Quote

Black Lives Matter

Tuesday 22 August 2017

7 Steps to Style Step 7 Your Values

As mentioned previously I am working through Imogen Lamport's 7 Steps to Style.
https://insideoutstyleblog.com/7-steps-to-style-system

I think of this as an online course, with Imogen as the tutor and a forum (via a private Facebook page) to talk to other course participants.
It does require quite a lot of work yourself, to use the materials and get the results.
There are downloadable materials, webinars as well as the online discussion, so multiple ways to gain and interpret the knowledge.

In Step 7 you look at the drivers you have when buying clothes and there are different categories with suggested words to rank in terms of imporance. I found this interesting as I've not come across this before.

Next there's quite a large section about Concious Shopping by Jill Chivers which is particularly useful for those who overshop, and looks at good and bad shopping approaches. Jill runs her own course for people who want to explore this further.

And the last section includes practical tips for shopping trips - what to wear and take with you, dealing with salepeople, shopping the sales etc.

In the drivers/values section I had the following areas:-

Economic - bargains, easy care, mix and match
Sensory - soft fabrics, loose fitting
Aesthetic - colourful, harmonious, textures
Exploratory - own touch, self designed/made

I am happy with my choices and can see how all 4 of these are drivers for me. it also explains why some things I tried in the past did not work.

For example;-
some garments which looked great but did not feel nice (certain types of polyester) - sensory,
a sewing friend who helped me fit both a jacket and blouse pattern to her fit preference which always made me feel constricted once I made the garments (they looked good and fitted well from a dressmaking perspective but I felt quite trapped) - also sensory.

The economic is clear in my love of capsules and sale shopping. I have bought a few things full price more recently, basics like classic work trousers etc.This is an area where I maybe need to be more willing to spend, especially on clothes for work.

The aesthetic slightly suprised me but I really like the colour, harmony and textures element form here and its actually really important to me.

The parts of exploratory I like, are having something different (not wildly so) but just not exactly the same, and both the thrift shopping and the sewing give me that. This is not my primary driver but definitely an important ingredient. I would be sad to wear all new pieces bought this season in the department store, where that might be joyous for others. I want new trousers from the department store (a classic basic that fits well but is a bit boring), a jacket I bought in a charity shop, overdyed and changed the buttons, a top I sewed myself, coloured shoes from the outlet last season and earrings I made myself or inherited from my grandmother. On those days I am happy.


No comments: