A Styled Life

Alex Standley
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Business

Welcome to A Styled Life, the podcast for purpose-led female founders & senior leaders ready to use style as a powerful tool for confidence, impact, and influence. I'm your host, Alex Standley, multi award-winning Personal Stylist, Speaker and Sustainable Fashion Consultant, with two decades of experience in the fast-paced world of fashion. Join me as we redefine success from the inside out. This podcast isn’t just about clothes. It’s about personal power, purposeful style, and creating a life that aligns with your values. So whether you’re running a business, leading a movement, or stepping into your next chapter, you’re in the right place. Each week, we’ll dive into the world of personal style, sustainability, female empowerment, and living with intention. Through real stories, expert insights, and plenty of inspiration.

  1. 4 days ago

    What Secondhand September Taught Me About Personal Style: A Stylist's Preloved Shopping Secrets

    Most women are taught to want the next thing. The drop, the trend, the piece everyone is wearing this month. But the pieces that actually make you feel like yourself were never about being new. They were about being you. Worn in. Chosen slowly, and kept for years. Alex Standley, Personal Stylist & Sustainable Fashion Consultant, marks Secondhand September with the story behind her own shift. Fifteen years as a global fashion buyer meant a wardrobe built on constant, unconsidered newness. A pregnancy, a rabbit hole into sustainability, and one green jumper on eBay changed that. Alex shares what changed when she slowed down, and the practical approach she still uses today to shop preloved, from upscale charity boutiques to the menswear rail. This episode is for women who want a wardrobe that reflects who they are, not what the high street is selling this season. Key Takeaways Style was never about being new. It was about being you.The eBay jumper that started a seven-year shiftDoubling how long you wear a garment cuts its lifetime emissions by 44%The pieces that last are the ones you'd buy again tomorrow, not the ones bought in a rushWhy the menswear rail & upscale charity boutiques deserve a proper lookPreloved is not a compromise. It is often where your most treasured pieces live Timestamps 01:03 Why Alex started rethinking her wardrobe07:00 The purpose of Secondhand September09:21 How to buy preloved well: sellers, sizing, and the menswear rail12:06 Buying off season: planning strategy14:56 The wardrobe edit: what earns its place and what doesn't17:31 Using trends as a lens, not a rulebook18:51 Where real personal style lives Ready for a wardrobe built on intention? If you want support building a style that is genuinely yours, Alex's Style Identity Blueprint starts with getting clear on who you are and translating it into a knockout style. A Style Strategy Call is the place to find out if it's the right fit. https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Mentions: Rebound Store, Brighton — reboundstore.comPhoenix Style, Wimbledon and Cobham (Paige) — phoenixstyle.co.ukThe Preloved Edit, St Albans (Sarah) — https://theprelovededit.com/The Green Muse, Bristol — thegreenmuse.co.ukOne Scoop Store, East London — onescoopstore.comStyle with Purpose, Thursday 24th September 6pm alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-with-purpose-the-identity-editInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrastandley• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-standley-personal-stylist

    What Secondhand September Taught Me About Personal Style: A Stylist's Preloved Shopping Secrets

  2. 2 Sept

    Behind the Brand: Claire Burrows of Air & Grace on Style, Design and Building a Business

