This is the hardest time of the year to look elegant, to look well-dressed,
but there are tricks that I'm going to share with you today in today's video
that will elevate any winter wardrobe without having to spend a lot.
And these tips are easily done on the budget,
even if you only afford fast fashion.
My dear elegant ladies, welcome back to a new video. Ladies,
this video is delayed because I had an accident on set when I was about
to film this video in my walk-in wardrobe.
I was going to illustrate all these tips that I'm gonna share with you today.
However, unfortunately we weren't able to do so.
I had a little accident where I cut my finger on my drawer,
but they will come in future videos. So let's dive straight into tip number one.
Now point number one really comes from my own experience because coming from
Sweden, where we can have -20 easily in winter,
we know that one cannot step outside the doorstep without a good base layer.
And the thing is that actually,
a good base layer is something that everyone wears in minus degrees,
but this is actually something that can also be utilized in the wardrobe when
you want to use certain garments, that might be a little bit light in texture.
However, you can still use them in winter if you use a base layer.
So a base layer is basically a little tight, let's say,
or a little other type of undergarment, maybe a little top, oftentimes used,
maybe for ski wear,
can actually shop around in the ski department if you're looking
for a good and comfortable base layer. They don't really cost a lot, by the way.
I do suggest that you get a base layer in your own skin tone,
because you do want to kind of camouflage them as much as possible,
as you will be wearing them under your garments to hold heat.
There are alternative ways on how a base layer can be used and you can actually
use other garments as your base layer, which is usually what we call layering.
But as an example,
a nice shirt can actually work as a base layer in a way,
and also look elegant at the same time, same goes for turtleneck. Actually,
I think in winter,
turtlenecks are my favorite base layers because they really
do cover up.
They're oftentimes in the knit material that makes you hold the heat,
but at the same time, they look very sophisticated.
And if you forget to wear your scarf,
then it's okay because the turtleneck kind of protects you.
And remember ladies,
base layers, don't have to cost a lot of money.
You can easily find them in all budgets in any stores, if you have a look around.
Tip number two,
I do recommend my dear elegant ladies to wear a light-colored puffer coat
with a belt in the winter.
And this is actually a great look expensive on a budget hack because
a light colored puffer coat is going to keep you warm,
is also going to look more elevated than the traditional black.
Because if you step into town and you see, okay, what is everyone wearing?
Well, everyone is wearing dark coats, right? Oftentimes black puffer jackets,
meaning that they don't really look elevated. They don't really stand out.
They don't look exciting. However,
if you change the color and that's not gonna cost you extra to change the color
of your coat, it's actually going to leave a different impression of the coat.
And you are going to look more elevated as a result.
It's almost like a little optical illusion in a way. So not much has changed.
It's just a regular puffer coat, but it's because the color is different.
And the color suits you, the color is elegant. Light colors are often elegant.
So for this reason, you will look more expensive this way.
But why did I mention the belt? Well, you can skip the belt,
but then you might have a quite unstructured coat
that just kind of hangs on
your body and looks pretty basic.
Or you can actually have a little belt that creates this feminine silhouette
for you, which is another step to elevate a boring look,
to look more expensive. You see, and again,
having a belt on your coat is not gonna cost you extra.
So this is a very inexpensive hack to look more expensive.
Now tip number three is actually kind of similar because we're still in the belt
department. But many times, people think that, okay,
the belt that I wear with my coat is the belt that comes with the coat and
that's it. People don't really think outside the box.
And this is where I would like you, my dear ladies to think outside the box.
Because you can easily take a regular belt,
let's say leather belt,
or doesn't even have to be real leather to look expensive sometimes. Trust me,
in fast fashion stores, I can't believe I'm saying this
but you can actually find some really nice belts on the budget that look like
the real deal. And when I say the real deal, I mean a nice quality leather belt.
So what you basically do is that you take your dull shapeless coat and you
put a belt on it that doesn't come with a coat.
So your coat doesn't have to be even structured for a belt. Sometimes,
even just a simple coat that didn't come with a belt,
you can just take another belt and add to it. And voila,
you have this kind of new look to this coat and it looks more interesting.
It has more of a unique look.
And my advice is that when you go in and find these belts,
you need to always make sure that you are buying that belt that if you would put
it on yourself like this, it's gonna be a little bit big.
Like it has to be a little bit too big for you because don't forget it's gonna
be outside of the coat.
