Do you sometimes feel uncertain about your outfit selections and not sure how to boost your confidence? Real confidence comes with accepting your personal quirks and working with them. In this way, you can dress with confidence by knowing your look and playing to your personal strengths. Here are five “feel good” style secrets.

Style After 60 Tip: Dress for Your Body

To feel confident in your clothing, I suggest embracing your best body features and strengths. All of us have body parts that we want to conceal. Maybe you love your legs and hide your mid-section.

Even if you don’t love your arms, the majority of women at any age can wear the cold-shoulder top. It’s been popular for over a year and keep showing up for all the seasons. The great part about it is that is shows off the most beautiful part of your body and doesn’t accentuate any flaws.

Regardless of your size, shape or favorite body feature, here are a few key rules:

Fit is the key, no matter what your dress size is.

Everyone is a critic about what you wear, so dress for you.

A tailor is your best friend, next is fit and this is the key.

Don’t be afraid to play with patterns to enhance and camouflage areas of your body.

Be Comfortable with Your Style Choice

If you don’t feel 100% confident about your clothing choice before leaving the house, then don’t wear it.

Try this quick trick: Take a full-length picture of yourself and see how you look. The camera doesn’t lie. I always do this when I’m trying on sunglasses and want to select the right style. I can always tell which one I should buy based on the picture along with how I feel in them.

You will be able to recognize the right outfit during the moment you look in the mirror and feel nothing but pride, satisfaction, happiness, empowerment and confidence in what you’re wearing. The most important thing to remember is to make sure the outfit feels comfortable in the way you present yourself to the world.

Know Your Colors

Examine your closet and experiment with different colors to find out which hues work best with your complexion. Ask a close friend what colors look good and work best for you.

It will also be beneficial for you to understand your skin surface tone, which is the color you’d use to describe yourself (light, medium, tan, dark, etc.). Your skin’s undertone is the color underneath the surface. You can have the same skin tone as someone, but a different undertone, which are cool or warm.

If you have cool undertones – pink, red or bluish undertones – colors that look great on you include mint or kelly green, teal, lavender, purple, navy, hot pink, rose pink and burgundy.

For warm toned skin – yellow, peachy or golden – colors that look good on you are peach, yellow (lemon and mustard, which has more brown tones), brown, red, lime green, orange, kelly green and mint green.

Define Your Personal Style

Combine your personality into a wardrobe to help you define what is unique about you and in turn you will always feel good about your outfit choices and style. Here are seven descriptors I use to help you identify your personal style:

Sporty

Causal, relaxed fit and likes natural fibers such as cotton, denim and corduroy. Christie Brinkley wears this style.

Traditional/Elegant

Classic and high-end luxury with preferred fabrics such as woolens, tweed, raw silk and gabardine. Diane Finstein and Angela Lansbury wear this style.

Feminine

Romantic look and prefers fabics such as lightweight sheer silk, soft linen, lace, eyelet and chiffon. Princess Diana wore this style.

Casual Chic

Professional and classy casual look and prefers double cotton, designer denim and lambskin leather. Cameron Diaz wears this style.

Creative/Artistic

Free spirited look and prefers layering with different fabics including tweed, textured cotton, poka dots with paisley floral and geometrics. Madonna prefers this style.

Dramatic

Bold look and fabrics include linen, leather, double knits and gabardine. Diana Ross wears this look.

Alluring

Hourglass figure and shows off different parts of the body and prefers an animal print fabric. Sharon Stone and Cindy Crawford prefer this style.

Once you can define your style you will be able to personalize each outfit with accessories and save time deciding what to wear each day.

The Power of Accessories

Accessories complete the outfit and have the power to instantly make you comfortable in your own skin and boost your confidence. Try a few of the following accessories for the season.

A pair of comfy sandels, flats or heels – I’m always looking for style and comfort and I think the designers finally got it right. There are so many stylish and comfortable selections out for the season including Birkenstocks, slide-in mules or heels with ankle straps.

A sassy handbag – Try a color like coral, blue or yellow. You’ll be surprised how much the handag adds a pop of color and updates the outfit.

Statement sunglasses – A classy pair of suglasses can take you from drab to fab, instantly. You will also beat the heat, in style.

Hats – These protect you from the sun as well. I noticed hats with writing on the side of them this year, like “Bon Voyage,” “Off to the Beach” and “Dear Summer.” What fun conversation pieces as well!

Look Great in the Morning

We are all busy and to take an extra few minutes to look great in the morning will make you feel more confident. Try putting your outfit together in the evening so you will know what you are going to wear in the morning. This will save you at least 5-10 minutes or more of time the next morning.

Try spending more time getting ready by making sure your make-up is on properly and hair is in order in the morning. I had a client who applied her makeup in the car at stop signs. Needless to say, she never felt entirely good about the way her make-up looked. It just takes a few extra minutes in the morning to complete your look and feel good about you.

How would you describe your personal style? Which tips are you using or plan to use to feel more confident about your style? Do you have others that you can suggest that are working for you? What do you think is the essence of style after 60? Please join the conversation.