Turn your casual look into something chic

High heels, a fur coat and a blazer can help create a chic classic style.

Many women start from a position of a casual classic style in their teens that later becomes too plain and boring.

When they’re no longer teenagers and start to work, they want to change the way they dress, but they don’t identify with the classic style: straight leg pants, shirts, pencil skirts and blazers.

The definition of classic in clothing is timeless, traditional, tailored and co-ordinated.

The timelessness comes from no exaggerated styling details and means that these clothing items can be worn for years without dating. Classic style is suitable for most work situations, especially corporate offices.

Casual classic clothing is relaxed timeless clothing such as jeans and T-shirts or sweaters.

It’s really easy to have a more chic, sophisticated, elegant style, and keep wearing the casual pieces you love so much.

The problem is that jeans, sneakers, T-shirts, cargo pants, and so on, are sporty and casual pieces and when you only wear those kind of pieces you get a style that is too casual.

It’s great for teenagers or a weekend but it’s not appropriate for all occasions or for the office. You want to look more chic.

To recreate it you have to combine your casual pieces with other classic or sophisticated items.

If you are not particularly interested in fashion trends, but want to feel stylish and look contemporary, this is a good style for you.

However, please note that even classic styles can become out-of-date. You must pay attention to contemporary silhouettes to ensure your look remains contemporary.

The main problem with this style is that it can become boring.

So, here are some ideas to create a more interesting chic classic style:

* Combine your casual pieces with a fur coat or jacket, blazer, cardigan, ballet flats, straight skirt, feminine shirt, pumps, trench coat, knee-high boots or classic trousers.

* You can also add leather pants or leggings, an asymmetric top, a maxi skirt, high-heels, embellished flats or leather jacket.

Focus on creating whole outfits, including footwear, jewellery or scarf, any outer layers and handbag.

Ensure there’s some link between all the items in your outfit.

The link could be colour, texture or classic with a hint of a “theme” such as nautical, or a pop of interest with a fun necklace, scarf or earrings.

You can also link an outfit to your hair colour or colour value, which is how light or dark your hair is. For instance, if you have a lot of grey in your hair, try a light coloured top, or a patterned top with a light coloured background.

Simple style is a word that means different things to different women. It makes it easy to get dressed; is nothing too fussy or frilly; has a care-free feeling; includes light-weight clothes and accessories; and makes for a minimal, mix-and-match wardrobe.

A classic chic style with a twist is one way to incorporate this style into outfits.

Styling tip

With the dominance of longer, looser fitting tops, a simple styling trick is to add structure to the looser, or boxier and longer styles.

* Visit www.ronelda.com or you can find me at Ronelda Rhode Styling/ Bridal Wear on Facebook; @StylebyRonelda on Instagram and @RoneldaRhode on Twitter.