Episode 176: Finding Your Personal Style (Deep Dive)

This week, we’re sharing a deep dive on our experience cleaning out and curating our own closets. We’re also sharing how we got color consults what our best colors are. 

Plus, we’re sharing tips for finding a style that felt right for us.

You can find the podcast posts archive here.

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And, if you’re looking for a specific code you heard on the podcast, you can see a full list on this page!

Show Notes:

Read The Curated Closet and check out The Curated Closet Workbook.

Check out Emma’s blog post: 3 Things I Learned from The Curated Closet

We got our color consults from createdcolorful.com

Emma’s Color: Light Summer (pale colors like lavender and cool tones)

Elsie’s Color: Deep Autumn (browns and plum)

Tips for Finding Your Style and Feeling Good:

Elsie:

-Look at the clothing, makeup, and styles you still love from OLD photos and you will find things that feel classic to you.

– If you have clothing that you wear by default that makes you feel bad about yourself, let it go.

-Create a mood board for your wardrobe.

Emma:

-Have high-quality basics that fit you well and that you will wear a lot.

-Your clothes should reflect how gorgeous you are.

-If you love something, buy it in a few colors.

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Episode 176 Transcript:

Emma: You’re listening to The beautiful Mess Podcast, your cozy comfort listen. This week we’re sharing a deep dive into our experience, of cleaning out and curating our own closets. We’re sharing how we got color consults and learn when our best colors are, and we’re sharing tips for how we found a style that felt right for us.

Elsie: Yeah, a style deep dive. I am excited to do this episode, the color consult part is new, and then the curated closet part. I feel like we’ve been talking about that since like episode one, but it really is such a big part of what I think helped me create a closet that like where you really wear your stuff. Like the most important thing, you really wear it, right? 

Emma: Same. That is always the thing that I tell friends if they’re like, I’m trying to work on my personal style. Not that anyone’s asking me for fashion advice, but I am always like, oh, I read this book, it has a workbook. You can do one or the other or both, you don’t have to have read the book to enjoy the workbook. People always ask that too, and Curated Closet is awesome. 

Elsie: Yeah. Well, the thing I’ve learned from my mom era is that even when you are like, I don’t do fashion blogging, I don’t consider myself a fashion person. I don’t really like shopping that much. I don’t really care. You still wear clothes every day and you still need to feel good about yourself every day and it still matters. I kind of don’t see a time in life when it doesn’t matter at all. Because it affects, at least for me, how I feel, how comfortable I feel, and I don’t know how I present myself in public and just everything like that. So I think that it’s a great topic for kind of anyone and I had so much fun. The consult was definitely like a new experience. First, let’s talk about the Curated Closet a little bit. So for anyone who doesn’t know or has never heard of this. We love this book called The Curated Closet, and we specifically recommend the Curated Closet workbook, which we will link in our show notes. It’s just like a great resource if maybe you’ve graduated college or maybe you’ve become a mom, or something’s happened to where your life has really changed and you feel like you’re in between, you don’t know what to do, so you’re wearing the same thing over and over, what’s in your closet doesn’t really match the way you’re living anymore. This is the person that this book is really made for, and it happens to all of us multiple times in our life. For me, I’ve always felt like because of our history of blogging and being in pictures a lot and stuff, I’ve always felt very comfortable getting dressed up for photos. I know how I wanna look in photos. I know how to do my makeup, photos, hair, and everything. Being in photos is easy for me. But finding like an everyday style that isn’t just pajamas has always been very challenging for me and I am very all or nothing. So for me, I usually focus on everyday clothes. Yeah, like mom uniform type of thing. And then it also helped me learn what I’m wearing the biggest percentage. She has all these exercises in the book like, what do you wear most days? What do you wear once in a while? And I realized that when I first started, the majority of my closet was sort of like blog clothes. Where we don’t really go to blog events as much as we used to, but things you would wear in public at a blog thing, just kind of crazy clothes. And then the stuff we would wear in pictures, which is kind of crazy clothes, and then stuff that we wear in our everyday life, which is slightly less crazy clothes. And yeah, for me I realized that I need to spend more on things that I’m gonna wear a hundred times, like the things I wear all the time and I need to spend less on so many outfits that I have worn like twice. 

