Style Resolutions 2019

Embracing My Style! (A Work Ever in Progress…)

Happy New Year’s Eve, dear reader!

I hope your 2018 was wonderful, and if less than, that at least valuable lessons were learned from the trials! I’m an annoyingly optimistic person, albeit a snarky optimist, who somewhere along the line decided that nothing is a failure if I learn from it. It’s just an experiment or an adventure. (Ask my sons about pre-GPS adventuring…)

With the New Year upon us, it’s time to take stock of last year’s style resolutions, evaluate how I did, and see where I want to go for 2019. I titled last year’s resolutions/vision board Embrace My Style, and imagined four pieces to that goal…

2018 Style Resolutions: Review

So, how did 2018 go? Looking back, Play More (dress more playfully) and Dress Weekly might look like conflicting resolutions, but I managed both, although less of Dress Weekly than I might have hoped. I fell head over heels in love with dresses worn as tunics over jeans and trousers, and that finessed the conflict! I also branched out into mixing patterns and wearing unusual color combinations, so Play More got some traction in 2018. (If you want to see how those worked out in my favorite outfits of 2018, read on here!)

Buying less did not work out as well. I exceeded my wardrobe budget, but not by much. I did not dig into what Buy Less as a resolution meant… If it meant save $$$, clearly, Buy Less wasn’t a success. If I was thinking more about keeping my wardrobe tight, and minimizing my impact on the environment, that was better! I did a lot more consignment shopping this year than in the past, and haven’t really increased the size of my wardrobe. Quite a few pieces needed to be replaced, and/or resized.

2019 Style Resolutions

So what am I thinking for 2019? I don’t have a visual in my mind, and all of 2018’s resolutions still feel right and need more progress. This year, I have more clear and concrete steps to take to help me grow.

Buy Less (And Spend Less!)

I’m considering a shopping fast! I’ve fasted from shopping before, and find it a great way to realign my relationship with my wardrobe. If I don’t fast, I definitely need to regroup and strengthen my commitment to my French 5 limits, but even those can offer me more moral flexibility than I (and my wallet) need. I probably won’t decide this until after the first of the year, but I’ll keep you posted. (And I’m sure you’ll keep me accountable!) For savings, I’d like to make sure I shop consignment first, before going regular retail; this should mean savings for both my wallet and the environment. Unfortunately, it also means less flexibility, unless I start shopping secondhand on-line. (And I’m not sure about jumping down that rabbit hole…) And I am committing to checking my wardrobe expense tracking monthly to keep me from oops-ing.

Mix It Up/Play More

I think these two have combined into Dressing Boldly. The word bold has been haunting me for about a fortnight and popping up everywhere. It looks as if bold is forcing itself on my as my 2019 word of the year… In the sartorial realm, that means dressing even more adventurously and playfully. Maybe hats? I love hats and would love to wear more of them… Hmmmmm. Is 2019 the year I become the crazy hat lady? Probably not, as that would be in serious conflict with my budgeting and buying less goals. How about just wearing the hats I have more frequently? That works for me!

Another Play More step is to regularly grab an outfit I see elsewhere and use it as my inspo to create or “steal” that look using what I already own. I need to throw makeup ideas in here, too! I want to do this at least monthly, to help me try things out of my comfort zone… Some may be great, others epic fails, but it’s all in the spirit of experimentation!

Dress Weekly

This should be easy (Should always makes me nervous!) if I keep playing with the dress over trousers looks that made me so happy last year. It’s a look that says feminine (dress) but works for those times I really need to be wearing trousers. In order to work this look, I need to make sure that any dresses added in my 5 will be trouser friendly, rather than sleek and slim. I must also keep that front of mind when I go through my out of season pieces to choose for my spring capsule. I can’t even start thinking spring yet, but here I am already. Time to start working on that inspo board?

Stylishly yours,