Today I interview two gorgeous women from Athens, Greece who are sure to inspire you to raise your style game. Add a bit of greek-chic flavor to your style with these style tips from Nicki and Ornella!
Can you tell us a little bit more about yourselves?
Nicki: I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia to Greek parents. Let’s just say I’m a proud Greek-Australian. I feel lucky to have the best of two cultures. From a very young age, I was exposed to the world of fashion since both my parents belonged to the Garment Industry of Sydney in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
It was fun back then to be able to wear all the new samples of clothes six months before they hit the stores. They [my parents] are the ones that taught me that manners and style go hand in hand. They would say that the way you dress and act is how you present yourself to the world!
I later moved to Greece and worked as a teacher and finance and accounting translator in one of the biggest accounting firms in Greece. After leaving the corporate world, I’m now a happy mum and blogger. Besides the lifestyle blog I have with Ornella called My ONO Lifestyle which is my passion, I also have a craft blog with my sister called Irene and Nicki create/crafts.
Ornella: I’m originally from New Zealand, a wife and mother of two. I left NZ at a young age after pursuing a career in hairdressing and beauty and decided to discover the world taking it with me. I lived in Australia and England and later took my career to working on cruise ships for a period of 9 years, managing salons and spas for various cruise line companies and visiting most of the world for free.
It was here I met my Greek husband … and the rest is history, Greece became my new home. I still enjoy hair & beauty as a hobby and just love this ever challenging and inspiring time with Nicki working on our blog My ONO Lifestyle and meeting and working with lots of new amazing people.
As a point of reference which age group do you belong to or are you willing to share your age?
Nicki: I’m 47
Ornella: I’m 49
Can you tell us a bit more about your blog and why you created it?
Nicki & Ornella: We created our blog My ONO Lifestyle in April 2016 after being inspired by the international blogging world. We also noticed that in Greece there weren’t many 40+ bloggers so we decided to be brave and take the leap and follow our dream and passion and start blogging.
We want our blog to be a place where women can go to find inspiration on fashion and lifestyle and want to come back to every day!
How would you describe your own personal style?
Nicki: I would say my personal style is versatile. I’m naturally attracted to various looks, but if I had to narrow it down I would say it’s classic, preppy, classy and urban chic with a splash of bold colour!
Ornella: I am more modern between casual and chic, however, I love a little elegance at times! I tend to suit more fitted styles and I am slowly learning to go a little bolder with the colours!
What would you consider the most important components of your style?
Nicki & Ornella: For us, it’s knowing what to wear according to our body type, complexion, age, general lifestyle, type of work and climate, of course.
Where do you live and how does that influence your style?
Nicki & Ornella: We both live in Athens, Greece. Here we both feel we have the freedom to dress up in many styles due to our amazing warm climate and our various landscapes and island settings! We can have a wardrobe full of everyday casual, classic and elegant styles right to free flowing dresses and sandals for our islands!
Do you feel you have a signature style?
Nicki: After asking a few friends, the answers I received were about the bold colours. I love to add to my outfits but also as to my lipstick colour choices. You will see me in baby pink to fuschia to ruby red. The bottom statement: “Never leave the house without lipstick on”.
Ornella: I feel I am pretty versatile and a lot of styles pretty much suit me. I do however have a craze for shoes, so I am a believer that they can make a simple outfit combo standout! If I can get many compliments for my shoe choice I am pretty happy!
What inspires your outfit choices the most?
Nicki & Ornella: Pretty much matching our outfits to our climate plays an important role in determining our outfit choice and then in our daily lives. When shooting for our blog, our location determines our outfits and living in Greece we have so many opportunities between the whitewashed buildings, blue doors and majestic seas of our islands or we can opt to change our outfits to suit the historic parts of Athens!
Do you take things like color profiling or body type into account when you dress?
Nicki & Ornella: Yes of course we do, this is the first thing both of us take into consideration we all have to wear what is right for our complexions regarding colour choices and of course clothing styles for our body types! It’s great because both of us work very well together and it’s in our best interest to help each other deliver the best styling choices, we know what suits each of us and we are honest in our opinions to each other as we both are passionate to deliver the best to our blog!
What is your current body type and height and what are your best tips for dressing for these?
Nicki: I would say I have a more hourglass body type and I’m 1.76cm tall.
Ornella: I have a straight body type and I’m 1.69cm in height.
