Mutton dressed up as lamb

A very common problem many women face when they get older is the concern about dressing inappropriately for their age – or, “mutton dressed up as lamb”.

Many women end up looking frumpy and 10 to 20 years older because they dress too old for their age and lifestyle just so they don’t appear to dress too young, what they don’t realise is that it ages them even more.

Some hints to help with avoiding looking like mutton dressed up as lamb are:

• Avoid showing too much skin

• Avoid too much cleavage, unless of course you have a wrinkle free décolletage and a properly fitted bra

• Make sure skirts and dresses reach the top of your knees or longer, but,

• Also, make sure your hem is not way past the bottom of your knees as this can appear frumpy, unless you have very long legs, and will look best worn with heels.

• If you prefer to wear flats, make sure your hem is no longer than the bottom of your knees, as this can also appear frumpy.

• Always choose fits that flatter your body type.

• Avoid choosing outfits that are too tight or too loose.

• Large, over sized clothing does not bring out the beauty in a woman.

• An overly tight-fitting garment certainly does not give anyone the elegant look.

• If you are the kind who simply loves to wear attractive kinds of women’s clothing then you can go in for a long, fitting skirt with a side slit, worn best with a heel.

Ageing can be Graceful

Mature Age Dressing

A gracefully aging woman is incredibly beautiful and the experience she has, makes her beauty shine.

As we grow older we are still beautiful, it’s just a different beauty when we are in our twenties and thirties.

We understand that beauty in a child is different  than a teenager, however once age into our twenties and thirties, we don’t realise that we now have a different beauty.

When we learn to accept the changes in our appearance through ageing, we can start to be happy with ourselves when we look in the mirror.

A gracefully aging woman can be beautiful, and her experiences in life will make her beauty shine, however, she needs to be re-educated on what is complementary to her new beauty.

We don’t want to look like grannies nor mutton dressed as lamb.

The same principles that we had as younger women, using colours, body proportion, camouflaging or illusion dressing and dressing to suit your personality and lifestyle need to be addressed.

There are other things that we need to be aware as we age, and at ReDress Your Life we show you how do dress , wear your hair and apply make-up, in the most flattering way, that  you will love and feel confident in.

I would love to share with some of my top points of what NOT to do to age gracefully

• Have a glasses chain attached to your glasses or granny half glasses. (An exception, of course if you are on a boat and are likely to lose your glasses or sunnies over the side, having a chain is a darn sight cheaper than replacing your glasses)
• Long straight hair parted down the middle, with roots needing a long overdue touch up
• Boobs hanging too low, and not wearing a proper fitted supportive bra, did you know that wearing a properly fitted bra can drop you a full dress size?
• Grey hair show through your eyebrows or not shaping them,
• Wearing your foundation either too thick or the wrong colour or foundation lines half way down your neck
• If your lips are narrow, wearing dark lipstick that bleeds everywhere, try some LipSense by SeneGence, lipstick that stays on without bleeding for 4 – 18 hours (PS! Yes I sell this product, and I love it, not to be a sales pitch, but if you want to try it, once you try, you will want to buy, send me a message and I will get in touch to see if I can help you with this)
• Wearing pants that are wider at the top of the leg than at the ankle.
• Not looking after your hands and nails (Yes, I sell Jamberry nail wraps, lacquer and gel polish)
• Wearing comfortable shoes that are without style, nanna shoes.( you can have comfort and style)

A Capsule Wardrobing is fantastic for travel packing.

Packing for travel can be a nightmare.

Using a Capsule Wardrobe is fantastic for travel packing and once you’ve traveled with a capsule wardrobe, you will never go back.

Capsule wardrobe Courtesy Polyvore.

Follow these simple guidelines to create a simple travel capsule wardrobe.

Always try to chose neutral colours in both tops and bottoms, sort the bottoms first as they are the easiest to work with. When selecting your capsule items,  ensure that each item you chose goes with every other item, eg. ever bottom must go with every top, that way you can maximise the amount of outfits that you can create.

When choosing accessories, ensure that all pieces that you select will go with each top, this also maximizes the use of each item.

Depending on the type of travel you are doing, if you have any formal outings planned, ensure that you include at least 1 pair of evening bottoms either a skirt or trousers and a pair of shoes suitable for evening wear.  Even T-shirts can be dressed up to be worn for an evening function with lovely scarves and costume jewellery.

Just with this simple capsule wardrobe , there are 56 basic outfits, add the accessories, tie the scarves differently and you can create a multitude of outfits.

I recently spent a week in Thailand, and for the first time, I followed my own rules and packed a capsule wardrobe.

