Clothes Shopping

I finally got round to arranging my annual clothes shopping trip. Well, I do usually buy clothing more than once a year, but I seem to have fallen into a pattern of doing the bulk of my clothes shopping in one go.

What makes this process so much easier for me is that I employ the services of Andrea Talha, a Personal Shopper.

I first met Andrea a couple of years ago, on the recommendation of an Image Consultant I visited. I didn’t think the Image Consultant’s advice had been that great but at least she gave me some good contacts. For as long as I’ve had hair I’ve had a hard time finding someone who can give me a decent haircut. No idea why. I guess it just grows funny. Anyway, my Image Consultant recommended Paul at Jo Hansford’s salon and I’ve been seeing him since.

My first encounter with Andrea involved her going through my entire wardrobe having me try on items of clothing. Most of these items went straight onto the “throw out” pile. By the end of the evening approximately five percent of my wardrobe was deemed wearable. Just as well we had an appointment booked for the following week to do some shopping together.

What I like about what Andrea does is that she first meets her clients to see how they look and what will work for them. She then goes out and does some research (ie window shopping) to see what she can find that will suit their build, size and colours. This makes the subsequent shopping appointment go far more smoothly than they otherwise might.

I ended up spending a fair amount of money on new clothing and bought some things that I would never have considered buying had I been on my own. I was thoroughly impressed that Andrea had been able to spot a pair of jeans from an obscure (to me!) clothing brand that fit me perfectly. All this from her research, without actually having me there at the time.

Well over a year later and I still get plenty of wear out of the clothing I bought back then. I also still receive regular compliments on my clothing if I am at social occasions. Unsurprisingly, this is something that didn’t happen in my old clothes. So, I had to wonder, if I booked Andrea again, would she be able to repeat this incredible feat for me?

We met, somewhat inauspiciously, for our pre-arranged shopping trip the day before the Selfridges sale.

Undeterred, we carried on regardless, collecting an enormous pile of clothing to try on. Andrea can get away with this because she knows most of the sales staff very well. She’s good for business, though she does leave the shop with clothing scattered all over.

I’m definitely improving at spotting good clothing that works for me, although there are nuances that miss me entirely. How does Andrea know that V-neck t-shirts will work better on me than round neck shirts? Certain colours work very well for me - however, Andrea’s professional advice is that one can deviate well away from one’s safe comfortable colours if they put the “uncomfortable” colour away from their face.

We spent a good long day trekking around the shops, amassing a final score of:

* One Jacket
* Two Pairs of Shoes
* Two Pairs of Jeans
* Six Shirts
* Six T-Shirts
* One Pullover

The sale worked out very well for us. We were able to pick up a lot of clothing at sale prices, from an almost empty shop, the day before the sale started. Yet another benefit to going shopping with a professional.