More Than Just a Number – Your Personal Style

By Judith Rasband, AICI CIM and Dani Slaugh, Conselle Affiliate

You can’t be a fake or phony and don’t have to create a facade or pretend to be someone you’re not. You’ve got to be yourself and project or reflect the “real you.” You may simply have to be yourself more consciously, purposefully, positively, and continuously than you have been in the past. A successful image is an invitation to become acquainted with the person inside. The person who knows their own style, the best clothing for their figure type, their favorite colors and how to wear them. This person knows how to dress to impress regardless of the trends, regardless of their age. Your personal style is unique to you! There is no one on earth exactly like you, so don’t allow others to categorize you or tell you that you are a number. Educating yourself on the power of appearance is invaluable.  We have listed some different personal style photos below and invite you to take a look….then take a moment to reflect on what your appearance is saying about you.

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One piece wonder! Which bathing suit would you choose?

By Judith Rasband, AICI CIM and Dani Slaugh, Conselle Affiliate

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Are You Giving Gifts Based on YOUR Personal Style?

By Judith Rasband, AICI CIM 

Are you giving gifts based on YOUR personal style?

All too often we select a gift according to our own personal style and preferences, our needs and wants, without giving serious consideration to those of the receiver.  Being no exception, I once gave my daughter a crocheted sweater vest one Christmas.  I absolutely loved it.  But it wasn’t until I questioned her as to why she hadn’t worn it that I discovered her true feelings about the gift.  “Gee Mom,” she wailed, “it’s not my fault we don’t have the same taste in clothes.” 

I had a good laugh as I remember a lavender floral print dress bedecked with ruffles and lace my father gave me for Christmas when I was a teen.  It was beautiful, but I couldn’t wear it.  It was too pretty, too “cutesy” for me.  I prefer more tailored, sportive clothing styles. 

Have you ever received a gift you didn’t like?  How did you respond? 

These memories bring me to the problem of guilt.  If the giver is a family member or a good friend, you may feel obligated to wear the clothes, regardless of how you look or feel in them.  They can present you in a way not in harmony with your body build, your values or personality traits.  That’s uncomfortable, too.  On the other hand, you may refuse to wear them, thus offend the giver, and feel doubly guilty yourself. 

Have you ever felt guilty for not liking a gift you received? Photo c/o raisedpath.com

To avoid these problems, you need to start early, to discover for yourself and then teach your family what you do like in clothes — what works for you, for your personal style, roles, and goals. 

Tomorrow we’ll address in greater detail how to teach your family what your personal preferences are and get the gift you need. 

Copyright Judith Rasband and Conselle L.C. 2009

Judith Rasband is the Image Expert and would love to work with you!  Visit www.conselle.com or call 801-224-1207 to learn more.

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Discover You Own Personal Style

By Judith Rasband, AICI CIM

Snoop shopping in our local malls, you can find classic clothes and sporty clothes, trendy clothes and snazzy clothes, leather jackets and sweat knit hoodies, tailored styles and cutesy styles.  We’ve got a lot to choose from, yet few are choosing.

Fashion books and experts continually advise us to discover, develop and stick to a personal style.  They point out that the most memorable, secure and successful people can be identified by a consistent style of dress and grooming.  This is generally true.  And next thing you know, they’re telling you what the latest “must have” is.

So how does one go about figuring out their own personal style?  Personal style is usually defined as the way we take an existing fashion or fad and make it uniquely personal.  It’s not just the clothes that count, it’s the way you wear them—your way.

Personal style is an acquired quality that develops from within.  As we observe, imitate, and learn from the styles of others, we edit those observations and ideas to fit our personal needs.  We, in essence, become a visual composite of many people and many styles, ultimately projecting a unique image of ourselves.

Discovering your personal style comes right down to the nitty-gritty of deciding what specific characteristics of dress and design you are most comfortable wearing most of the time–and feel you could wear for the rest of your life.  Personal style implies a consistency in the selection of lines, shapes, colors, patterns and textures.

The specific degrees of each of these details of dress communicate your personality traits and reflect your values, attitudes, interests and lifestyle as they project to self and others an image of the person within.  This is personal style.

Personal style may reflect a woman as daringly dramatic, daintily demure or a delightful blend in between;  as super sportive, radiantly romantic or a surprising and complementary combination of both;   as a traditionally classic conservative, a trendsetting free spirit, or a marvelous mix in between.

