Can you believe that TLC's hit show "What Not to Wear" is going off the air?
This upcoming season is the 10th and will be their last; they wanted to go out on top.
This last summer I had the privilege of styling a fashion show with Clinton Kelly. As a spokesman for Macy's, Clinton has traveled the country...
...doing fashion shows and seminars at Macy's special events. For the fashion show in Salt Lake, as he did for all of his fashion shows, he specifically requested a variety in the models. In other words, he didn't want a bunch of size 4, 20-year-old models; he wanted variety in ages and sizes.
I was already excited to work with Clinton, but even more so when he requested this model line-up. I went through and picked out 4 outfits for each model, complete with accessories, shoes, hairstyle...it was a blast, but a lot of hard work.
When Clinton arrived, he gave me the biggest compliment that any other stylist has ever given me. Most wardrobe stylists typically work with size 4 models on magazine or catalog shoots, but for 15 years I have focused my business on REAL women with REAL bodies, so when Clinton reviewed what I had picked out for the "non-traditional" models, he said to me, "You really do style the everyday woman!" and he didn't change a single item I had chosen.
He said that as he's been traveling the country, working with local stylists at each of these events, and most of the stylists don't have a clue of how to dress the average woman and he has to go through and style these women himself. So he was elated that he didn't have to do this at the Salt Lake show with what I had chosen for these women.
I credit Clinton Kelly as one of the first "celebrity stylists" to bring wardrobe styling to all women, not just the Hollywood elite walking the red carpet. For the last ten years we've seen Clinton and Stacy London work with women of all sizes.
I too have worked with women of all types and sizes for the last 15 years. I've done one-on-one consultations with women size 0 - 26, from petite to 6"4" and my priority has always been two fold:
- Identify their body-type, and then
- Teach these women how to dress to flatter their body-type.
While I'm grateful to Clinton for the trailblazer he's been in the industry, he will never understand what it's like to be a woman and go through the changes that a woman endures during pregnancy, and the struggle of getting back to "normal." Then later on, menopause and how that affects the female body. This is one of the reasons that I have made my focus REAL women with REAL bodies and REAL budgets, because I am one of them.
In addition, I would love it if someone sent me to New York with $5,000 in my pocket to spend on clothes, but that's not my reality. When I teach people how to fit and flatter their body-type, they can take these principles and shop anywhere they want. I have shopped with clients at the local Target to expensive boutiques in Italy, but no matter how much an article of clothing costs, fit and flatter is, and always should be, the first consideration.
With "What Not to Wear" coming to an end, what have you enjoyed most about the show?
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