Emma: Yeah. And I actually wrote a blog post a while ago and we’ll link it in the show notes, but it’s called three things I learned from The Curated Closet. And for me, that blog post is kind of like a quick overview synopsis of my biggest takeaways from it. So if you’re interested in that, check it out. Before I read the book and then did the workbook, she has like a lot of challenges in there that you can do. Before I did that, I felt like I had a lot of my closet that I was air quotes, saving like I never wore it, but I liked all of it. I just didn’t ever wear it cuz it didn’t actually fit my real life, it kind of fit this like fantasy life or this past life, cuz we used to like work out of an office together and we had a little team and then eventually we started working from home. And I’ve worked from home now for a long time, like eight or nine years and the type of work I do is a mix of computer work. So I’m sitting at a computer like a lot of people, but also a lot of cooking in the kitchen and getting down low to take photos and crafting and getting down low to take photos. And then also since I became a mom again, a lot of getting down low pick up my son or different things like that, so a lot of, I don’t wanna wear yoga pants every single day. That doesn’t feel like my style or comfortable to me. I mean, it’s comfortable, but I mean, it doesn’t make me feel put together. For some people it might, for me, it doesn’t, but I realized I had a lot of clothes that just didn’t, I needed something that was more, I don’t know if fitness or athletic is the right word, but things that I could move in a lot more than I really had realized, so that kind of thing. And then I also grew up, I feel like in high school, you’ll probably remember we had a really tight budget, obviously like everyone does in high school because you like work at the Dollar Tree, but I had a lot of clothes that were like things I kind of cobbled together from the thrift store. So they were mostly pretty wild, and that was fun, but I don’t feel like I ever learned how to shop for like really good basics that fit me well. And that’s like probably the number one thing that I learned in the curated closet I was wearing a lot of clothes that the fit wasn’t right, I needed to get them tailored. Or I need to spend more and get something that fits me better because maybe I bought something off of a clearance rack and it didn’t quite fit me, but the price was right. And then I ended up not wearing it a lot cause it didn’t feel great in it. And so it’s like, okay, you either need to get this tailored or you need to donate it and go buy something that fits you well, so that kind of thing. And so ever since then, every single thing in my closet I wear and I love, and I feel like I have tons, I feel like I have no deficit of outfits, which feels so good, but I also feel like I can get ready in like five minutes if I need to. And I never felt that way before. I felt like I didn’t feel very put together, I felt like most of my closet was stuff I was saving, quote unquote, for another time and that time never came. And I also felt like it actually took me longer to get ready and I didn’t even feel as put together because I just didn’t know what went together. And so now I have set uniforms basically. And I also wear a lot of jumpsuits because that’s an easy one.

Elsie: Yeah, I definitely have another clean-out coming in my future but the thing that I’ve learned the most from the past, I’ve done it a couple of times, and then sometimes it’s like you do it and then a few years go by and you need to do it again, at least that’s how I am. One of my coping behaviors in the early pandemic was online shopping, so I think I’ve probably said that before, but it was, and I just like collected a lot of clothes that I still haven’t worn. So I feel like now, it’s my job to figure out what works from this unhealthy shopping habit that I had for a moment.

Emma: Hey, it happens to us all. I cannot tell you how many things I thought while I was breastfeeding. So, no shame man. No shame. 

Elsie: Yeah. To clarify, I’m not ashamed of it, but I feel really bad. Like I don’t wanna waste this stuff. So I wanna figure it out now. What will I really wear? And then also what can I pass on to a friend? Or I probably won’t do an online sale, I would definitely donate. We might do an estate sale when we move from this home. Anyways, yeah, I just kind of have to sort out all of that. But anyway, the thing I learned in the past from my cleanouts is that I kind of always go back to the same style. No matter what I think I want or no matter what I am attracted to that I see other people wearing or what’s in style or whatever, I always go back to the same type of look over and over again and I always have. So I feel like I know now and I definitely got this from doing all the mini workbook sections of The Curated Closet. I know now what my core style is and I just have to stay close to that and that for me is the best way to shop successfully. 

