Hello, my name is Tanja, the author of this blog.
Me, a young Austrian woman sitting in Café Diglas Wien on a sunny day in June.
Me the girl from a small town on the landscape of Austria that grew up wearing the same shoes my sisters were wearing in a row before me, super excited for the little presents in the cornflakes boxes.
Me writing a blog about how to dress for success, that’s kind of funny, isn’t it?
Well now having worked in fashion for over 10 years I kind of know what I´m talking about.
Well, I invite you to be my guest, learn from my mistakes and inhale the warm brisk viennese summer air with me, as it floats threw the little window next to my table.
Never underestimate the power of monochrome outfits
Look at the elegant women we all tend to admire so much, Carla Bruni, Angelina Jolie, Meghan Markle, .. they all have one thing in common: yes! they are beautiful but that’s not what I am talking about.
They are wearing those simple classy monochrome outfits!
I dare you to try out only wearing one color top and bottom and see how it not only elongates your figure but how it elevates your appearance as a whole!
Pick your 3
Yes beautys! Mine are ivory, black, beige, what are yours? Pick your three staple colors you always stick to.
This will not only make the monochrome party a piece of cake, but it will ultimately help you to making those hard purchasing decisions we emotional buyers are so often faced with.80 percent of your wardrobe should consist out of simple pieces, without any pattern on it – just this one color, that you can mix and match to your liking. ( a little tipp on the side: if you are a fan of grey you can switch out the black or beige by grey and if you love those creamy tones just get ivory instead of white, but I truly think that everyone should have ivory or white as one of their staple colors, its just too beautiful and elagent to skip)
Fabric, fabric, fabric
Girls, read those little tags that provide the information about your clothing materials. We beautys go for:
- 100% cotton
- 100% viscose
- 100% wool
- 100% cashmere
- 100% lyocell
- 100% silk
We rarely to never buy polyester or a mix with polyester or any other non natural fabric.
First of all, you will ultimately cheapen your look because – yes – one can tell the difference between polyester and natural fabric, but second what’s the point in forgetting completely about the amazing effect natural fabrics can have!
Silk is cooling, cashmere.. there’s no fabric as warm as cashmere believe me, cotton and wool don’t stink as much when you tend to sweat as would a synthetic fabric, …the list goes on.
Pretty on a budget
Beauty’s lets face it, being that woman takes an investment. Let me tell you there’s a way to not only invest in the right pieces, but save money at the same time!
Have you ever had the experience of looking into your wardrobe being so overwhelmed by all the different items you possess and rarely wear?
The flower patterned blouse doesn’t go with the 5 skirts you own and anyways those skirts just feel uncomfortable when wearing them… and so on and so forth.
We tend to always wear the same jeans with the same shirt because we know – this is going to be a comfortable reliable outfit that we can style up or down with shoes and jewelry.
Did you know that you can do that whilst looking elegant?
Elegance is easy – you just need to develop the eye for what suits you and at the same time possesses the qualities of the QLOS formular.
Q quality fabric
L loved before
O one piece
S staple color
Quality fabric is going to be a natural fabric, or at least a fabric with a minimal part of synthetic in it.
Loved before means it’s a style of pants, top, blouse, skirt that you previously loved to wear – just that its now going to fulfill the other qualities that makes it a staple for your new amazing wardrobe.
( – also make sure those loved before items are figure enhancing for your body shape)
One piece means its no dress or jumpsuit, it allows to match in many different ways, its either for the top or the bottom of your body.
Staple color means its in your personal staple color. (remember the three from above )
What I do when shopping for those is I go threw my wardrobe and write down whats missing. I want to have a pant, blouse, skirt, sweater and top in all my three staple colors that is QLOS.
Extra tipp from a fashion expert:
I save money for the sale times where I can get them for a bargain. Those times are around March, April ( because the shops want to get rid of their Cashmere for summer season for example) and September to November (on one side youll get bargain deals on summery outfits and on the other black Friday and cyber week in November are miraculous for an extra 20 percent off on sale)
Go in there with a budget, a strategy and JUST BUY what fits your list TO THE TEE. Believe me, theres always a lot of new things coming in fashion and there is absolutely no need to rush in that, have a strategy for the long run.
Be you
Never forget to be you. Your unique style that you personally love might not look the same as Meghan Markle’s, but damn does it make you shine. No matter if you are the rock chick, the extravagant, the super conservative or the little princess.. whoever you are – find a way to polish it up, find fashion role models that can pinpoint your individual journey of leveling up.
Keep being that wonderful, colourfull, unique person that you are.
I love you beauty and never forget:
EAT THAT FROG <3