Last week, I shared some of the purchases two of my clients made during the Saks friends and family sale. Being two very similar types of clients, there was a lot of overlap between their purchases. In this post, I am sharing the purchases made by two other clients last week who don’t share a lot in common.
Behind the Scenes: Client Purchases
Ms. Vedic
I am going to start with the purchases made by a client I have blogged about before, Ms. Vedic. She is a NYC based meditation teacher, single mom, and a really easy person to get along with. I like her personally and I find her style needs to be quite different than many other clients I work with. In the link to the post above, you can read all about the creative endeavor she tasked me with last season after being inspired by the documentary Wild Wild Country. To date, that was my most creative client appointment in history. In lieu of strict blazers and tailored pants, Ms. Vedic’s needs lean towards stylish loose-fitting clothing, things she can sit in, teach a class wearing while also being able present herself well when speaking or working with corporate clients.
Here are some of her purchases:
Eileen Fisher and Lafayette 148 are two brands that continue to come through for Ms. Vedic time and time again. Ms. Vedic is around a size 14 and she has a decent budget for clothing. Sadly, this creates two strikes against Ms. Vedic, neither of which are her doing. For one, there aren’t a lot of brands at this price point that really cater to her size and, second, she has really specific wardrobe needs that can be hard to find at these prices. Ms. Vedic wants to look chic, sophisticated and stylish while also wearing clothing that is fitting to her lifestyle and career. That said, I think we found some incredible buys that she’ll wear all summer from both these labels.
Mrs. Polished
Mrs. Polished is a client I have never blogged about, so I will give you some backstory now. I decided to name her Mrs. Polished because she really prefers a style that she can put on and finished looking. The biggest need: to do that in the simplest and quickest way possible. All of my clients are busy, but Mrs. Polished takes the cake. She lives in New Jersey, runs her own law firm, is a mother to a delightful special needs child and someone who considers getting up at 3 am a good night’s sleep. Whenever I see her she is always juggling about 18 things in her head. It’s exhausting just listening to all that she has going on. She reached out to me a little over a year ago and from the moment of our first meeting it was like we had known each other for decades.
Mrs. Polished is a curvy size 18/20 and unlike Ms. Vedic, prefers a style that is tailored and structured. While she wants to look polished, she does not like to fuss, she just doesn’t have the bandwidth for that, so wearability and the ability to look done without a lot of steps is crucial.
Here are some of Mrs. Polished’s purchases:
As you probably guessed, sizing is the biggest issue we run up against when shopping. Like Ms. Vedic, Mrs. Polished has the money to spend on clothing. In the past, we have purchased from brands like Akris Punto, Marina Rinaldi and Lafayette 148. These are among the few better and luxury brands that actually cater to sizes above a size 14.
Another brand that has been a godsend for my special sized clients has been MM. Lafleur. They have managed to not only cater to this customer, but they have also done it well. Their fit is incredible and has been for every one of my professional clients who wear between and 18 and 22. They take special care with this size range by not just grading up pieces to larger sizes but by focusing on fitting this customer. Truly, I’d be lost without this brand for clients in this size range.
Mrs. Polished and I agreed, she didn’t need major investment pieces this season, so we decided not to shop Marina Rinaldi or Akris Punto and did an appointment at MM. Lafleur. The fit was perfect and, best of all, it was exactly what Mrs. Polished needed: clothes that she could just put on and go.
Next, we made plans to visit Universal Standard for casual and to see the line in person. For months now, I have been an avid follower of the company because of the inclusivity in their messaging, their branding and their sizing. On all these points, they have been perfect. I truly believe this brand has a bright future if they can work out some kinks. Current issues I have noticed are inconsistency in sizing and fabric quality. I also think they could use some fine tuning with their in-store styling services (call me Universal Standard). My hope is these kinks will be ironed out because what Universal Standard is doing is important and much needed.
Mrs. Polished did pick up a few things for casual which can be seen above. For her needs, that is all Universal Standard can be for her, which is fine.
I hope these purchases give you some shopping ideas for your own wardrobe.