So always buy a belt that is a little bit bigger for your regular size so that
you can wear it on outside of the coat. Now, ladies, if you wonder,
how come I know all these things, where have I learned it? Well,
I've learned it by making loads of trial and errors.
And I actually share some of those big mistakes that I have done
on my leveling up journey that I want to share with you
because I don't want you to make those mistakes.
So this workshop is one hour long and it's free of charge and you can actually
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Tip number four,
the blazer or suit in winter.
Now winter require us to wear long sleeve,
make us want to wear covering clothing.
So blazers and suits are actually great for this time of the year because they
are very covering and they often require you to layer a bit as well.
What I like them in particular is that they have a very natural,
elegant look to them. They look sophisticated,
so you can easily wear this to the office,
or you can wear it maybe even at night. So without having to be cold,
and of course, blazers and suits, they come in all kinds of colors,
materials, even shapes to some degree.
And this is where you need to think about,
maybe the fit that I go for needs to be a little bit of a looser fit because
you want to have that space in order to layer underneath, if necessary,
maybe you want to wear a turtleneck underneath and you want your jacket to be
able to fit that turtleneck.
You also want to think a little bit about the material of the
blazer. You want it to be more thicker, more warmer.
Tweed is perfect in this case, but also materials like wool.
You can actually go to even fast fashion stores and buy quite inexpensive,
but nice looking so suits and blazers. Now of course,
the only problem is that I tend not to like to buy them in fast fashion
stores because of the simple reason that they oftentimes don't hold the same
type of nice and neat structure as more high quality suits
would do. And that kind of gives away the cheapness in them, if that sense.
But when we are looking for more of a winter style suit or blazer,
then we are looking for something that is a little bit thicker and then they
tend to be a little bit more structured so we can get away there,
if that makes sense.
Tip number five,
we are talking now about some long necklaces with your sweaters,
with your jumpers or even with your layers,
whatever it is that you're layering at this moment.
Because what happens in winter is that our wardrobe becomes quite limited.
We have to wear those thick layers, those thick sweaters, those thick jumpers,
and it can feel quite boring.
So an affordable way of spicing things up is to accessorize it.
And I personally really like the long necklace because it also gives a
slimming effect, elongate you, oftentimes work on many body shapes.
The only thing maybe ladies with big bust needs to be a little bit careful on
the necklace and where it stops so that you don't have even bigger bust as an
optical illusion there. A lot of ladies ask me,
but is custom jewelry a little bit tacky to wear? Is it really elegant?
And the thing is that I do think that it's absolutely fine to wear custom
jewelry. There will all always be cheap looking custom jewelry,
and there will always be custom jewelry that just look like a nice fashion
accessory that serves a purpose. And that's where we want to be.
We want to accessorize it for a styling purpose.
We want to add flavor to an outfit, a little bit of spice.
You might find this sounding strange,
but you can even actually have nice necklace with some plastic details
that go really well with an outfit,
almost like pulling together all the colors in an outfit and
accentuates everything somehow. So this is a trick that many stylists use.
And I do think that you can definitely look into this and you don't have
to necessarily use colorful necklaces. You can use something more neutral,
something that will just blend in, but just tie everything together.
The point is that it's about adding that little extra. And again,
you can find these type of necklaces on a budget in any store.
You don't have to spend a lot of money for it. So this is done on any budget.
Next tip for you, ladies is the shooting field jacket,
and I'm talking now UK country style jacket.
So what I mean with this is that first of all,
I enjoy very much the traditional old money sense of dress.
I think it's very European. It looks very, I don't know, traditional,
you find it mostly in Britain. So these type of jackets you call them,
I think shooting jackets,
field jackets that are basically oftentimes used for when going
shooting. But not only necessarily, you cannot also use it as a leisure jacket.
And in Britain, it's commonly used for, let's say,
taking out the dog for a walk on the countryside or whatever.
And I really like the aesthetic of this type of jacket.
Maybe it's because me, myself, I love equestrian fashion.
And I have a horse now. I don't know if all of you know that. So for me,
I really like this type of style, but of course,
because we associate this type of style with a certain group
of people, oftentimes old money people in the affluent community.
So that association make this type of jacket look more expensive.
But the good news is actually, if you shop around online,
you're gonna see that they're not necessarily that expensive.
When I was looking to buy one,
as I want to use it for when I'm at the stable or going for a walk around the
stable or something like that,
I found that there are British websites that really sell these jackets at an
affordable price.
