Then, this summer, I saw her at our church's family camp. She came up to me and said, "I wanted to talk to you about the conference." Wanting to return the favor of her compliment, I thought perhaps she would be asking me for guidance about some topic on which I spoke. To my surprise, she helped me. She helped me in a way no one ever has before.
You see, I'm fashion blind. Being a tactile person, not a visual person, I choose clothes that are comfortable. If I find something I like, I will often buy two or more of those items in various colors because of how they feel. I usually didn't give much thought to "which color". For example, you've probably read here about my obsession with "Therashoes". I have three pair. None of them are fashionable AT.ALL. But, I have no more back pain and I've toned up considerably as a result of wearing them.
Along comes this lovely lady, Wonder Woman**, I'll call her. That morning at camp, she handed me a little notebook sheet of paper showing me my "season". She made a list of colors to wear and colors to avoid. Then, she handed me a book she had borrowed from the library to read at camp, but was finding she didn't have the time called How Not To Look Fat.. My littlest was still taking two naps a day, so I snatched the book and went to read during nap time.
Come to find out, I was wearing all the wrong colors and dressing to look both old and fat!!!! So, Wonder Woman straightened me out. I've purged all my "wrong colors" from my wardrobe. Having lost 18" has helped in that matter because I had to go get some new clothing that actually fit me. I am a thrift store shopper. I completely redid my wardrobe, including shoes, for about $300. That included Ann Taylor, Nine West, and a few other brand names were accessible to me, buying used. ALL of the things I bought were in my color palette. All the clothes fit the requirements, except many of them are now to big :-)!!!
So Wonder Woman, I thank you! You saved me from Fashion Blindness.
** Wonder Woman hosted a couples' party for our homeschool group. We played a "newly wed game" though most of us have been married more than a decade, some two. One of the questions for the women was, "Which would you rather be? A) Nancy Drew B) Wonder Woman C) Barbie?" The hostess said, "I can't believe this! After having my fifth baby, I bought a Wonder Woman costume on clearance after Halloween that year." She ran upstairs and donned the costume UNDER her real clothes. The room went wild when she not only revealed her answer, but her Wonder Woman costume under her clothes (complete with the red zip up boots.) And, she is nothing SHORT of Wonder Woman in so many ways. She's one of my heroes.
Oh, my goodness! I'm so flattered!! It took 2 paragraphs for me to figure out WHO you were talking about!! :-)
ReplyDeleteThis 'Wonder Woman' is reading this with mismatched pajamas and hideous argyle socks!
Neat! I would like to see that book - sounds like it might be fun to review.
ReplyDeleteI also had the fun (spendy, but fun) task of re-buying my entire wardrobe a couple of years ago. It is so much easier to put together a well-designed wardrobe when you can plan things to work together -- which makes me think that even when you are not buying everything at once (because of weight loss, house burning down, etc.) it would be a good idea for most women on a clothes budget to sit down and make a long-term clothes-buying plan, so that as you replace old items you replace them with things that work well together.
Sounds great! I bought a book a couple years ago called It's So You!: Fitting Fashion to Your Life. It was a big wake up call for me. I used to shop the same way. I'd find something I liked and buy 3 different colors off the rack (usually the colors they had were black, red, and white). After reading the book, and looking in the mirror, I realized that those colors really didn't look all that good on me. Shouldn't have been such a surprise, I tended to wear only a few things over and over that did look good, and none of them were....black, red, or white.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have the need to change my entire wardrobe over all at once so I made a photocopy of my color chart and from then on I only bought items in colors on that chart. Now, it's second nature. I don't even consider buying something else. I know some people would say I'm being too idealistic. But, I know myself, the few times I have purchased something in a color that "wasn't for me" I ended up wearing it only once or twice.
Sounds like Wonder woman was awesome! It's so nice to have friends willing to take that step forward and offer advise!