Technorati Tags: How To Dress, image consultants, Makeovers

The fundamental aspect of any makeover requires the professional to work with someone’s natural colouring and body characteristics. This leads to creating a visual image that is authentic and fabulously flattering. Makeovers for women usually involve a change of hair style and colour, new and updated make-up techniques, new clothes and new ways to combine and layer garments. Great stuff and so exciting, but the icing on the cake for any makeover is the addition of accessories.

The belts, the caps, the earrings, bracelets, handbags…. are the powerhouses of makeover magic. They create the wow factor; they express the inner style personality of the individual. Their importance should never be overlooked or underestimated. Accessories deserve plenty of attention yet for many of us, they are often an afterthought and this isn’t right.

Consider all the things that accessories can do for an outfit and for us:

• Express your individuality
• Define your personal style
• Draw attention to your best features
• Draw attention away from your challenges
• Give a single garment / outfit several different looks
• Make garments appear more expensive
• Update an outfit, garment and wearer
• Complete coordination
• Change the mood of an outfit
• Unify your garment pieces
• Add colour and interest to neutral coloured clothes.

If they can do all this for us, then we have no hesitation in suggesting that 30% of our wardrobe budgets should be devoted to them. So that great bag you saw on sale last weekend…go get it girl!

If you are looking to refresh your image, shift out of a lifestyle and visual image rut, the quickest and easy way to transform your visual image is through your accessories. Think outside that proverbial square. Is your handbag genuine leather but boxy and boring? Look for an inexpensive, softly structured, quirky vinyl in this season’s hottest shade of purple or orange. Are your earrings discreet, minimal and genuine? Experiment with a drop, even a small one to start with, in a great colour and shape. Look at magazines, and check out the way the red carpet divas are doing it with bags and bling. Go to an accessory store and experiment with something a little different to what you normally do. Have courage, and remember practice makes perfect. Be prepared to get it a little wrong sometimes to end up looking soooooooooo right.

By Michele Gillett

Technorati Tags: Accessory, fashion Accessories, Image Consultant, Makeovers

Many women relate to wearing 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time. The evidence is right there. All those poor orphan garments hanging there unworn and unloved.

Why we lose our way:

1. We are influenced by the likes and dislikes of others
2. We are not taught anything about our own body shape and how to dress it
3. Fashion is constantly changing
4. We age and become unsure of our style
5. Our body changes shape four times over our lifetime
6. We lose and gain weight
7. Our lifestyle and values change

Technorati Tags: How To Dress, Image Consultant, Makeovers, Wardrode Organisation

BEFORE Photo

There comes a time for many women around the age of forty, when upon glancing in the mirror , they realize the aging process has really kicked in. When did those fine lines around the lips and the slight sagging under the eyes appear? They hadn’t been noticed before, and strangely, though our exterior changes we often feel as young on the inside as we did in our 20’s. So how successful are makeovers to help us look younger?

It is worth noting the ten most common areas for concern for forty plus women (just in case you didn’t know) are:-

• Hair
• Style and clothing
• Skin
• Fashion
• Face and neck
• Dressing appropriately for age
• Posture
• Vitality and health
• Make-up
• Relationships

Even if we address a few of the above concerns and make some recommendations this will often be enough to make a big difference to how you look.

Hair

Hair can be the first step that makes a major a difference when it comes to makeovers. By the time women are in their forties they have adopted a preferred hairstyle and length. One of the quickest ways to look younger is to cut long hair into a medium or short style. This lifts and rejuvenates the face, elongates the neck and slims the upper body. Combine this with colouring your hair with a shade that harmonises and compliments your natural colouring and you are well on the way to looking younger.

Make-up

One of the most noticeable signs of aging is the brown discolouration of the skin or what we commonly know as “age spots”. The youthful glow of our 20’s and 30’s has long gone and now, more than ever, is the need for a foundation that gives maximum coverage and is perfectly matched to your skin tone to smooth out the complexion. Mascara and subtly applied eyeliner and eyeshadow help define the eyes and draw attention to one of our best features. Lips are well defined and finished with lipstick that enhances skin tone and clothing and finally simply add a gentle flush of colour on the cheeks.

Fashion

It’s easy to become lazy with the way we dress as we age. Life is busy and as we age it becomes harder to find clothes that suit our changing body shape. Be warned as some of your clothes may be making you look older.

The danger list:-

• Cardigans
• High closed blouses
• Gathered yokes
• Long skirts
• Pleated skirts
• Gathered skirts
• Hand knits
• Elastic waists
• Pearl buttons
• Cameos
• Shapeless clothes
• Wide vamps
• Lace up shoes

Are some of these things in your wardrobe? What we wear has a dramatic impact on how young or old we appear to be and some styles and colours have the power to make us look instantly older by their association with the elderly. If you are sick and tired of settling for clothes that don’t really do you any justice then it is worth the investment of an Image Consultant.

You’ll be impressed by just how much younger makeovers can make you look when you incorporate the above guidelines.

AFTER Photo

By Michele Gillett

Technorati Tags: image consultants, Makeovers