Your own best stylist

I had a dream that Trinny and Susannah turned up on my doorstep. "Your friends want you to stop making those awful home sewn outfits and go out and buy yourself some decent kit."

Last night I switched on the TV : "Trinny and Susannah are coming to NZ! Win a makeover wardrobe!" I turned it off. That's just too freaky.

All those stylists and wardrobe planning books are great and I love them. But really, I totally and sincerely believe the best person to dress me is myself.

My outfit today. I can guarantee no stylist in the world would put me in a sausage dog skirt, but it just feels sooooo me. (top, Vogue 8451, skirt puchased from the Nelson markets)




Yes, I have been reading an awful lot of wardrobe planning books - and you know what? They all flog the same message. Read one, you've read 'em all. Of course, there are slight variations, and sometimes it takes just the right exercise at just the right time to actually learn from what they all keep saying.



How my heart leapt when I spied the mother of all wardrobe planning books at the St Vincent de Paul in Kingsland. I am almost embarassed to admit that I not only remember when this book was THE book to own and even remember the thrill of getting "my colours" done Every wardrobe planning book since then has copied its formula : your colours, a capsule wardrobe, your signature style, silhouettes to flatter your body shape, editing your wardrobe, using accesories etc. Carole Jackson, I hope you made a killing.

Now one fact I did not know, but was fascinated by when reading this book, is how the whole season thing first came about. Artist Johannes Itten from the Bauhaus movement noticed that his students painted their pictures in colours that they themselves looked best in. We have a natural tendency to chose out and be attracted to those colours that we look best in! That just seems so right to me.

I am almost finished BWOF 05-2009- 104. Lots of details, lots and lots. I love the shirring, didn't quite enjoy the welt pockets, flat felled seams, collar on stand or 13 button holes so much. It's already got big thumbs down from DH. I've tried to reassure him that all BWOF looks weird to begin with. "Not weird, nurse like."



Oh dear, I hope he comes to like a woman in uniform.



Meantime, this will now have to wait to be finished until when we come back from holiday. And then I think I'll accessorize it with a name badge, a fob watch and white sneakers.