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Finding your personal style is similar to the process of losing weight. While others can give you the knowledge, the tools and the support you need to accomplish your goal, like losing weight, finding your personal style can only be done by you!   While I contend that finding your style may take some effort, once you find it, shopping, dressing and looking stylish becomes effortless.

According to my "Style Method   theory, finding your personal style involves three things:

1. Unearthing your organic sense-of-style
2. Determining what clothes sync-up with your lifestyle
3. Discovering styles and cuts that work best with your body shape
For now, let's focus on the biggest of the three, The unearthing of your organic sense-of-style.

Even though you have been shopping for years, you may not know what your organic sense-of-style is. Don't fret, most women don't. This is why I came up with the "style categories tool.   Style categories tool helps you determine what your existing look is by simply classifying the clothing in your closet into one of five types of style.

Once you understand what your style category is, you will find shopping, dressing and maintaining your organic senses-of-style a whole lot easier. Out of the following five general style categories which of the tops and descriptions define the style of what you like to wear?

Stylish Ladies Law #2:
Find Your Personal Style

by Kate Rice
Your Life! Style Editor

Are you Modern?
Do you like clothes that are:

- other-worldly inspired
- large geometric prints
- bold colors with an emphasis on black and
gray
- typically formless silhouettes
- metallic fabrics and metal over sized closures
- padded details

- designed by Pablo Rubin or Jean Claude
Gaultier

Are you Romantic?
Do you like clothes that are:

- ruffled
- laced
- beaded adornment
- fitted to show off your feminine form
- pale and bright colors
- somewhat fussy and girlie clothes
- designed by Nanette Lepore

Are you Contemporary?
Do you like clothes that are:

- top and bottom same color (mono-chromatic
dressing)
- lacking adornment
- roomy
- pattern-less
- solid colors primarily black
- urban inspired
- "drapey silhouettes
- Designed by Donna Karan or Calvin Klein

Are you Vintage?
Do you like clothes that are:

- blatantly represent another era
- distressed fabrics
- faded colors
- costume-like clothes
- large prints bold and floral prints
- unique buttons and closures
- designed by Diana vonFurstenburg or Missoni

Are you Classic?
Do you like clothes that are:

- unisex inspired
- knit tops
- button down oxfords
- basic styling
- striped
- comfortable
- primary blue
- lacking adornment except crests and logos

- designed by Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger

It is possible that you may fall into more than one category. However, it is likely that one of those could be considered "primary for you. Once you have determined what category you primarily fall into, start building-out your wardrobe with just that style of the clothing. By doing this, the clothes you buy will always coordinate with the clothes hanging in your closet and you will be well on your way to creating and maintaining a signature look. Now you can say you know your personal style!

For more tips and tricks on how to find your personal style, email Style Editor Kate Rice at Kate@KateRice.com

Photos courtesy of Neiman Marcus.com

1. Tattoos
Tattoos used to be the colouring of soldiers, sailors, mafiosi and punk rockers. About ten years ago, they became fashionable. The lower-middle classes started taking them up. Unfortunately, unlike last years' shoes, tattoos can't be taken to the thrift shop and disposed of.

To a certain class of person, tattoos are 'cool'. To another, they are a graffito on the temple of the soul. They mark a woman definitively as lower class, alienated, depressed, and a bit daft. They're also a handy way to identify one absolutely to the authorities. Which shows how stupid some crooks are.

The same goes for piercings. My family are farmers. I associate nose rings with bulls, and piercings with cattle tags. They are a haven of dirt, infection, and their openings look unsightly.

With tattoos and piercings, before you've opened your mouth, you've already typed yourself to people you meet.

2. Highlights and streaks
Are you blonde, or brunette? Make up your mind! These might have been novel ten years ago. Now they just look common. Not all gentlemen prefer blondes. A healthy head of untinted brunette or raven dark hair is a pleasant novelty these days.

It is true that blondes have more fun. I used to be one! Most people on the planet are dark. A non-blonde with blonde hair looks 'interesting'.

Now this fashion is done to death, however. If they're doing it in Romford, it's buried!

3. Big hoop earrings
Unmistakably part of the wardrobe of the gypsy. Which is fine if you are one. Strangely popular. Perhaps they're to make the wearer's head look smaller. Add them to the features above, and an unattractive type emerges.

4. Binge drinking
Binge drinking, squawking and falling over in the street is hilarious if you are the one doing it. If you are the spectator, it's less so.

5. Visible G-string
This is erotic, no doubt about it. Unless you haven't the figure to pull it off. Likely to provoke a reaction of 'Mother of G*d!' when adorning the pasty, blemished buttocks of the 'full-figured' young lady. Bad diet, no exercise, five-pints-a-night, then 'peek-a-boo!'. Agggh!

I used to wonder why so many saucily-dressed young ladies walked the streets hatchet-faced. Now I now. Half are trying to ward off unwanted vulgar advances from men, the other half are annoyed they're not getting any!

There's nothing sexy about contrived, blatant eroticism. What's erotic is what seems to be an accident. 'A glimpse of stocking is something quite shocking' etc.

Likely to irritate female co-workers also. Assuming your company allows such clothing. It doesn't? I wonder why?

6. Swearing
Your gentleman friends might find this amusing, to your face. What they think in private is another matter. Habitual swearing is another sign of a depressed, angry person. It's unattractive. The more you do it, the more it corrodes your subconscious.

7. Breast Augmentation
Also known as a 'boob job'. These look fine, from a distance. Compared to a natural pair, they look odd. They are to real breasts what a transexual is to a 'red hot mama'; no competition. Up close, they're just not as good as the real thing. A perfectly functional piece of equipment has been turned into a cartoon joke, with possible long-term medical consequences.

Some men like small breasts. Beauty is a matter of proportion. Some women are neurotic about their appearance; nothing will please them.

A good example is ...

8. Disappearing Eyebrows
They get plucked away to nothingness, then get drawn or tattooed back in. And this is better? One can end up looking freakish, even clown-like. Loss of hair suggests illness. Plucking out one's hair is often a sign of mental illness. Girls, desist! Don't try to gild the lily!

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are people who'll encourage you in the above. They'll say you look lovely. Misery loves company, and some people delight in the fall of others.

Be your own woman. Stand back from yourself, your life and your surroundings, and decide your own destiny.

About the Author
T. O' Donnell www.tigertom.com) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on conservatories, available at www.ttconservatories.co.uk. T. O' Donnell freeware may be downloaded at www.ttfreeware.co.uk.

8 Things That Maketh Not a Lady
An opinion by T. O' Donnell