Everyone is an expert when it comes to fashion, and we all have our own little quirks when it comes to the way we dress. There are some universal fashion ‘rules’ we think are made to be broken though, because they are just – terrible!

Here’s a few of our most cringy favourites for you…

 

“You can’t wear that if you’re over 40”

 

Yes. Yes you can.

Your fortieth birthday isn’t a signal for giving up on fashion and wearing sensible shoes! Rules like this make us want to get our most inappropriate shoes out and strut like a teenager (until our feet start to hurt, anyway).

This isn’t the Victorian era. Our lifespan isn’t as short as it used to be and most of us have no intention of spending our mature years in clothes that make us feel invisible. Women look fantastic into their forties and well beyond so celebrate your individual style with clothes YOU enjoy wearing. If you raise an eyebrow or two, even better!

 

“Buy the most expensive fashion you can afford”

 

 

This is advice that applies only to people with lots of money, or people buying a washing machine. Otherwise, go with whatever you fancy and spend the minimum you can get away with. You don’t have to get everything from the cheap shops or charity shops but big investment pieces are where you should spend hard cash; the outfits you’ll wear for years and won’t date. Shoes, coats and boots are all worth sinking some money into.

 

 

 

If you’re spending a fortune on your everyday outfits, you could probably do with shopping around. Fashion is transient, so buy the things you like but if it’s this year’s trend, it’s probably not going to be next year’s…so don’t overstretch your budget. You can always change the look of pieces you’ve bought with accessories, like Wingz, hats, jewellery and scarves, just have fun with your fashion.

 

“Buy things in a size too small – to diet into”

 

Ha ha ha! OK, we’ve all done it. But if you keep doing it, you probably need a talking to. It never works; you just end up with a fat wardrobe and a thin wardrobe, a sad collection of clothes you haven’t slimmed into yet.

Buy clothes that make you feel great at the size you are right now. There’s many a bride who wishes she’d bought her dress in a size she could actually get into…

 

 “Black shoes go with everything.”

 

Quite apart from the fact that they DON’T – how dull would life be if you could only ever wear shoes that matched your outfit? Really? Change things up a bit, buy the mad coloured shoes, the purple patterned heels you have been coveting ever since you saw them and don’t worry about clashing them with your outfit, when a girl is wearing great shoes, it doesn’t matter if her t-shirt matches!

 

The same logic applies to Wingz. Who said your Wingz have to be the same colour as the rest of your outfit? Add white lace Wingz to a black dress. Contrast red chiffon Wingz with an orange top, we dare you. Matchy matchy is something they used to do in the 1950s – we’re all so over that now!

(Shoes from Joe Brown’s collection)