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Hey friend, Summer is almost over and you know what that means. Time to Talk about Fall Trends this season we're doing something different because I don't want to just tell you about the fall trends I want to show you. So instead of our usual 10 Wearable Trends podcast episode, I'm hosting a live Fall Trends Preview party where I'm going to share the trends that women over 40 will be wearing this season. You'll learn about five big style stories you're going to see this fall and the pieces you need to bring them to life. I'll talk about the key colors, accessories and silhouettes for the season and tell you where to spend and save on the trends. Plus, there will be time at the end to ask your fall trend questions and get real time answers. It's happening Thursday, September 4th at 7pm Central Time. Just head to your everyday style.com fall to register for this free event. Even if you can't attend the preview party live, be sure to register. As long as you're on the list, I'll send you the replay and the shopping links. Again, it's going down Thursday, September 4th at 7pm Central and you can register at your everyday style.com fall I'll see you in September Foreign welcome back to the last episode of the Everyday Style School Summer Shorts. This has been our weekly summer series, sharing a quick style thought or tip to help you save money, save time, and get the wardrobe you've always wanted to. I'm your host, Jennifer Mackie Mary I've been dressing Women for over 25 years and I'm on a mission to help you love the way you look every single day in today's tip. In our last tip, we are talking about one of the biggest reasons the style advice you've gotten in the past hasn't actually helped you become more stylish. I know you've probably read a magazine article or a blog post, maybe even mine, about what you should wear for your body type. I know lots of you have had your colors done and you carry your little color cards in your bag or on your phone. But I also know that even armed with the knowledge that should make all of this easier, many of you are still struggling. If that describes you, you're not alone. You're not bad at style and your body isn't too weird to fit in a category. You've simply had the wrong approach to style. You want to know how to fix it? Here it is. Stop memorizing rules. Start learning strategies. In this episode, I want to talk about the difference between rules and strategies why we love rules and resist strategies. What's wrong with a rule based approach to style and what to do instead? That's a lot for what is supposed to be a mini episode. So let's get into it, starting with what the difference is. When I say rule, you probably think of something like apple shouldn't wear drop shoulder tops or you can't wear white after Labor Day, which on that one in the year of our Lord 2025, that's not a thing anymore, so just please let it go. But also, yes, those are. Those are rules. For this discussion, though, I want you to think a little bit broader about the definition of a rule. Rules are the answer. Strategies are the why behind it, or how did we get there? Let's use white after Labor Day as an example. That's the rule. Don't wear white after Labor Day. But why? How did we get there? Most people have no idea. Lucky for you, I do know, and I'm going to share it with you. Over a century ago, wealthy people used to flee the city because it was hot and dirty and gross and and they used to wear white clothing, especially light fabrics like linen or cotton lawn. When they were away from the city in the summer and at their summer house, these light colored, hard to keep clean fabrics signaled a time of leisure. And when they returned to the city at the end of summer, I. E. Labor Day, their whites got put away. So unless you're a Vanderbilt living in the Gilded Age, this rule doesn't really apply to you. We've been hanging on to this rule without any idea of the strategy behind it. The strategy here is about wearing clothes that are appropriate in context. So are white linen pants appropriate in Minnesota in February? No, probably not. However, are white linen pants appropriate in South Florida in February? February? Yeah, probably. It's all about context. When you hear wear this, don't wear that, do this, don't do that without understanding why, that's a rule. When you dig into the why or understand how you got to that answer, that's the strategy. In my decades of dressing women, it has been my experience that women crave rules and resist strategies. And I think there are a few reasons for this, but the biggest one is that rules are easy. Just tell me what to wear. Just tell me what to buy. Give me a checklist. On the surface, rules seem like the fastest, easiest way to get a flattering, stylish wardrobe. Strategies, on the other hand, require some effort. A few weeks ago, I posted on Instagram, stop asking. Can I wear this and instead ask, what will this do for me? For example, can a petite woman wear a midi skirt? That's a quick yes or