Lifestyle Segmentation
Picking up the thread I let dangle in the comments on my post, The Demise of Retail as Therapy, I will define what I mean by “lifestyle segment”. Simply put, different activities demand different clothes. Lifestyle segmentation breaks them down into four categories: leisure, casual, business, and social.
Leisure = The least formal. Includes all athletic-wear and shorts. Jeans are usually leisure, and always when worn with athletic shoes, message t-shirts, and sweatshirts (including polar fleece).
Casual = Nicer, but still fairly relaxed. Due to geographical variations, I prefer to not define this category too precisely. Lunch with your boss, your pastor, or your grandma requires casual clothing. Business casual fits here.
Business = Formal business clothing is mostly suits and “jacket outfits”, sometimes tailored skirts or dresses.
Social = Clothing for social occasions includes floral dresses such as those worn by wedding guests, cocktail dresses, and ball gowns.
At times, especially out here in the Great Northwest, I have been known to lament the lack of opportunities to get dressed up. When I ask you what I should wear, I don’t want to know if I can wear my jeans. Can I wear my ball gown?
Related Posts:
Rules Are Meant to Be Broken
Don’t miss Imogen’s post on when to break the “rules”!
I would only add that which rules you break (and when and why) then becomes part of your idiom; that is, your unique style of artistic expression.
Related Posts:
Another Option for Fall Template
In the past, it’s made sense to me to employ the following transitional template:
new jeans + summer top + winter layering piece
“Winter layering piece”= jacket, sweater or sweatshirt.
I’m only tweaking it. For sure, this is a timeless formula. But I am also warming up to the scarf as layering piece for warmth. Since I have a half-sleeve (short, three-quarter, or roll-up) cotton top in almost every dark color I like to wear, I plan to use the following template for Fall 2009, at least in the leisure lifestyle segment:
dark jeans + dark half-sleeve cotton top + scarf
Thinking through the top colors I have and determining what color scarves I still need is my next step, along with switching over the closet and some biffing.
Which of the four lifestyle segments (leisure, casual, business or social) are you currently working on and what will you be wearing this fall? Assuming, of course, that you’re like me and the wardrobe is a constant work in progress. 
Related Posts:
What’s My Idiom?
idiom: A style of artistic expression characteristic of a given individual …
So much more individual than a style type designation, your personal idiom expresses the inner you to the outer world. Daily demands, personal coloring and silhouette, your lifestyle, even your budget, all combine with your fashion personality and many other variables to form a style of artistic expression all your own. (One of those variables is how you choose to interact with movements within the realm of fashion and trend.)
Congruence is the name of the game. If you express yourself consistently within your own idiom, people will naturally be drawn to your personality, as it will be showing, and you will be easier to be around.
Recently my sister decided to include a print in each outfit. One daughter is going heavily after gray this fall (heavily for this thrifty chica is a couple of t-shirts, buy one get one for $1, a scarf, and a pair of tights). Mom has lost weight and is deleting everything that doesn’t fit. I’m still thinking.
Looking toward fall, what will characterize the style of your artistic expression?
Related Posts:
Wedding or Bridal Party Gowns Long and Short
Monthly at David’s Bridal, a bride is blessed with her choice of wedding dress or 5 bridal party gowns. Click here to enter the drawing.
When I was in High School, my friends and I wore previously-worn-as-a-bridesmaid dresses to high school dances. Nowadays, with people marrying later in life, many bridesmaids are far beyond the season of high school, or even college, dances. The dressiest place they have to go to is the theatre or a “cocktail” type party.
Recently the trend has been toward short bridesmaid dresses, however, once upon a time, short bridal gowns were all the rage. Do you see them coming back ever? I do like this one.
Related Posts:
Jeans: Rigid or Stretch?
Update on my jean hunt: while I’m still hunting for the perfect pair, I picked up a simple pair of j crew button-fly, straight-leg, five-pocket, you know, just-plain-jeans. For $1 at the thrift store. Then I went back to the thrift store I mentioned previously and found that the jeans I had liked on me, but declined to pay $6.98 for, were now 75% off of the $6.98. These are gap long and lean, with flap pockets and the crease thing down the front. Not everyday jeans for me, because I don’t wear heels every day.
But back to the question at hand: rigid or stretch jeans?
