Notes on Styling | 41 | A trip to Belfast to meet a client showed me how much writing here helps me too.
...and a little look inside a client's Style Design Journey, Session 1.
Hello my lovely reader,
It’s easy to assume I write here because I want to share my work and a more intuitive (albeit process-led) approach to putting our clothes together each day. And though that’s true. Another truth is writing here helps me too. It helps to get things down, things I am working through with creating this approach I call Style Design.
As I see it, Style Design is a way of doing things that combines both the practice of styling with a deeper understanding of what you want to feel in your clothes, matching you with a visual and a method of putting things together that you feel both excited by and connected too.
I am also on Substack to be inspired by lots of different views on fashion as well as to see lovely things people love, share & buy.
We are all learning and processing something.
So yes, it feels good to share it with you but in doing so it also helps me too ✩
New Beginnings with Style Design
I am writing this post on a short flight from Belfast > Bristol. I’ve just spent 2 days in Northern Ireland starting a Style Design Journey with a lovely new client. (I miss Ireland ♥).
When we decide to make any personal change, it takes courage to trust in the person we work with. It involves an opening up of our private world, that sacred spot, at our wardrobe doors, where so many thoughts and feelings are felt. And I really get that.
So, in the spirit of getting things out of my head and down on paper, here are some things in general terms that matter to me in beginning a Style Design Journey well.
Where the muddle you may feel at your wardrobe doors begins to slowly melt away as you have the support and guidance to bring together all parts of your style puzzle.
Starting with a Rail
It is hard to make real changes to how we see ourselves & our style simply because we don’t know where to start at our wardrobe doors.
The best place to begin is thinking through and taking out your Regulars, Nevers’ and How’s? (Wear all the time, never wear, don’t know how to wear). Taking things out and putting on a separate rail in this way, before you even begin to try things on can show up so many things. It can show for example how there is not one ‘directional feel’ in your wardrobe, but many. How the colour palette within your Nevers’ feels different to your Regulars.
The rail we end our session with (below), has the start of a new style story.
It has colours in common (here that’s lots of light tones).
It has a couple of wild card items we loved playing with (which we all need).
It has a mix of trousers, tops, jackets and knitwear that all felt genuinely good on.
It has a couple of Style Builders (items that feel really core to helping create lots of outfits, like the Houndstooth Blazer in tan and cream you can see here) and Style Creators (items that won’t be worn as much but when you put them on they help you create the look you love because they lean the outfit towards a certain feeling).
★ Now, I feel the need to say that not every rail I work on ends up with as good a selection as this. This is a strong starting point for this lovely lady. ★
Seeing Elements of YOU again
I am looking for that first moment you stand in front of your mirror with an outfit on that truly lights you up. This is what we want to capture the elements of. We want to identify the core parts of what gives you this feeling. The more looks we see that follow the pattern, this look followed, the more we can put words, ideas & elements of style against the outfits and this is the beginning of building a clear style picture to carry forward.
There are so many little parts to this but just some to get you thinking about your favourite looks:
♡ Look at Colour Palettes or Colour Direction in an outfit you really love. It could be how you combine colours rather than the colour itself.
♡ Look at Styling Details or Elements of Shape, things you might not have thought of before, even though you’ve worn this look and felt good in them. Do the looks you love have a sleeve length in common or a trouser cut or style just as 2 simple examples. Styling Details usually do relate to what feels good for your shape but it also has a resonance in the core 5 Style Elements that come from a deeper knowing of what you love to feel in your clothes.
This is just the beginning of playing with Styling Details we try. We do this much more on our Styling Boards later in the process - but learning from what you’ve already got is a super duper starting point and helps to build more self trust in the process.
♡ Look at Fit & Flow detail (is the overall aesthetic more fitted or has an oversized feel to it? Is it more fitted on one half? or maybe there’s an in-between balance I can help you see that does give us really valuable style insights about what you love to feel in an outfit.
♡ Look at Proportions and our soft guidelines around these (I use the term soft guidelines as I am not a fan of too many style rules and prefer guidelines that work in general terms in that you know outfits usually feel good when they do certain things). It’s also useful to know that creating a longer line on your bottom half is more visually pleasing on the eye over more length on the top half. If you approach putting on outfits knowing this, it usually changes what you see in the mirror and can help you see why certain things feel ‘off’. We will play with this a lot in our process, measure if you have a long waist, short waist or balanced waist all of which is a great starting point to identify some simple go-to guideline that gives you the best feeling of proportion and balance.
Proportion & Balance are my biggest go too’s. They make the biggest difference and bridge that connection between practical styling with deeper aesthetic feelings towards the things we wear.
♡ Look at general Body Shape for sure but we don’t fixate on it. Fit & Flow, Proportion, where we want lines to hit is much more important to have an understanding of when it comes to your body. When you analyse every body shape rule book they all come back to these simple things so it’s much more helpful to think about your body with some simple guidelines that can be followed or not depending on what you are want to feel on any given day.
♡ Think of items in hell yes, or hell no terms. If it’s not a ‘hell yes’ right off, why not?
- Is it that you just don’t know how to work with it? what to do with it? Let’s have a play to see..
- Does it suit your body shape? Where does it hit, what does it draw the eye too?
- Has it served it’s purpose/ is worn out and you are ready to let go?
Looking for those ‘North Stars’ Outfits
♡ In everything we try we are wanting to find those outfit ‘North Stars’ that just hit differently. I want to say a huge thanks to Doreen for allowing me to share our pictures. This was the outfit that got this smile ;-) These are two separate items she owned that had never been put together. The trousers are part of a suit. Playing with them we landed on this look. It’s not that this look is everything she wants and needs but it was the look that stirred strong feelings and helped us dig deeper.
♡ It had a looser fit and flow to the looks she first thought she loved.
♡ The words we use to describe the look is where a big part of the learning is - effortless, polished, soft, elegant.
♡ It is the beginning of seeing how your style is led by feeling something special and being able to identify what are the elements that have given you that feeling. One for Doreen here was mixing the flat shoes with these items and getting a feeling of polish and stylishness with no high heels involved.
♡It also helps us to reflect on the practical - lines, fit, flow, and proportion.
What I want Doreen to feel and see after Session 1
♢ What she already has in a new light.
♢ Realising there are combinations of outfits sitting in her current wardrobe that she had never considered that already give her the feeling she loves.
♢ Knowing what it’s time to let go of.
♢ Beginning to see you have the answers to your style within you. You just need a little creative play and guidance to open up this part of yourself again.
♢ Connecting to a real true confidence and feeling of excitement when we put something together that you already own. You see that you can trust yourself to play and to get there. You can get this feeling without having to buy anything new. It’s not about the new. It’s about knowing what you want to feel.
Style Design is ‘what we put with what’ that focuses on the feeling the look gives, because of the details and elements that make it up. I’ve spent a long time trying to articulate exactly how I want to describe Style Design and I play with it all the time. Some days I still get stuck. But when I’m with a new client, I just feel it. It is hard to put words to things sometimes but this place helps me do that and I’m very excited to share.
A huge thank you to my beautiful client Doreen for allowing me to share these photos.
Julie x
P.S. Great hangers. Categories created. All the Regulars go back into their new home with fresh feelings towards them.
Thank you for sharing this window into how you think and work! And for sharing me! I am honored.
Thank you for your wonderful work too! Love the creativity, the honesty and the fun! So happy to share your page x