Learning to Drive … at the next level

Earlier this year I got a new car, you know, the people carrying kind to make the school run that much more (un)bearable!

And I’ve been having fun learning to ‘play’ with some of the gadgets that are designed to make driving easier and safer.

I’ve long had access to using cruise control and find it quite useful on long motorway journeys or in speed controlled zones to help me keep within the speed limit.  But this is new - adaptive cruise control! 

With adaptive cruise control the computers in the car ensure that the gap between me and the vehicle in front is a ‘safe’ distance, which means if they slow down, so does my car, when they speed up, within the bounds of the original speed I set, so does my car …. And all I’ve done is make sure the steering is straight. 

Driving in the rush hour I realised that by ensuring my speed remains constant AND a safe gap ahead, I’m able to focus on the exceptions of the traffic, cars pulling out suddenly, traffic conditions, blind spots or bikes coming up suddenly in my rear view mirror.  Essentially, taking some of the stress out of what is a high energy requirement to drive.

It occurred to me that in the same way when you learn how to ‘drive’ your wardrobe with the right colours, the right styles, the right shapes for you then you can focus your attention on other things. 

If anything you choose from your wardrobe is going to work for you, then you need to ‘fine tune’ it for the audience or occasion and if you feel over or under dressed learn how to accessorise it up or down. 

Worst case scenario is that if you do turn up under or over dressed, at least you know you look good, you won’t feel out of place and you may be able to sneak into the cloakroom and adjust your accessories (fine tuning) to help you feel more appropriate. 

Learning to drive your wardrobe takes the effort out of the everyday, enabling you to focus on the exceptions.  

When we go on holiday we have 23 kilos of luggage allowance each but often end up taking 23 kilos between two of us for a week holiday; less stress at the airport, less space required in the car, more space for buying things when we’re away!   It doesn’t matter how much or how little I take on holiday I still manage to bring a certain amount back unworn but within Pareto’s 80:20 principle I ensure I wear at least 80% of what I take on holiday. 

I’m soon off again, me and my two boys, Dad follows later, each with 23 kg of luggage for 3 weeks – I’m half way through the packing process but would place a fairly safe bet on the fact that our luggage allowance will total about 30kg, including presents and the boys’ scooters so that we can go for walks without whinging kids saying ‘I’m tired…’! 

Learning how to ‘drive’ my wardrobe allows me to take the stress out of dressing so that I can use the other tools I’ve learnt to 'cruise' more comfortably!

7Y34PZQKA7NR

Perfume congruency

I’ve never been a person to like perfume!  You can but imagine my joy when I find myself trapped in a train carriage in a cloud of someone else’s choice of perfume!   I also have a strong reaction when I walk down the street and a ‘cloud of perfume’ walks past me with a person at its centre! 

However, I do recognise that a lot of people, women particularly, love perfume, it’s an important part of putting together an outfit and their perfume says something about who they are. 

That doesn’t take away from the fact that who I am, is somebody who ‘doesn’t like’ perfume. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the smell of freesias, I love the smell of lavender, I love the smell of trees in blossom, fresh cut grass but turn that into an artificial perfume and you turn me off.   So, what a delight to meet Virginie Daniau from Parfum Parfait , she talks about perfumes having colours and used my colour season and clothing personality as part of her consultation to help identify what perfume I might like.   

Over 15 years of expertise in the perfume industry has given her a nose for it!  The fascinating part about this is realising that at House of Colour we work with you to help ensure your visual communication is congruent with who you are and supports you in your professional and personal life.  In order to be ‘believable’, that your visual and verbal messages align.  It therefore makes absolute sense that the olfactory communication is also supporting these messages.   As with your clothing and accessories, your perfume needs to be a natural extension of you – so that people notice you, not your perfume!

So, I gave it a go, and while I’m still experimenting and adjusting to the change, I am really happy with the choice I made from the 3 short-listed options.  Interestingly, with 2 choices, 1 on each wrist, both my colleague and husband chose the same one as being more ‘me’! 

So it’s not that ‘I don’t like perfume’,  it’s just that I hadn’t yet found the one that works for me and therefore quite possibly, the perfume clouds walking down the street aren’t actually a natural extension of the person at the centre!