Closet Clean Out!

Recently I did a closet makeover for a lovely lady named Beth.  We got along very well over the phone, so I was looking forward to working with her.  My eagerness was stoked further when we met and she correctly named the designer of my jeans.  Walking into her room-sized closet and seeing a huge jumble of name-brand clothes, accessories and shoes didn't even curb my enthusiasm; I just knew that we'd have fun and get a big job done which, unless I'm  mistaken, is the primary function of Style Savvy.

At this point in a closet makeover, I usually sit down with the client and discuss her life; does she have children, work outside the home, have a husband with mob ties......you know, the usual background info. I need to know if I'm dressing a woman who needs 20 business suits or someone who spends the majority of her life in designer jeans.  You can imagine my shock, then,     When Beth told me that she didn't work, spends most of her time gardening and has no children.  Her husband is a laid back sort of dude and their social life together consists of staying home with friends or going out casually.  There was a definite disconnect between Beth's designer-filled closet and her relaxed, chill lifestyle!!.

Then, Beth came clean.  She was a designer junkie.  Every season she promised herself that this was it; no more spending every cent on a new Chanel jacket, no further binges at Armani.  No need for the au courant Louboutins or another jar of Natura Bisse moisturizer at $450 each.  She would buy for the lifestyle she had, not the one she desperately wanted.  And she would learn how to use EBay!!!

I told Beth that it's not enough to say the words, you have to mean them.  She would have to realize, in her own brain, that she could be just as stylish, just as fashionable without spending designer dollars.  MORE stylish, even, because she'd have to rely on her own viewpoint and not what she was told by a handful of high priced stylists (those stylists! LOL)!  And so we began. We successfully purged Beth's closet of everything that was no longer fabulous, (dragging that too-young-for-her Oscar de la Renta out of her hands was difficult, but worth it!). We altered or dry-cleaned anything that could be altered or dry-cleaned and we filled in gaps with lifestyle-appropriate choices ( don't I sound like a snoot!).  The result?  Happy client with a great wardrobe and happy stylist who had once again proven the "trend" is today, but "style" is forever!!!