Getting dressed should be a joyful start to the day, yet almost everyone has moments where an outfit feels slightly "off." Often, it isn't the clothes themselves that are the issue, but how they interact with you!
Here are five of the most common styling challenges, along with the simple tweaks I pass on to my clients to solve them.
1. Balancing A Large Bust
The Issue: High necklines, bulky fabrics, or shapeless cuts can create a "tent" effect from the chest down, hiding the waist and making the upper body appear heavier than it actually is.
The Fix: Opt for open necklines like V-necks, scoop necks, or wrap-style tops. Look for tailoring that defines the waist to create curves, or directly under the bust if you carry your weight around your middle. Good foundations are important to ensure the bust is in the right place for shaping on clothes - get measured regularly!
Style Tip: Avoid heavy chest details like ruffles, double breasting, or pockets. A simple silhouette or a classic wrap dress works wonders. 

The Issue: When the distance between the ribs and the hips is short, high-waisted trousers or thick belts can make the torso look compressed, throwing off natural body proportions.
The Fix: Create the illusion of a longer upper body by wearing tops untucked, or utilising a "front tuck" (tucking just the very front centre or side of a top into the waistband) to keep the vertical line open.
Style Tip: Look for drop-waist dresses and longline jackets left unbuttoned to draw the eye downward. Trick the eye by wearing the same colour top and bottom.

The Issue: Rectangle or athletic body shapes often find that clothing hangs straight down, lacking definition or a focal point.
The Fix: Fake a waistline by using colour blocking, slight shaping at the waist. Draw attention to bust and hips making them appear full so giving the illusion of a waist 
Style Tip: Peplum tops, fit-and-flare dresses, and trousers with hip details and Princess-line dresses give the illusion of shape.

The Issue: A long torso and shorter legs can make a person appear shorter overall, as the natural waistline sits lower.
The Fix: Raise the perceived waistline. High-rise trousers, midi skirts, and cropped jackets are excellent for shifting the visual focus upward and making the legs look endlessly long. Use detail and print on the top half to draw the eye upwards.
Style Tip: Match the colour of footwear to the trousers or tights being worn. Keeping a continuous line of colour down to the floor prevents the leg line from being visually chopped up. Avoid ankle straps and squared-toed shoes.

The Issue: Large, dramatic patterns like oversized florals or massive polka dots, can visually overpower a smaller frame. The key lies in visual scale. When a pattern is too large, it dominates the outfit and creates the illusion that the wearer is smaller and overwhelmed by the design.
The Fix: Match the scale of the pattern to the scale of the body. Petite frames look beautifully balanced in small to medium-sized prints. A delicate micro-dot, ditsy floral, or fine houndstooth allows the garment to look proportionate and intentional.
Style Tip: Look for prints with vertical lines to elongate 

Ready to Resolve Every Style Dilemma?
Whatever your styling challenge - whether it is understanding your unique body proportions, mastering how to dress your shape, or finally pulling together a cohesive wardrobe that brings you joy every morning, we can help. Book your personalised "Step out in Style" Consultation today and let’s get you feeling confident, inspired, and beautifully put-together every single day.

In a survey I read, a while back, it stated that only 26% of the female public felt that is was appropriate to wear leggings to work and yet I live and die in them! So, I have been having a think about this one and of course, as I say to you all, no matter what the style dilemma, there is RARELY an absolute right or wrong!

A few absolute no, no’s would include no skimpy shorts in the corporate or medical world, no acres of flesh showing and no huge clunky jewellery or hair getting the way of whatever service you are offering.

But leggings, maybe they sometimes get too harsh a press! After all, if you are comfortable wearing a dress with tights, can it be so very wrong to don leggings instead? I prefer to save money and instead of buying footless tights, I would wear my leggings and I even layer them under skirts, a trick I learnt from ballerinas, who wear them rather better!

I think the angst about leggings may come from the picture, that some of us remember from the eighties, when the blouses were not so flattering or long and left rather dubious rear ends on display, with little left to the imagination!

Leggings are just so practical and warm, why would you buy thermal underwear to ski or do sport in when you can wear your leggings. Why would you buy tight trews to run in when you can wear your leggings? Why would you wear tight fitting jeans with an uncomfortable belt, when you may prefer to wear leggings? Why would you keep pulling your dress down for decency when you could wear your leggings underneath. Tuck ‘em in your long boots and you can pretend you are wearing tights when you are wearing leggings!

Ladies used to wear leggings under their crinolines to prevent chafing, as do soldiers and we all know how uncomfortable “chub rub” is!  Cowboys wore leggings of buckskin to protect from chapping caused by riding, wear and tear to their pants, and bites from animals, such as snakes or insects in the scruff, such as ticks.

Indian ladies wear their version with beautiful exotic tunic dresses and no-one could argue how glamorous this look is! And now, leggings are coming into the shops in all colours and slinkiness and shininess and yes, some maybe a bit tacky, but maybe we are just a bit envious of those beautiful young girls who wear them so well! 

No, I will not move with the times, this time my leggings are with me to stay...for a while longer anyway!

If you happen to be a keen skier like me then I can definitely recommend:
Imbrace - ​Imbrace Knee Support Compression Leggings

In the many years that I have been an Image Consultant, I have enjoyed the privilege of browsing through many women's wardbrobes. As well as discovering what the thought process has been behind some fabulous purchases and some overwhelming disasters, there has been some consistency.