no answer, right? That's a rule. The strategy asks, what will that midi skirt do for me? That's a bigger question that requires an understanding of your body shape and your body shape goals, as well as what the individual elements of that skirt, like lines and volume, do for everybody. And then you have to match those things up to your body and your body shape goals. Is a line across your calf a good thing or not? Does your body look best with volume on the bottom or not? At first glance, just tell me. Yes or no is a whole lot easier. But if you've tried to follow style rules to dress better and you're still struggling, you've experienced the limitations of rules. Now, you probably thought it was just you and your body is weird. And if every petite woman's supposed to look good in a midi skirt, why don't you? Maybe you thought you were doing it wrong, but I'm willing to bet that's not the case at all. Here are just a few problems with rules and why strategies actually make style easier in the long run. First, rules don't allow for nuance. Let's go back to the Kim Petites wear midi skirts. Some sites say yes, some say no. Either way, it's a rule. Now, if you were to ask me that question, I would ask you, what kind of MIDI are we talking about? A full drop waist MIDI or a narrow column? What's your horizontal body shape? What's your vertical body shape? What kind of top are you going to wear with that specific skirt? What kind of shoes are you going to wear? The rule is either going to make you think that all midis are terrible for you and you won't try at all, or. Or that all midis are going to be great for you. And you might end up wondering why you don't like the way you look. Because after all, the skirt was supposed to work. The strategy is going to help you understand why some midis are going to work better than others and what to do if you're not loving the way you look in that skirt. Yes, it is more work, but in the end, the strategy will help you find a skirt you love. Rules are general, but people and clothes are nuanced and need a nuanced approach. My second issue with rules is that they can't cover everything. Let's take colors, for example. I am a big fan of Jeanne from Color Guru. We've had her on the show and I love her modern take on colors. As I record this, my color card is sitting right on my desk, showing me the 35 best colors. For me, that's the rule. 35. It sounds like a lot, and it is. But do you mean to tell me those are the only colors that look good on me? What about a shade of green that falls right between the two greens on my card? Should I avoid that one? If I'm following the rule, yes. However, I know the strategy behind my colors, which is that I look best in colors that are light, bright, and warm. So instead of having to hold up my card to my computer monitor or the T shirt in the store and find an absolute perfect match, I can ask, is this green light? Is it bright? Is it warm? If yes, it'll probably be a winner. And I'm no longer reliant on a 4x6 card to find things I look good in. When it comes to body shapes, there are hundreds of sites sharing rules about what body type should and shouldn't wear. I went to one that I think is very, very well done and pretty comprehensive, and I looked at the jackets. It lists four jacket styles for each shape. For any body type, there are more than four jackets that will look nice on you. But if you're someone who loves a role and is committed to looking your best, you'll probably feel like those are your only choices. Another issue is that rules are often contradictory, and this happens in two ways. First, it's two different sources giving conflicting rules. For example, the midi skirt. One site honestly says petites should avoid them because they make you look shorter, while one site says petites should wear them because they make you look taller. I've seen this happen with raglan sleeves, dolman sleeves, peplums, a million things. The rule depends on the source. This is when you need an understanding of strategy or the why behind the rule to weed out what's true for you and what isn't. But contradictions don't always just come from misguided advice. Sometimes both things can be true and still contradict. Let's use color and body shape for my body, which is bigger on top than on bottom. The rule says I need to wear dark colors on top. However, my coloring says put light colors near my face. So what's a girl to do? A lot of women take rules as unbreakable gospel, and when they contradict, they're stuck. However, strategy tells me that color is one way to balance my top and bottom, and if that doesn't work. If I still want to put light colors near my face, I can rely on lines and pattern and volume to achieve balance. You know that phrase there's more than one way to skin a cat? That is strategy. I don't know who's out there skinning cats, but if you are, please stop, because that's really weird. And I don't know where that phrase comes from, but that's true. It's strategy, right? There's more than one way to get to the right answer My