    Behind every brand you love is a conversation you never usually get to hear. This is one of them. Claire Burrows is the founder of Air & Grace, and fashion has been in her blood since the beginning. She grew up watching her mum make her school dresses and her nan show off a wardrobe of clothes she'd had made. That thread ran through Claire, from a little girl who refused to wear anything she hadn't chosen herself, to twenty years in footwear at Office, Kurt Geiger, FitFlop and Aldo, to building a brand of her own. This is an insider conversation, Alex spent fifteen years as a buyer including product development sourcing leather and hardware, so she and Claire speak the same language, and they get into everything most interviews skip.  What a full year of making a shoe actually involves. How you tell genuine quality from something that only photographs well. And why the industry decided women should choose between looking good and feeling good, when it was never a law of physics, just a choice someone made. There's the founder story too, and it's a good one. Being turned down by buyers who wouldn't risk a new name, then winning the investment that changed everything. What it takes to hold your nerve when no one believes yet, and why trusting your gut is the skill that matters most. And then there's sustainability, though Claire would be the first to say she doesn't think of herself as a sustainable brand. For her it was never a marketing line. It's common sense: make beautiful things properly, from good materials, that people will want to keep for years. It's an approach that mirrors how I work with clients. Start with the person and how she'll really live, not the trend or the clothes. Timestamps: 02:05 — Where her eye comes from: a family of dressmakers 04:09 — Fashion college, and falling into footwear by accident 11:54 — Where inspiration really comes from, and starting with how she'll wear it 22:08 — Inside the year it takes to make a shoe, start to finish 33:36 — Spending everything, and the Metro competition that changed it 39:42 — Nerves of steel, trusting your gut, and self-trust as a founder 44:52 — Sustainability, or why she'd rather call it common sense 56:17 — Quickfire: wardrobe love, excess and regrets Key takeaways: How to spot genuine quality in a shoe or bag, and what actually justifies a higher priceWhy comfort and style were never opposites, and what to stop accepting when you shopA smarter way to buy: choosing fewer, better pieces that last for yearsWhat it really takes to build a brand, and why trusting your gut matters more than any outside opinionHow to think about sustainability without the jargon or the guilt, as plain common sense If you'd like to meet Claire in person, she joins me live on the panel at Style With Purpose: The Identity Edit on Thursday 24 September, 6pm, at Hart Shoreditch, during Sustainable Fashion Week. Use code AIR&GRACE for £10 off your ticket. Book below: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-with-purpose-the-identity-edit Connect with Claire: Website: https://www.airandgracelondon.com Email: Claire@airandgracelondon.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/airandgrace/

    Behind the Brand: Claire Burrows of Air & Grace on Style, Design and Building a Business

  3. 26 Aug

    Building a Purpose-led Brand: Luxury, Fit, Wealth & Intentional Decisions with Priya Downes of Nudea

    Most sustainable fashion tells you what not to buy. This conversation asks a better question: what happens when you choose with intention and something finally fits you properly? Priya Downes trained as an actuary, worked on poverty and environmental projects at the World Bank, then spent over a decade in luxury with Chanel and Burberry before founding Nudea, the fit-first, B Corp certified underwear brand now worn by tens of thousands of women. She is a data person to her core who built a business around one of the most personal things a woman puts on. We talk about the layer nobody sees and how much it shapes the way you show up in everything else. Why most women are wearing the wrong size and what changes, physically and otherwise, when that's put right. The mindset shift underneath sustainable dressing: buying less, buying better, and the reasons that shift is so much harder than the maths suggests. We also go somewhere I didn't expect. Into what it really takes to build a business when you can't clock off at five, when you've fundraised, and when the brand is a direct reflection of your own values. And into wealth: why women are so often left out of the financial literacy conversation, why investing for the future still skews male, and how the same psychology that keeps women from investing shows up in how we shop. For me, this one connects directly to the work I do with clients. So much of how a woman carries herself starts underneath the outfit, with whether she feels comfortable in her own skin before she's even chosen what to wear. Priya and I come at that from different ends. We land in the same place. Key takeaways: The layer nobody sees shapes how you show up in everything you do.Fit isn't vanity. It's comfort, health and how you carry yourself in a room.Buying less and buying better costs the same or less. The barrier is behaviour, not maths.You can't separate a purpose-led founder from the brand she builds. The values are the product.The same psychology that holds women back from investing shows up in how we shop. Both are shifted through education. If you enjoyed this conversation and you'd like to hear more from Priya, she'll be joining me live on the panel at Style With Purpose: The Identity Edit on Thursday 24 September at Hart Shoreditch, alongside Air & Grace founder Claire Burrows, and Paige Mengers from Phoenix Style. With a styling showcase from me and my clients. Book your ticket here: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-with-purpose-the-identity-edit use code NUDEA for £10 off. Connect with Priya: Website: https://www.nudea.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nudea.underwear/ Nudea is also stocked at John Lewis, and internationally via Nordstrom and Free People. Email Priya: priya@nudea.com

    Building a Purpose-led Brand: Luxury, Fit, Wealth & Intentional Decisions with Priya Downes of Nudea

  4. 19 Aug

    Lead from Who You Are: Intuition, Visibility, Hormones & Getting Dressed as a Female Founder