As an abiding rule, despite many attempts to revolt and express “ourselves” we have been inspired or held back by our mothers and close friends/partners and, secondly, no matter what our budget, we simply love to bag a bargain!

My “bargain-hunters” are just as likely to enjoy a hefty bank balance as they are to be restricted to a stringent allowance. The beauty is that looking great need never depend on how much you paid. How often have you received compliments in an outfit that you bought for peanuts in the sales or on Ebay and felt smug that it didn’t even cost a fortune. Charity shop finds have become the latest in true fashionista shopping and refashioning items is an upcoming trend.

The joy of shopping successfully is all down to knowing how to wear clothes that suit you and suit their purpose. Whilst I appreciate that well tailored clothes in sumptuous fabrics with design and detail will dazzle and and delight, the “D” factor can easily be diminished by the powerful “F” factor.

The Frugal Fashionista is finding her place by securing fabulous pieces that still fit, flatter, feel great, function and add fun. So remember ladies, it is not about what you spend, it is about what you buy! A bargain is only ever a bargain if you would have loved it at full price and every purchase must have a place in your heart before it is worthy of a place in your wardrobe, whether it cost five hundred or a fiver!

Clare can show you how to identify the gaps in your wardrobe or create them if you need to declutter!

For many years now, people have told me how lucky I am, or it's alright for you. And, yes, I consider myself lucky, very lucky, but a lot of my luck has come from my own self talk. In my era this was called "showing off!, which came with a huge negative conotation.

As I have written in my profile, I have always loved colour and creativity, but I also love the outdoors and enjoying the different weather and landscapes.

Growing up in Edinburgh, I became aware of the artificial ski slope and I was desperate to learn how to ski. I ended up working a Saturday job in Safeway, which I hated - the meat wrapping department!!!...but I was determined to be able to ski. I spent everything I ever earned, for many years, on skiing. I was truly terrible at it, and scary to myself and others. However, I persevered! Instead of concentrating on my studies, I was either sewing, knitting or skiing!

Then I got to my late teens, working several jobs, and managed to save enough to go hitch-hiking round the USA. The picture here shows the very fragile handrails to get to the top of half dome in Yosemite, no ropes and a long drop below. Same day I met a bear face to face!

Following many challenges in this journey I arrived back home and took up a job made in heaven - ski instructing in the Highlands. That didn't last long because I got an amazing offer to teach in Italy and left this job and flew, the following day to Italy. Lots happened in between times but having arrived in the winter wonderland of Austria, I came across the USA luge team who invited me to train with them. That led to me training with the British team which was incredibly exciting, exhilarating and downright stupid! Through my travels and challenges, I eventually landed up in Cornwall looking through a whole new lens of possibilities.

This is when I decided to launch my Colour Me Beautiful business, before most people had ever heard of it. This role harnessed my passion for colour and creativity, yet in a place that wasn't ready for it!

I'm getting to the point - life is for embracing, loving yourself and enjoying the "skin" you are in!  Don't look in the mirror and wish you looked different, or look at other people and want to be like them, or dwell on negativities that have been passed to you by other people who are living with their own fears.

Self esteem is an upward or downward spiral and what you do affects the way you feel and how you feel affects the things you do.

​By understanding how to look great you will reap the immediate benefit of feeling great and then, the only way is up!

My passion for colour and pretty things is overwhelming, and, in my role as an Image Consultant, I am well versed with the logic, process and amazing buzz and feel good factor that can be achieved by understanding your colouring and bodyshape, yet I remain perplexed!

What is glamour and style? I constantly ask myself this because of the bemusing comments that I receive from, both people I know very well and those who I don't know at all! Even at my run/walk group people comment how I looked glamorous, yet I could easily question that as I usually arrive with a scruffy ponytail, very old top now destined purely for running or gardening, a shrug which is reduced to holes, so again simply worn for a bit of warmth and I often sport a large safety pin, obviously attached to my top as a back-up plan! The trainers are, however, intact.

I go out walking and running in the rain and the mud, enjoy really dressing down on my camping trips and feel really at home when battered by the sea and my hair is covered in salt, yet still I hear the words glamour and style. For sure, I do not have the figure to prance around in my neat running pants or swimwear and my tan is entirely "homegrown"!..as are my nails! In this given state should I not be scared to be seen by my pupils of style and image, you would have thought so!

Many years ago now, after the local carnival my friends decided to continue the party in town. The decision was taken that we either all changed back to our glad rags or stayed in fancy dress. I was not amused when the vote was made to head into town as Zombies!

Can you believe that even with my clothes in holes, my make-up purposely messy and fake blood all over me, I received compliments about how nice I looked and I was supposed to look dead!

I can only guess at why because I don't actually have the answer. What I think it must be is that over a period of years of knowing what colours and styles suit, even what is ancient, in tatters and I am wearing for really messy still works! I do not have the perfect face or figure or spend a lot on clothes, but something about understanding yourself really works, even when you aren't trying. There comes a stage when you don't feel right in anything that isn't really you, yet you can be as dolled up as you like or as dressed down as you choose.

Whoever you are or want to be, you can easily achieve glamour and style by learning how to simply be comfortable in your own skin and always dress for YOU!