I first met style coach Loulou Storey about 3 years ago when I approached her to tell her all about Ivy and to see if she'd like to collaborate.We were lucky enough to meet once prior to Covid and several times since whilst catching up and chatting all things basics on Instagram Lives.
With over 17 years experience behind her, Loulou works with women all over the world to find their style & to unleash their power through their clothing.
When Loulou became a mother, relocated, changed careers and then developed anxiety, she experienced first hand how shaken our confidence can become when you go through change in your life. She took these experiences to eventually heal and empower herself.
Combining training, experience and a deep running passion for self development and seeing first hand how overwhelmed, confused, disheartened and lost many women felt when it came to dressing themselves, she started The Styling Storey; Style and Confidence going hand in hand.
With Loulou's promise to help women not just look good everyday but feel remarkable too, she shares a great synergy with what I am trying to achieve for women through our everyday essentials at Ivy.
As we launch ourselves into a brand new year, I felt it would be a great time to share Loulou's experience with my community and asked her to write a guest blog for us.
This is what Loulou has shared....
There are many moments in our life when our style can feel stuck.
If this is you right now, please remember that you are not alone and you will not stay stuck forever.
The aim of this blog is to help you down that path of becoming unstuck, getting your style feeling like a place of expression and ease. Walking down the street feeling like ‘this is me’ and complete security within this.
But how do you get to that place of effortless expression?
Well here are 3 steps that I have identified for you, follow these and you’ll see a real difference in your style this Spring.
I’m calling them the 3 F’s.
- Your Foundations
- Key Foundational Knowledge
- Buying Your Foundational Items
- Your Foundations:
Instead this is about developing our own aesthetic taste, finding clothes that match our personal values and curating a wardrobe that helps us to do both the self-expression as well as the practical bit of living life!
With this in mind, I’d recommend that you write a list of what you love. A great place to start is with an item that brings you joy, perhaps a painting or your newly renovated kitchen. For me, when I had an identity crisis shortly after the brith of my own daughter, I made a list on my phone of why I loved my favourite leather rucksack, by Kate Sheridan.
It was unusual, modern, practical and made every outfit feel cool. It was high quality and of considered design. It helped me connect with what lit me up about clothes and design. It gave me some key words that mattered to my style.
Write these key words down about a favourite item you own to remind you of what matters to you.
- Key Foundational Knowledge:
Next step is working out what you need to get better at by having either better behaviours or better knowledge.
Here’s a list to choose from, what do you need to improve:
Learn
- About your body proportions and how to dress them
- About what colours can be worn together
- About where to shop to find clothes that match your desired style
- Understand smart casual
- How to be more positive and supportive about your reflection
Do
- Become better at planning your outfits
- Give yourself dedicated time to create new outfits and photograph them for easy access on a busy day
- Put up a full length mirror so you can see what you are wearing
- Create a mood board so you feel inspired for the upcoming season
- Start giving and receiving compliments
Feel free to choose from one of the above but also write down your personal list that is going to help you become more confident and capable at getting dressed. Then highlight the biggest priority and work on that.
- Buying Your Foundational Items:
Having quality basics or as I like to call them ‘foundational items’ in your wardrobe is key to ensuring even on a bad day your clothes make you feel amazing.
T-shirts are the underpinning of today’s smart casual world, so we need ones that fit and wash well and feel incredible against our skin. This is why I love and regularly recommend Ivy.
Finding t-shirts that fit our proportions will also help us to hold our head high in the knowledge we look amazing.
So whether you are straight up and down and prefer a more slouchy Erin fit to give you a bit of softness or you are curvy and love the Layla that allows you tuck in and create some waist definition or perhaps like me you just love a classic Mabel which will look timeless and cool every time adding these t-shirts into your wardrobe really will make a great difference.
Even if your style feels more expressive and you crave to take a bolder step don’t over look these pieces - a Red Breton Layla with your favourite floral or animal print skirt will definitely take you there!!
Style is for us all and I believe we all have a personal style that is there to be discovered.
I hope you enjoyed this Blog. I am Loulou Storey, a Style Coach who helps women to live a prosperous life though empowering their style confidence. Unblock any confidence challenges, grow outfitting confidence and help them on their journey to finding their personal style.
If you need my help to discover your personal style, unstick yourself and move into a more uplifting place with your reflection then please do get in touch.