    There is a version of you that already knows. Knows the price is too low, knows the outfit isn't right, knows the decision before you can explain it. And then a second voice arrives to talk you out of it. In this episode I'm joined by Danielle Hobson, Intuitive Business Coach and founder of The Aligned Business School. She helps women build businesses that run on their own intuition rather than someone else's blueprint, and the more we talked, the clearer it became that we are doing the same work. We both read energy in different ways. Neither of us is predicting anything. We're helping women recognise who they already are and act on it. We go deep on the difference between intuition and fear, and why one is a felt response and the other is your nervous system trying to keep you safe from a decision it has mistaken for a threat. Danielle explains why confidence is the last thing to arrive, not the first, and why waiting to feel ready is the thing keeping you small. Then it gets physical. We talk about how the same outfit can feel triumphant one week and unbearable the next, why what you wear changes how you actually work, and why the woman who feels invisible online usually needs to change her environment before she changes herself. Danielle is also honest about perimenopause in a way few women are, and about what it costs to stay quiet. The thread running through all of it is self-trust. How you lose it, why the world is built to take it, and what it looks like to build it back, one decision and one outfit at a time. TIMESTAMPS 01:03 — Two women working from the same place  02:42 — When Danielle first trusted her intuition over any strategy 07:18 — Intuition or fear: feel first, think second  16:35 — Courage before confidence (the four Cs)  18:55 — What it means to be an energetic match for what you want 33:26 — Dressing from your mood, and the days you override it  39:01 — Hormones, the mirror, and Beyoncé versus homeless person 42:24 — Perimenopause at 36, the GP battle, and breaking the silence  53:39 — Visibility, environment, and the mother-in-law on your feed 57:47 — Quickfire: leopard print, blue, and the tartan trousers KEY TAKEAWAYS Your intuition responds first and your fear argues second; once you know the order, you can tell them apartConfidence doesn't come before you act, it's built by acting before you feel readyWhat you wear isn't vanity; it changes your energy and how you work for the rest of the dayThe same outfit can feel completely different across your cycle, and that's your hormones, not a failing in youIf you feel invisible, look at your environment before you question your nerve If this conversation landed for you, and you're ready to stop dressing for who you were and start dressing as the woman you are now, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. 👉 Book yours here: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call CONNECT WITH DANIELLE HOBSON Website: https://www.daniellehobson.co.uk  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellehobson The Aligned Business School: https://www.thealignedbusinessschool.com/waitlist

    Lead from Who You Are: Intuition, Visibility, Hormones & Getting Dressed as a Female Founder

  5. 12 Aug

    Why You Keep Buying Clothes That Don't Feel Like You | Personal Stylist on Identity & Sustainability

    Why knowing who you are is the most sustainable thing you can do. The overwhelmed wardrobe, the impulse buys, the pieces with the tags still on. Most women assume it's a shopping problem. It isn't. The buying is the symptom. When you don't have clarity on who you are, shopping becomes a way of searching, and searching is the least sustainable way to dress there is. This one is for founders, senior leaders and speakers who are becoming more visible, and who keep landing on the same sentence: this doesn't feel like me. Most sustainable fashion advice hands you a list of what not to do. Buy less. Stop chasing trends. Wear it thirty times. All well-meaning. All quietly exhausting. This episode takes a different route. Because the women I work with don't need another rule about what they consume. They need clarity about who they are. Get that right, and you buy differently. Not because you're forcing yourself to, but because you no longer want the thing you used to reach for. I reframe sustainability as something that happens to you when your style finally matches your identity, rather than a set of restrictions you impose on yourself. YOU'LL LEARN Why the buying is never the problem, only the symptomHow identity clarity quietly ends the search, and the overspending with itWhy the seasonal colour of the moment leaves a graveyard in your wardrobeThe order that actually works: identity first, presence next, clothes lastWhy the woman who doesn't care about sustainability still ends up with a wardrobe that lastsFour questions to start reading your own wardrobe differently TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Why the usual advice feels like restriction03:10 — The buying isn't the problem. It's the symptom05:20 — Searching at the till: what you're really reaching for07:40 — The seasonal colour trap and the wardrobe graveyard10:15 — This doesn't feel like me: the sentence I hear most13:00 — Identity first, presence next, clothes last15:30 — The five lenses I use to read who you are18:20 — Where sustainability actually comes from20:40 — For the woman who couldn't care less about eco23:00 — Four questions to sit with this week My Styled for Impact guide is for the woman stepping into her own event, keynotes, media features, photo shoots and high-stakes rooms who wants to walk in thinking about her message, not her reflection. It's five questions, it's free, and it will show you exactly where the gap is with your style and change the opportunities you create in every room you walk into this year. 👉 Download Styled for Impact: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/styledforimpactguide And if you're ready for the full personalised picture, working together 1-2-1, that's the Style Identity Blueprint. Two sessions, a complete read of who you are through my identity framework, and the clarity of your own signature style that makes every wardrobe decision afterwards simple. It's the work that brings my clients their biggest light-bulb moments. £750 for two sessions. 👉 Book yours: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/the-style-identity-blueprint