Emma: The only thing I was gonna say, we were talking about buying stuff randomly, during the pandemic and during breastfeeding, because you’re up at 4:00 AM and all that. Generally, though, I would say after doing the curated closet and the workbook and over the years, I actually shop a lot less than I used to, I just tend to spend a little more. I have like jeans that I’ve been wearing now for like seven, eight years because they’ve lasted me that long and they fit me, I mean I obviously don’t wear ’em while I was pregnant. There was certainly a time where they didn’t fit. But generally, I have a lot of things now that it’s like I’ve had this a long time and yeah, it was kind of pricey when I bought it, but now I’m seeing the benefits of buying things that were a little bit higher quality and fit me better. And I can say like, yeah, it’s been years now since I did the community closet and I actually shop a lot less, but I do tend to spend more. And so I think that I’m really happy with that change it makes me feel like I’m acquiring less stuff. I’m not cycling through things because I just thought it was a good price, but it wasn’t actually something that worked well for me. And I feel like the things that I’m bringing into my house and bringing into my life and spending my money on are staying with me much longer, and they’re getting a lot more use and that makes me really happy.

Elsie: Yeah, that’s the goal. That is the ultimate goal. I think buying things that you know you’re gonna wear for years is the best possible way to shop. So I definitely recommend The Curated Closet to anyone who hasn’t done it. And I think it’s just such a good process I can’t wait to do my next cleanout again. 

Emma: Yeah, moving is such a good time for that. So I’m excited for you, it’s so much fun. 

Elsie: I still also, I should mention, I still do the Marie Condo thing too, where you take everything out and put it in one big pile and try everything on, and then put it back in only after you’ve tried it on. I think that that’s a really good method. I think there’s just something to it, to getting it physically out of your closet that like it also kind of forces you. For people like me, it forces me to not get distracted and be like, I’ll finish this another day. Trying on clothes is kind of boring, and if you get them all outta your closet, then you kind of have to get them back in, something about it works really well. 

Emma: Yeah, I almost feel like it helps you get rid of things that you maybe needed to because it’s like you literally already took it out of your closet like it’s now sitting on your bed or sitting on the floor, and so now you have to physically put it back in. So it’s like you’re really making a decision to keep it. Whereas if you don’t actually take it outta your closet, you just walk around your closet and decide if you wanna keep things or not. It’s like there’s no real, it’s almost like more effort to get rid of something. So if you’re on the fence, if you’re like, I really haven’t worn this in a year but it’s cute, then it’s I’ll just leave it hanging. It’s already hanging here. Whereas if it’s like sitting on the floor or sitting on your bed, it’s like, oh, I haven’t worn this in a year and I can’t think of the next time I will wear it. Maybe I should give this to a friend or sell it or donate it, whatever it may be.

Elsie: Yes. Okay, so next up we did Color consults with Created Colorful is the name of the company. So I heard about Created Colorful One Day on, you know I like to do the Instagram Q&A’s once in a while and I did one where someone was like, what season are you? And I was like, I don’t know, but I think I’m either an autumn or a winter is what I would guess, but I’m not sure. How do you know? And someone DMed me and said that they did a consult with created colorful and that it changed their life and I booked one immediately. That’s the recommendation, right? Like it changed my life. I think she specifically said even my husband is getting his own now, which I was like, oh, that’s interesting. I don’t think I could get my husband to do this because of all the selfie selfies you’ll, you’ll hear about it in a minute. There’s a large number of selfies. I was like, I want something that’s gonna change my life. And so I went on their website and they say that they will help you look better in your everyday clothes. They pick colors that look good on you in your everyday life when you’re not wearing makeup. So I was like sold. So I signed up for it and I thought the experience was so great. So I’ll explain a little bit about how it works. So first, you fill out a questionnaire and then they ask you for a certain number of selfies. The selfies are supposed to be like, they have specifications. They have a little video that shows you how to take them, but you’re like facing a window. They end up telling me it’s not really good to have a white background. And you hold up different colors of fabric or you can wear different colors of fabric. So it’s pretty much just like your face, your hair pulled back, no makeup, and they just wanna look at you wearing different colors. So they give you all the colors and the first set I probably did like. 20 or maybe 20 to 30 pictures. And then on the second set, they ask you for more specific colors because they’re trying to like narrow down what works and what doesn’t work. And then I guess if you didn’t do a good job, then you have to do a third set. We both had to do third sets, right? 

