How to Be A Creative Dresser

Dear Deborah, I‘m enjoying your blog. Your advice is wise and practical, yet fun, too!  I’m a 55-year-old empty nester, and a professional freelance writer and artist. For fun, I work part-time as a background extra for feature films.

I’ve always enjoyed clothes and expressing my creativity through what I am wearing, but I’m often confused by the fashion advice in magazines and books supposedly geared to women my age.

One book I picked up discouraged wearing prints of any kind; another touted Pucci prints as the fashion solution to everything. So much of what I read for women my age is so contradictory that I’m confused, and a little depressed. At this age, I’ve got the time to reconnect with my creativity and am always looking for new ways to express it.

My wardrobe is part of my creativity, and I look forward to exploring new ways to look like me. I’d love to learn how to incorporate trends without looking trendy, and how to wear classics without looking same-old, same-old. Please help.

Thanks, Cindy

Dear Cindy,

You’re not alone. Many women over 40 feel a need to express their creative sides, but what defines creative dress?

Creative Dressers Love to Experiment

A creative dresser has fun with clothing. She’s not bogged down by fashion rules. She likes to play with different shapes, styles, and colors and doesn’t take fashion too seriously. She understands the importance of surprise to excite and delight!

Sarah Jessica Parker is a great example of a creative dresser.  She takes her inspiration from everywhere and always wears an unusual mix of things and looks fab. She is confident in her choices and playful in her fashion attitude. Diane Keaton is another.

Let’s look at some creative dress ideas.

To Be a Creative Dresser: 

1. Wear Unusual Color Combinations

Black+ red can be too boring for a creative dresser. Creative types are more inclined to choose Teal + olive green,  purple + orange, or some other very non-traditional, stand-out color combos.

2. Experiment with Shapes

Creatives often like to highlight the unusual shapes of their garments and not the body the garments are on. Instead of focusing on dressing for their body types, they wear unusual cuts and styles to express something they are feeling or thinking. Asymmetrical styles, balloon-shaped silhouettes, and high low hemlines are just a few favorites of creative dressers.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Mix Patterns

Creative dressing = lots of patterns all mixed together. The more, the merrier because it creates interest and excitement.

4.  Layer with Abandon

The texture is fascinating to creatives, so one way to do that is layering.  A jacket over a vest, a vest over a shirt, a shirt over a top. Layer away for a funky look.

5.  Add Stand-Out Accessories

Creative dressers like to show they are unique and what better way to do that than with some eye-catching accessory that tells a story. That’s why anything vintage from a Victorian pocket watch to a 1930’s paisley skirt is so precious to creatives. These things have character.

6. Try Deconstructed Clothing

Deconstructed Classics which are wardrobe staples reimagined in a way you’ve probably never seen before, let alone even dreamed of and they look very creative.

If you have a more artistic style personality you will immediately gravitate towards this trend. Choose the right pieces, and deconstructed classics are a fun trend that ups your style cred instantly. Get it wrong, and you run the risk of looking like Edward Scissorhands ran amok in your closet. This simple pieces get it right!