A Simple New Way for Busy Career Women to Step Up their Wardrobe

I think I’m a rare breed of woman that hates to shop.

I need very clear objectives when I go shopping: for instance right now I need a pair of black boots for the winter — but they have to be synthetic because I don’t want to ruin the leather when they get wet, and the heel can’t be higher than 2.5 inches. Maybe they should be riding boots since those seem to be popular, or maybe I just need good rain boots (or both?).  I research what stores have appropriate shoes before I go there to try them on. I hate wasting my time in stores, mostly because time is money.

I don’t know who has hours to spend shopping all afternoon, but it’s not me. It’s a big reason why I don’t bargain shop. It goes against a lot of my other thrifty habits like obsessive budgeting on Mint.com, and setting up multiple savings accounts for each of my long-term goals like buying a house and big travel adventures. But bargain shopping doesn’t appeal to me for three reasons:

1. The opportunity cost of spending hours to find a cheap pair of jeans is generally more than the cost of buying a more expensive pair of designer jeans. I say that because if I try on a pair of amazing designer jeans, I will find a pair I like in about 30 minutes. But I have been known to go shopping for “affordable” jeans for 6 hours and not find a single pair that fit right.  In that same afternoon, if I buy the designer jeans, I could earn the money to pay for them by taking on a new client for website design services. Decision made: new website for the portfolio, plus a much a cooler pair of jeans.

2. No matter what kind of deal you get, cheap clothes don’t last. So even if you have more of them, you have to replace them more often, which means more time wasted (see point one above about how much I hate wasting my time shopping). Sure, maybe every now and then you have a great find and a cheap pair of pants lasts you 10 years. But in general, fabrics are cheaper for a reason and they don’t hold up to daily wearing, or they get out of shape when you wash them, and on and on. Buy something that’s made well and the time saved by not replacing it in six months will be worth it.

3. When you’re a bargain shopper, you often look like a bargain shopper. And that’s not really a good thing when you’re in your professional career stage (i.e. you’re on your second or third job after college). I confess that I don’t think I’ve updated my wardrobe in 10 years. Seriously, I relied on the generosity of my mother and sortof-mother-in-law-to-be (long story) to buy me a cool outfit once a year for way too long. As a result, I don’t really have a wardrobe that reflects my own style. My guess is that I’m not the only one.

So this year I made a resolution to do something about that. I hired a fashion consultant.

I know what you’re thinking, I must be making pretty good money to afford a personal fashion consultant, but I assure you I’m right in that middle-of-America average woman bucket. And I don’t even care that much about fashion to be honest. But that’s kind of why I hired someone to think about fashion for me. I just don’t have the energy to keep up with what colors are in, what is a jegging, or if I can really pull off ankle boots.

But the fact is clothes make a very big impression in business and in life. If you’re in the creative industry, or if you meet with potential investors as a young entrepreneur, or if you do a lot of face-to-face sales meetings, you know exactly what I mean. But even if you don’t, think about the amount of time and money you spend on clothes. If you did the math (and I crunched the numbers for awhile before I did it), it could be that outsourcing your shopping needs make sense for you too.

Here’s how it worked when I signed on with Cake Style. I went to their website and filled out a quick email form. The founder of the company called me back that week and we scheduled time to discuss my current fashion, and what my goals were in working with one of their stylists.

About 3 weeks later I set up a call with my stylist, and they asked me about my sizes, what colors I liked, where I normally shop, what my “problem areas” are on my body that I try to hide (resolution number 2 is tighter abs this year!), and any other guidance for what I like and don’t like. Kait then went on her way to find me 5 really cool new outfits, which she then put together in a video before mailing to me. You can see the preview video I received here: http://cakestyleme.com/whitneyparker/.

I received the box via UPS very neatly wrapped, with a packing slip and personal note. She provided a return address label to re-seal the box when I was ready to send back what I didn’t want to keep. I tried on everything — all of which fit magnificently. Only one belt was too large, so that was the only easy call I had in terms of what to send back. In all, I kept about half of what she picked out.

On average, I’m told most of their clients spend about $1,000 per shipment, so it’s definitely something I’ll budget for in the future — but setting aside a little every month for a really nice wardrobe seems so worth it to me after my first experience with Cake Style. I don’t have to worry about when I’m going to fit in time to buy clothes — they do all the hard work of finding stuff that fits, what’s in style, and that reflects the image I want to portray.

So my lesson to other career-minded women is this: with disciplined budgeting, you can afford to hire a personal fashion consultant. It’s not something for the 1 percent any more. If you’re serious about your career and shopping seems like a chore, this could be just what you need!

Update: Here’s what I kept from the video above:

• I loved the skinny jeans and the black “tuxedo” skinny pants. The both fit like a glove and were so flattering. I didn’t even look at price tags, they were that good.
• I also fell in love with the wrap/tied t-shirt with the geometric design. It was incredibly soft and just looked really “new york” when I put it on. With a brightly colored scarf, it looked awesome with the black skinny pants and I wore it out to dinner the night I got the box.
• The tweed skirt was gorgeous and perfect for winter with a pair of black tights. It had pockets at just the right height to be casual, yet dressy. Perfect for the casual matinee Broadway show on Saturday.
• The gold sweater was beautiful and just felt cozy, so I decided to keep it, along with the skinny red belt (I don’t think I own any belts right now, so this bizarrely is my first).
• There was also a very beautiful diaphanous blouse with a light cami that I couldn’t resist. And at that point, my budget had burst and I had to say no to everything else.
• I was saddened most to send back the pink Diane von Furstenberg blazer, which was a gorgeous color, but the price coupled with the brass buttons that remind me too much of stuff my mom wears (not that that’s a bad thing, since generally my mom has a better sense of fashion than me), tipped the balance on that one.