Emma: Yep, sure did. 

Elsie: But yeah, I was like, oh, there’s no way I’m gonna have to do a third set and I did. So don’t feel bad if you do. So I did all of those selfies. There were so many I felt like I could see on my phone like a difference. Did you feel like you could kind of tell some of them were standing out as like really good and really bad? When you like look at the collage of all of them together on your phone. 

Emma: Yeah, and once again, my jumpsuits came in very handy because I literally would just like hold all 10 of my jumpsuits up to my face, and that was like most of my selfies. I had a few other sweaters and different things that I held up. I had a sneaking suspicion for a few years now that lavender is kind of my color, which is weird because I do love lavender, but I’ve never thought of purple as my favorite color or a color that I gravitate towards, and lavender’s lovely. But until it even came back with the squiggly eighties style, it really wasn’t even something that was on my radar, totally. But I’ve always noticed when I wear lavender nail polish, I really like it against my skin and then I have a kind of lavender jumpsuit and this kind of lavender sweater and I’ve always thought I’d just look really good in them, even though I’m like, again, lavender I’ve never thought of it as like my color. So anyway, I could kind of see like from all the selfies in the folder, I was like, yeah, that one kind of looks like the best, which was my sneaking suspicion. And I was like, what is this gonna mean for my color? So, yeah. 

Elsie: Yeah, I could too. And it’s really interesting when you look at your selfies altogether, like on your camera roll view, how much your skin tones change just by wearing different colors, which I didn’t really know was possible. I didn’t understand it at all before doing this exercise, so it was very interesting. So yeah, for my result, I was expecting to get fall or winter and there are three different versions of each one. There’s like light, medium, and dark I think for each one. So that’s even six different options. What were you expecting to get? 

Emma: Probably the exact opposite of what I got, which is funny.

Elsie: Ooh. What were you expecting? 

Emma: I was open to whatever, but I guess I was hoping for something kind of fall. I like fall colors because I like fall time, It’s my favorite season, as far as the vibes. I was kind of hoping, I guess, for that, but again, I had the sneaking suspicion that lavender was kind of my color, which is not a fall color, obviously. And low and behold, after I did my three rounds of selfies, my color is light summer. Which is the way that they described it, lavender is definitely like the color in there. And then the way they described it is it’s a lot of colors that are cool tones so not really warm tones ever. So even if you’re wearing brown, it’s like a cool tone brown and then nothing super harsh. So like instead of black, I would look better in charcoal. And then it’s also a lot of colors that start with the word pale. So like pale yellow, pale pink, pale purple, which is lavender. So, which is funny cuz I don’t really think of myself as a pastel person. Again, I don’t dislike them or anything, I feel like when I see clothes I gravitate toward bold colors. Probably a lot of people do because it’s like what stands out to your eye? But those aren’t really the things that look great with my skin. And although I wear makeup most days, I don’t really wear super full-coverage makeup. I wear kind of lighter everyday makeup is how I would describe it. So I do think gravitating more towards the colors that suit me and my natural colors makes more sense and is just gonna highlight my features, which you kind of hit on this. But that was one thing that really sold me because Elsie got into this and she was like, you should do it. And I was like, I don’t know, We’ll see. But I liked their website, or maybe it was on Instagram that I saw this, but they talked about how to find your right colors, I don’t think they used the word right. The colors for you are more about highlighting just like your natural assets, your eyes, your skin, your hair, even if you dye your hair, like it’s about highlighting you and showing off who you really are and what you really look like as opposed to hiding it or covering it up or dressing for this fantasy look, that isn’t actually how you look. It’s just how a model and a magazine look and you wanna look like her. 

Elsie: I definitely have that problem. When online shopping, I’ve always been very influenced by the models and how the models look, and I still even now that I know what my colors are, and still constantly am gravitating towards outfits that are shot on very dark-skinned black women because I just like how they look. I just like it, it just looks good. Yeah, but if it’s a pastel then it is gonna look bad on me and now I know that. Okay, so I was expecting to get fall or winter and I thought fall because I just knew like earth tones or I have a lot of earth tones in my closet. I would say my closet is mostly earth tones. So I felt like that does make sense because it’s what I’m comfortable wearing and feel good in. But in winter I have kind of pale skin and I feel a lot of the celebrity examples in the autumn have darker skin or are more like a JLo type of person. And I didn’t really relate to that, so I thought maybe it was winter also because I really like wearing black and I was convinced that black is one of my hottest colors, which was my biggest shock. Black is on my do not wear list, as in it’s not good and I’m so confused. I still kind of don’t believe it, even though I accept that it’s true.

