Ageing can be Graceful – here are some of my tips

 Mature Age Dressing

A gracefully ageing 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 than when we are in our twenties and thirties.

We understand that beauty in a child is different than a teenager, however once we reach our twenties, thirties and beyond, we don’t realise that we 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 ageing 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 a fringe and roots needing a long overdue touch up

• Boobs hanging too low, and not wearing a properly fitted supportive bra, did you know that wearing a properly fitted bra can drop you a full dress size?

• Grey hair showing through your eyebrows or not shaping them,

• Wearing your foundation either too thick, the wrong colour or foundation lines half way down your neck

• Wearing pants that are wider at the top of the leg than at the ankle.

• Not looking after your hands and nails

• Wearing comfortable shoes that are without style, nanna shoes. (you can have comfort and style)

• 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, send me a message and I will get in touch to see if I can help you with this, once you try it, you will want to buy it,)
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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.

Fashionable evening wear

Dinner at Paparazzi

Dinner out on Friday night

I love these 3/4 pants with skirt overlay, the only problem is with the colour of the pattern, not white and not quite grey, so colour matching is hard,

All brides are beautiful

All brides are beautiful, and my daughter in law is no exception, doesn’t Granma look wonderful she turned 72 this year

Feminine dresses, boots, shoes and evening bags added to our stock

We have some beautiful Feminine dresses, boots, shoes and evening bags added to our stock this week, in fact we have been run off our feet with drop offs.

Dresses

Some beautiful feminine dresses sizes 14 – 16, all of them would be suitable to wear to work and then out for the evening.

Boots

Size 8 boots, tan, red & black

Handbags

Some lovely tan and gold evening bags

Shoes

Some lovely size 9 evening shoes with heels and a gorgeous pair of courts with a gold toe

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50’s inspired dresses for high tea for Mother’s Day

This post is inspired by my beautiful daughter in law Natasha (Tash, or Trashy as Kyel calls her), she just loves anything from the 1950’s.

After the second World War, there was a movement to have women go back into the home and the kitchen, to do “women’s duties” raising their children cooking and looking after the house.

1950s fashion was an enormous part of this movement. Unlike the severe styles of the 1940s clothing, 1950s fashions emphasized femininity, with softened shoulders, stilettos, wrist length gloves and full circle skirts with petty coats and pearls. Even working women’s outfits hinted at femininity, with pencil skirts and tiny hats with veils and feathers.

In truth, the New Look for 1950s women originated in the 1940s, with Christian Dior’s collection Corolle. This collection was a complete contrast to the severe, “make do, and fix ” aesthetic of 1940s fashion with full skirts, softened shoulders, a tight waist, emphasizing the bust and the hourglass shaped figure, thus creating the perfect feminine figure.

Dior went on to invent more haute couture 1950s fashions, including names like the Princess Line, Profile Line, A Line, and the H Line. His influence remained high all through the 1950s and Other fashion houses were forced to follow his originalities.

However, this perfect female figure was not possible in nature. Corsets, and “corselettes” made a comeback at the same time that those horrid conical bras became popular. ” Advertisements described them as “comfortable,” and even “innovative.”

When Tash was thinking about her kitchen tea, she wanted all attendees to dress up in the 1950’s, everyone looked fabulous.  And for Mother’s day last year, Mummy, Tash and I had a high tea at the Duxton. The experience was wonderful with lovely petit fours.  For Tash’s birthday she wanted to do the high tea idea again, this time with a 1950’s theme. The girls (Tash and her friends) all wore dresses with the 1950’s in mind.

She showed me a Facebook page of a lady in Bunbury Red Leopard Photography http://redleopardphotography.com.au/ who does 1950’s photography and has decided that she would love one of these photo sessions for her birthday and I decided that I would love to join her

Illusion dressing – various ways

Illusion dressing

Create a column of colour (monochromatic outfit) creating one long continuous vertical line to look taller & slimmer

If you have a bot belly you can detract from the tummy area with a great pair of shoes boots that say “Look at Me”. Wearing boots or shoes the same colour as your leggings or tights, will give the illusion of lengthening your leg and balance your silhouette by creating a column of colour.

The Maxi dress and long skirt always seem to be in fashion, they can create a fabulous column of colour to elongate your silhouette and are always feminine. just don’t forget the accessories to finish the outfit.

On a plain maxi dress a long necklace is an absolute MUST, as it breaks the colour and enhances the illusion of the column.

If you wear Dresses and skirts that are knee length, finishing the dress at the knee bend (the back of your knee) are a great length, match them with leggings and a shoe that is a similar colour so that you create a column of colour on your bottom half, add some bright jewellery or a scarf close to your face.

Some ideas to help create a column of colour are:

• Match your shoes to your pants, or shoes to your legs
• If you wear a dress, then match your shoes to stockings or leggings
• If you wear jacket and pants or trousers that are the same colour, try and match your shoes, you can then add a different colour top to create interest
• Choose colours that are similar in intensity and monochromatic (or are next to each other on the colour wheel) so that hemlines are not as obvious
• Wear knee-high or tall boots when it’s warm enough for them.
• Wear one colour top to bottom (eg, black top, black pants & black shoes) and add a red jacket to finish the outfit
• Keep darker colour to the bottom piece to slim your hips and make you appear taller

Slim by design

• Vertical lines likes centre front buttons, single breasted jackets, stripes and an ironed or permanent crease in the front of your pants or trousers will visually slim your body by dividing it into vertical sections.
• The closer or narrower the vertical lines, the slimmer you will appear.
• Vertical stripes separate the body into smaller pieces, dramatically slimming the area
• Add a focal point like a bold or bright necklace high up on your body to draw attention away from any figure challenges like a pot belly to focus attention up at your face
• Don’t wear textured or shiny clothing on your largest body part, eg hips or boobs
• Don’t emphasize a problem by placing a similar shape over or near it for example placing a square neckline under a square jaw
• Wear fabrics that drape, not cling to you rolls and tyres.

Slim by Proportion

• The more foot you show the slimmer your leg will appear.
• Wearing ankle strap shoes can give the appearance of cutting off your legs.
• Nude coloured shoes can visually make your legs look longer.
• Patterns or accessories you wear need to be in proportion with your body
• The most slimming and versatile length for jackets and tops is knuckle length

               

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.

 

 

Today’s funny

THE NUN AND THE HIPPIE
A hippie gets on a bus and spies a pretty young nun. He sits down next to her, and asks her: “Can we have sex?”

“No,” she replies, “I’m married to God.”
She stands up, and Gets off at the next stop.

The bus driver, who overheard, turns to the hippie and says:”I can tell you how to get to have sex with her!”

“Yeah?”, says the hippie.

“Yeah!”, say the bus driver. “She goes to the cemetery every Tuesday night at midnight to pray,
So all you have to do is dress up in a robe with a hood, put’ some of that luminous powder stuff in your beard, and pop up in the cemetery claiming to be God.”

The hippie decides to give it a try, and arrives in the cemetery dressed as suggested on the next Tuesday night.

“I am God,” he declares to the nun, Keeping the hood low about his Face. “Have sex with me.”

The nun agrees without question, but begs him to restrict himself to anal sex, as she is desperate not to lose her virginity.

‘God’ agrees, and promptly has his wicked way with her. As he finishes, he jumps up and throws back his hood with a flourish.

“Ha-ha,” he cries. “I’m the hippie!”

“Ha-ha,” cries the nun. “I’m the bus driver!