There’s really no excuse for looking careless and sloppy when it comes to your personal style. Appearances count and you want to come off as professional, polished, and put together, especially as you age. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking out of date, out of touch, and unattractive. Clinging to tired fashion trends, wearing dirty, stained, or unironed clothing, and not maintaining good grooming will leave you looking like a hot mess and ruin your look.
1. Dirty Stained Clothing
Wearing dirty, stained, faded, and tattered clothing with holes is one of the surefire ways to look sloppy and shabby according to Readers Digest. Wash or dry clean your clothes regularly and repair or replace worn-out items. Sweat marks, food, and wine stains, or clothes that have turned yellow with age will draw attention to your appearance for all the wrong reasons.
2. Dated Fashion Trends
If you cling to fashion looks that are no longer cool or don’t keep across the latest trends your style and appearance suffer. “It’s better to have a smaller curated wardrobe of timeless styles so you don’t look sloppy or like a fashion victim,” says fashion consultant Sarah Meikle, who adds, that these are the trends you need to retire. Fierce gladiator sandals, embellished denim, t-shirts emblazoned with slogans, overly pointed shoes, and bike shorts (unless you’re on a bike).
3. Unironed Wrinkled Clothes
It’s important to look crisp and polished regardless of whether you are a working professional. Wrinkled, crumpled, and unironed clothing will make you look like a hot mess. It’s also worth noting that linen and cheap synthetic fabrics are more susceptible to wrinkling.
4. Ill-fitting Badly Tailored Pieces
Fit is everything according to personal stylists and shoppers Beckie+Martina. “When you wear ill-fitting, shapeless, loose, or tight clothing you will come across as careless and sloppy.” Pay attention to sizing, and length — pants that drag are a fashion crime —and if something doesn’t fit right have it professionally tailored to your size and shape.
5. Fluff Piles and Lint
Pilled sweaters and worn-out fabrics covered in fluff, lint, or pet hair will make you look sloppy, unprofessional, and poor. Cheap knits and fabrics will always pile faster and if you can’t remove fluff with a lint brush or by dry cleaning it’s time to trash them.
6. Scuffed Wornout Shoes
Dirty, scuffed, worn out, cheap, or outdated shoes will ruin your outfit, and make you look scruffy. Accessories are the finishing touch that can make or break your look, so it’s better to invest in good quality leather, keep them clean and polished, and have them re-soled. And if there’s no bringing them back to mint condition, toss them.
7. Sloppy Off-putting Proportions
Like fit, proportions matter, and you need to get them right or you’ll look like a bag lady or worse a pirate. As a general rule of thumb, play with contrasts: If you wear an oversized shirt, go for a streamlined pant, and vice versa. Piling on layers can add bulk and throw off proportions. To look polished, always tuck in your shirt, wear a belt, and make sure your shoes and accessories don’t overwhelm your outfit.
8. Broken Chipped Nails
Chipped nail polish, yellow broken nails, overgrown cuticles, and dry-aged hands make you look like you’re not trying. Have regular manicures, change your nail polish when it’s chipped, and use a moisturizing hand cream to keep your skin soft, supple, and radiant.
9. Bulging Overstuffed Pockets
If you overstuff your pockets, you will not only look messy, you will add bulk and distort the shape of your outfit. Keep your pockets clean and streamlined and carry your essentials in a chic handbag, cute backpack, or simple fanny pack.
10. Heavy Aging Foundation
Heavy matte foundations make your skin look dry and dull and can settle into fine lines and wrinkles to age your appearance. It’s also important to prep your skin before applying foundation by cleansing, moisturizing, and ideally wearing a primer—especially as you age—to ensure your base stays put and doesn’t slide off your face.
11. Bleeding Uneven Lipstick
Our lips get thinner with age and also develop fine lines and wrinkles. Wearing the wrong lipstick shade, unflattering colors for your skin tone, or harsh matte formulas can highlight thin lips and aging and make your teeth look yellow. If you don’t keep your lips hydrated or apply lip liner before lipstick, it can bleed and make you look like a sloppy mess.
12. Nasty Synthetic Fabrics
Synthetic fibers wear out fast, wrinkle, make you sweat and also don’t hang well on your body. They also make your outfit —as well as you —look cheap and nasty. It’s better for your style, and the environment, to invest in high-quality natural fabrics.
13. Cheap-Looking Accessories
Your bag, shoes, and accessories can make or break an outfit. When it comes to accessories it’s better to invest in quality leather and classic shapes, styles, and colors. Anything covered in logos, overly embellished or textured, too bright, or featuring cheap zippers and hardware, looks tacky.
14. Not Following Dress Codes
There are dress codes and fashion etiquette for a reason and an instant way to look careless and sloppy in the style department is by underdressing. Jeans and T-shirts are OK for casually running errands or kicking about the house but if you’re heading to meet friends, to an event, or to work always elevate your style game. As the saying goes, it’s better to look overdressed than underdressed.
15. Visible Lingerie and Undergarments
Unless you’re on a fashion runway, showing your bra straps or wearing overly see-through clothing that reveals your undergarments is a no-no. You will look sloppy and not put together and if you’re bra or lingerie has seen better days that makes it even worse. Always update your bra and underwear— those worn-out tatty pieces and granny pants need to go.