7 tips to find clothes you look great in

Tiffany Sauder [00:00:01]:

Welcome to scare confident. I'm your host, Tiffany Sauder. One of the things that you know about me, if you know me at all, if you're my family or my extended family or my friends, you know that I love clothes. I love clothes. I just love it. I love new clothes. I love trying new things. I love going to vintage shops.

Tiffany Sauder [00:00:22]:

I just love it. I just think I love it. I always have my family. When I was growing up, we didn't have a ton of extra resources, and I love clothes. And so I would ask my mom for stuff, and she would not always say yes at all. Like, that was definitely not the environment. But we had to go on a cash budget as a family, like Dave Ramsey style, in part because all of the extra resources, there was, like, a family clothes budget, like an envelope, and 98% of it would be spent on me because I was a never ending wellspring of, hey, you know what I'd love? And so I was part of the reason we, like, it was, like, Tiffany's closed budget, Brandy's closed budget, Lance's close. Like, my brothers, they don't care.

Tiffany Sauder [00:01:01]:

But it was like that. So it's always been a thing for me. And my mom's an amazing seamstress. Amazing. So my sister and I, when we were growing up in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, four h was, like, a big thing that we did. It was, like, social. All the cute boys were in the, like, animal barns, which is a very funny thing to say out loud, but it's just the vibe when you grow up in a small town. And we did sewing in four h, we did clothing.

Tiffany Sauder [00:01:28]:

So you, every year, you would sew something different all the way up to, like, I sewed my prom dress. I sewed a suit. We're, like, really into this. Not just, like, sewing a pillowcase and an apron, for real into this. And so when you learn to sew, you have to, like, go to a fabric store and buy a bolt of fabric and a pattern and learn to envision, what is this going to look like on me? And I think, again, when you do that young, you start to learn what fits look good on you. Where do you need things to be slouchy? Where do you need it to be tailored? What colors look good on you? Because there's this literal construction process that you're going through to kind of learn what makes me feel good, what makes me look good. And so that's sort of, like, part of where I grew up. And so I've just.

Tiffany Sauder [00:02:09]:

I've always loved clothes I've always loved fashion. I've always loved the sense of expression in that way. I grew up sewing, and so I think there's a sense of understanding of construction and how it works and why it works that way. And appreciation for just complex seaming and draping and amazing fabrics, like all that. And my grandma would often say, dress to forget yourself. All of us sisters and cousins, we have in my grandma's handwriting, a little plaque in our office, in our closets that say, dress to forget yourself in her handwriting. Beautiful. And I think it's true.

Tiffany Sauder [00:02:43]:

Like, while the way we look and present ourselves is a sense of self expression and it is part of putting ourselves out in the world in a certain way, it's not all really for vanity reasons, like wanting to look better than other people. For me, it is about being able to say, like, I feel so comfortable with what I'm wearing and how this looks on me that I can just totally forget myself and, like, really present my talents, my energy, my observations into the world. Because I'm not thinking about myself. I'm not like, oh, this is scratchy, this is itchy, this is tight. I hate this color. It's got to stay. It's too nubby. Whatever.

Tiffany Sauder [00:03:18]:

The thing is, when you've been in that environment where it's like, I hate this, I can only think about myself because I hate how this looks. These are too tight, whatever's happening. And I've also been in situations where I, like, wore something. And the goal was to be seen, maybe not. Probably even at this stage of my life, the goal was to be seen. And once you get to the party, you're like, I stand out maybe a little more than I had preferred. You just not forgetting yourself. You get what I'm saying? Or maybe you don't.

Tiffany Sauder [00:03:44]:

But anyways, this is the point. So I am going to talk about seven ways to find clothes that you look great in. I'm giving a little bit of backdrop about my own relationship with clothing and fashion. I love it so much. I've had to ball on a budget for sure. In seasons of my life. I'm balling less on a budget in this season of my life. And I do like it better.

Tiffany Sauder [00:04:02]:

But it literally doesn't matter how much money you have. There's some principles. If you understand, if you know your body and what you look good in, it can make it very easy. Like, literally, I look for formulas in all areas of my life. And this is another place. I have a lot of tips and a lot of formulas that just make it so that I can still feel like I have a sense of, like, I look current ish and still like a mom and still feel good about myself and still, I don't know, like, flex across all these different lives of Ann. So I was having conversation with somebody a couple weeks ago, and they were asking me about, like, how do you put stuff together and know what to wear? And I was like, oh. And I started just, like, kind of word vomiting.

