It's Not Really About Fashion

For many years, I wrote a newspaper column called Fashion 911. 

Every week, women would send me their questions. Some were about clothing. Some were about color. Some were about shopping. It was a fashion column, so the answers focused on fashion.

At the time I thought I was helping women with style. And on the surface I was. But over the years, I began to notice something. 

Very few questions were really about fashion. Underneath the questions about clothing were bigger questions. 

Am I too old?
Do I still matter?
Can I reinvent myself?
How do I feel confident in this changing body?

Those are not fashion questions. They're life questions. And once I understood that, I began to see my work differently. 

Fashion wasn't the destination.

It was the doorway.

A doorway into conversations about confidence, identity, visibility, self-worth, reinvention, and what it means to live authentically in every season of life. 

Over time Fashion 911: Your Runway to Reality became my first book. But my latest book Wear Your Life Well: Lessons on the Journey to Your Truest Self became my message.

Because the longerI worked with women, the more I understood that style isn't really about clothing. 

Style is about how we live. It's about how we show up. It's about whether the life we're living reflects who we truly are.

That's why my work evolved.

I still love talking about color, clothing, shopping, wardrobes, and personal style. I always will.

But today I understand that those conversations are often the beginning not the end. Women don't come to me simply because they want a better outfit. They come to me because something in their life is changing. 

Their body is changing.
Their career is changing.
Their relationships are changing.
Their priorities are changing.

Or perhaps they are changing. And style becomes a way to navigate that transition with intention.

That realization eventually led to the work I do today. It shaped the philosophy behind Style Your Life. And it continues to shape every conversation I have with women.

Because what I've learned is this:

Style isn't self-indulgent. It's self-honouring.

And when we learn to express who we are on the outside, we often discover something important about who we are on the inside.