Emma: Well because it’s cooler. Right? So it’s like you’re supposed to wear warmer things, so you should wear a dark, dark brown. 

Elsie: They were like wearing black but with a different color with it. I just love all black, but truthfully, my children look really good. One of our daughters wears all-black outfits all the time, and she looks really good in them, and I should have known that. I don’t have the same color zone as my kids. So anyways, so I got deep autumn, which I was shocked because the examples when you look up the celebrities, it’s like Eva Mendez, Julia Roberts, I just was like, I thought they were odder to me than I am. So I was very surprised. But overall, it makes sense because the majority of my closet does fit within that spectrum. And so I do think I was already sort of like knowing what looked bad and good. I already knew pastels look bad on me because I’m kind of the same as my mom and she told me that about herself and it’s true and it’s true for me too. Yeah, I kind of already knew that. And I’ve always had a thing with spring shopping my whole life where I just feel like nothing looks good on me in the spring and then in the fall time, I feel like everything looks good on me. And now I understand it’s not just because of sweaters versus tank tops, it’s because of the freaking colors, duh. So now I know that.

Emma: I also just loved that we got basically opposite and we’re sisters and I think in some ways we do look alike, but in other ways, I get it like our skin is very different. If I tried to wear Elsie’s Foundation, it would not look right. We have different skin tones.

Elsie: We’ve always known we have different skin types and like different undertones because Emma has more of a tendency to look red. And I have more of a tendency to look yellow, I think in pictures.

Emma: Yeah. You have like our mom’s skin and I have our dad’s skin. 

Elsie: Yeah, but other than that, I think like structurally we look the same, but we have completely different colors. So some people either think we look nothing alike or, people have actually like confused us before like people have come up to me and been like, “hi Emma.” So we do, I know we do look alike, but she has blue eyes, and I have brown eyes. She’s always had light hair except for that one time when you were wearing your Elsie costume for like three months. 

Emma: Yeah, and I was like, this looks terrible on me. 

Elsie: Anyway, I have had blonde hair before too, sort of, and it did look terrible, objectively bad. Okay, I had a couple of colors in my report that they encouraged me to wear that I wouldn’t have picked out before. Like I’ve been buying more things in this sort of plum color and I don’t know why I just kind of didn’t care about that color. But now that I look for it, I see it all the time and it’s an easy color to find and it works for me. And then I’ve been buying browner, that’s not really new or hard. So yeah, I feel like I’m definitely gonna be able to make my everyday clothes more flattering. I don’t wear makeup every day and I’m not going to. So this feels very helpful. And I would say life-changing. It was definitely worth it, I can’t remember how much it cost, but it was like a hundred-something. It was definitely worth it for me and I would definitely recommend it to a friend. 

Emma: Yeah, and it also is just every interaction with them, whether they were asking for more selfies or when they sent my results, they’re so sweet. I felt beautiful every time I open one of their emails cuz they’re just like really encouraging and so I definitely do think recommending it to a friend. You don’t have to worry that it’s gonna be this negative experience cuz I just can pretty much guarantee it won’t be, it’ll definitely leave them feeling beautiful. Which they are, even if they have different colors than they thought, which is what happened to me. And I also in my report, so the two things I really wanna share is one, they had like a bonus color for me, they were like, we noticed that this char truce, which it’s this like lime green jumpsuit I have, they’re like, that is not really in the light summer spectrum, but it looks really good on you. So just so you know, go for it with that one. And if you ever have a wild card thing, and I liked that they were like, Hey, you don’t have to fit into this box every single time. If you see something and it is exciting to you and you feel good in it, maybe it works. It’s not like everybody fits in a box all the time, so I really liked that. And then the email also had a lot of tips because you might be thinking, oh, are they telling me to like throw away everything in my closet that doesn’t fit the colors? That sounds expensive, and it’s like, yeah, that would be expensive potentially. That sounds terrible. But no, they actually had a lot of tips for what to do when you’re wearing a color that’s maybe not so great for your skin and eyes, but you love it and you want to wear it, or it’s a sweater that’s special to you. It’s maybe your mother gave it to you or it’s vintage from your grandma. You just wanna wear it, it’s important to you. The tips are things to consider wearing like a scarf on your neck or a headband or a hat or earrings that maybe are a more flattering color for you. So things around your face are gonna be a little bit more flattering. And then also, if you just love color but it doesn’t look great on you, consider wearing it on the bottom. So, skirts, pants, shoes, things like that, tights, you know, you could go boulder down there because it’s right by your face. There are a lot more tips than that, I’m just kind of highlighting a couple. But I just really liked that it didn’t feel like, here are your colors and you have to fit in this box now, and if you wear anything outside of it, it’s gonna look bad, like it really wasn’t like that at all. It actually felt very freeing. It felt more like I was given direction and I liked that. 

