The Perfect Basics.

here's the thing lots of the style advice that I see out there is it's so well intentioned and it's so well planned and crafted and these women have so much time in their lives to devote to thinking about style not all of us have those Lifestyles you know those lives where we have the time to think about how we want to dress ourselves we don't have you know the endless budget to be spending on our wardrobe so how do we ensure that we are meeting the Practical requirements of our lifestyle while at the same time staying true to the core of our personal style our personal way of expressing and you know just the things that bring us joy to wear on a day-to-day basis let's dive into my top five let's call it the beginner's kit items that you can add into your wardrobe that are going to add in both a stylish and a practical element can we fix it yes we can and you know what all of these five items can be tailored to you and your aesthetic as well as to you and your lifestyle so we're primarily going to be focusing on the Practical aspect of these pieces but look for the version of those pieces that speak to your heart that speak to your color palette that speak to your aesthetic what have you let's go I have a sick kiddo in the background I'm so sorry if you can hear her coughing and singing we're going to roll with it and number one is a versatile sweater this sounds like the most boring thing and something that you've heard everybody talking about but hear me out personally I like a sweater that has a cuff something like this one so it's kind of cut a little bit closer to the body and the reason why is because then if you're washing your dishes you can just push them up out of the way they're not going to be sliding down your arms there's nothing worse than trickles of water trickling into your sleeve anything that's in a classic cut is going to be something that's more versatile because you can tuck it into high-waisted things you can get those sleeves up and out of the way you can wear an apron over it if you're cooking or if you're cleaning and it's going to be something that it isn't going to catch on zippers it isn't going to you know be flapping around me something that you have to fidget with all day long it's just going to be like almost like an invisible layer on top of your body so that you can get on with your day but it still looks really polished and put together you want to look at cashmir you want to look at um Marino wool if your skin isn't too sensitive to that you want to look at cotton the reason why I love something like Marino or cashmere even though they can be at a higher price point you can Thrift these things you can Source them secondhand this one is from everlan but I Source it secondhand um they last a long time they tend to be better quality and you can go longer between washes something like a cashmere or a Marino often you'll have to hand wash it which can be a little bit intimida however I feel that because you don't have to wash it as often as say a cotton long sleeve t-shirt that you would wear close to your body I find that that tends to get stinky and get smelly and you have to wash it more frequently but something like more of a natural fiber of Marino or cashmere it lasts longer between washes so therefore cuts down on your laundry and also while it's keeping you warm they're also a little bit more more breathable as well than something say like with nylon or acrylic or some sort of poly blend look for items which have a detail that you might enjoy like um you know a contrasting neckline or maybe like a cable knit detail as far as being stylish and practical the struggle is so real and I have done another video all about how to blend your aesthetic with the actual lifestyle that you have so if you're interested in more of that I'll link that in a carot or like magically on the screen somewhere and it'll also be down in the description very below talking about bottoms I'm going to talk about the invisible denim so everybody knows how versatile denim is for almost every single person every single lifestyle but I'm going to talk about the invisible denim so I'm not talking about statement genes you know rip 10 genes you know unless that's your daily look and your Vibe but an invisible Jean is something that you can literally wear five days out of the week and people won't even notice you're wearing the same pair of pants because they kind of blend seamlessly with every single top and accessory that you pair with it so for me I prefer to use a silhouette that's more of a slim mom Jean and that's just something that I find works for me works for my Personal Taste My Lifestyle for you it might be more of a straight cut or you might prefer something more cropped or with a flare but either way make it something that you can rock every single day of the week it's going go with all of your tops and it kind of becomes like you are a signature piece so people sort of taken the whole outfit but the jeans might not necessarily be the first thing that they look to it's important here to really pay attention to the rise that you prefer to get the waistband to hit you exactly where you want it to emphasize on your body whether that's a lowrise or a highrise I'm not judging over here for me personally it's the higher the better I love it and something just to mention is that when someone looks at you and your whole outfit typically they're just looking at your top half or they might like the eyes kind of go to your face and they kind of take in the whole outfit and then back up again so your jeans or your pants are generally not the focus of what people are seeing it's more important to just get the top half right and the bottom half can just be sort of No Man's Land if you know what I mean the second category that I really have to talk about here is the elasticated waistband this could be a pair of trousers ERS or a skirt but you absolutely must have this in Your Arsenal because an elasticated waistband is absolutely like key for comfort so if you are moving about your day if you're having a cleaning day if you're running errands if you're you know PMS or bloating or that time of the month an elasticated waistband is just going to move with you it's going to be something that you don't notice throughout the day won't be as restrictive as jeans but you can still find pieces within the elasticated waistband category that are you know elevated you know it might be a linen pair of trousers it might be a silk skirt you can find pieces that are beautifully crafted but still give you the ease the Comfort the movement and the practicality above all of an elastic waistband if you don't have a piece like this in your wardrobe because you're worried about you