Finding Your Style in Mid-life
There’s a common feeling I’ve found, that most women, including myself, begin to experience once they enter their 40’s and beyond, otherwise known as ‘midlife’.
A feeling of not knowing what clothing styles and shops suit our changing and aging bodies. Most of us start experiencing some body changes and symptoms of peri menopause during our 40’s decade. For some these changes are slight and slow, but for many they are significant, and can impact many parts of our bodies. We gain weight, often in the tummy area, but sometimes everywhere. Suddenly the waist we always had starts to shift or disappear and we start wearing shapeless tops to just ‘cover the weight up’! Our upper arms lose their tone and we become self conscious and stop wearing sleeveless tops. The skin around our knees becomes looser and we stop wearing shorts or skirts above the knee.
We ask ourselves some of these questions- ‘ What shops are ‘age appropriate’ for me now? Can I wear the latest trends or do I look like ‘mutton dressed as lamb’?!! ‘Why doesn’t the style of top/jeans/dresses etc I’ve always bought look that good on me anymore?
We begin to question our personal style. I know I did.
During my 40’s I sought the advice of a personal stylist and it had a life changing effect on me. As well as learning how to dress for my changing body type and how to put outfits together, I also realized that I really wanted to help and support other women, especially women in mid-life, who, like me, were struggling and juggling many things, wearing many hats everyday, and finding no time for ourselves or self-care. And this is the reason I became a Personal Stylist.
Finding, or, re-claiming, your personal style in midlife is important for many reasons, but here are my Top 2:
We are not the same person-physically or mentally that we were in our younger years. We need to embrace and get to know who we are NOW- what clothes work for our changing body shapes and our evolving style personality.
As we age we should increase in confidence and self belief. In midlife, WE should be the women who walk into the room looking and feeling our very best, commanding the respect and admiration of others due to our years of experience in every aspect of life. We don’t have less to offer as we age, we have MORE! So make sure that how you look on the outside reflects your inner confidence, or, if you don’t have that confidence, dressing to look your very best can go a long way towards increasing it.
If you look good, you feel good!
So, my message here is: make the time to invest in your own self care. It is imperative to our sense of wellbeing, and can go a long way to making this often challenging time of our lives a lot easier.
From a personal style perspective finding out how to dress to best enhance your own unique body shape can be a revelation. Suddenly clothes shopping becomes a lot easier and getting dressed is fun again! Look at your body in the mirror and decide that you are going to dress for who you are TODAY and embrace that! You are no longer your 30 year old self and neither should you want to be. Getting older is a privilege that not everyone gets to experience, remember that. So celebrate everything about you at the age you are now.
Give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far and remember how much you’ve learned along the way.
Women in midlife have so much to offer the world and our outside appearance should reflect that. Investing time into learning how to look your best at any age, WILL give you confidence and finding your own personal style can be life changing. I love helping women find their own personal style. I am so passionate about the changes I see that it makes. Getting the help of a personal stylist is not a luxury, it’s an investment in yourself, and we should all be doing more of that. If you would like to find out more about how a personal stylist can help you please get in touch with me. Let’s start your own personal style journey together!
Images via Pinterest
