Tamara's Personal Style Journey

"This is Tamara. She is always exceptionally well dressed!"

A business colleague introduced Tamara this way at a recent business meeting (in July 2016).

Yet when Tamara first came to see me in October 2014 it was because she was feeling her look had become too bland and predictable.

Tamara wanted to learn how to dress "in a way that flatters and articulates how I see myself to the rest of the world". She wanted to be able to spend less time getting dressed (she found she often tried on many clothes before settling on what to wear). In particular she wanted to learn what colours suit her best, how to better use items already in her wardrobe, and how to accessorise.

Before Tamara engaged me she'd tried various DIY approaches, but they hadn't worked at the level she was after.

Discovering Tamara's style criteria

During the course of our initial style discovery session (the first step in the Style Upgrade Package) we discovered that:

• Tamara's colouring is Warm and Muted (aka Warm Autumn). And yet most of the colours in her wardrobe were cool based colours, rather than the lovely warm hues that suit her best and echo and enhance her colouring.
• As you can see, she has a wonderfully feminine, curvy shape that is easy to balance to the 'ideal' hourglass, balanced body proportions, especially now she knows how! Her "funny hips" (Tamara's words, not mine) had meant she'd almost given up trying to find pants.
• Her personal style is represented with the style words:

Inital wardrobe audit (October 2014)

Apart from not finding many warm colours in Tamara's wardrobe, I did find:

• A good selection of shape-flattering, tailored work wear
• A tiny, but good selection of smart going out wear
• A good selection of exercise wear, but
• Almost no casual weekend wear, or casual socialising outfits
• A good selection of heels, but very few other accessories

Mostly what was blocking Tamara's style was too much black and not enough warm and muted colours. Also her work wear needed a few adjustments to elevate her look to reflect the executive level she's attained. And she had almost no casual leisure outfits.

Using Tamara's style criteria to assess her outfits I could show her how to use her existing clothes and accessories in new ways. Understanding her style criteria also makes it easier to shop for new items.

Creating new style

During our first shopping trip our priorities were to add to her work and smart casual (for socialising) wardrobe areas. In particular, focussing on completing outfits (including accessories and outer layers). However, when we'd addressed those areas we also filled a few holes in her casual weekend wear.

Back in Tamara's wardrobe I then showed her how to create new outfits using her new clothes and accessories and items already in her wardrobe. We took photos of all the outfits she agreed met her style criteria and created the look she wanted.

Now Tamara can quickly and easily choose her outfit for the next day or week confident she'll be appropriately dressed as well as looking and feeling stylish.

"I went out to dinner after work and saw a former colleague I hadn't seen for over a year. She RAVED about my outfit and how stylish I looked. In fact, she went on about it so much that I had to confess what happened!"

Tamara shared this great news with me the week after our initial sessions together. (This was the outfit Tamara was wearing.)

Tamara's evolving personal style

Each new fashion season we look at the events and activities Tamara has coming up and work out the outfits she'll wear and strategically shop for any new items needed.

It's satisfying to continue on this style journey with Tamara. I'm noticing her style is evolving as she gains confidence in her new look. As you can see in the outfits below, we're slowly increasing the 'more adventurous' aspect of her Intriguing style word (see the 2015 Spring/Summer yellow and cream Country Road dress below, and the 2016 Autumn/Winter navy 'goddess style' dress).

Examples of Tamara's evolving business wear style:

And a few leisure wear outfits:

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