Not quite Angie yet - YouLookFab Forum

Didn't get a chance to share this with you guys until now, but last weekend I took a friend shopping. She's not the most confident dresser and since we've met she's asked me to help her out with advice several times.

We've done this once before, a few months ago. This time we again focused on thrift and secondhand, starting with a new consignment/resale place where she tried on a ton of stuff and found several pieces. Then we walked through the boutique next door - she tried on a cute wrap dress but the price was just too much for her. Then we headed to one of the local thrift chains and she found a couple more pieces (and I scored a cute mantel clock and a Pyrex loaf pan). In total I think she got 2 pairs of pants/jeans, and 6 tops.

She had read the NYT article on the Japanese organizer lady, and had earlier culled her closet using her 'does this bring me joy' mantra.

The interesting thing for me was helping someone with different taste than my own - she's got a sorta practical meets hippie/boho vibe going on and is a lot shorter and smaller than I am. We found a Desigual top with tons of pattern and colors at the first place which fit her great and she bought - it was way too frantic/ALGO for me but really suited her.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I managed to buy absolutely no clothes for myself while I was at it!

11 years ago

kellygirl

Veteran

That is so nice if you! How fun too.
I would worry that I would inflict my tastes on someone else but it sounds like you don't have that problem I remembe once going shopping with a friend of mine who had totally different taste than me and I ended up with a bunch of stuff from Rocawear (stuff that I would have never bought on my own.) DDs were looking through some old photos and said, "wow, you looked really different back then!"

milehighstyle (Linda)

It is really hard to help someone shop when you have very different tastes and body types. I applaud your success, Laura!

Anonymous

Way to go! You're a good friend and well done for helping her out

I'm squirming a little at Kellygirls comment about not inflicting our tastes as I used (note *used*) to have a friend who always tried to change how I dressed and if we went shopping she would totally monopolise our time too, so that I often never got a look in

Alassë

Great job, Laura!

Oh kudos for both helping your friend and resisting any wardrobe impulse shopping!

Firecracker (Sharan)

How fun! Sounds like you did a great job helping your friend find some clothes that she'll enjoy wearing. I love to shop with my friends and help them find things. My best friend outright asks me for personal shopping help, and I recently found some things online for her to consider for an upcoming event (she lives across the country from me). She ended up choosing her outfit from my selections, and I found it so gratifying!

crutcher

Good for you helping your friend...Sounds like you two have a good enough relationship until you can shop together in harmony...I could do what Firecracker said she did and suggest outfits for online shopping...IRT I would probably not be as successful...

Suz

(website)

Sounds like you did a great job helping your friend. It's really interesting shopping with someone who has a different body type or style preferences, I find. You learn to look at items in a very different way. I've taught myself simply to "look past" the colours or shapes that I know won't suit me, and I also tend to ignore or glaze over items that are transparently not within my style kingdom.

I haven't been shopping with a non-YLF friend for a long time, now that I think of it. I mean other than my daughter. There's a particular friend I used to shop with; she always did the picking, and typically picked things that were not right for me but would look amazing on her. I wonder how we would fare if we got to go shopping together again?

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

Re not imposing your style on others, that was a concern - I grabbed one black and white striped top for my friend to try on, which she was happy to do. But as soon as she had it on, we both said 'nope, not you' - it fit great but it was so obviously not her style. It would have looked really good on me!

I really enjoyed the experience, and getting to pick things for someone else with a different style.

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