← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
250 | Experiencing Outfit Anxiety? How to Act Like a Stylist and Stop Overthinking Your Outfits
00:14:33
Have you ever stood in front of your closet—maybe with only 10 or 20 minutes until you’re supposed to be out the door—feeling like you have nothing to wear… even though your closet is full? Maybe you’ve tried on six different tops, tossed...
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- [00:00]
Sam
Have you ever stood in front of your closet, maybe with only 10 or 20 minutes until you're supposed to be out the door, feeling like you have nothing to wear even though your closet is full? Maybe you've tried on six different tops, tossed three pairs of pants onto the bed, and now you're just staring into the mirror wondering why getting dressed feels this hard. If that sounds familiar, I want you to know this outfit anxiety is real and you are not the only one who deals with it. As a personal stylist, I've had so many clients come to me not because they don't love style, but because they're overwhelmed. They want to look put together and feel confident walking into a room, but the daily pressure to choose the right outfit can feel paralyzing. The good news? You don't need to be a stylist to think like one. In today's episode, I'm going to teach you how to stop overthinking your outfits and start getting dressed quickly and confidently. Let's save you some time and stress in the morning, shall we? Here we go.
- [01:03]
Heather Riggs
Welcome to her Style podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host, Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist, ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started.
- [01:29]
Sam
There are a lot of unpleasant feelings and experiences in life and I don't want to be dramatic, but for me, outfit anxiety is up there and I know that you might be dealing with it on the daily There can be so much stress, frustration and overwhelm around trying to put an outfit together and this is a very real struggle. I have heard from women in our community that they will skip an event altogether if they don't know what to wear. And friend, I do not want you to miss out on your life. It's happening now and you've got to get dressed today. So we are going to figure this out for good because becoming your own best stylist is a skill that you can learn. So first, I think we need to talk about why we sometimes suffer from outfit anxiety. I think that this often stems from a combination of decision, fatigue and the fear of getting it wrong or making a mistake. I know that we don't wanna look silly or show up in an unflattering outfit or make a fashion faux pas. And if you're not trusting yourself and your styling decisions, then that really is a recipe for overthinking and overwhelm so you might have too many choices in your closet, leaving you with some analysis paralysis. Or you might not have enough pieces that actually work together. So it's hard to put an outfit together quickly and confidently. Or maybe you just have no idea what fits fits your current lifestyle, your body, or your season of life. And you really need to kind of go back to square one and figure out what you need in this particular season. You might be comparing yourself to that chic friend that you have, or that stylish stranger that you saw on Instagram, or maybe even a past version of yourself before you had babies or you were feeling burnt out or you experience body changes. And all of this, any number of these factors can create a low level stress around something that is really supposed to be fun and expressive and that's getting dressed. So the first thing that I want you to know is that outfit anxiety doesn't mean that you're bad at styling your outfits. It usually means that your wardrobe needs to be simplified or updated, maybe a little bit of both. And your self certainty needs a boost. We've got to get you trusting your own style intuition and being confident in what you put together for for yourself. I will also say that stylists don't get dressed by reinventing the wheel every day. We rely on basic design principles and we repeat what works. You can definitely do this too. One of the biggest styling secrets is having a few go to outfit formulas. Now these are not generic formulas that you're going to go out and find on Pinterest. Instead, we want to come up with a few simple and personalized templates that you can rinse and repeat to take the guesswork out of what to wear. Especially when you're strapped for time. So here's what you wanna do. Think about the outfits that you've worn lately that made you feel great. What was the common thread there? Was there a repeating silhouette? Maybe a similar color scheme? Could be a balance of casual and more polished elements from whatever clues and commonalities you can think of. I want you to create one or two outfit formulas that work for your lifestyle. Maybe yours is high rise jeans, a tucked in T shirt and a long cardigan if you're in a cooler climate right now. Or it could be joggers and a boxy cropped tank top and some cute slides. Something really easy for summer. Whatever it is, write them down, save them to your phone, maybe snap a few mirror selfies when you find an outfit combination that you love and feel good in. These are going to be Your go to blueprints for mornings when your brain isn't fully online yet. If you are struggling, if you cannot think of what to wear, I want you to look back at some of those. Go to outfits and the photos that you have for reference. And remember that stylists do this all the time because consistency and practice will create some confidence for you. And remember, these aren't strict rules or limitations, they're just a starting point. You want to build a general outfit framework so that you can be more creative within those parameters, not less. And also if you do have more time, if you're feeling a little bit more playful and you can branch out any time and also add more formulas as you go. If you have no idea where to start, you don't have to figure this out on your own either. This is exactly what we support you with. Inside Her Style collective. That's my 90 day group coaching program where we will teach you everything you need to know to dress yourself with confidence. You will also get a plug and play outfit formula that's personalized to your features and your preferences so you can eliminate all the guesswork. If you want more details about this process, you can head to herstylellc.com collect and I would love to guide you through building a wardrobe and outfits that you love. All right, for now, here is another stylist mindset shift that I want to encourage you to try on. Instead of standing in front of your closet and wondering, what should I wear? That's such a big, broad, open question. Instead, ask yourself, how do I want to feel? Do you want to feel powerful? Creative? Comfortable? Feminine? Edgy? All of those different words conjure up for me different types of outfits and a good starting point. And I think that that one question can really guide