Kinda Chic: The New Rules of Dressing, Living and Choosing Yourself

We’re finally back from holiday.

After a few days of stepping away from the business, slowing down and allowing myself to switch off, I came back feeling inspired and, perhaps more importantly, with a little more clarity about what I want Elevated by Clementine to be about.

Running a business can be all-consuming. There is always another idea, another email, another piece of content to create, another goal to reach. I love every part of building Elevated, but I also think there is something incredibly valuable in stepping away from something you care deeply about and allowing yourself to simply think.

And this holiday gave me that opportunity.

I spent time reflecting on the women I work with, the conversations we have around style, confidence, wellbeing and identity, and what I really want to give women through Elevated.

The answer was quite simple.

I want to empower women.

Not in a loud or prescriptive way. Not by telling women who they should become, what they should wear or how they should live. Quite the opposite, actually. I want to create a space where women feel more comfortable becoming themselves.

And then, somewhere between holiday mode and getting back into real life, I came across the Kinda Chic trend.

It immediately made me smile because, underneath the playful language, I think there is a much bigger conversation hiding there. What if being chic isn't really about the clothes at all? What if being chic can also mean knowing yourself, protecting your energy, taking care of your health, expressing your personality and having the confidence to make choices that are right for you?

So, here are a few things I think are kinda chic.

Kinda chic to wear the outfit you want to wear

For something that should be as simple as getting dressed, we can attach an extraordinary amount of thought, judgement and expectation to our clothes.

We ask ourselves whether something is flattering enough, age appropriate enough, professional enough or fashionable enough. We wonder whether our body is “right” for a particular shape, whether a colour is too bold, whether an outfit is too feminine, too sexy, too casual or simply too much.

And somewhere along the way, we can lose sight of the most important question of all:

Do I actually like it?

There is something liberating about recognising that you are allowed to enjoy clothes. You are allowed to wear the colour that makes you happy, the silhouette that makes you feel beautiful and the outfit that makes you stand a little taller when you look in the mirror.

This doesn't mean ignoring context. Of course, there are clothes that are appropriate for certain environments and clothes that aren't. Personal style isn't about wearing whatever you want regardless of the situation. It is about understanding the situation and then finding a way to express yourself within it.

The difference is that your choices come from intention rather than fear.

You don't have to dress according to what you think will make you acceptable to everyone around you. You can dress according to what makes you feel like yourself.

And I think there is something wonderfully chic about that.

Kinda chic to attract attention and be unapologetic

Many women have been conditioned to believe that being noticed comes with a certain amount of risk.

We are told not to be too loud, too confident, too glamorous, too ambitious or too visible. We learn to soften ourselves, sometimes without even realising we are doing it.

This can happen through our clothes too.

We buy the neutral version instead of the colourful one. We choose the safe dress instead of the statement dress. We put the beautiful earrings back because they feel like “too much”. We convince ourselves that we will wear the outfit when we have somewhere special to go, and eventually it sits untouched in the wardrobe.

But what if being noticed isn't something we need to apologise for?

There is a difference between dressing purely for external validation and enjoying the experience of being seen. You don't have to dress to attract attention, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the fact that your clothes express something about you.

Perhaps you love colour. Perhaps you adore beautiful tailoring. Perhaps you have a very feminine style, or a dramatic one, or a completely minimalist wardrobe. Whatever it is, you don't need to dilute it simply because someone else might notice.

There is a particular confidence in being comfortable with your own visibility.

Not demanding attention, but not shrinking away from it either.

And sometimes, when you walk into a room wearing something you genuinely love, people will look.

Let them.

Kinda chic to say no and share your boundaries

I don't think personal style can be completely separated from the way we live our lives.

The same woman who spends years trying to find clothes that feel like her may also be learning to understand what feels right for her in other areas of life.

Saying no is one of those things.

Women are often incredibly good at accommodating other people. We organise, support, help, compromise and make ourselves available. We can become so used to being everything for everyone that we forget we are allowed to have limits too.

Boundaries are not about becoming cold or selfish. They are about recognising that your time, energy and wellbeing have value.

Sometimes the most empowering sentence is simply, “No, I can't do that.”

You don't always need a long explanation. You don't have to make your boundary more palatable by apologising for it five times. You can be kind and still be clear.

And I think this idea connects beautifully to our wardrobes.

Every time you buy something you don't really want because someone tells you that you should have it, every time you keep something that doesn't fit because you feel guilty letting it go, every time you dress as someone you no longer feel you are, you are moving slightly further away from yourself.

Personal style involves making choices.

This, not that.

This feels like me.

That doesn't.

This works for my life.

That doesn't anymore.

There is freedom in becoming comfortable with those decisions.

Kinda chic to protect your peace

As I get older, I think more and more about the value of protecting your peace.

We live in a world that constantly asks for our attention. Our phones, our inboxes, social media, work, other people's expectations and an endless stream of information all compete for space in our minds.

Sometimes we need to become better at deciding what deserves access to us.

Protecting your peace might mean leaving your phone in another room for an evening. It might mean saying no to plans when you are exhausted. It might mean stepping away from a relationship that continually leaves you feeling depleted. It might mean unfollowing accounts that make you compare yourself to an impossible standard.

