Summary of Consult w/Personal Stylist. Warning: Long

For those who are interested, I am posting a summary of my experience with a personal stylist. I met with one from another state while I was there visiting a friend. Therefore, Stylist (hereafter known as "S") requested that I send several pics of myself to her. I sent several views dressed in leggings & a tight tee, & several face shots. S also requested that I use Pinterest to pin clothing that I liked. She then got on my board to review those. We had hoped to do some shopping together, but because I was on a tight schedule, we could not get our schedules to mesh.

She prepared a booklet specific to me with lots of info, & also sent me many pics from the internet of examples of clothing.

Maybe it would help if I wrote about myself because some of her ideas for me were specific to my style & body type.

I am 5'1" & usually wear a size 8 or 10. I have little bit of a tummy. I discovered while looking at my pics that I also have some bootyliciousness going on. I had brown hair when younger but am now graying, so I have blonde highlights in my hair to kind of blend everything together. My eyes are green with goldish color around the iris--what I would call hazel green. I use to have an olive complexion, but it has lightened as I have aged.

Overall: My body type is hourglass, & she encouraged me to focus on emphasizing my curves. This may be the most difficult concept for me to wrap my head around. While I do not wear baggy clothing, highlighting my shape is not something I usually think to do. Because of my shape & height, my clothing, from head to toe, must have structure & shape.
My coloring is cool & soft, which I think is a summer, even though she didn't use that term. Many years ago, a color analysis showed that I was a winter. S said that it is common for our coloring to become softer as we age.

Tops/Dresses: Tops should be form-fitting & have some shape/structure to them. They should be no longer than the top of my hips. If I am going to wear something longer, it should end no further than 1-2 inches above my crotch (I agree, that's an unpleasant word). In all things, I should emphasize my waist w/belting, waist details, etc. I should look for tops, dresses, etc with open necklines, such as scoop, round, sweetheart, vee, etc. Necklaces should fall within the open neckline, with the neckline acting as a frame. Do not be afraid to tuck to visually elongate my legs (another thing I will have to work up to).

Jackets/Cardigans: Preferable that they be structured & shorter, as noted above. If there are buttons, should button at my empire or belt at waist. When layering, the layers should be light & all should have structure. Heavier jackets/coats should be no longer than mid-thigh, & again be belted or fitted at the waist.

Skirts: May be straight or A-line & be no longer than my knee.

Jeans/pants: Yes to skinnies, straight legs, ankle-length, & boot cuts; no to capris & crops. Skinny jeans should be sized down because the spandex warms & stretches with body temp, & will look odd & oversized if wearing usual size. Long pants should end where my toe meets my foot. To determine pocket placement on pants/jeans, I should grab my bottom with my hands (yes, you read that correctly), & where my palms are is where my pockets should be. Pockets should be mid-sized.

Shoes/boots: Must have shape. Flats are okay, but any height heel is preferable. The tops of booties should not be higher than the top of my ankle.

S gives the following guidelines when shopping:
Use the 4 F's:
Fit-items should fit your body & fit in with what you already own.
Flatter-items should flatter your figure & what you already own.
Function-Items must function for your lifestyle.
Feel good-items should make you feel good.

When shopping for one item in particular (not building an ensemble from scratch), you should be able to think of at least 3 outfits off the top of your head that it will go with. If not, do not spend the money.

I was pleased with the experience overall. It really helped me begin to focus. Some of her suggestions I already knew instinctively, but did not know the reasoning behind it. These are just S's opinions--I know not everyone will agree with them, but I think it's great to have as much info as possible as food for thought.

13 years ago

Kiwichik

Veteran

Thanks for posting this I have always wondered if a consultation would be worthwhile - you certainly got a lot of advice.

CocoLion

(website)

Thanks so much for sharing this! I am 5'3.5" and an hourglass as well so a lot of this is advice I can take to heart. However I do like unstructured, loose and flowy clothing that does not embrace showing my curves, maybe I should think about that in terms of figure flattery.

DonnaF

I'm trying to understand S's rule about pocket placement. . .Standing here I'm looking a bit odd as I grab my behind to figure out whether the pockets on these jeans are okay. . .My hands keep sliding. . .or maybe it's those pockets. . .good thing I rarely check the view from the back. . . .

Would you expand on the advice that shoes and boots must have shape? Does that mean that she doesn't advise slouchy boots for shorties? And did she have any advice on where to find short short booties? I'm a shortie who has been looking for such things, and they are hard to find!!!

