Yesterday evening we sent out the email newsletter for June. We hope you enjoy it. If you aren’t signed up to receive it in email you can read it online. Here are the two previous newsletters too:

• April Newsletter
• May Newsletter

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If you prefer RSS updates to email, then please read Greg’s post on all the feeds that are available from YLF.

Enjoy!

It’s so much easier to love a person’s style when they wear items that you can picture yourself wearing. Things get trickier when you see well dressed people wear items that you wouldn’t wear. Yet they wear them perfectly because it’s THEIR personal style.

When a person has a dress sense that is flattering, well executed, individualistic and “effortless” – they have great style no matter whether its trendy, arty, bohemian, romantic, bombshell, sporty, earthy, vintage, classic, spunky or edgy. When an outfit is perfectly styled and the wearer is confident, it’s a style I can appreciate.

I haven’t always been able to do this though. It is an ability that I was forced to develop because of my line of work.

As a ladieswear buyer you often buy in for an area of the retail store that you wouldn’t shop yourself. For example, in my early 30’s I was a specialist buyer for both junior fashion, where my target market was a decade younger than me, and high-end branded classic fashion, where it was quite a lot older. Not only were my customers in a different stage of life, but they also had a wide range of personal styles that were very different to mine. In order to be successful I needed to identify with the styles that excited them most.

In the beginning I did this by mapping my customers to people I knew. For example, when I was buying classic fashion I imagined what my mother would think of an item. Over time I needed this device less and less — my definition of stylish became more independent of my own personal style. Appreciating other personal styles was like a muscle that I developed.

And I am grateful that I did, because there is an almost infinite number of spectacular ways that people can express themselves with fashion. There is so much more wonderful style to appreciate than the small subset that works for me. And having an open mind to different styles also helps me to evolve my personal style.

These days I find myself wanting to help other people to develop their style appreciation muscle because without it they are only having a tiny fraction of the fun they could potentially have with fashion. Not only testing the boundaries of their own style, but also by enjoying things on others that they will never wear themselves.

When I started to write this post I immediately thought of Audi from geekthreads. She is theatrical and creative in a way that is very different to my own more clean cut style. My looks are about strong simple statements, where she loves to pattern mix and layer many interesting and complicated items of clothing and accessories. I never wear muted colours, but Audi wears both bright and muted colours in dramatic combinations. In my opinion Audi’s daring ensembles are amongst the most creative in the blogosphere. They are always flattering and perfectly executed, which is why I appreciate them and adore her style.

How well developed is your style appreciation muscle? Can you appreciate a style that is different to your own, or do you struggle with this? Can you like a bohemian style on someone else when you’re sporty? Can you love a modern classic look when you’re an edgy rocker gal? Can you appreciate well styled, fringe trends when you’re modern classic at heart?

For a quick flip through Audi’s fabulous style, look at her anniversary post. Her outfits are impressive and inspiring. Above all, I love that Audi has fun with fashion.

End of season sales are here and, as always, I like to hear your take on the last six months of retail fashion. I’ll go first — my rants:

• Dress lengths too short: And I’m regular height at 5 feet 6 inches. My tall clients have battled especially hard to find dresses that they can wear sans leggings. I love to wear leggings and dresses over skinny jeans but I also like to wear dresses on their own. All we’re asking for is a few extra inches!
• Skirt lengths too short: Same situation as the dresses.
• Skirt assortment  severely lacking: You read about that in my mid-season rant about skirt assortment.
• Sleeve assortment severely lacking: Too much cap, pouf and sleeveless. I do like these options but we need variety. Short sleeves and elbow sleeves are hard to find.
• Too much ruffle: I also like ruffles but this season was overkill.
• Too much tan: The mushroom-y colour palette was just as predicted, but it’s difficult to wear. Last year there was too much grey and this season there’s too much beige.

My raves:

• Excellent sandal assortment: Lots of great looking and comfortable sandals for a change.
• Fabulous handbag assortment: The best handbag season I’ve seen in years.
• Good denim assortment: I had no problem finding jeans, denim shirts, skirts, shorts and jackets for clients. That’s quite a retail accomplishment.

Over to you. What was your experience of Spring and Summer retail?

I know that the location of your footwear depends entirely on the space that you have at your disposal, but as far as possible try to make it easily accessible and close to a full length mirror. Even if your shoes are downstairs or away from your clothes, cross check your entire outfit before you head out. (Please get a full length mirror if you don’t already have one — I get anxious seeing people balance on top of bath tubs to see their outfits from top to toe).

I have the space to keep all my footwear together (I don’t have loads of shoes), so that’s my preference. I like seeing all shoe options when I get dressed in the morning as opposed to finishing off my outfit downstairs before I leave the house. Although I keep my footwear in one place, this isn’t essential. Some people need to swap out seasonal footwear while others like to keep the footwear that is in heavy rotation by the door while the rest lives elsewhere.

Once you’re got the location, there are several ways to organize the storage:

• Shoe racks: We place all our shoes and booties on rectangular shoe racks for maximum accessibility. My racks are positioned under hanging clothes in our walk-in wardrobe while Greg’s are in the coat closet downstairs. We don’t swap out seasonal footwear or keep more frequently worn shoes elsewhere.
• Built in shoe racks: You can also have permanent shoe racks built into parts of your home or closet.
• Closet floor: I keep mid-calf and knee-high boots in boot shapers on the closet floor.
• Over the door shoe organizer: This is a great closet floor space saving idea and holds ballet flats and sandals especially well.
• Stacking rack: I’ve seen this idea work well in a garage, kitchen or mud room.
• Hanging canvas shoe bag: Another great closet floor space saving idea. Sometimes you can fold knitwear in some of the larger cubby sections.
• Shoe cubby: This type of organization is an excellent idea if you have a wall to spare.
• Clear shoe boxes: I never understood the reason to keep shoes in boxes because they aren’t easily accessible. But the penny dropped a little while ago when I realized that boxes stack neatly when space is at a premium. So using limited space to stack shoe boxes is a better solution than creating untidy piles of shoes. Shoe boxes are also a nice way to keep shoes that don’t come out very often dust-free. Clear boxes make the most sense because you can see the shoes. Boxes that are the same size keep things neat. Shoe drawers are pricey but very practical because you pull out the drawer from the front instead of  needing to take out the box and lift off the lid.
• Under-bed shoe organizer: This is an ideal way to store off-season footwear when space is limited.

Effective footwear organization will prevent you from digging around for shoes that end up in several heaps around the house. It also keeps them looking nicer for longer. Finally, it will help to keep your footwear collection top of mind so that you actually wear your shoes and don’t waste money duplicating something that is lurking at the bottom of the pile.

How do you store footwear? Have I left anything out?