Improvability Blog

Why should you use men’s drapes even if you’re working primarily with women?

Let’s set the scene here.

If you have a starter drape set from us already, they are all block colours, all in the same mercerised cotton fabric which all feels exactly the same.

This was done deliberately, to cut down on the possibility of clients saying, “But it reflects against my face because it’s a glossy fabric…” and all those other wonderful insights that used to come up in consultations when we didn’t know any better.  Ah, halcyon days.

So, why not add a few interesting variables in texture and colour combinations to your collection?

Here are my 6 Top Tips:

1. Many ladies need to consider suit fabrics for their professional lives
2. Some of your style personalities will be so much happier in more formal attire.  These fabrics will help them experience the look for themselves right there and then
3. You need different textures to discuss and demonstrate in your style classes  - your kinaesthetic clients especially need to get their hands on these or they won’t ‘get’ what you’re on about!
4. You’ll be able to show why some of your ladies should never wear stripes, and why stripes look fabulous on others (the same goes for checks, flecks, herringbones and florals, of course)
5. The myriad of colour combinations on one piece of fabric can help you explain how to use colour mixing effectively
6. When you’re showing your client her best darkest neutrals, you will have oh so many ‘real’ and different options to drape her in

Here’s a full list of the current range; we’ve just added 8 new drapes and resurrected two old faithfuls.

You can order any or all of these from our wholesale catalogue. 
No minimum order. 
Delivery to virtually anywhere in the world.

We’ve just added 8 new drapes to our men’s range, and resurrected two old faithfuls too.

You can order any or all of these from our wholesale catalogue.

If you’re just looking to add new colours to the ones you may already have purchased from us, here’s a list of the 8 brand-new ones:

We’ve also re-introduced two old faithfuls:

If you’ve never had a men’s drape set in your collection before, the full set now comprises 28 drapes:

Here today, but not forever

As always, we have no control over the consistent supply of these drapes because, unlike the other 171 block-colour drapes we provide, we don’t manufacture the men’s drapes ourselves.  

So if you’re like me, and like to collect all the men’s drapes you possibly can, then I can only suggest you do what I’ve just done, and place your order right now. 

It’s taken us 2 whole years to source two old faithfuls again,  Black Pinstripe and Warm Beige, after we had to discontinue them both in August 2008.

Some of the other men’s drapes that we’ve had over the last few years have disappeared into the ether, never to return… 

So, as you can see, once they’re gone, unfortunately they’re gone.

Why should you use men’s drapes even if you’re working primarily with women?

Read my article Top 6 tips for using men’s drapes with your female clients

You can order any or all of these from our wholesale catalogue.  No minimum order.  Delivery to virtually anywhere in the world.

Q: If I buy your Colour Analysis home-study kit, how do I access also the following: correct style for body shape for women, make-up application, and information for men and how to dress to body shape. These seem to be the 4 areas you need to know before you can start an image consultation course. Am I correct that you used to have a “box” with all these? Petunia

Dear Petunia:

There is no law (legal, moral or otherwise) that says you have to provide every service under the sun before you start your business. 

In fact, I would strongly recommend that you DON’T follow the conventional approach of providing every service imaginable because that just puts you in the same league as the rest of them out there - nothing more than average and, in my book, average is a word that belongs to the world of mathematics and should never, ever be used to describe a human being.

You need to set yourself apart from the world and his mother, or how else will you get noticed? 

Be different and specialise:

• Some of my consultants are utterly brilliant at colour and I have advised them to stick to what they’re good at and comfortable with - providing consultations, workshops, presentations, and lots of other related services about colour only
• You do not need either a make-up kit or specific training in make-up application to be able to provide a successful colour, style or image service.  My courses show you how to either use make-up or not.  If you run an independent business, then you can choose for yourself whether you want to include make-up or not. The big colour houses insist on you learning all about make-up because they want you to sell their make-up products to your clients; that’s how they continue to make money from you for many years after your initial training has finished – but you can only access their products as long as you keep to their terms and conditions…
• Some people are great at personal shopping so need to study both colour and ladies’ style. Why on earth would they need to cloud the issue by studying men’s image too?
   
