the Title of this post again. Your Body is a Masterpiece. When is the last time you have told yourself that?  It's more likely that you have been saying negative things about your body and the changes that you have been seeing. Have you also had thoughts like: I will do that when I have lost the weight. I can't go to that! I don't look good in anything that I could wear to an event like that. Why does this pair of jeans look so good on that influencer and looks so terrible on me? This year, I have really started to think about all that my body does for me. It allows me to: Live and breathe without needing to think about it Adapt and heal any injuries it sustains Grow into a perfectly formed, symmetrical being Digest food and keep what it needs and discard the rest Perceive the world through our 5 senses Process emotions Learn and grow with an amazing mind Move around without a second thought Protect myself from viruses that want to harm me For me,  I was gifted the ...

 Going back to your days in art, what do you remember about color contrast? When you use opposing colors to create art, it can be very visually appealing. This is particularly true if you are trying to create energy, excitement, drama, or tension in your artwork.  But what if you want to create a sense of calm, harmony, balance, or tranquility?  If you want to create those feelings, you will choose low contrast colors instead, or colors that are closer together in their depth or brightness. High Contrast Medium contrast Low Contrast As you can see in the images above, the High Contrast outfit is very bold and attention-grabbing. It's created by using 2 colors that are across the color wheel from one another. The Medium Contrast outfit has colors that are in the same color family, but still there is a relative difference in the depth of the colors. Finally, the Low Contrast outfit, while a bright color and high intensity, was created by using 2 colors that are very close t...

Did I get your attention?!  Good! Because this is not a drill. The Covid pandemic is over and sloppy dressing is not doing you any favors. You may be thinking: "So are you saying that I can't be comfortable anymore?" and the answer is NO, that is not what I am saying . However, there is a way to dress in a comfortable way that is not sloppy and that has more refinement.  Okay, so tell me WHY I can no longer wear leggings & tees via GIPHY In all honesty, friend, there are a couple of reasons.  First, and most importantly, it impacts how you feel and how you take in and respond to information. There is scientific proof to this. A study was done in 2012  and found that what you wear can affect how you think! The study showed that people performed better on attention tasks when they wore a lab coat (thought to symbolize attentiveness) compared to their own clothes. However, just seeing a lab coat or wearing a different coat (like a painter's) didn't have the sam...

 Raise your hand if life feels like it's moving at the speed of light! via GIPHY Our lives are very busy and oh-so-full these days. That's not necessarily a BAD thing, but the busier that life is, the more we tend to neglect ourselves and our needs as women. Oftentimes what that looks like is looking back on the whirlwind and wondering when we got so behind on tasks and realize that in the day-to-day routine grind, we don't feel aligned with some of the things we are doing on autopilot. The joy in life has been a bit dampened by the cut and paste aspect of life.  Let's Identify Where We Feel Stuck Take a well-deserved quiet moment to yourself to sit down and think about your life. Consider the following areas in your life: Career Relationships Health Personal Growth Style (you KNEW this had to be there, right?!) Ask yourself these questions: Are you satisfied? If you aren't satisfied, what needs to be altered? What could increase your happiness in each area? As you ...

 How many times have you uttered one of these comments: "I look so fat in this." "These jeans would look so much better if I could just shrink my thighs a bit." "Ugh, I look so bloated today." "Now that I'm in my 40's, I guess style just isn't for me anymore." "Maybe I will buy new clothes when I lose weight." If you have found yourself thinking or saying any of these things out loud, I'm talking to you today. As a woman who is in her late 40's myself, I have had a realization: If I want my body to be perfect, I'm going to be on the hamster wheel forever. It's chasing an ideal that doesn't exist in reality. So, that means that I will be waiting to make a change, improve my style, buy the clothes (and the list goes on) for, well, forever. Unfortunately as women, society has not been kind to us. Media leads us to believe that the perfect looking young toned bodies on the covers of magazines are the norm and...

 Every single time I have a vacation coming up, I panic. Partially, I think it's because not only am I packing for myself, but also my son and any of the items that are needed for the family. In addition, I need to do everything around the house that needs to be prepared for us to be away, including things for the pet sitter. And then there is the laundry. Laundry always must be done before a trip.  My husband always frustrates me because he waits to pack for himself many times until the day OF the trip and his attitude is "It's not that hard.". If only we could switch roles so he would understand! Typically I try and remind myself that I'm not going to a foreign country (unless I am) and that should I actually forget anything, I can find a store!  This last trip was not quite so easy to do so because we were heading on a cruise, so you kind of need to have what you need with you! When it comes to packing, I have found that there are a few VERY helpful tips that c...