CLEVELAND — After spending 2020 in our comfy clothes on the couch, hopefully we will break out in style for 2021. Maybe now is the perfect time to fine tune your own personal style. In our 2021 Refresh, we talked to a Cleveland lifestyle blogger and a fashion consultant on how to do just that.
"Someone once told me that I was like a crow," says Charity D'Amato. "I guess crows are drawn to sparkly things."
Scroll Charity's Instagram feed and it's like stepping into a sunny vintage photoshoot. This Cleveland blogger and marketing executive goes bold and clearly knows her own personal style.
“I think once you kind of get into a groove of trying things outside of the
norm you'll be surprised that it's really fun.”
Charity shops at vintage stores, and the advice she'd give anyone who wants to find their personal style is the same advice she gives her clients.
“If you're a store what store would you be, right? So that gives me really a good idea. If someone says Saks Fifth Avenue versus Target, those are totally
different aesthetics and you could think of yourself as that, too,” Charity says.
“What do you want people to think of you when they see you? Do they want you to think you know you're like approachable fun friendly like low price point target? Or are you looking to invest in like three or four pieces that are going to be super high end?"
The wardrobe consultant, Hallie Abrams, does this for a living and a lot of people aren't just one type.
“It's really helpful for people to come up with a style statement like a personal style statement and that evolves over time,” Abrams says, “but to say what is my style and it's not usually just one thing people aren't usually just classic they might be classic but romantic they might be edgy but artsy.”
She tells her clients to save photos of outfits or styles they like.
“I don't like people to overanalyze. ‘I can't walk in that heel or my bust is too big to fit in that.' It's not a picking yourself apart. It's this just ‘wow’ like this is what I stopped to look at in it to quote Marie Kondo. It brings me joy.”
Most of all, don't be afraid to go bold!
“No one's going to remember the black pants you're wearing. So they're going to remember like the cool necklace or the awesome scarf or something like that,” Abrams says.
She also has this advice: Think about your wardrobe like the food pyramid. Your basics go on the bottom and then your wild accessories or statement pieces are the top.