Friends, this is an important post. I normally don't like to enforce rules on my clients/friends who read on the regular, but recently I feel like I must say something:

Stop wearing yoga pants.

A few weeks ago, I received a puzzled text from my sister. I don't get it, she said, every high-school aged girl wears the same thing: a North Face jacket, yoga pants, and bedroom slippers.

I laughed aloud, but then I realized that girls that age were wearing the same uniform when I was in high school, almost 15 years ago. And when I was in college, too, 10 years ago.

Come to think of it, half the women I see on the streets of New York wear almost the same thing. Swap the Uggs for Nike's and the North Face for a Lululemon jacket and...that's a good portion of the female population.

I realize how potentially alienating my pointing this out can be. We can draw a feminist parallel here and argue that women have been forced to wear uncomfortable things for centuries, and let's own our wardrobe...and I am ALL for that. But this is not that. This is a mindless, doing it because we've seen it done before, following the pack, activity.

You've heard me say countless times that it's not what you wear but the arrival of your mind on the pieces that make up your outfit that count. It's the choice and the creativity, to me, that matter when you throw on clothes. How wonderful is it that instead of spending 2 minutes of your life getting dressed every morning, you can spend two minutes of your life deciding how the world receives you visually?

Can you tell I get so fired up about this? I do. Because it's so easy and so fun. We may not be saving lives here but we're having a better morning, in all likelihood.

So, this morning, instead of yoga pants, let's wear:

paired with:

and on bottom, a great pair of jeans:

The thing about jeans, here, is that you want to make certain that they are your fit. I suggest bringing a friend (or a stylist ;) to a department store and trying on a bunch of different brands. Take a pair or two home and try them on again in your mirror at home. I swear, sometimes the fit is different at home rather than in the department store.

And all of these pieces can and should be reached for instead of workout pants, Uggs and a sweatshirt. I promise. You can do it. We can do it!!

And that's all I've got for you today.

xoxo,

aok