And again, if you think this applies to women only, think again.  A man’s personal style may project him as being macho or mellow, traditional or trendy, shabby or sharp.

For some, the discovery and decisions about dress come almost intuitively.  They seem to have an inherent sense of what feels and looks “right” for them.  For others, it takes conscious effort to become more aware, to study and to experiment.

Personal style is not something you are born with, can borrow or buy.  Regardless of how you acquire yours, it takes years of living, learning and experience to develop a style of your own.

And in the final analysis, I must admit that personal style is often more easily felt than explained.

Copyright Judith Rasband and Conselle L.C. 2009

Judith Rasband is the Image Expert and would love to help you discover your own personal style!  Visit www.conselle.com or call 801-224-1207 to learn more.

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Take Command Of Your Closet!

By Judith Rasband, AICI CIM

Closets are out of control these days—either by fault or default.

I “do” a lot of closets, all over the country, and I could write a book about people and the way we live, all based on what I see in the closets.  It’s fun and fascinating, but when standing before a closet for the first time—with doors wide open—I experience a moment of pure panic, thinking, “Oh help!  What am I going to do with this?”

Clothes are often hanging askew on their hangers, half on, half off, bunched up, inside-out, and upside-down.  Does that sound like a closet in your home?  If so, you’re not alone.  Looking that way, however, it’s hard to look forward to wearing what’s in the closet.  Add to that, we’re shortening the wear-life of the wardrobe and wasting our clothing dollars.

Sometimes I see a whole rack of drab, grayed, dull-looking clothes—faded denim, black, gray, or khaki tan, out of shape T-shirts, shirts with ring-around-the-collar, maybe one touch of color but that’s all—not because that’s all they can afford, but because that’s all they choose.  No wonder it’s no fun to get dressed in the morning.

Other times the whole rack is a jumble of chaotic color and pattern, nothing relating to anything.  I quickly learn that’s it’s a collection of years of the latest “must-haves”—whatever was “in” at one time or another.  If that sounds familiar, it’s no wonder you’re confused about what goes with what or how to create a style of your own.

Life’s too short, and our list of things to do is too long to allow our closets to control us—how we look, and as a result, how we think, how we feel, how we act or behave, and how other people react or respond to us.  Our clothes are always at work, for or against us, often without us realizing the effect.  It’s time to take control of the closet and make the contents work for the wearer.

Hanger photo c/o hangersandhangers.com

Now, about those hangers—there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wire hangers.  It’s when they are bent out of shape and rusting that I take issue.  You don’t have to buy expensive wooden hangers or fancy padded hangers.  You can buy new hangers from your local cleaners for about $2 a dozen.  To get retail-type plastic hangers, you’ll have to go to Modern Display in Salt Lake City.  Buy them by the box and shape up all the family clothes.

Button the second button on shirts and blouses.  Re-button shirts clean from the cleaners.  This allows the collar to lie open smoothly until you’re ready to wear it.

To save time and money and simplify your life, plan for clusters in your closet—one or more, depending on how many roles and goals you have or want to fill.  Gird up your loins and lose the idea that denim takes you anywhere you want to go.  You may go, but you may certainly look and feel like you don’t belong.  Maybe you feel fine and it’s everybody else who knows you look out of place—lacking respect for the occasion, the people, or the value of what is intended there.

An example of a trendy cluster of clothes. Photo c/o examiner.com

A cluster is simply a small group of clothes selected and coordinated for one specific person—for their lifestyle including their budget, where they go, and what they do;—for their personal style including personality, values, body build, and coloring.  You might have just one expanded cluster that meets all your needs.  You might choose instead, to have smaller clusters for durable attractive at-home wear, sharp looking about town clothes, and special occasion clothing be it dressy or sporty.

Start clustering in your closet, grouping together wearable clothes of similar weights, for similar occasions, and in colors that coordinate harmoniously.  What doesn’t work goes to someone else, to Deseret Industries, Savers, Salvation Army, or Good Will, or into the rag bag.

Doing a local AM820 Radio interview just last week, a listener called in to report on her cluster experience.  She was delighted to see how easy it was and how well it worked.  She’s taken command of her closet and is ready to tackle a new cluster from scratch.  It happened.  It works!  If you’d like to learn more, take a class.

Copyright Judith Rasband and Conselle L.C. 2009

Judith Rasband is the Image Expert and would love to help you take command of your closet!  Visit www.conselle.com or call 801-224-1207 to learn more.

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