Spring Preview

There are lots of fabulous looks this spring that I've observed in magazines, store flyers and on multiple trips to the mall. Below are my recommendations based on these observations.

Styles and colors:
Black and white ‘spectator’ look - add a pop of color with jewelry or tops
Earth tones - in ivory, sand, taupe and coco - then add light blue, soft rose or light peach.
Nautical - try it with white and yellow
Animal prints - not so good for work, no matter how little of it you wear

Pieces:
Dresses - in solids, florals and geometrics - in black and white and colors - wear with a belt and suit jacket
Tops - the peasant look is back - for work, tuck it in and wear a cami under it
Skirts - full skirts look great with a little jacket or cardigan sweater
Pants - full or tapered - wear with a feminine top

Jewelry
Big, bold and layered - chains and beads - just not too much for work

Shoes
Forget the stilettos, platforms and wedges. Try a 2” pump with a narrow heel or a flat that’s not perfectly flat. To lighten the look, try camel or tan instead of black. Camel looks great with black or navy, too.

Coats
Always important in spring - I recommend a knee length with pants and suits and a full length, with a zip out lining for skirts, dresses and stormy weather. If you can find a color or something other than black, it will look more spring like.

As I may have mentioned in a previous ezine, the major department and fashion stores have an advertising calendar for each season - Spring and Fall. And so their sales and the merchandise they have on hand are driven by holidays. Easter, which this year is on April 8th for everyone - even the Orthodox churches - means there will be major Spring sales in March.

Hard to believe that we're thinking of Spring clothes when some areas of the country are still getting major amounts of snow. Here in the Northeast, however, we've been blessed with a mild winter. Perhaps with Daylight Savings Time coming earlier this year (remember, the clocks go forward one hour on March 11th), it will feel like Spring even sooner. So, here are a few reminders before you head out to the mall.

Put about an hour aside and dig into that off-season closet. Take a look at what's there and try on a couple of pieces - especially pants. Why is it that they're always tighter in March than they were in September? Personally, if I can't get the zipper up, then I'll buy a replacement. If ,by any luck at all, I CAN get the zipper up, it means I probably need to lose about 5 pounds. In this case, I may or may not want to replace them.

If you had a chance to look through fashion magazines and pulled out pictures of clothes and accessories you like, now is the time to compare them to last year's looks and see if you can put the outfits you already own together in a different way.

However, if you don't have the inclination just yet to look through last year's clothes, then take a shopping trip now but JUST LOOK. This is a shopping trip where your only goal will be to SEE what's in the market place - it's NOT the day to buy. This will give you a chance to see what you do and don't like. After this trip, go back and look through your closet (there's no getting around this part). How many times have you bought a wonderful piece only to discover that it's almost identical to a piece that you already have but that you forgot about? I'm not the one to say don't buy it, but I'd suggest that if you love the new one more, then give last year's away.

FYI - for the petites out there, start shopping early! Out of the available stock of women's ready-to-wear fashions, probably 30% of it is "plus size," another 60% is "misses" and 10% or less is "petite." So, as you can see, there is less to choose from for petite sizes which means the sooner you start shopping, the better.

So, my recommendation this month is to plan on taking a Friday night or Saturday or Sunday afternoon - take a friend or two - have a nice lunch - and go enjoy what's out there! Try things on even if they're out of your price range. Have fun. Take it from a pro, though - you can't be both trying on for pleasure and shopping with intention on the same day. It would take 8 hours to complete such a trip and you'd be totally worn out.

As for me, I'll be taking a shopping trip mid month, AFTER looking through last year's clothes!

In this month's Success Story, I introduce you to a client I refer to here as Mr. Business Owner (see below). What I noticed first about him was the reading glasses he wore. It was a pair from a drug store - the kind we probably all buy at one time or another and that are just fine to wear at home, but perhaps not so fine to wear at the office. His glasses sat in the middle of his nose. This made it necessary for him to look over the frame at the person he was speaking to. The frame also ran across the middle of his eye. Psychologically, these are barriers.

To anyone who currently wears reading glasses like this at the office, I suggest going to an optometrist to have regular sized frames made for you. Get a pair that will sit properly on your face and that can be worn, whether or not you're reading. In other words, get a pair of bi-focals. These days, however, no one will be able to tell that they're bifocals! In essence, you will look like you're wearing regular glasses and you will either have them fully on or fully off. This sends a clearer message to the people with whom you come in contact. And, of course, it goes without saying that these glasses should be attractive to your features. Well, actually, I guess it doesn't go without saying which is why I’m here saying it!