The girls decided that we wanted to dress up for dinner each night, so my simple answer was to take a black top and 3/4 pants, each night I was able to wear the same top and pants and rinse them after dinner each night, and to make the outfit different for each night I changed my accessories, I made sure that each of the necklaces was a long one, the length of the necklace is the thing that makes the difference, they were bold and all different colours, I also included drop earrings and bangles to complete the accessories.

 

 

 

No sleeves in ladies tops?? What to wear to cover up

A question I am often asked, is “Why do shops sell ladies tops and dressessleeveless?”

I believe that the reason they do this is to save money. I am sure that ladies would quite happily pay a little more to have sleeves in their dresses or tops.

Unfortunately, as we age, gravity steps in and all of our lovely taught bits DROP, including our arms.  We all tend to want to cover up the tops of our arms as we are no longer happy to show them off.

There are some beautiful sleeveless tops that most older (mature) women will not buy just because there are no sleeves in them.

Picture Courtesy of Polyvore

There are not an awful lot of options to cover up ladies arms. Shrugs, sheer or mesh blouses, mesh Tshirts, and little short sleeve cardigans

Picture Courtesy of Polyvore

When will manufacturers and suppliers change their thinking about what the consumers want?

When I have a sleeveless top, I will generally wear a shrug, little bolero or a mesh wrap, I would love to go without, but unfortunately, gravity has affected me as well.

Picture Courtesy of Polyvore

It is important that only you decide what you wear and at what age — it is an individual decision about what is comfortable for you and whether you like the look. Of course, we should all have a comfortable relationship with our bodies and let it have some freedom to be what is. There’s nothing wrong with being a little critical and in control when it comes to showing off your bits.

 

Here are some tips for wearing tanks or sleeveless tops if you don’t want to show them off

 

1. If you have to wear a sleeveless top or dress – make sure it is to die for — wrap a beautiful, silky scarf around your shoulders.
2. Layer, layer, layer, wear a meshy or transparent stretchy shirt with sleeves under the dress or top, (the only negative with this is that it looks as though you have worn a shirt underneath as a last minute thought.
3.Wear a chiffon or sheer blouse open and over the top of the dress or top
4.Wear a short sleeve cardigan that you can just hang casually over your shoulders if it gets too warm.
5.Wear a bolero

 

Don’t forget that when you are adding a cover for your arms that you are wearing the colour some where else otherwise there is nothing to anchor the colour and it will just look as though you have thrown it on without any thought to what you are wearing.

 

 

How to wear the Feminine Trench

Trench coats can be very feminine, the shape, colour and fit can all make a  difference.

Who says that trench coats need to be tan or black.

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A trench worn over a pair of black leggings can make a very feminine outftit, take the trench off and if you have a decent length top over the leggings, and you have another outfit.

Ways to dress up a ladies trench.

Dress up a pair of jeans . One simple way to wear a trench coat is over jeans and a T-shirt. However, you should consider the length of your trench  Knee-length women’s trench coats look great with jeans, but if you wear heels or boots with a longer trench coat it will help you look taller. If you are petite, trench coats that fall past your knees will overshadow your body and make you look even shorter.

Spruce up a dress. Dresses, with slim, straight lines, will benefit from a trench with a belt, it will add shape. You can wear a cropped or shorter trench with your dress, but you will need to wear heels or boots to elongate your body.

Wear a trench over a knit dress. Ladies’ trench coats can look stuffy and formal if worn over straight fabrics. To mix things up a bit, layer a belted trench over a knee-length knit dress, tights or leggings and boots and wear it open. The contrasting textures will look fabulous together.

Show off your skirt. A pencil skirt and dressy feminine blouse creates a feminine touch of style with a ladies’ trench that falls to or just above the hem of the skirt. Add heels and elegant jewellery to the outfit and you’ll look stunning for either a day at the office or an evening out with friends. You can also wear a belted trench coat over a fuller skirt and heels.

Make your trench look more casual. To avoid making your ladies’ trench look so formal, wear it over lightweight pants, a shirt, with a cardigan and flats or ankle boots and a colourful scarf.

1 Trench 4 different ways

I am loving the Capsule Wardrobe theme, with the way the economy is at the moment everyone can benefit from 1 as they can use the minimal amount of core items and just change the accessories and colour to create completely different outfits.

Shopping your wardrobe is a great way to save money and create fantastic capsule wardrobes and outfits that you never knew you had.

If you are seeing the same people day in day out, you may need to spice some of the outfits a little more, so that they don’t notice, however if you are going out with different people they won’t know the difference if you wear the same dress or jacket during the day and then keep it on at night just changing the few accessories.

The accessories don’t have to be expensive as most of the time people can’t tell the difference.

Playing with Polyvore again, I have put together 4 outfits using the same trench and leggings and just changed the brooch, shoes, earrings, belts and  bags.