Tiffany Sauder [00:04:43]:

All this stuff that I'm not going to share with you. A lot of times when I talk to other people, I'm like, oh, maybe other people have this question. I was like, oh, I didn't realize I really actually have, like, a toolbox as it relates to this. So we're going through seven. I say quick tips. I don't know if they're tips or tools to find clothes that you look great in or to feel great in your day. So we're going to do this. I think it'll be fun.

Tiffany Sauder [00:05:01]:

Okay. Number one. So, obviously, there's a lot of influencers on the Internet, Instagram, Pinterest, wherever it is that you like to follow, watch the ones that you follow. I tend to try to always follow people who have the same hair and skin color as me because you can find, like, same hair color, maybe even similar kind of, like, cut right now. Because if I follow a bunch of people who have blonde hair and I'm like, oh, I love their stuff, they're going to wear colors and they're going to wear just, I don't know, outfits that look great on people who are blonde. And maybe it would look good on me, but it requires this translation from color palette and language to somebody who has dark hair, dark eyes, dark eyebrows, would it look good on me, too? So that's something that's easy. Like, you may love an outfit, but if that person has a totally different body type than you, totally different hair, totally different everything, it may not translate in the same way to your body and to your world. So that's one thing I'm aware of.

Tiffany Sauder [00:05:57]:

I may find something like, oh, they're so cute. And it's like, well, yeah, they're like, Meg Ryan. You know, when we were young, everybody wanted that pixie cut that Meg Ryan had, only she should have that. So follow influencers that have your same hair color and same skin color. That can be an easy way of finding brands, outfits, fits that are going to look good on you. The second is column dressing. This may be really obvious, but I found for some it's not. What is column dressing? So literally like column, like c O l U M n.

Tiffany Sauder [00:06:26]:

Column dressing. This is where your color of pants and your color of top is the same. So it could be monochromatic. Can be like black pants, black tank, and then a contrasting, like jacket or sweater or something like that over it. So it literally makes a column from your ankles, like all the way up to your neck of the same color. I had on black slacks the other day, a black sleeveless tank and a white oversized blazer over it. And I think I wore black shoes, too. So, like, from my toes all the way up to my neck was like a black straight line, which looks very long and lean.

Tiffany Sauder [00:07:02]:

And then the jacket just makes that column narrower. Right. Because it's like covering up some of the black. So it is like a hack to look tall and thin. No matter how you feel or how tall you actually are or what week of the month it is. Column dressing, literally every single body type can do it. Big chest, little chest, tall, short, it doesn't matter. Column dressing is like one of those things that works for everyone.

Tiffany Sauder [00:07:26]:

So can be pair of jeans, denim shirt that would just be like not even a blazer, but just like wearing something monochromatic. I had on a pair of ivory pants the other day and ivory like textured sweater. Another way to just look really long and lean. So column dressing is a trick. It makes you look long and lean. It's almost always what I wear when I speak. So if you do public speaking at all wearing like, black pants and a pink shirt, it cuts you in half. Visually, it looks cool.

Tiffany Sauder [00:07:57]:

If you're like, just hanging out in the wild in the world. But if you're going to speak on stage because you're like, up and higher, if you're like, if we're watching this on YouTube, I'm like, lots of hand motions on this one. You're just going to like the way that you look in your video better. You're going to like the way you look in pictures better. You're going to. You're just going to like the way that you look better. So if you go look at me speaking, I'm almost always in column dressing outfit or address something that is like from almost like head to toe, the exact same. It's less to look at.

Tiffany Sauder [00:08:26]:

It makes you less distracting as a speaker. And you're going to like the way that you look on stage much better. So that's number two, column dressing. The third thing, I've started doing this in probably the last year. And I is so helpful because the morning is almost always rushed, is take a picture of outfits that you love and put them on an album in your phone. So I literally have an album on my phone that just is called outfits. And it has three different sources of stuff in it. One is like, sometimes I get dressed and I'm like, this is cute.

Tiffany Sauder [00:08:55]:

I like this outfit. I'll take a picture of myself in the mirror and I'll save that picture into that album. Another thing I'll do is I'll sometimes take a screenshot of an outfit I see on Pinterest or on a website I'm on. I'm like, oh, I have all the pieces of that. I like how that goes together. I'll take a picture of it, I'll put it in there, or I'll get magazines in the mail sometimes and I'll see stylaby flipping through them. I'm like, oh, this is a cute way of styling. Like loafers or something.

Tiffany Sauder [00:09:20]:

And I'll take a picture of it and I'll save it into that album. I don't know. I have, like, maybe 70 pictures in there now. As styles change, you can delete them, no problem. But when I'm, like, in a hot hurry, I cannot think. I will pull up the album and just do a quick skim and I'll be like, oh, I feel like wearing that today. And I'll put the pieces and parts together and, like, from my own closet. So that doesn't mean that I necessarily ordered everything, but it's like, oh, that's a cute black knit top with jeans and sneak, whatever.

