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So it comes as no surprise to Debbie Roes, a San Diego-based wardrobe stylist, that clients often consult her when they\u2019re facing a turning point in their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether they\u2019re returning to the dating scene, getting married, job hunting, being promoted, moving into middle age, or making a weight change, people tend to want to adjust how they dress when they move from one stage of life to another,\u201d Roes, a former life coach with a master\u2019s degree in psychology, said.<\/p>\n
Yet, while clients are often motivated to achieve the objectives that such transitions inspire \u2013 looking sexier, more professional,<\/span> or younger, for instance \u2013 the transformation process often yields deeper rewards than appearance.<\/p>\n \u201cClients are often surprised by the memories that return and what they learn about their attitudes toward their bodies and spending,\u201d Roes said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just clothes. My process works on multiple levels.\u201d<\/p>\n In business one year, Roes is herself somewhat surprised at her new line of work. Because even though she\u2019s always been fascinated by fashion, she never dreamed she could become a stylist.<\/p>\n \u201cI had an eating disorder for about 20 years,\u201d the tall, willowy brunette said. \u201cI\u2019ve been about 50 pounds lighter than I am now and 40 pounds heavier. But whatever my weight, I always felt uncomfortable with how I looked. And even though I\u2019ve always liked fashion \u2026 because I had body-image issues, I dressed in \u2026 lots of flowing, baggy clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until Roes hit 40 that she began to want to emerge from all the fabric she\u2019d been hiding behind.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to look more polished and sophisticated,\u201d she said, but, at the time, \u201cI could have been nominated for \u2018What Not to Wear.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The TV show, in which two stylists make over a fashion \u201ctrain wreck,\u201d was Roes\u2019 constant companion for five years, as she searched for ways to express herself through clothing. She watched every episode, reviewed every rerun, and supplemented what she was learning by reading \u201cvolumes\u201d about fabric, fit,<\/span> and fashion. But even after discovering which looks worked for her, why, and how to achieve them, she couldn\u2019t see beyond her new appearance.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you had asked me back then whether I would ever get into doing this myself, I would have said, \u2018Are you crazy? I couldn\u2019t do that,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Roes\u2019 lack of confidence was exacerbated by the fact that, although her eating disorder was abating, she also suffered from clothes hoarding, a condition that affects about 5 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Consequently, it wasn\u2019t until Roes addressed her hoarding issues, in part by hiring a professional organizer to perform an audit on her cluttered closet, that she began to see more than style in her reflection. Now she also saw substance and skill.<\/p>\n Closet audits are the first stage of any wardrobe redo. In an audit, a stylist assesses clients\u2019 existing wardrobes, reviewing what works, what doesn\u2019t, which items can be altered, and which pieces the client never wears but could if they knew what to wear them with.<\/p>\n Roes\u2019 own closet audit took six hours, she said. But although most clients don\u2019t need anything near that much time, this initial step is usually the one they find most intimidating. After all, not only are their past and present lives on display, so to speak, but the audit requires them to try on outfits they already own.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Do I have to take off my clothes in front of you?\u2019 is the most frequently asked question,\u201d Roes said, laughing.<\/p>\n The intimacy of the closet audit, however, is where her personal background becomes especially handy.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the fact that I have the background in psychology and that I\u2019ve had my personal issues as well, is one of the things that helps me to be good with my clients. I have a lot of compassion for the different issues that people have,\u201d Roes said. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s not a conscious thing, but it seems like the emotional issues come up a fair amount of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n While Roes speculates that her own experiences and her openness about them create rapport with clients and may contribute to the type of clients she attracts, empathy isn\u2019t her only specialty.<\/p>\n Finding a fit, for instance, \u201cis key,\u201d she said. Consequently, one of her services is assisting clients to tailor their clothes so they look custom made.<\/p>\n \u201cI help clients to alter what they have already to make it work better for them. Or in some cases, I help them to alter the new things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Altering one\u2019s existing clothes rather than buying new ones also saves money,<\/span> and, since many clients are on a budget, keeping the process affordable is important.<\/p>\n \u201cI do a lot of resale shopping,\u201d Roes said. \u201cWe gear where we shop based on how much clients need. If they don\u2019t need a lot, then maybe we go to the mall and just get a couple of things [so] it\u2019s not going to cost a lot. But if they need a lot of pieces, then often we\u2019ll go to resale stores, where we can get more.\u201d<\/p>\n One client she worked with recently, for example, was able to buy 22 items, several of them designer pieces, for under $300.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know what the 22\u00a0items would have cost full price, but I\u2019m certain I saved at least $500, even factoring in [Roes\u2019] time,\u201d the client, who requested anonymity, said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of prep work both Roes and her clients need to do before a successful shopping expedition can take place, including questionnaires about lifestyle, values, objectives, color and style preferences, and personality.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore visiting clients\u2019 closets, I ask for five adjectives that describe their current style and five that describe their desired style. Then, we begin our time together by spending about 15 minutes discussing their objectives,\u201d Roes said.<\/p>\n Determining clients\u2019 needs in this way, before starting to shop, makes selecting items once in the store more efficient and effective. However, it\u2019s also time consuming, which is why Roes has decided to add virtual consulting to her repertoire.<\/p>\n \u201c[Virtual consulting] takes more prep work on the clients\u2019 part, but it costs less,\u201d she said. In virtual consultations, clients do the up-front work themselves, taking photos of their existing clothes and sending them to Roes, who suggests different combinations, color choices, accents, additions or alterations, and directs them to where they can buy complementary pieces.<\/p>\n The venture is just one of several that she foresees implementing, along with writing ebooks about her clients\u2019 transformations, creating a membership-based online community with videos, webinars and client forums, partnering with local businesses to provide workshops, conducting group sessions, and consulting at swap parties.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m good at seeing the possibilities,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n Indeed, it seems possibility is largely what styling one\u2019s wardrobe is all about.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no rules,\u201d Roes said. Nothing is fixed, so there\u2019s no need to worry about wearing white after Labor Day or matching shoes and bags. While fashion pundits tend to make cut-and-dried pronouncements about what people need in their closets, clothing choice is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, Roes said. It\u2019s \u201can organic process,\u201d one that\u2019s particular to the changing circumstances of every individual\u2019s life.<\/p>\n It was Austrian-American psychologist Ernest Dichter who first made the analogy between our closets and our lives. As Dichter put it, \u201cEach time the door is opened, all [our] possessions, past and present, fall out.\u201d Perhaps, if Dichter had hired a stylist, he would have added that it\u2019s possible to turn such disarray to design.<\/p>\n Business owner: Debbie Roes \u2014A Whim and a Prayer profiles the trials and triumphs of entrepreneurs intrepid enough to put their fanciful ideas and unique talents to the test in today\u2019s volatile marketplace. If you are a local business owner and you would like to be featured in this column, contact Celene Adams at writeyourbusinessstory@gmail.com or visit writeyourbusinessstory.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Celene Adams | A Whim and a Prayer It\u2019s been said that our closets are \u201ctime capsules\u201d of our lives. Every time we open their doors and survey their contents, we\u2019re presented with who we are, who we\u2019ve been, who we want to be and how far we are from being where we want to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1365,"featured_media":245708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"From disarray to design: Wardrobe stylist fashions a fit for clients at a crossroads","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBusiness type: Wardrobe styling
\nYears in business: One
\nServices: In-person and virtual styling, wardrobe audits, gift certificates
\nMarket niche: Often works with clients experiencing life transitions and\/or personal issues
\nBusiness philosophy: Unleashing possibility and working with what you have
\nWeb: debbieroes.com<\/p>\n