Style Statement -- Live by your own design

This Manifesto of Style is our 20-point declaration of the power of true style.

“I read your Manifesto of Style first thing every morning and last thing every night. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!”
Barbara

1. Communicate who you are in all you do.
Consistency is power. When the various parts of your life reflect your essence, your life moves in the direction you want it to.

2. Style is multidimensional.
Visual and sensual choices are driven by self-perception. Our image is a composite of our beliefs, history, and desires.

3. Style matters.
The design of your life can inspire you or mire you. Every aesthetic and material choice sends a message to the world about who you are and the world responds accordingly.

4. Authenticity is energizing, economical, and efficient.
The better you know yourself, the clearer your choices. Self-awareness leads to true style.

5. Accentuate the positive.
Give your attention to the best in you and around you and the best will flourish.

6. People are like snowflakes — uniquely beautiful because of the details.
To compare snowflakes is not very productive. Instead, celebrate what sets you apart, what’s most particular and true for you, and your own specialness will become clear.

7. Pay attention to what attracts you.
One of the most powerful questions you can ask is what am I drawn to?

8. Working from the outside in can create deep transformation.
Surface changes have the power to alter your inner landscape. (So yes, sometimes a new hairstyle or a work of art can change your life.)

9. Feel free to change.
When you discover something true about yourself, put it into action, regardless of who you were yesterday.

10. True style is not dependent on wealth, and wealth does not necessarily create taste.
Authenticity is not dependent on funding. Whether you’re on a budget or on easy street, you owe it to yourself to find a way to be genuinely you.

11. Cheap is expensive in the long run.
Why buy twice when you can buy once? Commit to quality and it will commit to you.

12. Use your best every day.
Life is too short to wait for a special occasion to bring out your finery, your treasures, your brilliance, and the best of your love.

13. Choose from your heart, and your life will fill up with things you love.
What works is what feels right.

14. Beauty transforms.
Beauty’s capacity to generate pleasure, healing, and connection is divinely powerful. Beauty affects its maker and beholder every time.

15. It’s always a good time to be yourself.
And it’s never too late. Possibility exists all of the time, everywhere. You haven’t missed your chance to be your most beautiful.

16. Only love is free — everything else costs.
Whether it’s with time, space, emotion, or earthly resources, we pay for what we choose. Be selective about what you need.

17. Creativity + Restraint = Beauty.
Overdone style leaves little room for newness, appreciation, or reciprocity. Hold back a bit. Allow for breathing space. Trust in the power of subtlety.

18.Contrast makes things interesting.
Too much sameness dulls the senses. Create a twist.

19. Living is sensual.
Engage life with all you’ve got.

20. Make more choices — moment to moment, day to day.
You are the designer of your life. Be selective, creative, and intentional in every possible way.