So you can definitely find affordable options if you just have a little look
around. So my next tip for you is the off the shoulder jumper and sweater.
Because again, we're going back to this issue that during winter season,
we have to bulk up, we have to wear very thick sweaters and jumpers,
and sometimes you can lose your femininity and kind of
lose the expensiveness in
your appearance because you just have to put on all these thick layers
and kind of shapeless also garments sometimes.
But this is where you can take those cozy sweaters to the next level and
actually be a little bit clever with them by finding the right cut.
And I then recommend you to wear the off the shoulder or the boat neck type of
sweater. It can be a little bit loose,
but please don't go for the oversized look.
I think the only time a sweater is nice when it's oversized is when you wear it
as a dress, but not as a sweater.
If you wear an oversized jumper as a sweater,
you're not gonna look that expensive.
You're going to look more bulky and it's just gonna look more like you threw
something quickly together and the only thing that's missing
right now is a pair of Ugg's.
So I mentioned it before. The boatneck,
the off the shoulder type of cut is feminine
for the reason that you are showing
a little bit of skin in a very elegant place,
which is usually the collarbone area.
So that's a great hack if you want to be feminine in winter without looking
oversized and boring.
Next tip for your ladies,
long sleeve knit dresses. Again,
this is another clever way of combining femininity with warmth.
Here we have the long sleeve, obviously gonna warm you.
Here, we also have the material of the dress, which is knitted dress.
Maybe it's a wool cashmere, who knows. So that's gonna keep you warm.
And please note,
I recommend getting a pencil version of this dress so that it really
goes down to let's say,
your calf area somewhere there so that it's really covering and doesn't
just stop on your thigh area. Surely,
you can also have that type of knitted, tight dresses,
but I do really recommend the longer one.
I also recommend maybe adding a little bit of belt to it if you want to spice
things up a bit.
I also recommend you to wear it with boots to really make sure that you keep
yourself warm. And then of course, a pair of tights underneath.
So you can actually wear dresses in winter,
even if you think you can't because the season is off. However,
it all depends on the length of the garment and the material of the garment,
and of course, if you layer on top of it.
My next tip is to wear a high waist trouser with straight leg and
you might be thinking why. Well,
this is the thing, ladies, in winter, we wear mostly trousers. I mean, yes,
I gave you now a tip to wear dresses.
And I really think you should be wearing as much dresses as you possibly can
because it's going to make you feel very feminine.
But there are going to be days where you just feel like, you know what,
it's too cold. Let me wear my trouser. Okay.
And you can still actually look elegant, expensive,
feminine with a nice pair of trouser.
But it's all about where the waist is.
Because femininity is in the end about putting accent on the waist area.
And if you have a regular waist trouser,
then you're not really putting much accent there. It's just there, basically.
But if you have a high waist, maybe even put a little belt on top,
you're actually going to put that accent there. It's going to be quite visible.
And it's going to give you a silhouette in the shape.
Now what happens in that moment? Well,
this is why I'm recommending this type of trouser for you.
You're going to have an optical illusion of having longer legs.
So for that reason,
you don't actually have to necessarily wear this type of trouser with a heel,
which is what I would usually recommend. Because us women with regular bodies,
regular type of legs,
most type of trousers is gonna make us look like we have more towards
shorter leg area rather than having long legs.
But this trick makes you look like you have long legs,
even if you wear regular boots underneath like flat boots or something like
that. And the good thing is ladies is that high waist trousers,
they don't cost any extra than regular ways to trousers.
So you can continue shopping wherever you shop.
Just try out high waist trousers and see if that work for you.
Last but not least tip number 10.
Now is my favorite time of the year when it comes to shopping. And you know why?
Because it is the best time for sale of the year.
And I want you ladies to really maximize this time of the year.
Shop as much as you can on sale.
This is gonna really make your budget strategy shoot off the roof because
truly, it's now or never to grab those deals.
And I would really think about some of those items that I mentioned to you today
and try and buy them on sale. Belts as an example,
great thing to buy on sale or knitwear in colors
that are not too trendy. And also ladies,
don't be afraid of buying winter items even if it's only a little bit left of
winter right now. You are going to need them next year.
So might as well invest because if you can get it on a bargain,
it is gonna be worth it. Now in my next video,
how to look expensive on a budget, my best tips.
I'm gonna give you more golden nugget that you don't wanna miss out on.
So I will see you in that video.