5 Fashion Tips for Beginners: Real Wisdom from Real Women

Real women share their favorite fashion tips for beginners.

Today I’m sharing wisdom from women in my community. For those that are just beginning their style journey, you may be wondering where to begin. What advice is the most important when you’re building your dream wardrobe?

I polled some wise women and inside this episode you’ll find 5 pieces of style advice for focusing on what’s important when you’re navigating fashion and clothing.. 

From practical tips to mindset suggestions, you’ll find some great nuggets of wisdom in today’s show.

Spoiler alert, there’s a really good section at the end.

Are you at the beginning of your style journey and feeling a bit overwhelmed at all of the info that you’re supposed to know? What is the most important thing to do to start when you’re creating your dream wardrobe and your own personal style?

Sometimes I think back and I am not even sure where my style journey began. I remember being a kid and being a teen and wearing stuff that occasionally I felt was kind of out there but not crazy.

I just didn’t really care. I wore whatever I wanted.

As a mom, it’s been such a long journey. I’m not sure what one piece of advice I would give myself.

I asked some women the following question,

“If you could go back to the beginning of your style journey, what piece of advice would you give yourself?”

I’m continually amazed at the grace and the nuggets of wisdom in this group. It’s a great place because of the women in there and I’m just the facilitator to make it all happen.

I got some great responses and I want to share them with you. A couple of them are really two or three tips in one. I’ll share my thoughts on each one as we go along.

Choose comfort and support.

The first tip comes from Rebecca. She says, “If it makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, get rid of it. Tuck your shirts when you can. Get good supporting undergarments.”

This one has three pieces of advice in it. Let’s take each one individually.

The first one, if it makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, get rid of it. I 100% support this message. One of the things I like to tell people when they’re trying new clothes or they brought something home is to put it on and gauge how you feel in it first.

Does it make you feel great? Does it make you feel bad? Does it make you feel uncomfortable?

Do you feel uncomfortable before you in the mirror? Go with that feeling. Take that first instinct as to whether or not your clothes actually feel comfortable.

The second part of this is to tuck your shirts when you can. You choose team tuck, or team no tuck.

It can definitely elevate your outfit and make it look a little bit cleaner.

Her third piece of advice is to get good supporting undergarments. Do this for sure!

Take the time to get measured properly. Boob or bust is my favorite calculator. Don’t be surprised if you get a crazy measurement! Try it and feel the difference.

Get those great supporting undergarments. They do provide a nice foundation for your clothes to drape over.

Trust your instincts.

The second nugget of advice is from Keturah and she says, “Keep trusting your instincts. They’re usually right all along.”

This is such a spot on piece of advice because it really is true. I think that so many times when we’re on our style journey, we get caught up in trends or what everyone else is doing or what we think we should be doing. We feel limited by what’s in the stores as to what we can buy and how we can present ourselves.

But you really need to listen to those instincts.

This actually goes back to that first tip whether or not a piece of clothing is uncomfortable. The same is true for any piece of your style.

You have good instincts. God gave you great instincts.

Just trust those, lean into those, feel that feeling when it says no or yes on a piece of clothing or a look that you’re trying.

Don’t settle.

The third piece of advice comes from Danielle and hers is also a two for one. Her first part says to “figure out your colors and palette and stick with it.”

I truly believe that a great color palette, a cohesive color palette is the foundational principle to having a wardrobe that you really love and that’s easy and that works for your lifestyle.

You can create your own color palette to have the best colors for your wardrobe.

Danielle has a second piece of advice for us and that is “don’t settle for cheap substitutes that do not fit well.” I love this one because if you’re just at the beginning stages and you’re starting to build a wardrobe, you’re going to be taking in a lot of information and you’re going to buy a lot of things that are just not quite right.

They don’t fit right, the style isn’t right. In your haste and excitement to get where you want to go, you might buy some things that are inexpensive, poorly made, and constructed badly. Try taking the time to say no to those items, to slow down a little bit and keep yourself focused on quality pieces that suit you well.

Only buy what you love.