• Some people are marvellous with make-up, and colour training is all they need to add extra value and a unique slant to their business
• Do you really want to work with men? No?  Then why waste your hard-earned money on men’s image training?
• Do you want to work at corporate level? No?  Then why waste even more money on corporate image training?

The big image and colour training companies will sell you a massive package of several days of colour analysis, style and body shape, make-up, personal shopping, wardrobe planning, men’s image, and corporate image, often all together in one fell swoop. 

Why?  Well, that should be pretty obvious and, if it isn’t, then maybe being in business for yourself isn’t really for you! 

On a 5 or 10-day course, my big question has always been, “How on earth will you remember what you learned on day two?”

Believe me, on a 2-day face-to-face training course with me, your head will seriously hurt at the end of day one.

And after day two, your brain will be full to overflowing and you may need to lie down in a darkened room when you get home. 

Just take a look at some of the testimonials from those poor darlings who’ve tried it! 

“Thank you for a brilliant course - I haven’t had time to draw breath since I got back! Yes, my brain HAS been working overtime,  I’m going to sit down over the weekend when I’ve got some peace and quiet, read through my notes, download all the bits and pieces I need to and begin to put my newfound knowledge into operation. 

I feel that I gained a wealth of know-how this week, so thank you for your expertise and guidance, and for the fun way that you put it all together!  I am still really excited. P.S.  I think you’d be very pleased with the dramatic / creative look I am sporting today!” Sara, Reading, UK

Learning in bite-size chunks clearly works as more than 40% of these lovely people come back to me later for more training.

Try the modular approach

Learn the bits you want, when you want, and then spend time becoming excellent at each subject before you move on to the next one. 

As you start to attract more and more clients for one service, you’ll have them ready and waiting for the next one you choose to learn (but only if and when it suits you!).

By the way, Petunia, these are the ‘boxes’ you were asking about.

Self-study DVD-based training courses

1. Colour Analysis in a Box teaches both seasonal and tonal colour analysis for beginners

2. The Complete Colour Analysis Training Kit contains Colour Analysis in a Box plus all the colour supplies used in the course itself:

The only other things you would need to start a colour analysis business are a mirror and a chair for your client to sit in!

3. Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Professionals was launched last month. 

This is not for beginners. 

As the title suggests, it includes masses of advanced colour analysis techniques, plus how to get what you’re saying over to your client (or you’re both just wasting your time), plus a whole load of marketing ideas that actually work (and a few that are dead ducks too!).

4. 3 Steps to Success for Image Professionals

Live event running 16th August in Chesterfield, UK.  Just a few places left on the course itself, plus you get the 6-DVD set free.

We’re recording the whole day to create a 6-DVD self-study pack with all the notes from the day.  You can pre-order this right now, for release in November.

Learn how to attract more clients, more sales and more profit with this extra special business training for image professionals.

5. September sees the last live event two-day Ladies’ Style training course of 2010.

We’re recording the entire event to create Ladies’ Style in a Box, covering body shape, scale, style personality, etc. 

This will be ready for release in December. Right now, we have 25 kits to pre-order at a special discount. Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

STOP PRESS!

Don’t order any of the above until you have checked out my mad sale to celebrate 30 years in this incredible business.  Ends 12th August 2010.

I use the men’s suit fabrics in particular with my female style and image clients who need advice on formal clothes for, say, a return to work, promotion, or change of job. 

Plus they’re useful for any other event that requires more formal dress like weddings, christenings and funerals.

I’ve found many of the patterns and textures from the men’s drape set really useful when trying to explain scale and proportion to my female clients too; they just love the fact that we have some real textured fabrics to touch and try alongside some of their best colours from their colour analysis.

It just ties everything together and makes the whole session more fun too.

Take a look at the men’s fabrics in our wholesale catalogue. They include shirt fabrics, tie colours and suit fabrics - great to add to your current drape collection.