25 Fashion & Style Tips to Brighten Your Day

The weather is depressing in the northeast right now, and it’s enough to make anyone feel down! Fortunately, dressing up and looking fabulous always seems to make a bad mood disappear. That’s what inspired me to create this list.

Fashion is not only functional, it’s fun! It can lift your spirits on a bad day and help you transcend the times when you’re not exactly blissed-out. If you’re not in the best mood or just want to beat a sudden case of boredom, here are 25 tips on how to light up a gloomy day with fashion and style.

25 Fashion & Style Tips

1. Wear a basic pair of jeans and a tee shirt, accessorized with the hugest, boldest pair of earrings you own.

2. Buy yourself something cheap and impractical at Forever 21. The cheaper and more impractical, the better – think bright pink, sequins, feathers, studs, or whatever embellishments you love. Ignore the fact that it might not last forever – have fun and live a little!

3. Use neon blue or lavender eyeshadow as liner. Keep the rest of your makeup look low-key. Your eyes will really pop!

4. Give yourself an at-home manicure. Paint your nails the hottest neon shade you can find (my fave: Orly’s Passion Fruit). Don’t be afraid to get caught checking your own nails out constantly. What? They look good!

5. Take on one of our famous Fashion Challenges – we’ve got tons of ideas to help you look at your wardrobe in a new way.

6. Invest in some really amazing lingerie. (See our guide to affordable lingerie for our favorites!) Even if you’re the only one who’s going to see it. Even if you think it’s a waste of money. On days when you’re just wearing sweats, cute lingerie can turn your whole mood around.

7. Two words: self tanner.

8. Adopt your favorite celebrity’s fashion attitude for a day. If she had your closet, what would she wear? Dress like that, but be sure to copy her confidence too!

9. Dress up, blast music, and take photos of yourself. Ruthlessly delete the bad ones. Keep all the good ones and start a lookbook of you wearing your favorite outfits. Bonus points if you do this with old-school Polaroids.

10. Wear a flower headband or stick a fresh flower in your hair.

11. Stubbornly refuse to wear anything you aren’t 100% happy with for a day.

12. Gather up items from your closet that are missing buttons, need to be taken in, need patching, etc., and FINALLY bring them to the tailor or sew them up yourself. Revel in your new outfit choices.

13. Download Evernote and get your fashion inspiration notebook going. For tips, see How I Use Evernote to Organize Everything.

14. Visit the dollar store with a friend and vow to each find something to incorporate into an outfit. Let hilarity ensue.

15. Go shopping for cute clothes to wear to the gym. Then put them on and go exercise! It’s the ultimate way to boost your mood.

16. Completely reinvent your look and wear something from the other end of the style spectrum. Usually preppy? Experiment with grungy rocker chic. Leaning more to the punk-rocker side? Borrow a Lilly Pulitzer cardigan from your mom and embrace your inner conservative.

17. Experiment with red lipstick. Read this guide to learn how to find the right shade of red for your skintone. Keep your eye makeup toned-down to let your lips be the focus.

18. Wear really, really big shoes and enjoy feeling modelesque.

19. Raid your boyfriend’s or best guy friend’s closet. Borrow one of his blazers or steal some denim to test out the boyfriend jean trend. Return the pieces promptly so he’ll let you borrow again.

20. On a rainy day, ditch your heels in favor of brightly colored rain boots. Proceed to splash in the puddles. Repeat.

21. Visit your local Barnes & Noble, settle in to a comfy chair, and peruse some fashion books. For recommendations, see The Top 5 Must-Read Fashion Books.

22. Grab a random item out of your closet, and no matter what it is, vow to “make it work.” Note the sense of accomplishment you feel once you get it right.

23. Boost your confidence by dressing to highlight your favorite body part. Love your legs? Rock a miniskirt. Amazing arms? Go sleeveless. Keep the rest of your look toned-down so that one part will stand out.

24. Test out a crazy trend you never thought you’d wear, like cutout leggings or hot pink lipstick. You never know, you just might end up loving it!

25. Dress up. Not for an occasion, not for a job, not for anyone in particular. Do it because it’s fun and you want to. Life’s too short to blend in! (See also: Why You Should Dress Up Every Day.)