MEAGHAN SMITH PERSONAL STYLIST

I’m on a mission to try and get to the bottom of one of life’s mysteries.  Why do some of us get two little snake bite like holes in the area near our belly button, in all of our t-shirts?   What causes it?  I’ve Googled it and it appears it’s a very common and frustrating, occurrence and there are lots of theories as to why it happens.

• the tee rubs against your belt buckle, or
• the car seat belt, or
• it’s eaten by moths, or
• it happens in the wash, or
• they’re caused by the friction of leaning against your kitchen bench top

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 I received an S.O.S text message from a girlfriend this morning.

“Help!!!  I bought a dress online.  Black chiffon with a ¾ sleeve with lace and just a sack on me.  I did all the measurements and it fits but it is the wrong style for me. I am ashamed to say that it was very expensive”

Immediately I called her because I knew the dress she was talking about was for a function she was going to tomorrow and I knew she had taken my advice and shopped online. So I felt some responsibility.  When I spoke to her she said she’d done everything I’d told her to do.

• Taken her measurements to make sure it would fit
• Enquired about the return policy
• Asked questions about the fit
• Checked how long delivery would take
• Made sure the dress was her style
• Asked herself whether she’d be able to wear it in different ways and therefore be able to wear it on several occasions

She did everything I told her to do, BUT it soon became apparent during our chat, that she had neglected to ask herself (possibly the biggest and most important question)

“Will this dress flatter my shape?”

When the dress arrived, promptly and conveniently to her doorstep and she excitedly tried it on, the answer was no.  The dress did not flatter her shape.  In fact it did the opposite.  It made her appear bigger and boobier, than she is.  She “looked like a sack of potatoes”.  The fact is, she actually has a very voluptuous, womanly figure that would look amazing dressed in the right style and fabric.  But a dress like the one she had purchased made her look completely shapeless. Her boobs were squashed, making them look larger than they are, her neck looked short and her face looked chubby.  Worse still was the dress was over $300. This is a lot of money for her. Like most of us, she can’t afford to make costly shopping mistakes.

She’d finally taken my advice and bought something online and it hadn’t worked out. Certainly I felt a little bit bad that I’d encouraged her to dabble in online shopping and on this occasion it hadn’t worked out, but I reminded her that the most important thing when shopping in stores, online and even in your own wardrobe, if you want to find something to wear that makes you look and feel great, is to wear something that flatters your particular body shape

Fortunately, after she emailed me a photo of herself wearing the dress, I was able to give her a few ideas, (with the use of some cleverly placed accessories and a suitably shaped jacket) as to how she could make the dress work for her so she could wear it tomorrow.  But I was very quick to remind her that if she didn’t want to continue to waste her money on bad buys, she needed to learn and understand the styles that suited her body shape best.  Then she needed to get into the habit of assessing every part of the garment, until it became second nature and she knew immediately as soon as she put something on whether it was right or wrong for her.  Otherwise, she was going to have a huge wardrobe full of clothes that cost her a lot of money and that didn’t make her feel good about herself.

Ask yourself, are the clothes in your wardrobe making you look like the voluptuous, curvaceous, attractive woman that you are or are they making you look like a frumpy, shapeless sack of potatoes?

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I’ve had this brilliant fuchsia Bettina Liano pant suit for 8, 10….maybe 12 years.  It’s been one of my favourite trusty items in my wardrobe where I’ve worn it to weddings, the races, dinners and Christmas parties.  It’s a very classic cut so although it’s years old, it’s still current.

When I first bought it I took it to my tailor and got him to alter it so that it fit me like a glove – so I know it flatters my shape. I’ve always felt great every time I put it on…until recently.

A little while ago I pulled it out and put it on to wear to a luncheon at the races and it felt all wrong.  I looked in the mirror and felt blah.  This was odd.  It always worked.  It was my fail safe item I reached for when I couldn’t decide on anything else. This time I had to take it off and put something else on.  I felt like I was over it.   I put this down to two things. Firstly, about a year ago when my jacket came back from the cleaners, two buttons were smashed and I had to replace them.  Despite searching endlessly for something that matched perfectly, I could never find something I really liked.  Secondly, I was bored with it.   It needed to be revamped, I just wasn’t sure how.

So I put it back in the wardrobe and there it stayed, rejected, waiting for me to come up with an inspired idea as to what I could do with it.

I searched…and researched…and researched and one day came across this….

…so I did this….

I really wanted round gold buttons like the photo but couldn’t find them. (Still searching!) These will do for now, until I come across the ones I really want.  When I was sewing these on, I wasn’t convinced it was what I was after, but as soon as I tried it on, I loved it. I felt like I had a new item of clothing, and I hadn’t spent a cent.

People are often surprised when I help them go through and clean out their wardrobe, that I don’t come up with an enormous expensive list of what they need to buy to have a half decent wardrobe.  Sometimes, once we’ve gotten rid of what doesn’t need to be there and we can see what’s left, we find some hidden little treasures that can be reinvented.  There are lot’s and lot’s of things you can do to make your wardrobe feel fresh and updated without buying a single piece of clothing.  Here are five things you can do right now.

• Pull all the dresses and skirts that you don’t regularly wear out of your wardrobe and consider whether they might work better on your shape and with your lifestyle, with a different hem length
• Soak all your whites overnight in NapiSan or similar to bring them back to white white, rather than grey white
• Try all your daggy jeans on and think about whether they’re making your legs look bigger than you are and if they would look more flattering if they were slimmer in the leg.  If so, take them off to a tailor (or do it yourself if you’re clever) and ask him to run them in down the leg
• Give your leather bags and shoes a clean and polish. (I often just use Mr Sheen)  Make sure you test a small patch before you do the whole item
• Buy a thick piece of velvet ribbon and wrap it around your waist and tie it in a bow with your blouses and dresses. Attach a vintage brooch.

**I wrote this back in 2011.  It’s now five years later and this suit is still alive and kicking.  I’m about to reinvent it yet again by having the pants cropped.

READ: “What’s Hiding In Your Wardrobe That Could Be Reinvented?” Here

Details of my personal styling services (Including prices) here

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