Tiffany Sauder [00:09:48]:

Just sometimes, like, literally any outfit feels hard. And so, like, coming up with anything because I'm just, like, creatively melting or it's really fast, or I've maybe been in, like, a real fast casual season where I'm wearing, like, just lots of jeans and sneaks and t shirts, and suddenly I have to dress up a lot. And I'm like, I can't think of any outfits except for jeans, sneakers, and a t shirt. What do I wear? And so going to that has been so helpful. Ten out of ten, I'm going to keep doing it. I really like it a lot. So that's my tip number three. Number four is know what you look good in and put it on solid repeat.

Tiffany Sauder [00:10:23]:

Know what you look good in and just put it on solid repeat. If you see me in the wild, I'm probably going to have one of three things on a button down, a blazer or a dress. I will be wearing one of those three things, almost certainly a button down, a blazer. It's just my uniform. I have lots of different button downs. Some of them are cropped, some of them are long, some of them are striped. Some of them are solid. Some of them have collars.

Tiffany Sauder [00:10:44]:

But I just look good in button downs. I have broad shoulders. I have a very short torso. And so the, like, v neck of a button down makes me look taller. I just know that I look good in button downs, and so I wear them all the time. With slacks, with skirts, with pencil skirts. Like, it just looks good on me. So learn what looks good on you or what you think you look good at.

Tiffany Sauder [00:11:03]:

You might see me in a button down and say, it doesn't look that good. I don't care. I feel good in button downs. I love them. I'm wearing one today. Know what? You look good and put it on repeat. You will see me in jeans, not shorts. I don't like my legs.

Tiffany Sauder [00:11:14]:

You don't need to feel sorry for me. I just don't prefer them. And so I feel much more comfortable in jeans and midi or long dresses. And so that's just what I do. I feel more comfortable that way. So, jeans. I love pencil skirts because I have no hips, and so I like how I look in that. And blazers, same thing with a button down.

Tiffany Sauder [00:11:32]:

Same like visual of a button down. It's a broad shoulder, a v neck, if you think about it, as a very similar structure to it. So for the same reasons that I like button downs, I look good in blazers for the same reason. So structured shoulders, v neck makes me look longer. So learn what you look good at and just put it on repeat. I have been wearing button downs for years. Yes, the styles change. The sleeves are a little bit tighter or oversized.

Tiffany Sauder [00:11:56]:

The shoulder seam is dropped or a little tight, whatever. Like, the style might evolve. But learn what you look good at and just stick with it. And that's just what you look good at. Not every trend is for everybody. My mom used to always say that to me. Number five is do a huge try on from your closet a couple times a year. This does not have to be all the time.

Tiffany Sauder [00:12:16]:

Take an afternoon, once you've taken a bunch of pictures of different things that you like and start putting outfits together and literally just take pictures of yourself in the mirror of what you like. That pressure of getting dressed in the morning in three and a half minutes oftentimes gets us, like, going back to the same thing over and over again. I get it the same thing happens to me. But if you want to kind of branch out and try some different stuff, make it a to do. Take a Sunday afternoon, a Saturday morning, whatever it looks like, or like an evening from five to 830, and just get stuff out of your closet. Try it on. Try a different belt, try it with brown, try it with black, try it with a button down, try it open, whatever the thing is, just try it and let yourself have some creative fun with it. And take pictures of the ones you like and then add them to your album and save them.

Tiffany Sauder [00:13:02]:

And then it's like, oh, I found like four new outfits. Or go find some inspo from a brand that you really like and see if you can make those outfits from the stuff in your closet. Or maybe you just need one extra thing and it'll make it. So I'll do this with Junior a couple times a year for him because he literally, he wants getting dressed to be the easiest thing in the world. I like him to look nice. He likes to look nice, too. But sometimes styling like a plaid blazer can be overwhelming for him. And so I will literally be like, let's try it on these five different things so that you kind of know what goes with what.

Tiffany Sauder [00:13:35]:

I've also learned for him, keeping things very simple. Less is so way more for him. When he gets a lot in his closet, he goes back to the same things even more and more. So I've learned if we bring five shirts in, we've got to take five shirts out, because if it gets too much, it's too many decisions for him to make. Not because he's not smart, he just has way too much going on. It's too complicated. I'm making it a Rubik's cube for him, and it doesn't need to be. That has worked really well for him and sometimes for me.

