I recently went shopping with my beautiful client Karen to refresh her Spring and Summer wardrobe. As always, we had a ball. You’ll hear more about the pieces that we chose later this week, but first I’d like to share a little dressing room story.
Karen, who turned 75 this year, enjoys fashion enormously, and is very up to date with the current trends. Each season we spend a little time talking about how we’re going to refresh her look, and then go for it. I suggested to Karen that flared cropped jeans were top priority because she frequently wears jeans and these were a great way to update her look. She also enjoys wearing ankle strap footwear, which complement the flared cropped silhouette.
Karen had her doubts because the flared crops looked to her like regular jeans that were unstylishly too short. She also thought they would make her look shorter in the leg and larger in the thigh. But I thought she would like them, so to humour me Karen graciously agreed to give them a try.
We went to Banana Republic and tried their Resin Wash Crop Flares. Karen’s immediate reaction was cautious. They didn’t look as unstylish as she thought they would, but did I think they were too tight? I told her that I thought we actually needed to size down. “Really!” she said, and I went off to get the smaller size.
When Karen saw the fit of the smaller size she started warming to the new silhouette. We styled the crops with some striped tops and flat ankle strap sandals (the exact pieces are in the collection below). I saw Karen looking at herself in the mirror, smiling and saying “Well I’ll be darned. I like these jeans!”
A few more minutes and Karen’s eye had completely adjusted to the new-to-her silhouette. “I feel quite beautiful in these flared cropped jeans,” she said. “I can’t believe I love them.”
An adjustment period — which in this case was all of five minutes — is often all that it takes to go from doubting a look to liking it. This is why it’s important to try new-to-you silhouettes with an open mind. Throw those preconceived ideas out the window. The look you doubted a month ago can become a wardrobe workhorse, which I suspect is what is going to happen to Karen’s new flared crops.