    Why You Keep Buying Clothes That Don't Feel Like You | Personal Stylist on Identity & Sustainability

  6. 29 Jul

    Style, Purpose, TEDx and Redefining Success with Mindy Gibbins-Klein, International Speaker & Coach

    There's a version of shopping most women know well. You go in without a clear picture of who you're dressing, and you leave with at worst nothing, or at best a bag of maybes. Mindy Gibbins-Klein doesn't do that anymore. Since we worked together on her wardrobe transformation, she’s stopped second guessing and has total clarity. She's spent her career turning other people's expertise into influence - founder of three international businesses, including The Book Midwife, coach to thousands of business leaders and entrepreneurs, two-time TEDx speaker.  For the past few years she's drawn a hard line between being a thought leader and being a thoughtful leader. The difference, in her words, is what's left once you strip the ego out. We talk about what it means to build something so strong it becomes bigger than the name it started under and what TEDx really tells you about credibility today.  We also get into the wardrobe work itself: what she noticed once thirty-five pieces left her wardrobe, why intentional dressing changed how she shows up for speaking engagements, and the suit she finally let go of. We explore: Building a purpose-led brand with a big missionThought leadership versus thoughtful leadership, and why the distinction mattersGiving 1%: the social impact project born from a hard truth about her own givingTEDx as a credibility marker for founders and thought leaders, and what actually gets a talk chosenWhat thirty-five items leaving a wardrobe reveals about identityWhy intentional dressing changes how you carry yourself into a roomA wardrobe full of "nothing to wear" is rarely about clothes. It's about losing touch with who you are now.Saying no with confidence, in a shop or in your calendar, is a skill worth building deliberately. Timestamps  02:01 — Why purpose-driven work matters more than the profile  02:53 — Thought leader vs thoughtful leader: stripping away the ego  10:42 — Outgrowing the brand you're known for  14:06 — What's missing when you lose touch with your own mission  19:41 — The rude awakening behind Giving 1%  22:59 — TEDx as a credibility marker: has it become a buzzword?  26:32 — Starting the style work: a wardrobe full of nothing to wear  28:55 — Thirty-five pieces gone, and what it made space for  31:02 — Dressing with intention for speaking engagements  36:03 — Quickfire: spots, dots and one suit she was glad to see go If this conversation moved something for you, and you recognise the moment you've outgrown a title, a look, or a version of yourself that no longer fits, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. 👉 Book a free Style Strategy Call: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Connect with Mindy: https://mindygk.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindygibbinsklein/ Giving 1%: https://giving1percent.com/ Mindy's TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Fft9u69as

    Style, Purpose, TEDx and Redefining Success with Mindy Gibbins-Klein, International Speaker & Coach