Tiffany Sauder [00:14:04]:

I think going into the dressing room in a store can be intimidating, especially if you feel like it's busy and there's, like, pressure to hurry up or you don't get somebody who's, like, very helpful. I am not afraid of a big mail order haul. If you need jeans, go to Nordstrom or I love shopbop, too, or something like that, and buy like, five different brands, two different styles, and two different sizes. Who cares if you get 30 pair of jeans in the mail? If you need a pair of jeans, do that and then send them all back. Usually like, max a $10 to send them back. So I'm a big fan of the try on. I needed some spring dresses and so I went to the anthropology app, and I ordered eight, and I kept one. Then I could try it on with my shoes.

Tiffany Sauder [00:14:48]:

I could try it on with the belts that I had. I could see if I wanted to accessorize it with, and I could kind of see, like, oh, this is an outfit. This is cool. I like this. I have stuff to accessorize it. It can go into my closet, like, really quickly when I do that, where if I'm at the store, it's hot. It's always hot in the dressing rooms. Always so hot.

Tiffany Sauder [00:15:05]:

I'm always so thirsty. I want to die. Like, everything wrong happens. I just don't like it. I'm a big fan of the big try on at home. It's a way that I try different stuff, and I think it makes. Helps you turn into an outfit really quickly, because, you know, if you have stuff to, like, do with it, don't buy a shirt that you have nothing to wear with it. Don't do that to yourself.

Tiffany Sauder [00:15:23]:

Okay. And this is the last one. This maybe sounds a little bit counterintuitive, but I'm gonna say that what I wrote down was, buy things before you need them. Here's what I mean by that. I used to have these special occasion panic moments where it was like, oh, no, we have a special event coming up. We have a gala. We have a fundraiser. We have, I don't know, some event that Jared, I need to go to.

Tiffany Sauder [00:15:45]:

And I would be like, it's Friday, and I forgot, and it's Monday. And so sometime during the week, I'm gonna try to run to the mall, and then you're like, panic pressure buying is the worst thing to do to yourself. And so I started observing. This is starting to become a regular part of our lives that we have special occasion events that we need to go to. So I'm just going to be on the lookout for things that I know the color palette would look good on me. This cut would look good on my body, and I'm going to be okay with having one or two things in my closet that I don't need right now. And I mean, this mostly special occasion stuff, like, address, because then I can buy it on, like, end of season sale. Case in point.

Tiffany Sauder [00:16:24]:

Tonight, Darren, I have a gala that we're going to. I'm wearing a dress that I bought end of season last summer for, like, 60% off. I didn't need it, but I'm like, next season, I know we're going to have something and go to. I thought it was super fun and cool. And I was like, I can wear it several different ways. Let's rock and roll. So be kind to yourself. And sometimes you just need to buy things before you need them because you cannot find them when you need them ever.

Tiffany Sauder [00:16:51]:

And if you do, it's like the most expensive thing in Saks because that's just your luck. That's how it's going to go. You know what I mean? So that's number seven. So I'll do a quick rundown and then we'll be done. But I don't know. This is kind of frivolous. But I also think not. I also think not.

Tiffany Sauder [00:17:06]:

I don't know anybody who doesn't do better at life when they feel good about themselves. And so maybe clothes is not your thing. No problemo. It's a thing for me. I just love it. I think it's so fun. I love dressing my friends. I love it so much.

Tiffany Sauder [00:17:17]:

I love it so much. So maybe someday I'll start a brand that's, like, kind of on my dream list. I have some ideas, but later. Okay, Tiffany, stay focused. All right, so here they are. Follow influencers that have your same hair color and skin color column dressing head to toe, same color. Third one, take a picture of outfits you love and put them on an album in your phone. Number four, know what you look good in and put it on repeat.

Tiffany Sauder [00:17:42]:

Number five, do a huge try on in an afternoon and take pics of what you love. Number six, don't be afraid of mail ordering a ton of stuff two sizes almost always, unless it's a brand that you've worn before. Pick your size and then either one bigger or smaller, depending on reviews. And then the last one is, buy things before you need them because panic buying for special occasions is never a good look. So thanks for listening to this episode. This is very fun. I really enjoyed this one. And the biggest way that we grow the show is by you guys sharing an episode with somebody that you know and love.

Tiffany Sauder [00:18:13]:

So if you know somebody who is trying to figure out this Rubik's cube of how do I feel great about the way that I look, I'd love it if you shared this episode with them. So, as always, thanks for listening and go crash your week. Thanks. Thank you for joining me on another episode of Scared confident. Until next time, keep telling fear. You will not decide what happens in my life. I will.