How to create your style recipe
Rock your look on a daily basis
Ok, so I know this might sound a bit random but bear with me...I think cooking can be a bit like the work I do with clothes.
Some of my clients want a Personal Chef to save them time and/or effort? This is when they pay me to do the thinking for them and are happy to pay a premium for this service. They'll buy a bespoke Monthly Mood Boards package or enjoy having a Capsule Collection created.
Others will want to learn how to do it themselves, so this is where my 1:1 and group coaching comes in. This week I’m going to share with you what a style recipe is and why it will help you make a few signature dishes with your own unique ingredients.
Nailing this gives you a sense of freedom and excitement as you are owning and rocking your look on a daily basis, whatever the situation or environment. Your style recipe is all about providing that next level of comfydence.
Comfydence = being comfortable and confident in your chosen outfit
Encapsulate your identity
Your style recipe is about your essence; it’s very personal to you and the ingredients encapsulate your identity, how you see yourself and how you want to be perceived.
It’s just like cooking. You start off with your basic recipe; following the steps in the cookery book until you gain confidence. Then when you know the ingredients needed, you start to experiment with the finer details, adding spices and putting different twists on it depending on your mood. Translate this into your personal appearance, and it gets tweaked depending on the flavour required for each day.
Working out the ingredients required for your personal style recipe helps you put together a cohesive wardrobe that reflects your personality and lifestyle and can be dialled up and down to suit the occasion.
The first steps with any recipe are to figure out what you actually want to eat. How do you want to look? What things do you like? It’s a good idea to think about your past experiences here. What has been memorable and why was it so? Decide on the flavours that excite you.
What do your clothes say about you
You might want to think back over your life and consider your favourite ever outfits. What is in your wardrobe now that you love wearing? Why do you love it? What are the textures and styles like?
Think about the qualities and properties of your favourite items of clothing or accessories. Notice if you prefer plain conservative neutrals or bold clashing colours, soft and tactile or firmer, more structured fabric etc. Have fun noticing what you are drawn to.
Look at what your clothes say about you now, and then consider what you want them to say about you moving forward.
Remember to be realistic and authentic. Your style recipe is not just about how you present yourself in public. You need to think about all the different areas of your life – work, play, leisure etc. You’ll need to create a nourishing menu that is not only practical but that you enjoy.
Also think about the fact that there is no point expecting to go from buying ready meals to becoming a Michelin star chef without putting in the work and practising what you learn. Your starting point is going to be relevant here.
Style recipe ingredients
If your style recipe reflects how you want to be perceived, what action do you need to take so that you and other people see you that way? What do have in your store cupboard already? Do you have the ingredients in already or do you need to go shopping?
Think of what purpose your recipe needs to fulfil too. If you’d like to appear smart and well put together but only have slouchy, stretchy things in your wardrobe then obviously you don’t have the right ingredients for your recipe.
Once you’ve decided what flavours excite you then you can consider the ingredients that you need and how you want to serve it up e.g., no one is going to think of you as creative and quirky if you rock up in a grey business suit. It could just be that changing your jacket to a bolder colour or adding quirky buttons would make you look more creative.
Do you like to follow a recipe carefully or are you more freestyle in your approach? Do you want to create a structure to stick closely to when you are creating, or do you want to be more experimental? Considering this will help you refine your key ingredients, and these will be the things that you need to include in your recipe to make it enjoyable for you and refine your signature dishes.
When you know what ingredients, you need to be comfydent then you can start playing around with it, so you vary your signature dishes while still sticking within the guidelines of your style recipe. You’re still dressing like yourself and expressing who you are but in a way that is right for different situations.
What my style recipe includes
My style recipe always has to include the following ingredients. I have a vision of what these words mean to me.
Vibrant = lively, colourful, energetic – so I choose colours that make me feel this way
Fun = light-hearted, I don’t take myself too seriously – I like quirky details and include them in my outfits
Stylish = I walk the walk and talk the talk, I have my own look, I’m not a follower of fashion as such and know what works for me
Creative = I like to inspire others to break the mould, but I also enjoy experimenting with my hair colour and colour combinations
Sassy = confident, a bit bold, cheeky at times – all of my ingredients added together give off this vibe.
Once you have your style recipe nailed it enables you to get dressed each day in an outfit that:
really suits you and makes you look good and feel fab
conveys your identity and expresses who you are as a person
makes you feel empowered and confident
suits whatever you have got happening that day
Project FAB! 4 Step framework to confidence with colour & clothes
My Project FAB! framework has been created to support you along this journey and I’m delighted to be sharing the principles with you in book format for just £13.99. You can get a signed copy if you pre-order it today or if you want a sneak preview to try before you buy pop your name down on my preview list.
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