New Year. New You.

It's a New Year, so all over the world people are making their New Year's resolutions, most of which will have been broken before the end of the month or even before the end of the week. Have you made any resolutions? If so, what are they?

Of course many of us over 60s have become a bit cynical about this and don't have any confidence in our ability to change things. It often helps to have a friend or partner share your determination to become more active or to eat healthier meals: I lost weight one year by going to Weight watchers with a work colleague and running a couple of times at lunchtime with her. Another year I decided to stop adding sugar to my coffee, which proved difficult at first, however now I can't drink coffee with even a grain of sugar in it, proving that we can change if we have the will.

In 2015 I will continue with my monthly hikes and Tai Chi classes, plus I plan to enrol in a dance class. I also intend to continue looking for healthy (but tasty, not boring) recipes, to eat more fresh fruit and drink more water. (Pause while I go to pour myself a glass of water!)

Finally, in 2015 I hope to build up a wardrobe of flattering, versatile clothes and become more stylish. I started the process in 2014 by having a style consultation through House of Colour in London. With the guidance of my consultant Fiona, I established that I am a Natural Gamine and discovered that most of my favourite outfits fitted this definition. You can read more about my session here.

Towards the end of last year I decided to join a facebook group called Evolve Your Style, with different challenges to help us develop our personal style. I discovered this challenge on Imogen Lamport's amazing blog, which has provided me with lots of inspiration. I found the Evolve Your Style challenge so helpful that I then enrolled on Imogen's 7 Steps to Style course, which I can highly recommend if you feel that you are in a bit of a style rut. Many of us give up on fashion once we're in our fifties or sixties, which is a great shame.  We don't have to settle for shapeless clothes and dull colours just because we're over 60 and are afraid of looking like mutton dressed as lamb. What we should aim for is to become  a more stylish version of ourselves in 2015. I'm going to try my best and hopefully you will join me.

Here are some of my outfits from the beginning of last year.

                     

I do like stripes, in case you hadn't noticed, and I do like bright colours - but are these my best colours? Do these outfits make me look taller and slimmer or do the stripes have the opposite effect?

The following outfits are more recent purchases - or present in the case of the patterned cardigan - so are they more flattering?

    

                                

Points to note from the last three outfits:

1. I have created a column of colour in the outfit on the left, with a brown necklace, brown top and jeggings, plus brown shoes. Note also that my hair is brown! Does this make me look taller and slimmer?
2. In the middle photo there is contrast between the colours of the top and the jeggings. however I am wearing a scarf which includes the teal and brown and also gives a vertical line to help me look taller, so I feel that the outfit works. I'm clutching my Enigmatic swatch by the way.
3. In the last photo there is some grey in the cardigan, but probably not enough to tie in with my grey trousers. I don't think I look as slim as in the previous two photos. However I do love this cardigan so I was happy to wear it with this outfit.  Maybe I'll try a grey top with it though next time.

I'm still working on the 7 Steps to Style so I'll be posting more outfits for your comments over the next few months and I'll pass on some of the lessons I've learnt. Remember these are all points that are relevant to me as an over 60, petite, H shape, whose style recipe is "Casual Chic with a dash of Colour and Drama". If you're interested in defining your own style, which may be totally different to mine, you can find more information on the links above. The prices are going to rise on the 4 January so now's the time to sign up.  Sadly I don't get any commission for recommending these programmes, but I do get the satisfaction of knowing you'll find them very helpful if you want to be more stylish in 2015!