Great Tips for Fabulous Posture

When I wrote about my concerns about my posture last week, you all responded with a wealth of brilliant knowledge and insight. You'll be pleased to hear that I've already taken action towards improving my carriage (for the sake of both health and vanity, I must admit): I've committed to weekly pilates and yoga classes and am striving to be more mindful of my posture throughout the day. In honor of these positive life changes, thought I'd do a little round-up of the tips I've found to be the most helpful in my current state.

1. Master the "bistro pelvis." This is from the excellent chapter on posture in Tim Gunn's A Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style. Mr. Gunn, likewise, takes his knowledge from a 1934 guide called Your Carriage, Madam! The author instructed her readers to hold their bodies as though one is walking sideways between tables in a crowded bistro. This means tilting your pelvis slightly forward; or "scooping" your navel to your spine, as it is known in pilates. This tip has been invaluable to me. I didn't realize how strong my tendency is to tilt my pelvis forward, resulting in lower back pain and a rather unsightly bulged tummy, it must be said.
2. Shoulders down, not back! (Many thanks to commenter Pammie who brought this tip to my attention.) This is another bit of wisdom from my beloved Tim Gunn. He says that people often think of good posture as throwing one's shoulders back. Well, try this for yourself right now and you'll see it doesn't really work. At least for me, it forces me to arch my back, contributing to the forward-tilted pelvis mentioned above. Instead, focus on keeping your shoulders down, away from your ears. 
3. Imagine a pole going up through your skull. Hmm, that actually sounds rather grisly, doesn't it? Just imagine you have a metal pole going up through your spine and up through the top of your head, like a skeleton in a science lab. Now try to keep the pole straight at all times. This will cause you to lengthen the back of your neck, rather than scrunching it or straining it. Another helpful bit of imagery here is to imagine yourself as a marionette with a string through your head that you must keep taut and pulled straight at all times.
4. Beware the dreaded pigeon toe. Commenter Michael is an Alexander Technique teacher and linked to his post on women, fashion, and the pigeon-toed look. He described seeing women sitting on the subway with their toes pointed decidedly inward, creating poor alignment. And don't you know it? I do this too! I think I do it reflexively on the train as a way to keep my knees knocked together while I'm wearing a skirt. But regardless of reason, it's a bad habit and one I'm striving to break. 

So those are the tips I'm loving right now, readers. As an aside, I bought the Tim Gunn book as a result of commenters' recommendations and am totally digging it. Mr. Gunn is a personal hero of mine, but I never thought to buy this book because I mistakenly thought it was just another fashion guide that was going to tell me to buy a classic trench and get a bra-fitting and all of that other hackneyed advice. There is a list of the top ten wardrobe necessities, but it's much, much more than that. The chapter on posture is invaluable, and his section on culling one's closet to speak to one's soul inspired me to clean out my own. (Closet, not soul. But that's next.)

Best yet, Tim's trademark wit is on every page. In true erudite Gunn fashion, he summons the philosopher Kierkegaard to dispense style knowledge. You see, fashion is all about finding the authentic self and Kierkegaard "counsels that the unmediated choice is the only choice one will never regret. This means no agonizing over whether or not to keep the jumpsuit. If you have to ask, the answer is: throw it away."

Oh, Tim! You're a national treasure.

I Have a Hunch: Fashion and Posture

It is impossible to read any sort of style guide - be it Cosmo magazine, a book by Tim Gunn, or the classic Guide to Elegance - without being reminded at some point to mind your carriage. Good posture is credited with making one look (at least) ten pounds thinner, younger, better dressed, smarter, and all manner of wondrous things.

What's Your Handbag Strategy?

So, it's clear from reading A Guide to Elegance that I will never be elegant by this book's standards. And hey, I'm cool with that. "Elegant" isn't really the first word I'd want people to use to describe me anyway. (So there!) But I'll be the first to admit that I wouldn't mind polishing up my act a bit. And the area where I could use the most immediate help is handbags.

Leave Your False Eyelashes in Town

Have you read the book A Guide to Elegance by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux? It was a 1964 guide "for every woman who wants to be well and properly dressed on all occasions" that was recently republished. A lovely reader recommended the section on hems to me, and I just recently bought it. It's a funny little book, half enlightening and half maddening. For every useful bit of advice, there's another that drives me batty: i.e., elderly women should wear mostly pastels, or anyone with hips bigger than 38" should not wear shorts. (Whatevs, Genevieve!) But as I've been wardrobe planning for my mini-break, I read with much interest the section on "Weekends," which is a guide for city dwellers who weekend in the country. (Hey, just like me and Bridget Jones!)