Our fourth and next piece of advice is from Becki and she says, “Don’t buy anything unless you love it, especially an item that might be part of what anyone says should be in your closet. Go slowly.”

I really want to dive into this one. This is a crucial issue when you purchase a done for you wardrobe guide, an outfit guide.  The reason I create them is because I recognize that not everybody is at a place where they’re ready to dig in and create a wardrobe from scratch exactly how they want it to be. They just need help getting dressed.

A pre-made capsule wardrobe – with corresponding outfit selections – usually has items in there that are very seasonal, very selective. They’re varied in style. They’re not classic pieces.

When you participate in one of these types of wardrobe programs, you may want to buy everything. You want everything just like it says. You want it to be perfect so that you can make all the outfits that are given to you.

I know this because I’ve done it and I wasted a lot of money on pieces that I ended up disliking. Just know that even if you need this level of assistance with your wardrobe right now, don’t feel like you have to buy everything. I can guarantee you that not everything on that list is going to suit your life or style.

I do not want you to ever waste your money on a random piece of clothing just because someone said it was great.

Seek God, not things.

Jennifer is going to give us our fifth fashion tip for beginners, and it’s beautiful. 

“New clothes won’t solve the longing in my heart.”

The reality is that a lot of times we desire those new things for this exact reason. Something in our lives is upsetting us. Something has us feeling less than, insecure, unhappy, or needing to detach.

There are a million different reasons why we have this urge for new things. Biochemically this releases endorphins, like dopamine and serotonin.

It’s a great feeling to buy something new.

But what if… instead of seeking that rush that comes from our neurotransmitters telling us we did a great thing and applauding us for our fantastic purchase…

What if we stopped ourselves and looked inside and took a minute and said a prayer and tried to figure out what it was that we were trying to meet in our lives that could really only be filled by Jesus?

Back in September I started a year-long no-buy, which really is a low-buy because I have some exceptions. But it was something that God really had laid on my heart because I was so guilty of using shopping as a coping strategy when I was feeling stressed out from being a mom, overwhelmed with my business, all of these different things in my life.

I would sit down and I would think, “You know what? I need to feel better right now and so I’m going to shop.”

And it was really a problem. It had become so much more complex in my role as an image consultant, as someone in the fashion industry, and God was just like, you gotta stop.

My spiritual life has been so much richer. God has met me in so many places and expanded so many things that were dry valleys for a really long time in just a few short months since I obeyed and listened to him.

If you’re in this place, if you’re in a place where you find yourself shopping more than you’d really like to make yourself feel better, or maybe you just don’t know why you keep doing it, but you kind of think you might should stop…

I just want to really, really encourage you to lean in to God. Let him fill those places. Get rid of that crutch, that idol of thinking that you have to have something new to feel good about yourself.

And I see you, sister. I see you.

I know that you are hurting. I know that life feels so sticky. I know that you don’t even have the energy to do the things that you normally do, and maybe your self-care is suffering.

But Jesus is ready to fill that space for you, ready to show you that you can lean into him instead of spending money on pretty things to feel peace and to feel contentment and to feel joy no matter what circumstances you’re going through.

“Lord, I pray that for the listener today, you know who she is, you know what she needs to hear, you know exactly where she is and what she’s struggling with, and I pray that you would meet her exactly where she is and show her that she’s enough and that she can trust in you and that she’s beautiful in you and everything that she’s supposed to be. Father, I pray the whatever’s over her. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Final Thoughts on Fashion Tips for Beginners

When you recognize that you need help developing your personal style, you can feel overwhelmed at all the information. From color to style to clothing and outfits, there are many pieces to discovering authentic style.

Asking other women who have been there what they wish they knew illustrates that the little things are often not the focus, and you should consider your instincts and what feels right.

Struggling with your image and look can also be an indicator that your heart needs to be focused on the creator, instead of the creation (Romans 1:25).

Dig into these 5 fashion tips for beginners to cut through all the noise and start with the important things.

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• Find your Personal Style in the Past
• Create a Personal Style Mood Board
• Diving into the Kibbe Types

Developing personal style is easy with these fashion tips for beginners.