Do you have any favorite brands?
Nicki & Ornella: We both have some particular favourites, we see the advantages or disadvantages of each brand we see or work with, but we also know that it does not have to be a super brand to look good on you.
Has your style changed at all after turning 40?
Nicki: Yes I do believe that my style has changed after 40. I’m more aware of the styles that suit me and the colours that work for me. Believe me, at this age we’ve had years of practice!
Ornella: Yes most definitely and especially now with the blog, I just want to keep buying or be given more clothes, sometimes it’s so overwhelming because you see so many beautiful items, shoes and accessories but you know if you have a family and other priorities you just have to hold back sometimes.
Do you believe in dressing ‘age appropriately’ and what does it mean to you?
Nicki & Ornella: We think you should dress as you feel as long as you carry yourself with confidence and know your limits and boundaries regarding your age. Don’t dress to look more young, just add a little more twist to your style.
Would you say that at this stage of your life you are now more, or less interested in fashion, style and the way you look?
Nicki & Ornella: Both of us have grown with our blog over the past year, learning new tips, reviewing, discussing and reading up a lot on fashion and watching other bloggers and growing with them too! Yes, we both are very interested in fashion and of course, we strive to make each outfit choice for our blog better each time!
Why is the way you look important to you?
Nicki & Ornella: If you feel good about yourself you ooze confidence as we said earlier, we love a quote we recently read “If you carry yourself with confidence your fashion statement is heard loud and clear”.
What is your beauty routine and what are your favorite beauty products?
Nicki & Ornella: We both love treating our skins and both have our own daily cleansing, toning and moisturising routines, we often discuss and compare our beauty products from serums, moisturisers to scrubs and masks each of us has used. We are often sent beauty products to review for our blog and we absolutely love this.
This is such a great way to test a product and recommend it to our readers, there are so many great brands out there. One of our favourites is a natural Greek brand called “Euthalia Natural Cosmetics Values” whom we have featured in our blog under our guest category. This brand has a lovely story of how it was founded and made by using elements derived from Greek nature on the beautiful famous Greek island of Skopelos in the Aegean sea.
Do you follow trends? And if yes, which trends excite you at the moment?
Nicki & Ornella: We are always constantly comparing notes and reading up on the latest trends as the seasons change. We both love the changes in colour tones and patterns, flares or straight lines, and the power that accessories have on our appearance.
Do you have any fashion and style tips for women over 40?
Nicki & Ornella: Yes, you don’t have to be a supermodel or have a fantastic body to feel good about yourselves, forget the young models in the fashion magazines or the billboard posters, there is room for us women over 40 to have a place in the fashion world too.
Love yourself and that radiance will shine for others to see. Work with what you have and push your boundaries a little more, just do it for you because no one else cares about you more than you. A tip that we both believe is probably No.1 on our list of tips is that you prepare your outfit the previous night, yes, you’ve probably heard it thousands of times but believe us, it works!
What are your plans for your blog and how do you see it develop over the coming years?
Nicki & Ornella: We want our blog to grow, to take it to the next level. We find such power and satisfaction in planning and reaching our set goals. We want to expand our blog and open new doors and opportunities. We would love to collaborate with more brands not only in Greece but abroad too.
Our readers like consistency and we are trying to steadily reach that point. We post two times per week on our blog and our readers want more! We want to build a loyal following and we want to connect with our readers and be able to create stronger relationships with them. We want to get to know all of you, so leave us a message, we would love to hear from you!
Anything further you would like to add?
Nicki & Ornella: We just want to add that we hope that we can inspire women to look their best, feel good about themselves and bring style inspiration to their wardrobes and their homes, no matter where they live!
We would also love to thank Sylvia and her lovely team for featuring us on 40+ Style.
Kisses,
Nicki & Ornella
Be sure to visit Nicki and Ornella at My Ono Lifestyle, as well as @myonolifestyle on Instagram
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Thanks for introducing me to these lovely stylish ladies!
I agree with Melanie and I have to say, they published some pretty darned good looking outfits.
Greetje
I really enjoyed this interview, Sylvia. Greece is one of the few countries I’ve visited in Europe – so beautiful, an excellent setting for Nicki and Ornella’s blog. They both look fantastic. I admire their passion and commitment to make their blogging a big success. It’s also great how their friendship has played so well in this pursuit. May their dreams come true.