Rita Mylett, a personal styling and image consultant and Network Mayo’s Business Woman of the Year, offers Mayo Advertiser readers some tips about making a statement this new year.
It's 2010! Yes, it's a new year and a new decade. What better way to start the year than to look and feel your absolute best — turning heads while you're at it.
The feeling you get will give you the confidence you need to enter the year with the energy and motivation to achieve your objectives for the year.
Here are six universal truths and tips for looking youthful and cool.
1 The older you are the more natural your look should become. Women need to understand that minimalism is not boring and is a very modern 21st century concept. Too much obvious artifice will age you.
2 Women should spend more on their investment accessories than on total outfits. Your accessories define your look. An authentic bracelet, a superb pair of designer shoes, a gorgeous necklace, or a bag that is extremely well made and/or has an exquisite design, can be worn forever and inherited by future generations. These items may be expensive — or sometimes not — but the cost through the years will prove well worth it.
3 The sportier your image, the less ladylike, the more vibrant and energetic you'll look. Ladies-who-lunch, wearing knit suits and matched ladylike outfits look more fragile, and curiously unproductive, than women who adopt modern and stylishly mixed sporty looks.
4 Wear a big (men's size ), masculine, silver or gold watch. It's a youthful look. Something as basic as the watch you wear daily tells everything about your personal style — more than any outfit or accessory. Are you ultraconservative? Are you very daintily feminine? Are you about showing affluence? Are you very active and sporty? Are you into quality? Are you hip and modern, or the opposite? Your watch provides the best clue.
5 People cannot perceive quality as much on a totally black outfit — nor notice its details. Conventional wisdom says that black is always in and practical— surely a safe haven. People might falsely assume that persons dressed in all black are artsy or sophisticated, or black can provide an unforgiving harsh contrast next to ageing skin. Black is rarely a real standout.
6 Personal style is often confused with fashion. Fashion is only a component of the larger context — style. You need to learn to walk in terms of style so that you can run well with fashion. This knowledge allows you to be confident in what you are doing and present yourself skilfully to the world. Happily, it is never too late to learn.
Happy New Year
Rita Mylett
