New Year’s Resolution #4: Move you...

We all make the resolution at the beginning of the year to exercise more — don’t we?

I know I do.

And rarely does it make any difference in my life.

This past year was a little different, though. And I hope to keep it up in the 2012.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m pretty much the last person to give advice about exercise. But for some reason this past year I started walking and then, recently, with winter around the corner, I joined a gym.

What was key to my success (so far! this could change at any time!) was to have pretty low and flexible expectations for myself. Instead of resolving to exercise six times a week for an hour each time, I just tried to get out and walk as fast as I could for as long as I wanted. Usually it wasn’t even that much!

The effect has been great for me. I feel much more energetic and happier as a result. (And I’m told I look better, so maybe that’s true, too.)

So I guess the lesson is to start small and be reasonable about what you can accomplish. Those of us with work and family commitments need to try to squeeze in what we can, when we can — and then congratulate ourselves making such efforts to be kind to our bodies.

That in a nutshell is my exercise resolution for 2012.

What’s yours?

First lady Michelle Obama’s first ...

I think we can safely say that, at least from a sartorial standpoint, Michelle Obama’s first state dinner, for Prime Minister Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, was a success.

Mrs. Obama looked fantastic. I’ve been critical of her choices over the past 15 months but there’s nothing to complain about here. The silvery color of this magnificent dress by Indian-American designer Naeem Kahn sets of her coloring, and the bare shoulders and slim silhouette highlight her extremely elegant shoulders — her best feature — and her height. (The Obamas towered over the evening’s special guests.) This is the dress I envisioned her wearing for the Inauguration (although I guess in retrospect the ivory was a better choice; this is just a more beautiful dress all the way around). You can get more details about the dress here. (Photo by Nicolas Kamm/Getty Images)

Official White House photo by Samantha Appleton

An even more stunning choice was the day outfit Mrs. Obama wore for greeting the Singhs earlier in the day. It’s a little hard to see the details on this dress in this photo but the dress is a lovely apricot brocade sheath (with matching coat) by Isaac Mizrahi.

Take a look at how carefully chosen the color is. Sure, it’s an homage to the warm colors of India, but it’s really chosen to set off Michelle Obama’s own warm coloring, and it does so absolutely perfectly. In this ensemble, both she and her outfit are all coppery — her skin, her lipstick, her shoes, and the dress. That dress is gorgeous, but the real star here is Michelle Obama herself. The chair upholstery provides a beautiful backdrop for the dress, and the flowers bring together the yellows in the room and the apricot color of the dress.

And look how Michelle Obama’s dress complement’s Gursharan Kaur’s sage-green sari — fabulous. As Mrs. O points out, these are two colors (along with white) in the Indian flag. Make no mistake, every detail is carefully planned and choreographed well in advance.

I’m an avid Michelle Obama-watcher but my purpose in doing so is to show other women how they can highlight their best assets (or detract from their own innate beauty with less flattering clothing choices). What’s your own coloring and how could you use your clothing choices to showcase them?

And, with the holidays (and lots of amateur photography) bearing down on us, how could you plan just a little bit so that those pictures come together pleasingly and flatteringly?

Perhaps you could ask your kids to wear clothes that kinda sorta go with each other’s (and your own) rather than setting out a mapcap floral frock for one and a plaid shirt in a completely unrelated colorway for the other child while wearing an outfit in yet a third color for yourself.

This doesn’t mean buying new clothes or making yourself crazy exerting tight control. (Just what those tension-filled family holidays don’t need!) Rather, find a single color that works well for one of you, a color that person owns some clothes in — say, blue — and work from there. Put the colors that flatter close to the face and call it a day.

It can help to remember that pictures of your dinner likely won’t be broadcast around the globe.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone — hope yours is peaceful, yummy, and stylish. (And please take a minute to subscribe to this blog before you head to the kitchen.)

Size isn’t everything, and other w...

I’ve been preaching the gospel of purge, purge purge to clients recently and even tried to put my own philosophy into practice.

So far, so good, right?

Right.

But then I opened my closet one day and realized I didn’t have a whole lot to choose from. (I still prefer that to a closet full of stuff I don’t like or that doesn’t fit.) So in the last week, I’ve been hitting the stores in a long-overdue restocking. My budget reflects the current economy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get a few things to freshen up my look this fall. Anyway, after spending close to a full day shopping for myself over the past week, and logging equal time for clients, here’s what I’ve concluded.

1. Size really doesn’t matter! My bras were looking a little tired, so I started in the lingerie department. No one ran to help fit me, so I was on my own (in a mall chain store). I decided to go up a size, even though I didn’t think I’d  changed much. Lo and behold, a much better and more comfortable fit.

Takeaway: Don’t stick with that size 36B when you may really be a 38C. You too will look and feel better in a bra that fits!

2. Color DOES matter. I saw a cute apple green fine cord jacket on a mannequin and asked where it was. Sold out, the salesperson told me, and showed me to another cute jacket, this one in a midnight purple-blue, a lovely color. And by that point I was thinking about all the things I could do with a corduroy jacket. But that blue was just wrong, wrong, wrong for me — it would have made me look sick and tired — so I passed. (The green, which is perfect for my reddish hair and freckles, turned up in the back room, and I pounced.)

Takeaway: Identify the colors that make you look younger, happier and more wide awake, and then wear them! (Not slavishly, but most often.) (And lest you wonder what you’d ever wear an apple green cord jacket with — what CAN’T I wear it with? I’m thinking brown slacks and an orange and ivory bold flowered tunic, with the tunic longer than the jacket. A more subdued look would be the brown slacks with a brown or ivory tank or T-shirt. Really, the possibilities are endless!)

3. Pickiness is a virtue. As with the jackets, there were other things I liked in the store but didn’t love. Those are the things, I’ve learned the hard way, that I wear once or twice and then pass over every morning in favor of something I do love. With a small closet and a small budget, I am trying really hard to pass them over before I’ve bought them!

Takeaway: Approach stores with a discriminating eye, and if you have to think too hard about it, you probably should pass. (Well, unless you tend to be supercautious, that is — in which case, I recommend trying on a TON of stuff with an open mind. You may well be surprised at what you discover you like!)

4. Identify what makes you feel great. I’d really let my lingerie go, and it was definitely time for some cute, new matching lingerie. It just makes me feel better. I want to try to remember, when I’m shopping, what does (and doesn’t) make me feel great, and not get distracted by beguiling displays that having nothing to do with the priorities on my shopping list.

Takeaway: Think about make a small investment to get your wardrobe stocked with the things you love (and return the sentiment!). What makes YOU feel great? Do you have it in your closet and do you wear it regularly? If not, what’s stopping you?

5. Update your jeans. I’d been living my life fairly happily and then — wham! — I decided my jeans were a little dated looking. One pair had somehow become just too darn short. Another was in a wash that wasn’t looking current. The last of today’s purchases: a new pair of flared jeans in a dark wash. I’ll be wearing them into the ground.

Takeaway: Update your jeans at least every two years. No arguments, no exceptions. (And no, it doesn’t mean a complete purge every two years, just that you’ll need to add a fresh pair into the mix.)

I want to hear what you’ve been doing and noticing as you shop this season. Are you changing how you approach new purchases? Being more — or less — discriminating? I’d love to hear about it!