last issue with rules is that they don't keep up with change very well. A lot of the sites handing out wear this. Not that body type rules are still talking about who can wear skinny jeans. Well, that's cool. But who can wear barrel legs? That's what women want to know right now. Who can wear wide legs? When you're a rule follower and a new style is trending, if there's not a published rule for it, you're stuck and you probably don't even try. You need a new rule for everything. Strategies, on the other hand, never ever change. You just apply them to a new situation. For example, horizontal lines will always make the body part they fall on look wider. Always. So it doesn't matter if crop tops or tunics are trending, you know what they're going to do for your body. Wherever that top ends, it's going to look a little wider. This applies to when you change as well. Lots of women get stuck when their bodies change, and the rules they've always relied on no longer serve them. Knit fabrics will always cling. Woven fabrics will always glide. If you used to be someone who liked to highlight your waist and wear fitted sweaters, and now you don't. You don't need to start from scratch with a whole new set of rules to tell you what you can and can't wear. You just need to utilize a different fabric type. This was really highlighted for me when we did the Is It Dated? Podcasts a few months ago. In them, I shared some pieces I see women wearing that aren't current anymore, as well as strategies for determining if the piece in question was still current or not, and how to train yourself to see what current styling looks like. Ironically, those podcast episodes will date the pieces I talked about. They might look current again in 10 years, and other pieces will look dated. But the strategies I shared will work now, and they'll still work in 10 years. When you rely on rules, you're going to need someone to give you new rules for life. You're Always starting over. But when you learn strategies, you just apply them to a new situation and change isn't such a big deal. So does that mean that rules have no value at all? No, not at all. The issue is how we use them. Rules are a rule. Really, really good starting point. My color card narrowed the infinite number of options out there, and it put me on the right path. It's so helpful. But rules can only take you so far. When the green in the store isn't the green on the card, you need to understand why some colors are going to work for you and some don't. When the jackets you're supposed to wear aren't trending or aren't in stores, you need to know how to adapt. When you use rules as the final answer and not the starting point, you're going to struggle. And if you want to make style easy for life, learning strategies is really the only way to go. You know, I had planned on wrapping up this episode with what you should do instead, but I feel like we've kind of covered that, right? I mean, I don't know what else to say. You should learn strategies. And if you're wondering, well, but Jen, how do I learn these strategies? Girl, that is literally what we do. Every class in our membership teaches you strategies instead of giving you rules. Our signature style class, it doesn't tell you how to bring my style vision to life. It helps you define your ideal style and it helps you bring that to life. Dress your body shape doesn't tell you the 10 things you should wear and 10 things you should avoid. It teaches you to apply the never ever changing principles of things like lines and proportion, color, volume, fabric, all of it to your unique body to find clothes that make you feel fantastic. The ultimate closet makeover doesn't tell you what to get rid of. It teaches you the questions to ask yourself so you can make better choices. None of the things you learn in those classes will be irrelevant next year or even in 10 years. If your body changes, you don't need another class. If your style changes or your lifestyle changes, you're going to know how to adapt. I don't want you to look good for a season. I want you to be stylish for life. I never, ever want this show to be just a commercial for the style circle. I want you to get a ton of value from it whether you join us or not. But I feel like I'd be doing a disservice by not sharing how what we do at everyday style is fundamentally different than a lot of style services out there, and I'm not gonna lie to you, my way requires more effort in the beginning, but the payoff is lifelong. And that's how style actually becomes easy. The quick answers will never get you there. So if you're ready to put down the rules and start learning strategies, the link to join us is in the show notes. And for your sake, not just mine, I really, really hope you do. All right, that is it for Summer shorts. I hope you've enjoyed the series. The Everyday Style School will be back in a few weeks with a brand new look and a brand new format. Until then, thank you for listening and for spending the summer with me. Remember your everyday matters, so get dressed for it.