If you lead a busy lifestyle like us, maybe you work in the corporate world or run your own business and have kids and/or an active social life, sometimes you only have a small amount of time to create stylish outfits. As a handbags designer, I’m always dressed and ready for work, meetings and photoshoots during the day, and social and work events at night. I’ve mastered these skills and they’ve revolutionised how I get dressed every day. We’ve put together a guide with tips and tricks to always look and feel stylish, even when you’re busy.
Organise Your Wardrobe
One of the best ways to make getting dressed and looking stylish easy is to only have clothing in your wardrobe that fits, you actually like and would wear, and are in good condition. This will minimise the time you spend searching through clothing that doesn’t inspire you or your outfits. If you’d like to know more about curating your wardrobe, check out our blog post on How To Feel Confident In Your Style. Once you’ve edited your wardrobe, take some time to try on different outfits and see which items work well together, this is a great time to play and experiment. You might come up with combinations that you’ve never thought of before! When you’ve pre-styled outfits that you like for things like work, weekends and events, if possible, store them together in your wardrobe so the whole outfit is easy to grab when you need it. If that isn’t possible, we recommend photographing the look so you can easily reference and find each item in the morning or when you’re busy.
Wardrobe Essentials
When you own all of the wardrobe essentials, it makes putting a stylish outfit together easy. To determine what wardrobe essentials work for you, take into account a colour palette that you like and that works for your skin tone, your signature style if you have one (it’s like a personal style uniform), cuts and shapes that suit your body, and have your clothing tailored so items fit you perfectly. If you follow us on Instagram at @katyakomarovaofficial, you will notice that I have a signature style that is very me, very versatile for my work and events and makes me feel confident. Items that make up my wardrobe essentials include: white and blue shirts (I also like to borrow my husband’s shirts), leather jacket, jeans, my Katya Komarova handbags, white trousers, oversized blazers, knitwear, feminine dresses, boots and basic tees. I like to keep a neutral palette and play with accessories to change up the look of my outfits.
Plan Ahead
Following on from our Organise Your Wardrobe tip, to make sure you’re extra prepared in the morning and that you’ve got an outfit that makes you feel amazing, we recommend pre-planning your outfits on a daily or weekly basis. For example, on a Sunday evening, when you’re all nice and relaxed and preparing for the week ahead, take a look at your upcoming week in your calendar and plan your outfits for each day or each event. If you have a business meeting on Wednesday and want to make sure you look sharp, iron your shirt ahead of time so you aren’t rushing that morning. Alternatively, if your weeks are a little more flexible, you can always pre-plan your outfits the night before. This also helps with decision fatigue during the day, the less decisions you can make in the morning about small tasks, the more capacity you will have during the day for all of the other decisions you will inevitably need to make.
When you’re planning your outfits, to simplify things even further, choose your hero piece, that may be your bag, shoes or jacket and style the rest of the outfit around that. This will ensure that you don’t have competing elements in your outfit and will make choosing the rest of the pieces easier because they just need to compliment the hero piece. Or choose one of your go to outfits and you’re done!
Accessorise
If you do have a signature style, but are sometimes worried that you may always wear outfits that look very similar, this is a great time to use accessories to upgrade your look and be more stylish. Handbags are a great and easy way to accessorise your outfits, we love our Mini Mono Purse for nights out, quick errands and when paired with our other larger bags as it provides more space and functionality when we want to quickly find our essential items.
If you love wearing all neutral tones, add some colour with a colourful bag, shoes or scarf. All of our handbags come in Black, Brown and Tan and we also have different colour cotton straps that you can mix and match with your outfits. We have colours including: red, pink, purple, navy blue, brown, black and white. We also have different handles like our ring handles, fur handles, leather and braided handles that can instantly change the whole look of your bag and outfit!
Also, scarves are an extremely versatile style piece as they can be worn around your neck, in your hair, on the handle of your bag or even to keep you warm; you can easily alter their use throughout the day. We collaborated with South Australian artist A.K.A. Tess for the scarf Katya is wearing in the image above, we currently have it on sale on our website.
Hair and Makeup
Katya wears our Phone Bag in Black and 12 Chains Choker/Handle by Jane Ju
Hair and makeup that is natural and quick and easy to achieve is the perfect option when you’re busy but still want to look polished. We also love natural hair and makeup so that it allows our stylish outfits to really shine. The best way to make your hair as effortless as possible is to choose a hairstyle that suits your face shape and is easy to maintain without the use of heat tools every day. If you do find that you feel tired, a simple tip to brighten your eyes is to add a touch of highlighter to the inner corner of your eyes and wear earrings, trust us, it works!
Remember To Have Fun
Katya wears our Mono Purse in Black
Clothing and style is something that should be enjoyed. Don’t always feel so pressured to look immaculate that you end up never trying anything different. Give yourself permission to try new looks and be creative. If you find that throughout the day, you don’t feel comfortable or completely yourself, try something else the next day. It’s all a learning experience and some fun.
