Our June 2010 Style Survey Results

Style by Caroline, recently conducted an on-line style survey to ascertain Irish women’s opinions on style and shopping. The results certainly show interesting patterns of behaviour when it comes to wardrobe management and shopping, with Irish women demonstrating a keen love of shopping, but perhaps more mixed emotions towards wardrobe management!

Wardrobe Woes

• Certainly, our findings suggest that Irish women’s wardrobes don’t always match their lifestyle needs.
• In response to the question, “have you ever despaired’ I’ve nothing to wear’”, a whopping 95% of respondents answered yes! By the same token, 4 out of 5 people wear LESS THAN 60% of their wardrobe contents.
• Although our wardrobes aren’t fulfilling our lifestyle needs, Irish women aren’t averse to decluttering. 28% do an annual clear-out and a further 40% will reach for the refuse sacks at least every 2 years.

Shopping Behaviour

• As legend would have it, most Irish women are partial to clothes-shopping, with only 1 in 10 respondents stating that they dislike shopping.
• Most are regular shoppers; 16% shop once a week, a further 27% shop once a fortnight and another 28% once a month.
• High street chain stores are the preferred shopping destination for half of our respondents, followed by Department Stores. 10% favoured second-hand, vintage and charity stores, 8% prefer boutiques, and 6% cited the Internet as being their favorite place to shop.
• Half of those surveyed spend up to €100 a month on clothes and accessories. A further 38% will spend up to €250 a month, and 1 in 10 spends up to €500 a month.

Celebrity Style

There was no shortage of nominations for favourite Irish Celebrity dresser; Kathryn Thomas topped the poll, followed by Amy Huberman and Grainne Seoige in joint second place, and Yvonne Keating in third place. Other honourable mentions include; Celia Holman Lee, Lorraine Keane, Imelda May, Glenda Gilson, Andrea Corr, Sharon Ní Bheoláin, Saoirse Ronan, Sile Seoige and Victoria Smurfit, to name but a few.

Kathryn Thomas – voted Ireland’s most stylish

Thank you to all who took the time to compete our survey; your assistance is hugely appreciated.

If you have any queries on this survey, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Yours in style,
Caroline

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Style Survey

In order to get a picture of the nation's style persuasions, Style By Caroline has put together a very short style survey (only 8 questions!) which we would be delighted for you to contribute. Rest assured, the survey will only take 2 minutes to complete and is 100% anonymous.

Yours in style,
Caroline

Irish Women & Body Image

I came across a very interesting article in this week's Limerick Independent concerning a recent survey of Irish women's attitudes towards their body shape.

The Kelloggs Special K Fabulous Survey, revealed that an overwhelming 61% of Irish women aged 20-30 would like to be slimmer and only 31% of those surveyed are happy with their current size.

Imagine, 7/10 twenty-something females are unhappy with their shape.

I am dismayed but not altogether surprised by this statistic. As a personal stylist, I meet many women with self-image issues that negatively impact on their confidence, relationships and sociability. Yet, these very same women have beautiful figures and gorgeous faces.

The real irony here is that there is, of course, no such thing as the perfect shape. 'The Perfect Shape' is a fantasy created by glossy magazines and advertisers. Paradoxically, it is our imperfections that make us perfect...and magic knickers if necessary! In the words of Baz Luhrmann (Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen), "(your body) is the greatest instrument you'll ever own". Love, nourishment, care and pride is what it needs - not unfavorable, unfair comparisons to airbrushed models.

Back to the survey, I was intrigued to note that those polled in Munster appear to be more satisfied with their body shape than the national average. In Munster, 44% of twenty-somethings would prefer to be "a little smaller" and a further 10% yearn to be "a lot smaller". Whereas 40% are happy with their current size, which is significantly higher than the national figure of 31%.

I'm curious as to why to Munster women appear happier with their shapes but I'm not going to make any suppositions. In any case I'm more concerned that we as a nation improve our collective confidence and be happier in ourselves. Encouragingly, the seeds are there; the respondents in this survey believe that the best style years lie ahead for them.

On an even more positive note, 87% of those surveyed nationally agreed that women can be stylish no matter their size. Well I'm debunking that statistic right now; in actual fact 100% of women can look stylish no matter their size, it's just a matter of finding flattering clothing styles and colours and wearing them with pride...and a smile!

Yours in style,
Caroline

To find out more about dressing for your body shape, see my website, http://www.stylebycaroline.ie/