Style me

For years now, I have been saying that I really need a stylist.

This became even more clear to me recently when a woman that I see from time to time here on post saw me and said, 'Wow...no yoga pants today?'  Yes.  I had actually worn jeans for a day, and yes, she went there :).  I started laughing, and I sheepishly said, 'Wow.  I guess you are right!'  She proceeded to say...'well, it's not like you have anywhere to go.'  She didn't mean any harm by it at all, but that definitely woke me up to my super boring mom wardrobe.  Yikes.

Thanks to thoughtfulness and coordination by my friend, Jennyjo, and for the willingness of my husband, my birthday gift was an afternoon with Chantal Hughes, a stylist from NYC.  She was giving a class to the cows (juniors) here at West Point, so after her class, she came over to our house to help me with a wardrobe cleanse.

The day before she came, I scrambled and at least tried to organize everything.  I have to admit, I was pretty anxious about having anyone look through my closet, let alone a person who can call herself a stylist.  Yikes.

Nonetheless, here was my closet before:

And here are the piles after the cleanse....

All the 'to go' clothes, just in more organized piles... (sorry for the night time pictures)

I would say that we got rid of at least half my closet.  We got rid of 22 sweaters, about 14 pairs of pants, most of my dresses, a big pile of maternity clothes, tops galore...on and on...

How did it feel?  Sort of scary...I feel like there isn't much left.  Then, when I think about it logically, not emotionally, I feel elated.  Those were clothes I rarely chose to wear.  Sure, I wore some pieces from time to time, but I don't need to be wearing things that don't flatter my body type, are out of date, etc.  It was very freeing.  I do feel daunted from time to time because I now really need lots of things to replenish/update my wardrobe, but I feel like I need to win the lottery to do so :)

Good thing we did this before this past weekend when we had the yard sale!  The clothes are no longer in the house.  Phew. Done.  No More.

More to come on how fabulous Chantal is, and what I learned...