your entire outfit and eliminate a lot of options that might be making you feel overwhelmed. So you might want to reach for a structured blazer when you want to feel confident at work. Or maybe it looks like gravitating toward flowy fabrics. If you want to feel more soft and relaxed or your favorite power color when you need a little energy boost for the day. I think that dressing with your desired feelings first instead of from a completely blank slate is one of the fastest ways to bypass decision fatigue and overthinking. It's also gonna help to align your style with your mood and that's gonna make your outfit feel right without it necessarily needing to be perfect. So the next time that you're stuck, pause and check in with how you want to feel. What's most important for you for the day, Is it comfort, sophistication, wearability, Fun? Whatever it is, let your feelings lead your fashion choices and see where you end up. And while we are on the subject of feelings, we need to talk about the mirror. This is where a lot of the anxious feelings and overthinking starts. You might have grabbed some pieces out of your closet, but I know sometimes we might try on an outfit and then look in the mirror and and immediately start nitpicking our outfit. We zoom in on every perceived flaw, every awkward fit, every imagined imperfection. Does this sound like your experience at all? I want to give you another helpful stylist reframe for this. The mirror isn't there to judge you. It's there to help you refine your look. And when I work with clients, we are not asking, do I look skinny or do I look trendy enough? We're asking, does the silhouette feel balanced? For example, if you're wearing a flowy top, is the bottom more fitted or vice versa? Is there a focal point that draws the eye where you want it to go, like a statement necklace, a beautiful shoe, or a great color close to your face? Does this outfit reflect how you want to show up and be seen? And if the answer to those questions is yes, then you're good. I don't want you to get too hung up on the details. And if the answer is no, then make some empowered adjustments, focusing the things that you do want to highlight in your outfit. And I know that you will feel so much better just making one or two simple tweaks. And remember that no outfit will feel perfect if you're staring into the mirror hoping for a different body. But an aligned outfit that fits your style, your mood, and what you have on the calendar for the day is definitely going to help boost your confidence. All right. And I want to leave you with one more suggestion. I think it's going to be a good general rule of thumb, which is to start giving yourself a few 5 minute time limit to choose and finesse your outfit. Because outfit anxiety thrives in indecision. And the longer you are adjusting and swapping and second guessing, the worse it's going to get. Not necessarily your outfit, but your anxiety level. It is just going to keep snowballing. So in the words of the great Queen Elsa, I want you to let it go. Let it go. I bet that's a reference that you haven't heard in a while, but feel free to sing it out the next time you find yourself frozen in Indecision. You see what I did there? I know, I'm so cheesy, but my point is that stylists don't spend an hour styling every single outfit. We've got to trust our resources, like a personal color palette or a mood board, if you have them. We go to our outfit formulas or the design principles that I love to teach my clients, that I've shared on the podcast in our boot camps, and lots of other free trainings that you could find if you dig around in the Her Style archives. And above all, you've got to trust your instincts. And then when it's time to go, you go. So here's what I suggest. I want you to set a timer for five minutes tomorrow morning or the next time that you need to style an outfit. I want you to use one of the go to formulas that you came up with. I want you to dress for how you want to feel and then do a quick mirror check. You can make maybe one to two adjustments from a neutral, loving standpoint. And then I want you to commit and I want you to move on. With confidence. You can give yourself 10 minutes if you need to. The first couple of times, that's fine too. You will get faster as you go, and I think you will also see that confidence is a muscle that you will start to build over time. The more quickly you make these decisions and the more you embrace your outfit and you don't stress over it for the whole day. Because the truth is that confidence doesn't come from the outfit. It comes from owning the outfit and how you show up. So you've got to brush it off. Once you make your decision, own it, let it go, and just enjoy your day and whatever it is that you're going about doing. Even if it's not your best look ever, even if you could have picked a different shoe, it's something to learn from. And when you decide it's enough, that's when you can look and feel your best. So I want to do a quick recap of what we covered for today. If you are struggling with outfit anxiety, first don't beat yourself up. It's not a style problem, it's a decision problem. You can use some simple outfit formulas to simplify your outfit styling. So find just a couple of recent outfits that you loved and build an outfit formula around those. Then start by thinking about how you want to feel for the day. That's going to eliminate a lot of the options in your closet and get you on the right track. Use your mirror as a style enhancement, not as a styling critic and give yourself a time limit to make your decisions and then commit to moving on. You do not need to be a stylist to think like one, you just need to get intentional. I want you to be willing to play and above all trust yourself. Getting dressed gets to be fun. So whatever you do, please don't take your style or yourself too seriously. Allow yourself to make mistakes, mistakes to learn from them. And don't let your fears stop you from showing up no matter how imperfectly your people want to see you, not your outfit. So if you try this approach this week, I would love to hear how it works for you. I want you to share your favorite outfit formula or post your 5 minute outfit inside our free Facebook group which you can join@herstylellc.com community. We would love to welcome you in there and if this episode was helpful, please consider sharing it with a friend who might be supporting standing in front of her closet. Feeling overwhelmed right now as well. I am so glad that you joined me for today's episode. I hope that you loved it and I look forward to seeing you back here soon for the next one Friend.
- [13:46]
Heather Riggs
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own swoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find find.
- [14:00]
Sam
At the link in the show notes.
- [14:02]
Heather Riggs
If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to her style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this a two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service.
- [14:25]
Sam
Until next time, Sam.