Styling
Find Your Style & Find Confidence
Style is created by being consistent in the way you speak, you dress and how you present yourself to others. There is also the X factor – what’s yours?
When you are working with creating your personal brand, your external appearance is important. Why? Because people make a decision about you in the first 7 seconds of meeting you or watching you on a video and even from a still photograph. Your appearance is a reflection of all the inner work you may be doing to clarify your personal brand, that is why how you present yourself to the world externally, is last on the list.
However, if you have done all your ‘internal work’ on your personal brand and you want to bring that to life, then it’s time to do a ‘style’ check.
Your style is created from bringing key parts of yourself together to shape a trademark of sorts, This can be a type of fashion you always wear naturally, a piece of jewellery, a colour, a designer you always wear, your hair style, make-up, the way you wear any items or it can be your eyewear and a hat. My glasses came from wanting a bigger glass area so I could see a bigger area (bad eyesight) and anything other than black didn’t suit me. My hats are something I always had because I blow dry my hair straight and didn’t want it to go frizzy, so I wore my hat to keep it dry. Then one event I went to, I looked around and I was the only person wearing a hat and I thought, oh, that’s one way they’ll know I’m here AND I felt taller (yes I’m only 163cm). So your personal brand is shaped from authentic parts of you, it’s just important to know what they are, do they benefit you or not and is there something you are NOT sharing with the world?
Let’s go through my steps to find your style and that X factor.
"My passion for fashion helped me with my confidence from an early age. I was always a size 12-14, living in a world with a lot of women sized 8-10’s around me, so I used that passion to understand how to use fashion to make me feel more confident. I bought well cut, timeless pieces that added something to my personal brand, this became an attribute and added to my USP (unique selling proposition)."
Step 1 | Your Wardrobe
Are you dressing for success?
You have had a long relationship with your wardrobe and perhaps it’s one where you hang on to lots of memories, attitudes and comforts OR perhaps you let go a lot and create new ones! Each piece holds a memory, a feeling an association, check in to see what is that makes you put that particular piece on.
A key part is making sure you FEEL GOOD wearing that piece and if not, get rid of it! Does that piece tell the story about your brand and story OR does it confuse (some of you rebels often wear the opposite and that can be your brand? But you need to make sure that is part of your brand not a hidden part that will confuse and block your success
Step 2 | Your Accessories
Habit or creating
The meaning: a thing which can be added to something else in order to make it more useful, versatile, or attractive.
Keeping the meaning in mind, most of us need a bag to carry our belongings, what bag and why do you use it? Does a backpack add to your brand or confuse, does a replica Chanel add value to your message about your brand or does your passion for retro stay hidden while wearing Zara necklaces?
It’s true when adding jewellery best to always take a piece off or in fact add another one on (I added that bit) because I think clarity is vital and accessories can big a key part of your brand look. People remember things you wear and if you find something you love to wear and it reflects your personal brand and message perfectly, then get a few in different colours.
Step 3 | Your Hair + Make-Up
Your face shares the most intimate part of you, what are you saying?
Your hair and make-up is a very personal part of your life and when the saying ‘having a bad hair day’ is mentioned, it’s very true and almost everyone experiences that. But is it bad hair or feeling emotionally out of sorts. Well actually it’s both, you can however, shift your negative disposition by going to the hair dressers or getting your hair and make-up done, so it is important on so many levels. The most practical advice I can give here is to make sure whatever hair, make-up style you use, make sure you do it properly. I’ve seen so many women wear make-up to their jaw bone and then changes colour from the neck OR finger marks from not smoothing it over properly.
Style is created by being consistent in the way you speak, you dress and how you present yourself to others. There is also the X factor – what’s yours?
For the guys who WANT to look tough, just do it with your teeth brushed and your hair washed at least. Hair and make-up gives rise to a HUGE opportunities to create your brand, so play around with what you do now and what you COULD do, perhaps one night before you are going out, have your hair and make-up done and explore what’s possible.
Step 4 | Your Digital Tools
Are you up with technology or resisting change?
Technology is an integral part of our work and home life, in that way we become choice ‘architechs’ in the way we decide to use WHAT technology. There is the obvious first two, apple or android and how you decide whether you want to take wrist watch technology with your phone. How do you showcase your understanding of technology and why? Showcasing your knowledge and your style in using technology of course you can show by your choice of accessories to go with your phone, computer and tablet, so make sure they fit into all 1, 2, 3 steps we’ve discussed.
Step 5 | What Colour Are You?
Colours bring different energy to everything, what energy do you want to bring?
We all naturally are drawn to colours to enhance, soften or balance ourselves. I believe sometimes we choose colours that may work against us if we are not aware of what they are doing to us. Most of the time, especially with clothing, we will pick what feels right, using your intuition here is great. I want to run through a quick snapshot of the meaning of colours for you, click on the toggle below…
Find Your X Factor
When I spoke about style before, I talked about how style is a combination of certain elements such as your wardrobe, accessories, hair and make-up, how they all sit together. A very important differentiation is the consistency in which you do this, the more you wear it, the more people become familiar with you and your choices in how you look.
When that consistency is coupled in with the right choice of design for brand you, then your style emerges, for example ‘That’s so you’, ‘I love your look’ etc. Some people do it naturally when they know their brand and others work a little differently, sometimes you need to start with your look in order to discover the internal you. Getting the X factor starts with a strong sense of personal brand AND importantly they have a strong sense of self.
I believe the X factor is equal to not compromising on your vision, you can get there in all different ways, but you’re going to get there no matter what. You may have a shy, gentle person who doesn’t engage publically a lot BUT what they create and are passionate about is resolute.
We all have the potential to have the X factor and some of us do already have it, whatever place you are at, we have our own unique journey to explore our destiny, our dreams and our true sense of self. All the parts I’ve mentioned are tools to tap into and bring consciousness to the REAL you, that’s all that matters in any brand.