Elsie: Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that because yeah, I did wanna say I know a certain part of our audience right now, they’re thinking I don’t wanna do this because I don’t wanna be told what I can’t wear and that is an important note, is that I still think that black is one of my oddest colors and I still like and it is on my do not wear list, but I like do not care. It’s fine. I think that I just realize that like that’s a color that I’m gonna wear when I’m wearing a lot of makeup and like it’s more of a dressing up, going out thing for me. And with my everyday clothes, my sweatpants, sweatsuit, whatever, like T-shirts.Yeah, t-shirts that’s a good one. Pajamas, like the stuff that you always wear with no makeup and you just wanna feel good, I probably wouldn’t pick it up again for those. It definitely doesn’t mean that you can’t wear those colors. And also I’m like gonna get past all nails ’cause it’s Easter and that’s fine, I don’t care. You don’t have to care about every little thing.

Emma: No, it’s more if you want, I don’t know. If you just know more about what might look good on you. So one thing I do from time to time is love thrifting. We’ve talked about thrifting many times on the show, and for me, thrifting is just kind of for fun. I do try to only buy things that I’m gonna wear or use. A lot of what I buy lately is like things for Oscar’s fairy garden, like little ceramics or necklaces that I’m gonna take apart for my jewelry obsession, my necklace-making hobby. But I do also like to buy sweaters and clothes and things. And now I just feel like I have even more direction. Cuz sometimes you see something and you’re like, oh, I think this would fit me, and I like the color, but I don’t know if it looks great on me. And I feel like now I’ve just been given like a little permission slip of you can leave that behind for like the deep fall girls, cuz that’s not you. Check-in on the blue lavender and you know all that. And if you want to wear something that’s not your color, go for it, it’s no big deal. Here are some tips. That’s kind of the vibe of this whole thing. But I like being creative inside of a box. I like being given permission to let go of something. So that’s how I view this and for me, it feels freeing and kind of fun. And I also just like, I don’t know, sending in the selfies and it’s almost like doing an online quiz in a way. It’s just fun. Who doesn’t like to do that now and again? 

Elsie: So have you done any shopping or any cleaning out since you got your results back? 

Emma: I haven’t done much cleaning out because I don’t feel like I have tons of stuff that I’m like, oh, I definitely gotta get rid of it. I have one jumpsuit that’s like basically kind of a burnt orange. So you know how big Bud, they’re smalls, but they’re slightly different sizes. So I was like, all right, this one already was a little bit bigger on me, so I was like, I either need to get it tailored and now that I realize it’s really not my color, I’m like, maybe I will see if someone who’s more of a fall.

Elsie: I’ll trade you. Actually, I might already have it. I’ll have to check my closet, but I will trade you cuz I already started making a pile for you and it has my hot pink jumpsuit in it. 

Emma: Yeah, we can trade cuz this is like a terracotta red, rusty red. 

