Who knew colour could make such a difference!

I recently sat looking at my wardrobe......I seemed to have plenty to wear and yet not a lot at the same time.

I was going to a meeting, I needed something smart, yet casual to wear. I needed to feel good and confident.

So far it had taken me twenty minutes of trying on and I now had a heap of clothes on my bed and was running out of time!

Not a great start to my day.

Sound familiar???

I walk my talk and so there was nothing ( ok very little then.... ) in my wardrobe that I didn’t like and wear. My problem was fitting the separate pieces together to make great outfits.

That was it!  I’d had enough.  I’d heard about colour consultants who advise you on the best shades to wear to compliment your eye colour and skin tone. They suggest a palate of colours that work best for you and then, if you buy clothes within this range, everything goes with everything else. That sounded amazing to me.

I decided to take the plunge.

Firstly I had “my colours done”. The amazing Lisa Whiteside from House of Colour (based in Whitney in Oxfordshire, but House of Colour is at least country wide), put a white cloth over my shoulders...ok, I knew immediately I didn’t suit white! But this was just to give her a neutral base to work from.

She then draped swatches of differing shades of the same colour in turn against my face. Even I could see that some suited me a lot better than others. Some gave me dark shadows on my face while others made my eyes light up!

By the end she had decided which of the four seasons I was...Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter. I turned out to be a Spring.

Now armed with the best shades to suit me I felt more confident in what I was already, and would be, wearing.

Next, I invited the equally lovely and talented Jo Baldwin Trott, (an independent colour and style expert based in Oxfordshire and London) into my home for the next step.

She went through my wardrobe....those clothes that fitted beautifully into my palate stayed ( he agreed that I was definitely a Spring ), those that were my worst shades and colours to wear were put into bags to go to the charity shop. And those in the “maybe” pile as she called it, were gone through one by one and advice was given on how these could be best worn.

She also gave me a “style” notepad to write all of her ideas and advice in for the next time I went shopping.

The end result was a much leaner wardrobe with far fewer clothes that infact felt much fuller than it had before, as now everything really did go with everything else!

No more 20/80 rule for me!

They say that once you’ve had this done you can close your eyes, take a “bottom” and a “top” out of your wardrobe without looking at them and they will go together beautifully. They’re not lying.

I now have fewer clothes that look better with much less effort........I know what I look best in......I know what I need to buy when I go shopping.

It has saved me a fortune in time and money and I loved every minute of the whole experience!