And sometimes, it can be as simple as making your everyday life easier.

Your wardrobe is a good example.

When you open your wardrobe and are faced with clothes that don't fit, don't suit your lifestyle, don't make you feel good or simply don't feel like you anymore, getting dressed can become another little source of stress.

A wardrobe should support your life.

It should make your mornings easier. It should give you options. It should help you feel prepared for the things you actually do.

You don't need hundreds of pieces to achieve that. You need the right pieces for your life.

There is something incredibly peaceful about opening your wardrobe and knowing that most of what you see works for you.

Perhaps that is a slightly unexpected form of chic, but I think it counts.

Kinda chic to prioritise your health

This one is particularly important to me because wellbeing has always been such a big part of what Elevated represents.

It is very easy to think of health as something we will prioritise later.

When work calms down.

When the children are older.

When we have lost some weight.

When life becomes less busy.

When we have more time.

But there will always be another busy period.

There will always be another deadline, another responsibility, another reason to put ourselves at the bottom of the list.

Prioritising your health doesn't need to mean embarking on an extreme transformation. In fact, I think some of the most powerful forms of self-care are incredibly ordinary.

Moving your body because it feels good. Eating food that gives you energy. Getting enough sleep. Going outside. Taking a proper break. Looking after your mental wellbeing. Making time for the people who make you feel good. Learning to recognise when you are exhausted and actually doing something about it.

And perhaps most importantly, taking care of your body without treating it as a problem that needs fixing.

Our bodies change throughout our lives. Our hormones change, our priorities change, our lifestyles change and our needs change.

Your wardrobe should be allowed to change with you too.

There is no reason you have to wait until you look different, weigh less or become some imagined future version of yourself before you are allowed to enjoy fashion.

You are allowed to feel good in your body today.

That, to me, is incredibly chic.

Kinda chic to take up space

There is something deeply connected between style and the way we allow ourselves to exist in the world.

For many women, taking up space can feel uncomfortable.

We apologise for speaking too much. We minimise our achievements. We hesitate before sharing an opinion. We worry about appearing intimidating. We make ourselves smaller, quieter and easier to accommodate.

But you don't need to earn the right to be visible.

You are allowed to sit at the table.

You are allowed to have an opinion.

You are allowed to be ambitious.

You are allowed to be successful.

You are allowed to wear something that makes people look twice.

You are allowed to be the most confident woman in the room.

Taking up space isn't about believing that you are more important than everyone else. It is simply about understanding that you are equally entitled to be there.

And clothing can sometimes help us access that feeling.

We all know the sensation of putting on an outfit and suddenly feeling slightly different. Your shoulders go back. You walk differently. You speak with a little more confidence.

The clothes haven't magically transformed you.

They have simply helped you connect with a part of yourself that was already there.

Sometimes we need that reminder.

You are allowed to take up space.

Kinda chic to dress for yourself

And perhaps this is the one that brings everything together.

Dress for yourself.

Not for the woman you used to be. Not for the woman you think you are supposed to become. Not for your partner, your colleagues, your friends or the algorithm.

For you.

For the woman standing in front of the mirror this morning.

The woman whose life may look completely different from the one she had five years ago.

The woman whose body may have changed.

Whose priorities may have changed.

Whose career may have changed.

Whose relationships may have changed.

Whose confidence may have changed.

We go through so many transitions in life, and yet we often expect our wardrobes to remain exactly the same.

Sometimes we are still dressing for a previous version of ourselves without even realising it.

Maybe the clothes you wore in your twenties no longer represent you. Maybe the corporate wardrobe you built over years no longer reflects the life you have today. Maybe you became a mother, changed careers, started a business, moved somewhere new or simply grew into a different person.

You are allowed to change your style with you.

You don't have to completely reinvent yourself every season. You don't need to chase every trend. You simply need to listen to yourself a little more carefully.

What do I love?

What makes me feel good?

What feels authentic?

What works for my life now?

What do I want people to see when they meet me?

Those questions are far more interesting than simply asking what is fashionable.

Because personal style, at its best, isn't about becoming someone else.

It is about becoming more comfortable being yourself.

Maybe this is what kinda chic really means

When I think about all of these ideas together, I realise that the Kinda Chic trend is actually much more meaningful than I first thought.

It is not really about clothes.

It is about permission.

Permission to wear the outfit you want to wear. Permission to be noticed. Permission to say no. Permission to protect your peace. Permission to prioritise your health. Permission to take up space. Permission to dress for yourself.

And perhaps that is what I want this next chapter of Elevated by Clementine to be about.

Not telling women how they should look.

Not giving them another set of rules to follow.

Not convincing them that they need to buy more, change more or become more.

Instead, I want to help women understand themselves better and use style as one of the tools to express that.

Because when you feel comfortable in yourself, it changes the way you move through the world.

You walk into a room differently.

You make decisions differently.

You stop asking for permission quite so often.

You become more intentional about what you allow into your life and what you leave behind.

And maybe, after all, that is the most stylish thing of all.

Love,

Clementine

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