Elsie: Yes, I love the hot pink jumpsuit. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. But when I put it on, I don’t love it now I know why, I understand, it makes sense. It doesn’t make sense how you can have something that you love that much and then you put it on your body and you’re like, but no. Yeah. I feel like this was like a missing piece for us that I’m so glad we have now. So, yeah, I’m making you a little pile, it’s not that big cuz I really didn’t have a lot of pastels in my closet, but I had a few and I will bring them with me when I come to visit next week. And yeah, we can do a little trade I love it. Let’s do it. Okay, and then for the future, I feel like my biggest change is that like I am going to buy like 100% of my everyday basic clothes, like my mom uniform-type stuff. I’m gonna buy all of my colors because I feel I should because of school drop-off type of situations. I don’t wear makeup or care at all, like at all. I care less than the least. So this is a good way for me to look my best considering those terms. 

Emma: Yeah, same. If I’m spending a good amount of money, so like, basically if it’s not thrifted then I’m probably gonna stick more with my color palettes always in the future. The one exception is, I am sure I will wear some kind of pumpkin or halloweeny thing in the fall from time to time and I don’t care. I love it and I don’t care if it doesn’t look great with my skin, don’t matter to me, it’s Halloween. 

Elsie: Yeah, I support that. I think that that’s good. If I was told I couldn’t wear pumpkin orange, someone would have hell to pay. You can’t take that away from me so you’re handling it pretty well. 

Emma: I’m gonna need a refund because I love pumpkin

Elsie: Yeah, now we’re moving on to a section where we’re gonna each do three tips about finding your style, feeling good, and Yeah, if we haven’t made this clear enough already, it’s coming from the perspective of anyone can do this and everyone should feel good in their clothes. It’s not like a fashion, fashion perspective because we don’t have that. But I do love fashion. I have an appreciation for it. I wouldn’t consider myself a fashion person, though. 

Emma: I think if it is like food, everybody eats and probably everybody has to cook some, even if you hate cooking you probably have to do something. So it’s sort of the like, well what do you cook every day? Like what’s your everyday cooking versus what if you went to a Michelin star restaurant, I’m sure that you could still appreciate that food and it doesn’t mean that you have to cook it in your own home because frankly, you don’t have the skills. I don’t and it’s okay to have all these different levels. I actually think that’s really fun and exciting and that’s how I view fashion. I love fashion. It is so cool. Anyway, different levels of fashion are awesome, that’s all I was trying to say. 

Elsie: So here are our tips. My first one is to look at the clothing, makeup, and styles that you still love from your old photos. Look at photos from yourself, like through the years, all your different ages and phases, and find the things that still feel classic to you because chances are those are things that really work well for you. And also I just think something from a picture of me 10 years ago that I would still wear now, that means something. Do you know what I mean? That means something about like me and something about the clothing and the style, it can’t just be like a trend. It’s like it’s impossible, it’s great. 

Emma: My first tip is to have high-quality basics that fit you well and that you will wear a lot. So no matter your budget, it doesn’t matter. If you’re like, my budget for jeans is $50 or $300, whatever means high quality to you, just something that’s gonna last. And to me, the most important thing is that it fits you well. And getting things tailored is actually a lot cheaper than I thought. I think if you had agreed to get your whole closet done, that would obviously be pretty pricey. But to get a few basics to just fit you perfectly usually really isn’t as much as you might think if you’ve never done it. So find someone in your area who does tailoring, it’s not something that only exists in New York City. I swear you can find someone and get it to fit your body. You’re gonna feel really good in it.

Elsie: it’s extremely worth it. One time I did a whole bag of stuff and it was like a hundred-something. It’s not unaffordable and there are so many pieces that they just need a little tweak for it to be something you would really wear. So when you’re doing your clean out, you can have the pile where it’s like straight to the alterations and then you can have the donate and the keep in all of that too. I think it’s definitely worth it for sure. Okay, my next tip is if you have clothing that you wear by default that makes you feel bad about yourself, let it go. Donate it, put it in a bag, and get it out of your house. I’ve had this many times in my life, it’s like getting into a habit of just like when you get dressed fast, you just wear the same three things or whatever. And it might not even be things you like, but if you notice that there’s something that when you’re wearing it, you don’t wanna run into people or when you’re wearing it, you don’t wanna be in photos, then that’s a thing that I would encourage replacing and permanently deleting from your wardrobe. Because if you don’t have to, why would you wanna have something that made you feel bad? 

