I always thought I had great style and need no formal guidance. As a girl growing up north, I always picked up bling, never thought of my body comfort or ease. Would pride myself in being able to ‘pull-off’ anything until I came to Mumbai. Here, I tried even harder. Always made sure no one ever saw me without a blow-dry. Matched myself from head to toe. But, despite my best efforts, people would still come and tell me, are you from Delhi, in a not-so-pleasant way. That is when I started to relook at my dressing and realised I am, in fact, trying too hard.

One needs to be at ease with one’s personality when it comes to styling. Slowly I started observing around and changing. I learnt the art of being ‘Effortlessly stylish’ rather than ‘Painfully stylish’. It took another friend to tell me that I have all the muted colours in my wardrobe, which made me look serious while I am rather fun-loving. When I look at my older pictures, I want to close my eyes in disbelief at my choices.

However, the strange part is, I used to get a lot of compliments back then. I get them even today, which inflates my ego. And, then comes a comment from my husband or my mum or sister on something I am doing wrong, which at first throws me into disbelief, and then denial and I go like, “Huh! What do they know about style! I am an Image Consultant & Stylist for crying out loud. People seek my advice all the time.” And after a few days comes the stage of acceptance – “eee..yeah…he may be right a bit. I am wearing my jeans a bit up.

So what does it all mean! I’ve come to learn that all the compliments and appreciation leads you into a bubble, and then you get comfortable and stop listening or experimenting. Our own hairstyles, outfits and other fashion choices become a blind spot to us. We stop seeing the need to change or improve further and stay in our comfort zones until a harsh comment jolts us out.

If I can fall into this trap, so can you! It’s called ‘Hedonic Principle’. Brain likes to stay in its comfort zone. Acknowledge this trap and do something about it. Do get an external eye perspective and get a sense of style choices which are not working for you anymore and what is it that you can do to upgrade your Style score or Quotient.

Upcoming Style Guidance Sessions

What to Expect:

o   Figure Evaluation to determine styles, patterns & colours for your Body type

o   Face Shape Evaluation- suitable hairstyles & necklines

o   Style Recommendation for 3 pieces from your wardrobe

o   Guidance on age and occasion appropriate dressing

o   Shoes and bags

Date: Choose any 1

27th/28th/29th Feb 2020

Time: 3 – 5 pm

Venue: Lokhandwala, Andheri West

www.imagicians.in