  7. 22 Jul

    Style, Personal Leadership, Freedom and Radical Responsibility with Tara Brevitt

    In this episode of A Styled Life, I'm joined by Tara Brevitt, personal leadership coach, serial entrepreneur, and digital nomad. Tara spent 11 years as a project manager in the construction industry before walking away from a six-figure corporate salary to build a freedom-led, pleasure-first life on her own terms. Now she helps disgustingly ambitious women do the same. This is a conversation about the word "style" stretched wide open. We go from wardrobes to world-building, from leopard print trousers in a Dubai boardroom to living out of one suitcase by the ocean, and from the fear of what someone might say about your outfit to the freedom of becoming so recognisable that people think of you when you're not in the room. This conversation confirmed something I see with every client: when your outer world matches your inner one, everything clicks into place. And it starts with what you put on your body every morning. Timestamps 00:00 — Why "style" is about the whole way you design your life 02:03 — Tara's digital nomad life and why freedom is the style 03:54 — "Staying in one place feels like wearing someone else's clothes two sizes too small" 06:14 — Reconnecting to yourself: values, alignment, and what lights you up 08:08 — The pencil skirt that lasted two days and what people can smell a mile off 09:28 — Leopard print in a Dubai boardroom and why nobody ever said "you can't dress like that" 14:18 — If you're managing your outfit, you're not managing the room 17:16 — When people think of you without you being there: style as identity 22:44 — Getting dressed up with nowhere to go, just because it feels good 23:36 — "Fuck off the mindset work, put some nice clothes on" 27:20 — Why every item in your wardrobe should make you feel elite 28:39 — Personal leadership: knowing who you are, what you want, and exactly how to get it 35:15 — Radical responsibility and the controversial truth about women and dirty work 38:44 — Gentle bullying, leading behind your own front door, and walking your talk 49:57 — The Leaders Tribe and what six years of coaching ambitious women has taught Tara Key takeaways Your style is the whole way you design your life. The clothes are one expression of that, not the starting point.Nobody is policing your wardrobe. The rules you're following were written by you, and they can be rewritten by you.If what you're wearing makes you uncomfortable, you're giving away energy you need for everything else.Personal leadership starts behind your own front door. You have no business leading others if you haven't led yourself first.Sometimes putting a good outfit on will do more for your mood than an hour of journaling. If this conversation landed for you, and you're ready to close the gap between who you are and how you're showing up, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. It's a free, focused conversation about where you are, where you're going, and what's getting in the way. Book yours here: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Connect with Tara Website: https://tarabrevitt.com  The Leaders Tribe: https://tarabrevitt.com/the-leaders-tribe  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarabrevitt

    Style, Personal Leadership, Freedom and Radical Responsibility with Tara Brevitt

  8. 15 Jul

    How to Quit Dressing On Autopilot & Reclaim Your Style Confidence from a Personal Stylist

    If you're managing your outfit, you're not managing the room. And there's a subtler version of this. The woman who looks polished, pulled together, professional. Nobody would notice a thing. But she walks into every room carrying a friction she can't name, because the version she's performing is three chapters behind the woman she's become. This episode is for the woman who's built the career, the clients, the reputation, and is still getting dressed every morning on autopilot. Not because she doesn't care about style. Because her wardrobe stopped keeping up with her evolution a long time ago, and she hasn’t had time to stop and recalibrate. I talk about why performing a past version of yourself through your clothes was strategic (and why it's now costing you), the two energetic sides every woman has, one that dims and one that's magnetic, and which one has been running your wardrobe. And I get into what I see change when women stop performing: speed, energy, presence, and the kind of visibility that stops feeling like a threat. This isn't about fixing anything. It's about evolution and owning your individuality so that your career can reach new levels of success. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Why the performance was smart, and why it's now the ceilingThe cost of operating at 80% of your presence because your first decision every morning is a compromiseThe two sides: your shadow energy (dims, softens, seeks permission) vs your magnetic energy (bold, direct, entirely you)Why the shadow side has been running your wardrobeWhat changes when women stop: five-minute mornings, zero anxiety, clothes that feel like a second skinWhy getting dressed should be creativity, self-expression, joy, funHow Identity to Impact uses human design, astrology, and character strengths to build your style from who you are, not from someone else's template If you recognised yourself in this episode, your wardrobe is still holding a chapter you've already closed. Identity to Impact starts with who you are now, not who you used to be. 👉 Book a free Style Strategy Call to find out more and how it will work for you. https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call If anything resonated, drop me a DM on Instagram or email me at  alex@alexandrastandley.co.uk. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrastandleyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-standley-personal-stylistFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500777031TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@alexandrastandley

    How to Quit Dressing On Autopilot & Reclaim Your Style Confidence from a Personal Stylist
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5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Welcome to A Styled Life, the podcast for purpose-led female founders & senior leaders ready to use style as a powerful tool for confidence, impact, and influence. I'm your host, Alex Standley, multi award-winning Personal Stylist, Speaker and Sustainable Fashion Consultant, with two decades of experience in the fast-paced world of fashion. Join me as we redefine success from the inside out. This podcast isn’t just about clothes. It’s about personal power, purposeful style, and creating a life that aligns with your values. So whether you’re running a business, leading a movement, or stepping into your next chapter, you’re in the right place. Each week, we’ll dive into the world of personal style, sustainability, female empowerment, and living with intention. Through real stories, expert insights, and plenty of inspiration.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Standley
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Alex Standley

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