SEATTLE — Q:What is Personal Style?
A: People talk about personal style like it’s a musical talent or a hidden treasure. That’s not how I think about it at all. I think about it like a Pros and Cons list. It’s knowing what you like/need/have use for and knowing what you don’t like, don’t want, don’t need.
We start with Attitude. I always tell my clients “You are responsible for the energy you bring to this makeover.” If you’re bummed out, stressed out, annoyed, hard on yourself, exhausted, pessimistic, grumpy and saying things like “I hate this," then you’re sunk before you even start. There are no magic words or special clothes I can give you that will change your entire disposition. Styling requires effort! But it doesn’t have to be torturous, and if you can enter into it with some level of joy/curiousity/positivity, you’ll have a much better outcome.
Q: What can you say Instead of “I hate shopping”?
A: You could say, “I like to be comfortable, and I put in the effort to find things that make me feel good”.
Identify some inspiration. I asked Amity to list three people who have a style she admires (these could be people in your life, TV characters, instagram people, celebrities). She said Kate Middleton, Carrie Bradshaw and Rebecca from Ted Lasso. And we extracted a little bit of inspiration from each person and knew that we were going for tailored, elevated, colorful, and a little playful/quirky.
Honesty & Acceptance. Your style makeover should be rooted in reality, so we need to be honest about what we’re working with: what’s your budget? What’s your size? What’s your lifestyle? For Amity’s makeover, we didn’t have a huge budget but we DID need a lot of outfits (because she works in TV and varies her look everyday) and we also didn’t have a ton of time to go to a lot of different stores (so we wanted to use online shopping). We also wanted to be eco-conscious. ThredUp, the world’s largest online thrift store was the perfect solution for us!
Filter Filter Filter. ThredUp has hundreds of thousands of items. If you were just to search “Dress” or “pants” you’d get an impossible amount of results. You want to get as specific as possible. I started with brands that Amity already likes, that we know fit her, and brands that I think are good quality and would be worth her time to try. I filtered by Brand, Size and Condition, New With Tags or Like New.
It’s ok if it doesn’t work. I selected about 35 items including shoes, and Amity tried everything with an open mind, knowing that some things wouldn’t work out. We also had a lot of success! And whenever we found something we liked, we asked two important questions: What am I wearing this with? and Where am I wearing this?
Take a second swing. I always expect some things won’t work. That’s not failure, it’s a part of styling. We found a lot, we learned a lot, and now we have an opportunity to refine and exchange a few things so that we’re maximizing our budget. Luckily, ThredUp has makes returns really easy.
Segment Producer Suzie Wiley. Watch New Day Northwest at 11 a.m. weekdays on KING 5 and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.