Day 30: Starting Over with a New Wardrobe

new wardrobe

Creating a new wardrobe that shows off your personal style can be daunting, but here are a few tips to make it a little easier.

new wardrobe

Two of my favorite quotes about fashion are:

  1. “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous,” and
  2. “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”

Taking the complexity out of a new wardrobe collection

Both quotes are by Coco Chanel and both describe what my ultimate goal is for my wardrobe. However, for the last several years I’ve felt more frumpy than fabulous. I’m short, overweight and suffering from a complexity syndrome. I think I make things more difficult than they really are.

I’ve read Style Yourself Over 40, 50 and Beyond, French Chic, How To Never Look Fat Again, and Looking Great, by Linda Dano. Linda Dano was one of the very first women that caught my fashion eye. I read her book in 1998 and began attempting to imitate her style.

Looking Great by Linda Dano
Looking Great by Linda Dano

I watched “What Not to Wear”, followed Jackie O while she was living to get an idea of classy style; read articles about Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Princess Diana. Yet, with all my education, I am rarely confident in my clothing choices and constantly yearn for a new wardrobe. I’ve always wanted a makeover and dreamed of going to New York to consult with Stacy, Clinton and Carmindy.

Well, I will be having the next best thing and I am so excited. My friend, Linda (not Dano) is one of those ladies that always looks like she stepped out of a magazine. She has loved and rocked fashion in such a dynamic way, that one of her daughters is studying fashion design and dreams of having her own line someday.

Every time we get together, we talk about fashion because we both love it so much. Years ago, when our kids were little, we would shop together and I always felt like a million bucks in the outfits she helped pick out.

Well, I’m hoping to have her as a regular “fashion contributor” here on Cozinest. And as we get that going, she is going to be helping me get my own wardrobe in tip top shape. We have dedicated an afternoon to going through my closet and we plan to put several outfits together, and purchase a few things to round out my needs. Tops, pants, scarves, heels, boots and jewelry… oh my!

My friend, Linda, with her two daughters.
My friend, Linda, with her two daughters. (Photo borrowed from her Facebook page.)

Be on the lookout in the future for Fashion Fridays to help you begin collecting your new wardrobe. We are hoping to showcase outfits for our age group that are simple, classy, fabulous and sometimes elegant, but always age appropriate.

If you have wardrobe questions, dilemmas or funny malfunctions, let us know and hopefully we can have some fun with this.

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