Thanks for sharing! Many tips sound a lot like Angie's suggestions for dressing a petite hourglass. It would have been interesting to see how S translates current style offerings to fit your body and life.

lyn*

Thanks for sharing these tips - does S frown upon the pencil skirt? Or would those skirts fall under the "straight" category?

Caro in Oz

I agree these are great tips to give you some focus, it will be interesting to see which ones you find useful & which you don't.

rholmes27

Active Member

DonnaF-probably bad choice of words on my part. Put your hands on your behind like you we're going to grab it & that's where the pockets should be.

Also, as far as boots go, this is the best example I have: I was trying & trying to find riding boots, but every pair I tried on looked weird to me. S explained that the reason was because most riding boots have a shaft that is straight with no curve or fit to them. There are probably some out there, but I haven't found any yet. I think boots need to be more fitted to the shape of my leg. She did not give any opinion on slouchy boots, but once again, I've never thought they looked good on me. She sent me several pics of booties that might work-I just checked & unfortunately, I have already erased them. I actually purchased a pair from Nordstrom. Once again, when I actually started trying them on, the booties that were more than several inches above my ankle looked bizarre on me. I purchased a pair of Pikolino, & I remember she sent me pics of a pair of Sofft & Enzo Angiolini.

Lyn- she never addressed pencil skirts specifically. She may have meant for them to be included in the definition of "straight" but I'm not sure.

Anonymous

GREAT conversation. I am actually a little different from you. I am 5'10" and somewhat straight. But you have me wondering if I wouldn't really benefit from a personal stylist. How did you find her?

fashionista

Thanks for the advice.
Could I ask you to please expand your S's advice on flats and skinny jeans? I am a flats and skinny jeans wearer, so would love to hear something about it.

And yes I am also 5'1 and feel like your S that my tees should not end below my crotch when wearing jeans. Longer tops tend to shorten my already short figure. But longer tunics with leggings look ok since leggings tend to fit like glove and give a leaner leg look. So maybe this advice could help you more. However, this is my own advice from my wardrobe orphans and my shopping experiences.........

DonnaF, I could help you with this. Short people have short legs(I have them too) and hence short slouchy boots with skinnies tend to shorten legs even more. So I think we shorties should wear some boots that reaches upto the calf not shorter than that.

Thanks for all the advices rholmes27

Thank you so much for posting this, I've been really curious about your experience. It sounds like she gave you some really good general rules for figure flattery, which is a great starting point. What she said about our coloring changing as we age is so true. I've needed to completely reevaluate colors that I've always worn and thought looked good on me as well.

Janet

Wow, thanks for sharing all of that. Sounds thorough and quite useful. It will be interesting to see how it impacts your wardrobe and shopping habits in the long term.

I've never been able to figure out why certain pocket placements on jeans are so unflattering, but usually for me (a slightly pearish hourglass), it seems to be because some pockets are set too wide, which makes my behind look wider. I have some jeans on which I think the pockets sit lower than what your stylist is recommending, but I think they don't look bad. I'll have to try the "grab" technique in my jeans now, just out of curiosity!

shedev

Thank you so much for posting this.
I'm short with a similar shape and I feel you got a lot of good advice. I do think that if you have an item that you style one way, but you wear often and feel great than its good. I also wear all kinds of boots but often its black boots with black pants so that might make a difference.
The pocket placement is interesting. I'll have to see where they fall on some of my favorites.

Mary--I found her website online. I just googled something like "personal wardrobe consultant" or "personal stylist" & the town I wanted. She had a website with her philosophy, services she offered, & her credentials. She also had a link to clips of a local morning show where she had appeared & given styling tips.

Fashionista--I don't think she is terribly opposed to flats with skinny jeans. She just indicated that the preference would be to wear shoes with a heel. It follows her idea for me of visually elongating my legs. Also, I indicated that I feel shorter and dumpy when I wear flats, & of course she said, "don't wear them if you don't like how you look in them."

Hope this helps.

texstyle

Thanks for sharing - some good info, esp about pocket placement. I read a while back that higher, tighter pockets give the same "higher, tighter" effect to the back side when worn. I've found that to be so true. I really notice low riding pockets on people now. I've also read to enhance the rear view, pockets with flaps or other details can really help. This seems to also be true of my BR cargo pants. The only complaint with the flap pockets is that they sometimes make a longer top "ride" above them. The semi-tuck does wonders there.

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