The First Step in a Wardrobe Journey

Photo: Me, Brenda and fellow friend and diva, Rox!

I am always suprised when women don't share my passion for style and fashion! But alas, some people don't know their princess seams from their empire waists! As a plus size woman, I also know this is the reality for many of us. We have been told that we are not deserving of stylish, well made clothing. We have bought into the myth that we are not worthy of feeling great in what we wear and to not expect to wear anything we absolutely love...until we lose weight. That infuriates me and quite honestly, I don't buy into it at all. I have a closet full of size 22 clothes that I absolutely love and I want every woman - no matter what size - to feel the same way. As I've said earlier in this blog - life is too short to wear ugly clothes!

That said, I have spent the last two days with my dear friend Brenda helping her both clean her closet out to make room for new clothes, and also in doing some shopping. Brenda is an incredible woman; she is a cancer survivor, mother, wife, author, stand up comic and national keynote speaker. Accomplished and sucessful. And yet, she is without clothes that she feels great in. I'm trying to help her change that and over the last two days, we made incredible progress.

There was an impetus for this. Brenda has a photo shoot for a publication that requested very certain looks for her. Ok. Easy enough. But she has also lost some weight and has nothing that fits. Also easy enough. And finally, she had to cleanout an incredible amount of clothing to make room for some new pieces and the challenge here is to find her some looks that will transition with her as she continues to lose, and to also provide her with some looks that are stylish and deliberate, as well as comfortable and easy to wear. Brenda told me how she has always done alot of desperation shopping and has ended up with loads of clothing that doesn't work for for her. I told her we were going to organize her to a place where she would never have to do that again. Where she would have a really clear idea of what she had in her closet and what her needs will be in the future.

I will be posting this story and Brenda's journey here. Watch for more to come soon!