Emma: Yep, and my next tip is actually kind of along those lines, and I don’t know if it’s a tip so much as a pep talk, but I just wanna say, you are gorgeous. Exactly the way you are, exactly the size you are, exactly the age you are. So your wardrobe, your clothes, and your makeup, if you wear makeup, should reflect how gorgeous you are. So you don’t need to shy away from clothes cuz you think, oh, if I was a different size or if I was taller, I would wear that. Or a lot that I hear now is friends will be like, I’m too old to wear X, Y, Z, which we’re like in our late thirties or early forties, you’re not,

Elsie: I know they don’t even know how old is yet. 

Emma: Yeah, you don’t even know. And I don’t know, I look back now at like early twenties Emma and I wish that she would’ve just like embraced herself more because I was so cute and I try to think about that. I’m like, Hey, sixties, Emma is gonna be saying that about you right now. So embrace it, you are cute, you are hot, and you are gorgeous. Wear stuff that makes you feel that way because it’s true. 

Elsie: Good pep talk, Emma. That was really nice. My next one is, so I have a little mood board for everything in my whole life including clothing. I think it really helps. If you have trouble wandering from your style, like that’s my problem is if I just see something that’s cute, or you see something that looks cute on someone else, I don’t know. I have a problem, just like getting attracted to my personal deterrent is fun, bright clothing and I will seriously wear it once or twice. Like I just don’t wear clothing like that over and over, over the way I do other things. So I have to keep myself focused away from it. And it’s not like I can’t ever wear it, but I’m trying to not, definitely trying not to spend a lot on clothing like that anymore. Anyway, so I have my little mood board and it’s just like pictures of outfits I like, like people from Pinterest, just a little collage and keep it on your phone and remind yourself when you’re not sure about a purchase or whatever. I think it’s a good way to be like, oh yeah, this is how I’m trying to dress, this is how I want to dress.

Emma: Yep, I love that. It’s like a cheat sheet. Okay. And my third tip is if you love something, buy it in a few colors that work for you. But if you love something, this is something that we stole from our grandma and I kind of used to think she was kind of dorky for doing this, and now I a hundred percent do it and I get it and she was right. 

Elsie: I never thought that, I always thought she was cool. Her closet I’m gonna describe them. One colored, kind of like a dress that Ms. Frizzle wears. One colored cotton shirt dress has a color and midline sleeves and it goes down below the knee and it has a matching belt. And she had that dress in like the whole rainbow. And then she had shoes, like pumps in the whole rainbow to match them. And I always thought it was the coolest thing about our grandma, it was her teacher uniform. Yeah, she was a teacher. And Emma is just like her.

Emma: But jumpsuits. That’s like the version. So yeah, if you love something, if you’re like, wow, this sweater fits me really well, or, oh, I always, you know, wear this pair of jeans, they fit me well. Well, if they have it in another wash maybe get that. Also, when something wears out, like a great pair of shoes and you can’t resell them, or a great pair of jeans, they’ve gotten too many holes, whatever, don’t feel like you have to change it up if you don’t want to. You can literally just replace it with the same thing again, no shame in that. So if you find something that’s working for you and you love it, embrace it. 

Elsie: That’s true. I think that that’s really good advice, Em. So many clothes do come in many different colors too, which is nice. 

Emma: Yeah, just slight variations and it’s not even so much. I do so much laundry having a toddler and I only have one kid. I don’t even know what people are doing with 2, 3, or 4 kids. 

Elsie: You don’t wanna know how much different it is with two kids. 

Emma: So sometimes it’s just having slightly different colors. You also could just buy the exact same color, just so you have a few, so you don’t feel like you have to do laundry every day because I get that too. Go for it, do what you need to do. 

Elsie: I love it. I hope this episode was helpful. We really, really feel passionate about this subject, fashion is for everyone. And if you read Curated Closet, if you do the workbook, if you do the Color consult, send us your experience and your results because we just wanna hear about it. It’s fun for us and we’re interested. So thank you so much for listening, and I guess I’m just going to pass the baton now to Nova for our famous segment, A Joke and a Fact with Nova. All right, I have Nova here, Nova this week. Do you have a joke for us or a fact?

Nova: A fact. 

Elsie: Okay. What’s the fact? 

Nova: Did you know that like in the sun, more than a million Earths could fit in it? 

Elsie: Really? Inside of the sun, more than a million? That sounds like a lot. Awesome fact. Thank you.