Personal Style

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Useful Links to Help You “Shop Your Closet”

Many of us are trying to pare down our wardrobes, shop less often, and add fewer pieces to our closets. However, we sometimes worry that in doing so, we might sacrifice style and not look as polished and put together as we’d like.

We often think we need to buy more in order to cultivate new looks and keep our style fresh.  While buying new pieces is one way to update our look, it’s not the only way.  There is a lot of possibility waiting to be unleashed inside our very own closets!  Today’s useful links post focuses on the practice of “shopping your closet” and how it can help us to save money, better use what we have, and amp up our style quotient.

Shop Your Closet

There is more possibility in your closet than you think!

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Success Leaves Clues – Lessons from Our Favorites

Last week, I explored the concept of shopping mistakes and what we can learn from them.  Today I’d like to look at another valuable way of learning about our wardrobes and ourselves.

We all have favorite clothes and shoes that we wear over and over again, but how many of us take the time to understand why these closet pieces receive so much play?  I believe that if we make the effort to determine common threads among our favorites, we’ll learn important lessons for how to shop smarter and create wardrobes that better meet our needs.

Lessons from wardrobe favorites

What can we learn from our wardrobe favorites?

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Useful Links for Determining Your Personal Style

Today I’m introducing a new feature that will appear each Friday on “Recovering Shopaholic.”  I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a very avid reader.  Not only do I subscribe to more blogs than I care to admit (I’m gradually paring down to the best ones, just like I’m doing with my clothes), I frequently click on article links posted on Facebook and Twitter.  I have a highly intricate bookmarking system in my internet browser for articles on a wide variety of topics, many of which relate to what is discussed on this blog.

I’ve decided to dedicate my Friday posts to sharing “useful links” with my readers. Each Friday, I’ll select a topic and share 5-7 related links from my vast article archives.  I’ll also include brief commentary for some of the links, and may even link to articles I’ve written (on other sites) from time to time.

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Answering My Own Questions

I’ve decided to start a new series of posts on the topic of personal style.  One of the reasons why compulsive shoppers buy too much relates to our effort to cultivate a look that works for us.  We look in the mirror and don’t like what we see, so we hit the mall to try to improve our appearance through new clothing, shoes, and accessories.  Unfortunately, this rarely works, as we typically have not done the necessary “pre-work” of defining the style statement we want to create.

Styling Client Questionnaire

In my work as a wardrobe consultant, I always asked my clients to complete a questionnaire before we met for a closet audit, styling session, or personal shopping trip.  Not only did this questionnaire help me to learn more about my client, it also assisted them in gaining clarity on their goals for our work together.  While my questionnaire was honed over time and revised based upon feedback from my clients, I never actually answered the questions myself!

Answering Style Questions

Two years later, I finally answered my own questionnaire!

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Dressing and Shopping for a Life in Flux

I’m currently going through a period of transition in my life.  My wardrobe consulting business is winding down and I’m not sure what’s next in terms of my career.  I’m also working to cultivate new hobbies and interests, which I hope will also lead to new connections and friendships.  At present, I don’t go out much and when I do, my outings are mostly quite casual in nature. The majority of my time is spent at home with my husband and two cats, and I spend many of my days in workout clothes and lounge wear.

Transition and Our Wardrobes

While all of this transition has been going on, I’ve also been working on paring down my oversize wardrobe to a more manageable level.  However, as I’m not sure what’s next for me in my life and what clothing I’ll need for my personal and professional activities, it’s been difficult to decide what to keep and what to purge from my closet.  Since I know many of you have experienced or are currently going through similar challenges, I decided to address the issue of dressing and shopping for a life in flux.

Dressing During Times of Transition Continue reading →