Conventional wisdom says stretch. And I know all the reasons: you get a personally fit pair of pants, you can wear a smaller size without worrying about shrinkage (my husband wonders how many women prefer stretch for the primary reason that they can wear a smaller size), and so on, yada yada, ad nauseam.
But. Consider the wisdom of Clinton and Stacy
Related Posts:
Why Girls Should Dress Like Girls
The short answer is: it’s Biblical.
Often, as young people move towards finding their own personal style idiom, they either experiment or rebel. While rebellion can often be avoided (IMO most rebellion can be avoided by not forcing kids to wear polo shirts), I consider experimenting to be rather a normal part of this stage of life.
And experimenting can get into some androgynous looks: men wearing makeup, women with short hair, and so on. The dangers in these things are, as I see them:
- people really not being able to tell if you are a boy or a girl.
- portraying the wrong idea regarding your *interests*.
So, while I encourage experimenting to develop your own style, it seems best to take care to maintain your God-given gender identity. In other words, make sure that it is obvious you are female.
Some ideas that might help:
- Carry a purse. (This works for all kinds of things - like being able to distinguish between the workers and the shoppers in a store.)
- If your hair is short, wear girly earrings. Or a scarf.
- Buy girl fit shirts, rather than wearing men’s.
More suggestions?
Related Posts:
V-necks Are Out
So we’re sitting around the table visiting the other day, discussing our wardrobe challenges, one of mine being tops, and my daughter who considers herself “trendy” (meaning she runs a bit ahead of the pack stylewise) announces, “v-necks are out”.
Now, this didn’t take me by surprise because they have been so popular for so long. And believe me, I know that most of you like them! So here’s my reason for bringing it up: I predict that before long v-necks will be looking matronly. And moms all over the country will be thinking they are a basic, buying them for their teens, and then wondering why they won’t wear them. (Have you ever heard a teenager say, “mom, that looks matronly”?)
Continue to wear v-necks:
- in cute layering combinations
- if they are a staple part of your personal idiom. Honestly, some people just look so good in them they should never stop.
Personally I have them in the “stop buying” category.
Related Posts:
Are You Too Old to Wear the Trends?
“If you wore a trend the first time around, you shouldn’t wear it when it comes back into style.”
Surely we’ve all heard the above stated as fact. But is it?
Briefly this past weekend I had the opportunity to discuss this topic with my sister, who is almost two years younger than me. In our early 40s now, we are both feeling pressure to restrict ourselves from certain fashion choices, “because we’re too old”.
Where do you think that pressure comes from? Do you young people really mind if we wear your styles? I’d suggest the pressure comes from our own children - therefore you dress like a young person until your teenagers forbid it - except my sister’s kids are only preschoolers.
Parenthetically: check out the comments The Sartorialist received on this picture, a woman who appears to be 30 years older than Beth & I. People like that she’s not a clone “of a certain age”.
By style personality, my thoughts on whether people should repeat trends:
- Innovator: In my book, this style type is free to do whatever. Why try to make up rules for a person who’s just going to do what they want anyway?
- Glamorous: It all depends on how fabulous it looks. Occasionally this style type can appear a fashion victim; when wearing a look again, do it in a dignified manner. Revealing too much can smell desperate.
- Contemporary: Beth’s and my main style. I’ll let you readers answer this one.
- Timeless: Voted Most Likely to Feel Hokey when trying to wear a style she wore in Junior High.
- Romantic: Probably not, unless it’s a Little House on the Prairie dress or some such girly thing.
- Functional: This is a tough one. Technically there’s no reason why she couldn’t. The trouble is, this personality type is often blissfully unaware when she looks bad. (Good for her, bad for us!) Perhaps she is the one the guideline was invented for.
Now it’s your turn: what do you think?
Related Posts:
Why Do You Wear Black?
To give myself a break, I’m re-running controversial posts all week.
When I was a young person, back in the 70s, I don’t think I owned a single item in black. Black was matronly. My how times have changed! Walk by any high school in America and you are likely to see more black almost than denim. It’s not so different among us moms, we just are more likely to mix it up a little.
So why do people favor black?
Some possible reasons:
- It’s easy.
- A desire to blend in with the crowd.
- It’s sophisticated, glamorous, or sexy.
- Makes a young person look older.
- Drama. Black emphasizes by contrast bright or pale colors.
- Probably the most controversial reason: to appear unhappy.
Do you think black is appropriate for a young person?
And why do you wear black?