know it makes you feel like you're wearing sweatpants it makes you feel like you're dressing yourself down too much I urge you to consider this and you can get pieces that are elasticated on the back but you know clean on the front please please treat yourself with kindness give yourself that comfort you can still look beautiful and look elevated even with an elasticated waistband talking about Footwear okay this could be a whole another video in itself cuz I feel like your shoes can make or break an outfit to me the two most versatile types of shoes that you can have are boots and ballet flats just thinking about boots for a second you can give yourself a little bit of a heel you can go with a flat boot you can have something that's more like chunky and statement or something that's more slender and ladylike you really can tailor this here to your own you know taste but I think that no matter what outfit you're wearing a boot is something that always looks phenomenal it always looks dressed up when you compare the Comfort say of between a boot and a sneaker you can often get the same Comfort levels from a boot but it just looks so much more elevated than wearing more of a sneaker or a running shoe I'm wearing a pair of boots today which actually are like party in the front business in the back or whatever that saying is they have laces but they have a zip on the side so you get the best of both worlds where you look like you know a little bit more dressed up with the lace up boots but then you have the ease getting in and out with the zip and often find boots that are Rubber Sole which I highly recommend because they're not going to slip and slide on you as opposed to something that's a rub um a leather sole something that you can slip on and slip off something like a Chelsea boot that's really really easy and practical to get on and off something that's waterproof or else you can get one of those waterproofing sprays so that it can last you with whatever weather that you're going to be dealing with and then obviously choosing your heel height and whether you prefer it to be flat or have a small heel choosing the heel height essentially that matches your lifestyle and that you feel like you can actually walk in and then as far as ballet flats I feel like I chose both of these here because it depends what season you're in you can often be like reaching between these two different kind of shoes because you never know if it's going to be a rainy day a sunny day and I feel like you kind of need to have these two options to go between having the ballet flat as your second option there are so so many options of ballet flats now it doesn't have to have a bow on it it doesn't have to have a toe cap on it but those kind of things add in an extra level of preppiness an extra level of classic or feminine if that's what you want to bring into your style and you know what adding on a toe cap onto a bay flat it's not going to make it any less comfortable it's not going to make it any less practical but it's going to look as if you spent more money on that shoe so it's like a psychological thing almost thinking about the kind of details that you want to add on to your Footwear it's my personal opinion that taupe and brown and even gray sometimes can be more versatile as a color than something like black or white because black and white are so extreme on the color spectrum they are the biggest contrast that you can go between black and white however something like a gray or a taupe like I said before they tend to go with white and with Denim and with blue you know blue jeans as easily as they go with something darker so they kind of have more of that versatility and then obviously if you're more of a colorful personality you would be surprised how versatile a bright red shoe is for example a bright green shoe or some other kind of signature color that you really love and really enjoy to wear and then the last thing that I wanted to talk about as well was the chameleon bag so this is more of an accessory obviously but everybody needs some sort of bag to put all their stuff in right Keys wallet um sunglasses you know nappies heaven forbid anything that you're bringing with you throughout your day and a chameleon bag to me is something that one is large enough to fit all of your daily Essentials two is not too large to the point where it's dominating your whole outfit and it also is sort of inviting you to stuff more in there than you necessarily need to bring keep it to a manageable side so that you're not logging around this like piece of luggage with you everywhere that you go throughout your day being a chameleon means that it needs to not read too girly not read too grungy it needs to be able to match any Vibe or any outfit that you're feeling like wearing on any given day it's easy to carry you can be handsfree the shape is kind of non- denominational if you will it's not sort of tying you to anyone aesthetic you want to think about the ease of getting in and out out of the bag you know whether it's something with like a really fiddly clasp or whether it's something that you can open onehanded you know while you're holding a baby in one hand or while you're holding your groceries in one hand and you can get in and out easily and quickly but then it also has the security of you know nobody else is going to be able to get into it easily obviously we're going to be thinking about color here as well so like I said before it might be the black bag the Brown Bag the taupe um or it might be more of a signature color my sister has this beautiful lilac purple bag and it just seems to go with every single outfit it's not a color that anybody would typically think of as being the most versatile color you know somehow it seems to go with every single outfit and that's because it is this Standalone signature color looking for the right bag can honestly be like the Holy Grail but if you're someone who's looking for that one bag to do it all that's the Holy Grail guys that's the mission we're all fighting the good fight together and I hope that you can find the one all right that is my top five for the beginner's basic package hopefully this has been helpful in some way to you guys let me know if you'd like me to turn this into a series I'd love to do another video along these lines in terms of like beyond the basics or maybe just an accessories edit or something like that you like this kind of content please feel free to subscribe I would love to have you stick around and you know let's keep it real out there while we're pursuing our personal style

Channel: Alanna Lightheart

Views: 2,769

Keywords: wardrobe essentials, practical and stylish

Id: xThuCtS3Fg4

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2024