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!

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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!

 

 

 

 

The Tale of Six Pink Cardigans

Is doing your own wardrobe review difficult?  If you're me, yes, which is why this is hard to write.

Maybe it isn't hard for you - maybe you’re one of those enviable people who can just say ‘no, I've had you for long enough, you're tired and out of fashion; bye.’  If so, then this blog is for your amusement only.  

Oh, before we even start, I’m assuming that everything in your wardrobe is in your correct Seasonal Colours - if not, that's the first question you should ask. 

 
My wardrobe’s ruthlessly organised with trousers, jackets, skirts together and so on, neutrals on the left and then a rainbow progression from red through to violet.  This may seem to border on the obsessive but when you have many clothes it makes sense to keep them organised.

The problem with this is duplication - when I switched over to my Summer wardrobe last week it was embarrassing to find that I have no less than 28 cardigans!

  
Now, I can cope with having 28 cardigans in theory, but worryingly a closer look revealed that I had six pink cardigans!
 
I’ll share with you the painful process of whittling them down to an acceptable number.

The first question I ask myself is‘Did I wear it last year?’ Yes to everything except the shell pink one and the Kettlewell short cascade.

• Did I enjoy wearing it? Yes, except the classic round neck. 

• Is it still looking good? They're all fine except the round neck, a bit flat, and the shocking pink looks a little tired. The round neck was new last season, a cheap £10 bargain - maybe not such a bargain after all?

• How many items in my wardrobe does it go with?  The shell pink goes with nearly everything, as does the coral wrap, the shocking pink goes with three things and the ugly sister is the classic round neck!

• Lastly, do I love it? I do love the silly waterfall sleeves on the shocking pink, I'm really fond of the Kettlewell short cascade and I'm prepared to love the shell pink crop. The round neck thing is boring and I'm happy to let it go!

So there we are. Six pink cardigans reduced to five - was it worth the effort?

Well, I’ve gained the space of one cardigan and, remember, I’m now going to carry out the same exercise with the rest of my wardrobe.

The point is that there’s nothing wrong in having lots of clothes as long as they all work hard for you, you enjoy wearing them and they all look great on you.  Oh, they also need to fit and be in good condition!

It’s worth going through this process at least once every six months - even House of Colour Consultants have the odd sub-standard item that needs weeding out – do you?!

 

The Art of Communication

The G8 summit - a gathering of the most powerful people in the world.  Interestingly, whilst holding a position of authority, they also need to be able to communicate to people at all levels and to all cultures… at all times. 

 
Thanks to the power of the media, their most reliable form of communication is often visual.  Their words can be misquoted, misinterpreted or taken out of context but their clothing is, within reason, as they put it on that morning! 

So how interesting to see a whole article dedicated to the fact that all the men turned out tie-less for their photo call 

Am I old fashioned?  If I’m putting my trust in a leader, regardless of my personal or political opinions, ultimately I need to know that I can trust them; they demonstrate this by presenting a consistent appearance, whether formal or casual, a consistent level of quality, thought, attention to detail and style that tells me ‘they know what they’re talking about’….. If we perceive that someone knows what they are talking about in one area it is often assumed that this applies to many other areas as well.

George Osborne is quoted as responding to the request to ‘turn up in smart-casual wear’ as, “I have followed it to the letter: I got out my jacket and my blue shirt”!  Looking to the dictionary we have:

      Smart – fashionable, elegant, canny and shrewd in dealings with others

      Casual – occurring by chance, occasional, unpremeditated, relaxed, informal

 

So smart-casual is almost an oxymoron.  In simple terms, it’s absolutely possible to be smart and casual, but there is nothing unpremeditated about the way these leaders chose what to wear and how can something ‘occurring by chance and occasional’ also cover ‘fashionable and elegant’? 

Frequently people lose the ‘smart’ when they apply the casual, others keep the ‘smart’ but struggle to make it ‘casual’ – maybe fearing they’ll look like they’re there by chance and are not the world class leader on the global stage?

Removing some of the ‘armour’ is a great way to demonstrate to each other and the world that they are ‘open’ – a good premise for a summit meeting.  Maybe the formality we are familiar with and have come to expect (why else would going tie-less raise an eyebrow?) communicates immovable, entrenched thinking.  Relaxing the dress code communicates a friendly, relaxed get-together where they are open to finding compromises and solutions that work for everyone rather than a ‘bunch of businessmen on a jolly’?

Which is it for you?  And therein lies the problem, we each have our own interpretations, their visual communication needs to translate across borders and cultures to everyone…. Consistently!

The Red Lippy Project

Don a bright red lipstick during cervical screening awareness week 9-15 June 2013. The Red Lippy Project in association with The Eve Appeal is encouraging women to wear their favourite shade of red lipstick to create awareness for cervical screening.

At House of Colour we encourage our clients to wear lipstick as it makes our eyes sparkle and really enhances our natural colour as well as ensuring our communication is as good as it can be.  We love the transformation when clients, who have never tried lipstick before, wear an amazing shade once they know what colour is right for them, and we see the change in their confidence as the compliments flow in. Of course if you’ve had your colours analysed you will know the best shade for you, here are some of our best reds for each season:

L-R L 28 Cherry for Summers, L 499 Deep Red for Winters, L 12 Brick for Autumns and L 606 Geranium Red for Springs. All available to purchase from our webshop

Show off your House of Colour red lipstick this week and support The Red Lippy Project.

Red Lips Say:

“The initial idea was to create a platform that talked openly about the importance of cervical screenings and cervical cancer with a fun, bold, visual language that women and especially younger women can relate to.”

 

For more information visit their website 

www.theredlippyproject.com

The Power of Fear – why would you not want to?

There are many people who recognise in life that we are motivated by love or fear, in some ways this could be seen as being motivated towards or away from something.

I love the colour and style element of my job, it is so liberating to be able to wear colours that make me look healthy, vibrant, confident, young, awake, fresh and styles that flatter my figure, respecting my personality.

It’s been a bit of a joke amongst my friends who are clients – ‘better wear your right colours, Jackie’s coming’ or ‘if I’d known you were here I’d have worn something different’.

While I totally understand the comments, after all who doesn’t tidy up their home when visitors arrive, wear your best suit (outfit for an interview) – what a shame it is the fear of my reaction which has motivated the comment.

I’ve often said to clients ‘I’m not here to tell you what you can or can’t do, rather to show you what works, what flatters you and enhances your appearance.'  Knowing this, why would you not want to?