Liz has been a friend and a client for long time over the years we have been on shopping trips together and bought high street, designer and vintage. She has always loved vintage but was unsure how to wear her favourite pieces she has collected over the years so we spent a morning sorting through items in her wardrobe and creating outfits for every occasion. Here is what she said about our appointment:
Liz Hollis
My wardrobe was full of pieces that I loved and didn’t want to throw out – but simply didn’t know how to style them. Karen asked me to pull all of them out and put them together with other pieces in my wardrobe. Out came several vintage print dresses, a couple of full skirts, a denim jacket and a vintage evening jacket.
Karen set to styling them into wearable outfits and the way she mixed and matched special occasion glitter with more casual denim and sandals was a revelation that has totally changed the way I now dress.
The main sticking point in my wardrobe has always been my penchant for glittery, glitzy evening wear and jewellery – for example a blue sparkly jacket and lots of diamante and necklaces, earrings. Anything vintage and sparkly and I just can’t resist buying it. However, they didn’t seem much use for every day wear and most of the time I actually wore something much more casual such as a denim skirt or jeans.
The new learning point from the styling session with Karen was that I can mix something like a sparkly pair of heels in with my jeans or dress down a glittery special occasion frock with a denim jacket and well-worn wedge sandals.
It also works in the opposite direction in that I might be wearing old jeans but I can add a touch of glamour and dress them up by wearing a diamante necklace or some high heels. I’ve since noticed that just adding a sparkly necklace to a casual outfit, makes you look like you’ve made an effort to dress up for an event. It’s a cheap and easy trick – and it really, really works.
Karen put together several outfits for me and took some pictures so I could remember how to recreate the look later myself. But more than this, I also learnt some tips which will help me style my own outfits in the future. The session was fantastic.
I’ve been wearing far more of my clothes ever since – simply dressing up or dressing down whatever I am wearing. My wardrobe is working much harder and getting ready has never been so easy.
50’s brocade skirt with DVF top and top shop shoes.
Same skirt with denim jacket.
50’s jacket with denim skirt,
It was great fun helping Liz to find new ways to make vintage work for her and I was fabulous to see her enjoying her clothes again.
