Does More Money Equal Better Style!

Style Myth Busted!

Happy day, reader dear!

Many of the style myths out there take the form of:

Everyone needs a…

It’s chic/not chic to… Wear/Don’t wear…

After 40/50/60 you shouldn’t… (This one’s a real gear grinder for me!)

Today’s style myth isn’t spoken, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful. AND pervasive. I hear variations of it all the time from people when they find out that I’m an image consultant. Or during a Free Style Discovery Call they drop I don’t have enough money to have style.

I’m not buying it. Yes, you do need enough money to cover your nakedness. I expect everyone reading this blog has that. If not, I’m not sure how you’re finding this out in weblandia. But more money does not equate with better style! More money can allow you to buy more clothes, or more expensive clothes, but that’s not style.

When you have less money, you have to be more selective about what you purchase. When son number one and I were on our own, we had some serious beans and rice days. After paying rent and filling the car with gas to get to work, the grocery run took every last penny from my wallet. When there’s nothing to spare, every cent spent has to be good food. Nutritional goodness. No junk. We ate a LOT of oatmeal. And whatever fruit and veg was the very cheapest that week. I couldn’t justify buying anything that wasn’t good for us.

Somehow that translated across other parts of my life, from haircuts to underwear. Buy quality once (or less frequently) rather than rubbish three times over. Yes, it hurts at the purchase, but one $60 pair of jeans that lasts five (or more) years is a better value than the $30 pair that barely lasts a year. It’s about more than cost per wear. You are honing your style and practicing the lost arts of self-discipline and self-knowledge.

Here’s a little (4 minute) ramble…

I believe it was Diana Vreeland who said, Elegance is refusal. Now maybe elegance isn’t a style word that resonates with you. It doesn’t with me. I feel like I have too much energy and bounce to ever be elegant. It may be the same reason that French Chic doesn’t work for me either… There’s a gallic sangfroid that I can’t even begin to pretend. I’m insanely curious, enthusiastic, and “brutally” optimistic (That brutally came from an prior student. Eighth grade male. Dying of ennui at the tender age of 13.)

Maybe I can’t get behind the elegance part, but I totally get refusal! That’s just another way of saying selectivity. I had a client who, after working with me for a few sessions, shared that she found (her words) shopping was harder; she was getting really picky… We flipped that to selective; it sounds so much better! Her mindset has changed and shopping has gotten easier again btw!

So how about you? Do you feel like money and style go hand in hand? Why or why not?

Stylishly yours,