We ARE affected by our image - how we feel about how we look. That feeling IS conveyed to clients and associates. Your look needs to be authentic to YOU and to your industry. It should also be easy and effortless - especially when the stakes are high and you'll be meeting with an important contact to make an important deal. Why leave how you look to chance?

*****

How many neckties do you really need? Given that today's business attire is more "business casual" than "business," I have found that men have more ties than necessary. I'd say that, on average, men I work with own about 36 ties each! Interestingly enough, the men who have this many are the ones who barely wear one tie per week. As it should be, they are wearing their favorites - which leaves most of those ties untouched throughout the year. My informal studies show that, in fact, out of the 36 ties, there are about a dozen that actually get worn. These are "the favorites."

It's good to have favorites, however, not counting special occasion ties such as Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, or even fraternity ties - how many ties does a man need? Let's do some math. If you wear a tie approximately once/week and you have 12 favorite ties, then you're wearing each tie approximately four times/year. Therefore, even your favorite ties are not getting worn very often.

I suggest looking at the other couple dozen ties in your closet - those are the ones that don't belong there. Do keep the ones that you like to wear on holidays as well as the ones that have a special memory attached to them (i.e. the tie you wore to your junior high prom). The others, however, should be donated to Goodwill or any other charity. They'll be more than delighted to get them. YOU, in turn, get a tax deduction!

Like any other area of our lives, when we clean out what we don't need, new energy comes in. Going forward, when a new favorite tie comes in - and you should buy one or two a year - then an old one leaves. Simple math, huh?!

Recently, I've had the pleasure of working with new clients that, for privacy purposes, I'll call Mr. & Mrs. Business Owner. This is a vivacious couple. They're wonderful people who are happy and live amazingly balanced lives. They have a good family life, active social lives, they're active in their community and in their industry. To put it simply - they're incredible. In an effort to make their lives easier, though, they sought out the help of an Image Consultant. I'm happy to say that they chose me and my services for their needs.

Their major issue was a lack of time. It also occurred to them that it was time to pay more attention to how they looked when they met existing clients and new clients and that they needed help with this whole wardrobe thing. In other words, the day came when they decided to improve THIS part of their lives.

The process I use to determine what's needed by a client is to first make a list of where they go, what they do, and who they see. Then we talk about what they have or what they usually wear for these occasions. It's also important to know if they love these outfits! Do they feel that they look fabulous?

I've said this many times but it's worth repeating - the value of our clothing lies in how much we WEAR it. It doesn't matter how old a piece is, how much it cost, what store it came from, or what the label is. When we put something on, THAT's when it has value.

Back to the process and Mr. & Mrs. Business Owner. After we determined their activities, etc., we then went to the closets and pulled out the things they really loved and really wore. Then I made outfit combinations from these clothes they already owned and loved. I made notes and took photos - I do whatever it takes to help clients remember how to replicate outfits once I'm gone.

More and more I’m finding that clients prefer to organize their closets according to outfits rather than according to categories of clothing. In this way, you can have a dozen or so outfits that simply get rotated in your closet. Having your closet organized according to outfits doesn't mean that you can't take pieces from different outfits to mix and match new ones. This method is simply a way to dress quickly and efficiently - and well! If you really just want to be able to "grab and go", why not!

After following the above steps, the newly organized closet is made up of ALL favorites! I have to say that with Mr. & Mrs. Business Owner, we were all surprised at how much they needed to give away. The up-side of this, of course, was that now they could see the things they love, and it will be easy to rotate outfits and replace them in the closet after laundering. This was a HUGE breath of fresh air for them.

Over the last six weeks, I have been receiving emails and phone calls from them saying such things as, "We went out last night and I couldn't believe how many compliments we both received about how nice we looked! Even my father wanted to know what I'd done. He said I'd always looked beautiful but now I look fabulous!"

The final result: they know what to wear for any occasion in their lives and they're feeling more confident than ever about who they are.

*****

For more information on working with me on YOUR style,
click here.

_______________________________________________

Copyright 2001-2007 Julie Foley. All rights reserved.