Improvability Blog

How to avoid a shopping nightmare

Your December calendar has close to rearing its ugly head and there they are, those festive nightmare events peering out at you accusingly – the office party, the school carol concert, Christmas Day with the in-laws, New Year’s Eve company dinner.

Heaven help you! You need something to wear!

For one brief moment common sense and you just aren’t on the same planet because you take a cursory look in your wardrobe… Be honest! You knew already that you were NOT going to find anything in THERE!

As the realisation dawns upon you that, once again, you are going to have to buy something new, you feel sick and a recurring nightmare looms in the darkness of your mind…

As you approach the shopping mall, already full to overflowing with yellow-eyed women as hell-bent as yourself on finding something to wear in as short a time as possible, you grit your teeth. You’ve planned a hit and run campaign and brace yourself for battle but find your hysteria-fuelled progress continually impeded by dithering men who amble about nonchalantly, waiting for their womenfolk to do the hard work of Christmas shopping, and who just insist on getting in your way. Couldn’t you just…?

And then what do you find? Every shop bursting at the seams with clothes, accessories, shoes, make-up, etc. in black, black, indigo, black, black, dark blue, and more black!

But even if the shops were to present you with a myriad of colours to choose from, how the heck are you expected to find something to wear for the office Christmas party from that lot! There’s just so many clothes and so little time…

And how, by Thor’s exceedingly red beard, are you to even begin to know which ones will actually suit you anyway? It’s not exactly printed on your birth certificate, is it?

Life is just too short to faff around stumbling from shop to shop, sorting through piles of junk, getting steadily more weary and and more despondent by the minute because you have no idea whether you’re going to look good in anything you buy. And let’s face it, you’ll probably end up parting with your hard-earned pennies in sheer the-last-bus-leaves-in-five-minutes desperation only to find that you can’t stand the dratted thing when you get it home and then you’ll go even further down the tubes because you’ve spent so much valuable time, energy and money on a pile of s…., erm, rubbish. Guilt is a terrible thing.

You need to know exactly what suits you and what doesn’t

So before you even plan your assault on the nearest shops, you need to know exactly what suits you (and what doesn’t) because, then, you’ll be able walk straight past all the colours that do nothing for you and you’ll be able to spend your immensly valuable time, energy and money only on the ones that do.

You need a wallet of colour fabric swatches in your handbag or pocket, filled only with the colours that are going to make you look gorgeous all the time. Even if you already know the colours that suit your skin tone, the brain cannot retain shades, tones, tints or hues of colour so having the wallet with you as a reminder will make shopping so much less of a torment.

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH WALLET IS FOR YOU?

Here is a quick guide to help you choose your best from the 4 seasons.

Bear in mind that it will take a qualified professional image consultant a good couple of hours to determine all the nuances of your seasonal colouring and to give you personalised information about your best neutrals, best accent colours, best colours for hair, jewellery, make-up and clothes so what follows is an extremely simplified method to try, using 3 simple tests:

a) Have you got warm or cool skin tones?

Try comparing how you look in a gold fabric vs. a silver fabric. Hold these under your chin, close to your face and look at your face in a mirror. I know! I know! Terribly scary stuff, especially as you might look as though you’re auditioning for a part in Star Trek, but try your level best not to laugh too much and decide which YOU look best in.

This isn’t about whether you prefer gold to silver; this is about whether we can see YOU before we see the gold or silver. If you still can’t work this out, ask an honest-but-kind friend to give you their opinion

• Springs and Autumns usually look better in gold, so you will probably have a honey or golden look to your skin tone. You will always look good in warm-toned colours but your face will take on a ghastly grey pallor when you wear cool-toned colours so my advice is – don’t!
• Summers and Winters usually look better in silver, so you will probably have a blue or rose pink look to your skin tone. You will always look good in cool-toned colours but your face will take on a yukky yellow tinge when you wear warm-toned colours so my advice is – don’t!

b) Which of these colours do you look your best in?

Don’t think about what you already have in your wardrobe when you’re doing this. Be honest. What do you LOOK GOOD in? It isn’t just about which colours you like, although you will probably be drawn towards colours that make you look good as well. If in doubt, get your kind friend to give you their opinion:

Spring	Golden brown, peachy or coral pink, camel, golden yellow, aqua, cornflower blue
Summer	Rose brown, rose pink, soft grey, lavender, raspberry, dusty blue
Autumn	Dark brown, orange, camel, mustard yellow, moss green, teal
Winter	Black, Post Office red, charcoal grey, shocking pink, royal blue

c) Take a look at the wallets themselves

Check out the seasonal colour fabric wallets and the seasonal colour fabic fans that are for sale on our website and see which one of the 4 seasons you are drawn to. If you have discovered, for instance, that:

You prefer the Summer wallet, and

You and your friend agree that you look better in silver than gold, and

You rather like yourself in soft greys, lavenders and soft blues

Then my guess is that you will be very happy with a Summer wallet.

Some useful colour fabric swatch links

Ladies’ seasonal colour fabric fans, containing 30 fabric swatches. Choose from Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter.

Ladies’ seasonal card wallets, containing 30 fabric swatches. Choose from Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter.

Ladies’ tonal fans, containing 45 colours. Choose from Deep, Light, Cool, Warm. Bright or Soft / muted.

Ladies’ safe tonal fans, containing 18 safe colours. Choose from Deep, Light, Cool, Warm. Bright or Soft / muted.

Men’s seasonal wallets, containing 28 fabric swatches including shirt and suit fabrics. Choose from Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter.

What does it take to become an image consultant?

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become an image consultant, and dashed the idea because you don’t have the skills?

Have you ever wondered if you could become an image consultant, and convinced yourself that you can’t?

If any of the above is you, read on…

If you are thinking about becoming an image, colour, style consultant, you need to browse through some image consultant resources I have put together.

What does it take?

Written by me (Kim Bolsover) with over 27 years’ experience of running my own image business in the UK, ’What does it take?’ answers all your questions and gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what running an image consultancy is really all about. Find out what it takes to become an image consultant…

We have also put together a website dedicated to the question “What does it take to become an image consultant?“. Browse through the website content where you will find lots of questions answered, everything you need to know about becoming an image consultant! …and if you want to know more about our image consultant training options, here are a few places to visit…

Face-to-Face Training Courses

Personalised face-to-face image consultant training courses in small groups.

Customised Tailored Training

Customised image consultant training & consultancy to meet your business needs.

Training as an Image Consultant

Read the most frequently asked image consultant training questions. Read our answers to your image consultant training questions.