Do you feel like you love being fashionable, but when you look around in the shops, all you see are rompers for 20 somethings that ride up your butt crack?

If so, then you are in the right place. We’re going to be talking all about how to look super cute, fashionable and lovely for summer while looking your age.

Know your personal style

Let’s get something straight. Dressing appropriately for your age really begins with knowing yourself and your personal style.

There are so many women of every age group that I can think of that rock amazing style and rock styles that I wouldn’t even feel comfortable wearing because they just do it so well and have such a strong sense of who they are and what their personal style is. For you to dress age appropriately means dressing appropriately for your personal taste and style.

That is the first thing that you need to keep in mind and it’s one of the most important things that I teach all my clients when talking about their personal style.

No matter what age you are, you need to know what your style, rules, and preferences are, and that’s why I created the Style Manifesto that you can download right below this video.

Basically, it’s a worksheet that helps you figure out what your personal style is in three simple steps. These are powerful questions that are going to help you get to the bottom of what you actually need and want out of your wardrobe, what your personal tastes are, and what you need to stop doing because you’re following trends or maybe listening to what other people say about style, but instead you need to be listening to what you really think about style.

https://youtu.be/9d6tSjLq5FA

Your style rules for summer

To that effect, here are a couple of questions to help you figure out what you really need your summer clothes to do for you.

• How short are you willing to go when it comes to shorts, skirts, and dresses?
• Do you need higher waisted jeans or do you need to go with lower waisted?
• Do you really know what your body type is and what is flattering on your figure?
• Are you a mom that needs to be able to run around comfortably, bend over and kneel, squat, and do all of that stuff without showing the world your bits or ripping your pants in two?

These are all really important things to consider when you’re looking at finding summer clothes for yourself.

Because you are so unique, there is no single body just like yours. Your body is totally unique in this entire world, so you need to know what your clothes are going to do for you and that can only come from personal thought and reflection.

For every fashion rule out there, I can give you 10 examples of women in their sixties and seventies or forties and fifties breaking that rule and doing it with such style and class.

Know where to shop for your age

With that being said, it is really important to know where to shop. As you get older, you’re going to be pigeonholed into shopping at “age appropriate” shops like Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, Eileen Fisher, or Talbots. And unfortunately, some of those styles are catering to women who think dressing age appropriately really looks like khaki, vanilla, bland, Paisley, weird stuff.

There no judgment there. I simply think we can do better. Style is what you make of it. It can be “old lady” style or modern, flattering, and vibrant style…regardless of age.

You have to decide what is age appropriate for you!

You can pull off a lot of cool things, there are some places that tweens and 20-year-old girls simply can’t afford to shop. You may find that shopping at places like Forever 21 really won’t work for you and thereby you will avoid buying clothes that aren’t “age appropriate”. Once you know your style rules from downloading the Style Manifesto, you can start to easily eliminate retailers that don’t work for you. Certain retailers will not make clothing that caters to your needs at this stage of life.

For example, younger women tend to have less disposable income and therefore they can’t shop at higher-end retailers.

Not that you need to have a massive clothing budget! However, you can afford to save up and invest in higher quality pieces that will last you several decades to come. You’ll also naturally avoid the risk of buying into trends.

Younger girls tend to shop in places that have faster fashion and offer more trendy pieces and you’re not really going to find classic items there that work for every body type.

Your tastes and styles have evolved and refined over time, and so you need to be shopping in places that match that level of taste and refinement.

Some brands and shops I like Jesse Kamm, Mille, Jenni Kayne, Doen, and Elizabeth Suzann.

Your age is an asset, not a liability

Accept that your age is not a liability. It’s an asset.

You can pull things off that younger women simply can’t. Think about power suits, amazing blazers, elegant dresses, and lovely high heeled pumps. You can wear bold and refined jewelry.

Plus you’ve had time to make all kinds of fashion mistakes and you know what really works and what doesn’t! So don’t look at your age as a liability or something that you need to dress “appropriately” for, but rather think about your age as something that you have earned with stripes, blood, sweat, and tears. You deserve to have amazing style that makes you look and feel like the confident badass woman that you are.

Study how other women your age dress

My final tip for you is to start studying the form. Study how other women in your age range are dressing. Style isn’t age-restrictive.

Check out my Pinterest board of stylish women over 50. I love it! It may sound weird but I’m genuinely excited about getting older. I think there’s nothing more beautiful than a confident woman with silver hair and wisdom in her eyes. #aginggoals

Start creating a Pinterest board or saving pictures on Instagram or even from magazines that inspire you to start dressing like a confident, mature, sexy, sassy woman. Stop working against yourself and thinking that your age is something that you need to dress appropriately for.

What is appropriate anyway?

When I think of the word “appropriate”, I think of things being appropriate in terms of our modesty or what’s appropriate for the right situation. For example, you wouldn’t wear a bathing suit to a board meeting, but you wouldn’t wear a suit for a sexy date night out.

Maybe you would. I don’t know?

Avoid these things that age you

There are some things I would recommend that you not do when you feel that you’re getting to a certain age and you want to look vibrant but mature.

Do not dress like you need to cover everything up. Don’t wear shorts that come down to your knees. Try to think about your footwear and how your footwear may or may not be aging.

Consider what looks cute and make sure that if you need to wear comfort shoes, that your comfort shoes are actually a great style.

Check out my this post for an entire video dedicated to comfortable shoes.

You also want to make sure that you’re taking good care of yourself. Take good care of your hair and makeup. Just as you want to continue to take care of the things that you own, like your car, home, or even some of your own clothing items, you need to periodically take care of yourself so that you age naturally and beautifully with grace.

Want to dress for your body and unique identity?

If this has inspired you to start thinking about your personal style in a totally new way, then I would love for you to consider joining my private style course called Simple Style.

It’s a 5-week course where I walk you through from beginning to end, how to define your personal style, how to break free of old Style Rules that are holding you back while creating new ones that liberate you and give you total clarity about what you like and who you are.

Also in the course, I walk with you step-by-step through how to clean, organize, and edit your closet so that there is no more confusion, no more clutter, and no more morning meltdowns.

You also get access to me one-on-one in the private Facebook group and community. Plus you can reach out to me via email anytime. We have weekly check-in calls where you get one-on-one style support and actual real-life styling based on the clothing that you already own. You get the support of women in a Facebook group that understand what you’re going through and that can relate to all the struggles that you’re facing.

You get to have transformations that will blow your mind. I’ve seen women radically change their style from just down and dowdy to alive, vibrant and full of confidence. If you want to have more confidence and clarity about your personal style so that you can have more free time in the mornings and save money on wasted purchases, then this course is going to rock your world.

I would love for you to join us!

In conclusion

Finally, I want to hear from you!

What are some misconceptions you have about dressing age appropriately? What were some of the style stories you heard growing up that you heard from your mom, aunt, or your grandma about what a woman “your age” should be wearing? I would love to know in the comments below.