Reinventing Your Style

So you hopped up out the bed, looking to turn your swag on and instead realized that your wardrobe has turned drab and predictable? Well, that’s okay – it’s springtime – the most befitting season to reinvent your style! The slightest risks and adjustments can not only revive your look, but boost your overall confidence. Before you begin to over think this process, consider these simple tried and true tips and you’re sure to see a natural and uplifting difference in your look almost instantly.

TIP 1: REMIX
Don’t toss anything! And especially not the pieces you love and look the best in. Your staple pieces make up the foundation of your wardrobe and are true to your overall personal style. So, what do you do when your staple pieces feel monotonous and repetitive? Mix it up! Try even looking at the back of your closet and pulling out those pieces you haven’t worn in years or never got around to wearing. You might just be sitting on a vintage goldmine and not even notice. Sometimes the tricks to restoring our style are already right under our noses, or rather in your closets.

TIP 2: ACCESSORIZE
Accessories can unleash and enhance your fashion fervor. Any look can be transformed from drab to fab with a great selection of outfit eye candy. Whether you’re budget is for splurging or stealing, the right pieces never go out of style. Try going for bold and fun pieces that vary dramatically to achieve a more multifaceted perspective to your look. Don’t stick to one type of accessory. Get fun colors, patterns and prints. Try chunky, beaded and bedazzled even. Accessories are the easiest way to keep your style versatile and fresh all year around.

TIP 3: FIND A FRIEND IN TRENDS
Giving into trends can get such a bad rap from conventional critics. But, there’s nothing wrong with finding the trend that works for you and embracing it. A true fashionista can spot a trend and make it her own. So how do you find the trend that works for you? Well, which looks of the season have cuts that don’t stray too far from pieces that you already own and work well with your body type? Finding the right trend, is all about knowing your perfect cut. If you found your legs seemed too short or stocky in a pair of leggings that stops mid-calf, then chances are you’ll probably find yourself similarly unsatisfied in a pair of harem pants that also stop mid-calf. Despite the draping or other fancy detailing which differentiate trends, cuts are pretty universal. As long as you keep that in mind, you’ll always find the trends that work for you.

TIP 4: SEEK INSPIRATION
Chances are, just like the rest of us, you regularly browse through your favorite fashion mags in search of something new and exciting. So, what do you do once you’ve bookmarked all the best pages, highlighted your favorite looks, and circled items to be added to the wishlist? Try making an inspiration board! Cut out the images that catch your eye and spark your fashionable imagination the most, then lay them out in a collage-type manner. Most likely, there will be common threads in each picture that you may not have noticed at first, but that attracted you nevertheless. Find out what it is that’s driving you crazy, and give it a try next time you go shopping! Whether it’s neon hues, or structured blazers, reach out on a limb and take a shot at something new. You may just find your new signature look.

TIP 5: GIVE “OLD FAITHFUL” A REST
Face it, we all have one (at least). You know, that one outfit that’s been tried and true – the “go-to” in your closet. Since you wore it the first time, seeing how fab it was and realizing how good you felt in it, it hasn’t gotten a rest. Now, whenever you’re in a rush or simply don’t feel like trying something new, you resort back to “Old Faitful”. Tisk tisk – shame on you. All right ladies and gents, consider this your intervention – Give “Old Faithful” a rest! That same old freakum dress you wanna wear to the club every damn weekend? Push it to the back of the closet. That one pair of jeans that makes your butt look a bit more plump than it truly is? Let’s try not to wear them four times again this week. Those flats that you can’t get enough of? Yup, enough is enough already. Really, we understand; you look good in them and feel even better. But let’s try something different for a change. If you eliminate these items from your daily line-up, you’re sure to veer out and find something even better!

TIP 6: BE OPEN TO CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
Although you and your girlfriends all have a completely different sense of style, they’re always suggesting unlikely items that they think would look amazing on you. “Girl, that maxi-dress would fit you perfectly with those long legs of yours!” But because you appear to be at opposite ends of the wardrobe spectrum, you never paid their suggestions any mind. Well, now’s the time to fix that. Next time you and your girls go shopping, be an open palette. Try on the things that you swore up and down you could never pull off, and you might just find that they were made for you after all. And if, worst-case scenario, that maxi-dress isn’t so flattering, just throw it back on the rack! You haven’t lost a thing, either way…

Check out Tia Mowry Hardrict’s evolving style…