New Year’s resolutions are generally the same all round: Exercise more, be healthier and lose those Chrissy kilos. Am I right?

Since there is no avoiding feeling all ‘New Year, New Me’, here are my tips to kick-start a refreshing change and update to your personal style. I’ve called them Style Resolutions… perhaps a whole lot easier to stick to and it’s something that can be done overnight!

1. First things first, clean out your wardrobe.
You can do this by ‘clothing type’ or just throw it all on your bed and start trying everything on. A voting committee (A.K.A. your friends) are great to have on hand if you feel you need a second, third or fourth opinion. Make four piles – charity, tailors, staying and going. Some rules I like to stick by (or should I say “let slide”) are:

• If you haven’t worn it in over a year, it’s not staying.
• You can keep things as a ‘goal’ to fit into or wear for a particular event. Take it to the voting committee if you haven’t worn said garment in over a year.
• Tailoring is really important. It’s an investment in the long run because, if you your clothes fit you perfectly, you’ll wear them much more often. If their not tailored, you might end up shocking yourself after you’ve calculated your cost per wear ratio!

2. Discover your ‘look’.
You might already have your preferred ‘look’ down pat. Make sure you know what suits you before making an impulse buy. If you love a certain trend you need to try it on to ensure it suits you. Key elements include colour palette and body shape. I will have more on this in the coming weeks.

For now, if you are stuck and not sure what your individual style is, cut out images from magazines and books to create a mood board of all the things you love and want to wear. I guarantee you’ll have a pattern happening and your true (or desired) style will reveal itself.

3. Make a list of what you need.
My ‘Need’ list means clothes, shoes and accessories that you will wear every week, so you can split them into categories such as ‘Work, Weekend and Workout’.

Nightlife is pretty important too. ‘Hello!’ to party dresses being a necessity!

4. Make a list of what you want.
These are luxury items – things that can wait while you save up after stocking up with your ‘Needs’. You could even set yourself a rule… after every three things bought from your Need list, you can spoil yourself with a ‘Want’.

Retail therapy is real!

5. Be Daring.
Don’t be afraid to wear colour or bold patterns. This can be a work in progress (I know for me it definitely is!) Steer clear of too much black, white and grey. Those neutral colours are very far from boring, but making a slight up-beat change might be all you need to feel like you’ve had a ‘New Year, New Me’ makeover. A few trending patterns are nautical stripes and florals; and trending colours are bright greens, oranges and pinks.

I am predicting Fashion in 2015 is going to be very fun, adventurous and colourful. People are more open to being different and expressing themselves through their style. I mean, who would have thought the Hawaiian Shirt would EVER come back into fashion? I certainly didn’t… but I’m secretly happy about it.