I Paid a Stylist for One Session After 45. These Are the 4 Rules She Gave Me.
I Paid a Stylist for One Session After 45. These Are the 4 Rules She Gave Me.
I thought my waist had disappeared. She said it hadn't. My clothes had just stopped showing it.
I'm 51. For three years I dressed in long cardigans, tunics and anything loose. I felt invisible. So I booked one session with a personal stylist, expecting a shopping list. Instead she went through my own closet and gave me four rules. I haven't bought a new dress since.
See the Belt – Buy 1 Get 1 Free
Rule 1: Stop hiding in straight shapes.
The first thing she did was pull out every long tunic and big sweater I owned. "These don't hide anything," she said. "They make you look like a column. The eye has nowhere to stop."
She wasn't telling me to throw them away. She was telling me they were missing something.
Rule 2: Find your natural waist, not your hips.
Most of us wear a belt where our jeans sit. She had me put my hands on the narrowest part of my body, just above the belly button. That's your natural waist, even after 45, even after kids.
A belt there creates a curve above and below it. A belt on the hips just cuts you in half.
Rule 3: Go wide, never skinny.
This was the part I had wrong for years. A thin belt is too small to shape anything, it just disappears under the fabric. A wide band, about two inches, actually holds the shape of the outfit and doesn't dig in when you sit down.
She put a wide belt on the loose cardigan I was about to give away. It suddenly looked like a coat dress.
Rule 4: Let the buckle do the work.
"A statement buckle pulls the eye to the center," she said. "People look at the gold, not at what you're worried about." A matte brushed gold also goes with the jewelry most of us already wear.
That's when she told me the belt she sends all her clients to. Not a designer one. One that costs less than a haircut.
The belt she recommended.
It's called Sienna: a wide band in camel suede, midnight black or cognac brown, a brushed-gold buckle, one size that adjusts from the waist to the hips. I bought the camel and the black and wore my old dresses to church the next Sunday. Four compliments.
They're doing Buy 1 Get 1 Free right now, so it's two belts for the price of one. If your waist "disappeared" too, try rule 2 and 3 before you buy anything else.
Sienna – The wide gold-buckle belt
$29.90 for two belts $59.80
You save $29.90. Pick any two colors.
- Wide band that shapes your natural waist
- Brushed-gold buckle, one adjustable size
- Free shipping + 90-day money-back guarantee
Offer applied automatically at checkout.