The body and beauty

Its that time of year again, Fashion Weeks from around the world have beamed across our youtube screens. Fashion magazines and websites have been a buzz of talk of next year’s seasons hottest fashion.  There is a website that I have come across that shows nearly all the shows from New York Fashion week. For me that’s sheer ecstasy, even better that eating home-made chocolate cake. I sat in bed with my ipad and lusted over the garments sent down the runway.  Not that I want to buy them but these are the foundations for ideas for me to sew my own outfits. Even, I a lover of clothes and style have been pinning non-stop to my Pintrest account.  

The Emmy’s have just been and gone. I struggled to stay awake as I love watching the outfits on the red carpet. Even though it’s repeated but I like to watch it live, admiring the stars that have got it right and sadly the ones who need to shoot their Stylist. Even the ones who have got it right use the services of a Stylist. The next day the online magazines and news sites were full of talk about the outfits and the beauty of the women. I heard commentators on the Emmy’s say about one star she is simply beautiful, stunning a figure to die for and much more. 

With all the fashion and beauty gracing our screens it got me really thinking what is beauty and body beautiful?  Do we need to be a certain size to be beautiful? We all know that the fashion industry uses size zero models who are supposed to be a minimum 5ft 10 which only a few of us can ever be. Underwear models are more curvier as with catalogue/magazine models that are much shorter.

Full figure fashion week 2013, was in it’s fifth year. Held in New York doesn’t get much press outside the America but it has been dubbed the Oscars of the plus-size women’s fashions. Believe it or not the plus size is worth $14 billion annually, which is about 14% of the total women’s clothing market, according to consumer tracking service the NPD Group. There are top designers in America that design for the full figure women.  My favourite is Tadashi Shoji whose designs have adorned some of the more curvier red carpet nominees, his designs are simply delightful and make curves have that Boom Boom Pow look but also make a women feel one hot sexy mama!

After the Emmy’s, praise rang out for Christina Hendricks from the Mad Men TV show. Why? The media says her figure is the envy of women the world over. She is curvy and has boobs. She could be Marilyn Monroe’s twin apart from the hair colour. However in we are constantly bombarded with images from the media that tell us how to look. Sadly not many looking like Christina. Making many women very self-conscious about their bodies, some even getting eating disorders because they truly believe what they are told. I hear women all the time complaining about bits or even all their body parts.  Saying they wish they could change this and that, have cosmetic surgery to get that ideal body. Very rarely do I hear women saying they love their bodies. We are drawn into that vicious circle of unhappiness because we don’t look a certain way.

When you are out next look at the women you see going about their daily business off to work, running to the shops, taking the kids to nursery or school.  They are different shapes and sizes. Not clones made from a mould. These women are ‘real’ not airbrushed. When I first decided on the name for my clothing label I realised that I am a ‘real woman’ curves and all and ‘clothes 4 real women’ was born.  Certainly not a skinny minny but I am ‘real’, very rarely seen in the magazines but I am the everyday woman. I am proud of my body and not willing to hide it under big baggy clothes just because I don’t see myself in the magazines doesn’t mean that I am not beautiful, sexy or fabulous! From my clothing label I developed my Stylist website www.clothes4realwomen.com. 

All women are ‘real’ and we have bits that we don’t like but we understand with smart clothing choices we can play down the bits we don’t like and enhance our other assets. But really we are all fabulous.  Confidence comes with knowing that you are unique, even if you have a twin, you are still unique and beautiful.

Want to be that woman with amazing style who people are always complimenting? Struggling to find your unique sense of style, outfits hat suit you and your personality.  Let me help you.

Get your free  Consultation and exclusive eBook  “The Secrets To Looking And Feeling More Confident Without Dieting: 30 Top tips To a Better ‘YOU’!” contact Viv@clothes4realwomen.com

www.clothes4realwomen.com Bespoke Personal Styling Concierge Service helps busy women who need help and cannot afford to make mistakes.  Together we can develop your unique sense of style.

Fabulous fashionistas…..Style is ageless

 

 

 

 

 

All eyes have been on London with London Fashion Week. Some amazing runway shows that have had that va va vroom, head turning outfits that made you want to rush up to the designer with your overdraft ready to drop as much cash as it takes to get that outfit you had your eye on. Or if you were really wooed and felt money was no object, you would empty your bank account for the entire collection.

Then came on to our TV screens (in London UK) five delightful mature women and with an average age of 80, all had a similar indomitable spirit, a desire to keep going, to look stylish and to have fun. Whose clothes range from smart to stunning, who wooed us with their presence, set their own style and danced to their own fashion beat.  They set the benchmark high for mature fashionistas. Who says being old you must resort to wearing a beige twinset, a set of pearls and blue rinse dyed hair. Certainly these women never got that memo! Not a facelift or Botox insight, they had aged beautifully, with wrinkles, grey hair and most of all confidence that would put younger women to shame. 

I always admire women especially older women who love themselves; they eat well and regular exercise. Their priority is to take care of themselves and not a shamed to say they have weekly trips to the hairdressers. When questioned about it one responded with “Why not? Would she ask a young woman that question?”

I loved it when you heard Jean woods say  “I think I would say that I’m a bit unusual for my age,” whose Mary Quant-style fringe, statement jewellery and Doc Martin boots would give any young fashionistas a run for their money. No one rocks a pair of Doc Martins with such style and elegance as Jean. At 75, Jean Woods doesn't care what people think of her. She runs regularly, a minimum 3 times a week. Following the death of her husband, she “reinvented herself” and went to work for the high-street store Gap - at the age of 70, she became their oldest employee. She had an interview and they hired her on the spot.

Quirky Sue Kreitzman at 73 with her red trade marked glasses reminds me of Sally Jessie Raphel (the American talk show host) who is known for hers too.  Sue, an artist who wears her designs and turns the process of getting dressed into an art form; and she takes it quite literally “I have to have my art on my back,” she says. We were invited into her life showing us her racks of clothes and designs, which could be described as a multitude of a giant magnificent coloured rainbow.

Gillian Lynne at age 87, a former ballet dancer, looks half her age (and choreographer of West End shows like Cats and Phantom of the Opera). Defies the aging process, works in a studio and is still amazingly supple, does 40 minutes of stretches every morning ensure that she can still touch her knee with her nose. She married a younger guy who is people disapproved of but she couldn’t give a dam what people think or thought. She showed us a new pair of Prada shoes that she had brought, mischievously: "I thought, well, sod it." Many her age wouldn’t be stepping out in Prada.

Daphne Selfe, at 85 she is the world’s oldest supermodel, with over 60 years in the fashion industry and at aged 80 appeared on the cover of Italian Vogue aged 80.  In the UK this year is the face of TK Maxx TV adverts. What I like too she has wrinkles and long silver hair. She never got the memo that women over 40 should not have long hair!

Fabulous Fashionistas, showed us that age is simply a number and being stylish has no age barrier.  It also told us the important of take care of ourselves, most importantly dancing to your own beat.

 

 

Want to be that woman with amazing style who people are always complimenting? Struggling to find your unique sense of style, outfits hat suit you and your personality.  Let me help you.

Get your free  Consultation and exclusive eBook  “The Secrets To Looking And Feeling More Confident Without Dieting: 30 Top tips To a Better ‘YOU’!” contact Viv@clothes4realwomen.com

www.clothes4realwomen.com Bespoke Personal Styling Concierge Service helps busy women who need help and cannot afford to make mistakes.  Together we can develop your unique sense of style.