Birthday Present - Wardrobe Detox

After 365 days- it came again. My birthday that is. I’ve always had a complicated relationship with that day….but here it is again - another year. And with birthdays come presents. I LOVE presents, especially good ones. This year Mr. T got me an extra good pressie. A wardrobe detox. Ok, so it was after super thick hints on my end and some encouragement. But I have to say – he did all the research on his own. Checked and vetted several options – and finally hit the button – which means, he paid.

For those who don’t know- a wardrobe detox is when a well trained professional stylist sorts through all your clothes and stuff you hide in your closets and cleanses it. I.e throws or makes you put away all the - too small, it-might-fit-me-one-day clothes that in reality you know you’ll  never wear. E-V-E-R. And let’s face if you did fit into these clothes again, when, if, you loose all that weight – well then… two words: SPENDING SPREE!

Ok so I digress. For my wardrobe detox – Mr. T, hired Kristina from stylefig. (www.stylefig.com) Kristina’s Danish – Mr. T’s logic was as follows: the Scandinavian have good tastes, they build strong house and are generally attractive, hence Danish origin must be a plus.

Cutting my work day short, I meet Kristina at my house at 2pm. After some niceties and chitchat – we get working. First Kristina figures out my colors and gives me a chart with my best ones.  She asks to see some of my favorite clothes. I bring tons. We then run through a questionnaire to figure out my style.  I come out at as 80% simple 10% classic and 10% frilly. In simple language this means that I like clean cut, non-flashy clothes with a small shot of pizzazz.

Then the hard stuff begins. For nearly 4 hours, Kristina painstakingly takes out all my clothes – stashed across 3 closets around my house, and nicely creates a big pile of nearly a third of my clothes. These are the clothes that, well, I haven’t worn in years – or at least since I gained the weight that just doesn’t want to come off... This pile is soon to be known as the “to be thrown” aka TBT. I manage to salvage a few things from the TBT pile after Kristina agrees I can try them on first. I try them on. And after both of us agree they look alright, they’re spared. 



Backup Wardrobe in the Guest Room...Decimated 

Overall my wardrobe autopsy conclusion is that I have loads of cardigans, all the same type, different colors and some in the same color… just in case.  I have tons of basic Tees, and I’m ok for office clothes. But I do lack a couple of key pieces to really add that chic glamour spark to an outfit. Kristina also checks out my jewelry. She scribes a few selected items that I really need to pull it all together. She then sternly makes me promise that whenever I go shopping I obey some core rules: shop only for my body shape and colors, buy only things that make me feel fabulous and make sure they go with at least three things already in my wardrobe. 

And lastly we tackle my shoes. I think Kristina is horrified to discover I’m not a high-heel shoe girl and all my shoes need to be comfortable first.  This is a big struggle of mine. I’m pretty tall, so I don’t really need 4 inch heels. My ideal heel height is around 2” – but it’s so hard to find decent shoes of this heel height – that in some cases the shoe appearance does suffer. And most of my decent court shoes are hidden underneath my desk at work. The ones at home are not so awe-inspiring. Kristina jots some notes, and recommends some brands that are supposed to be comfy and trendy.

As a final touch Kristina puts together some super cool outfits from the stuff in my wardrobe – in a way I never would. And I love it. She organizes my wardrobe very neatly and somehow it now looks almost as nice as a store rack. She fixes a simple-glam outfit and I am all set for my casual birthday dinner.

I gladly throw in the recycling all the unloved clothes bar a few…. My wardrobe looks detoxed. My wardrobe looks fresh. My wardrobe looks stylish. I can finally flick through all my clothes. I have focus and discipline – and I know the handful of new stuff I need to get…

At dinner, I thank Mr. T for a lovely gift. Mr. T says he was amazed how we managed to spend so much time on clothes…and is stunned to discover a follow-up session is needed….but really it’s so worth while.  Well he has to agree.

Thank you Kristina – it was ace. And I look forward to our next personal shopping experience. Highly recommended.