Baukjen, you beauty

My phone pinged with a message yesterday morning. As I looked at the screen I smiled an ear to ear grin. This was the kind of message that makes my job as The Wardrobe Angel feel AWESOME. It was a photo message from a client of her wearing one of the dresses I had recommended to her on her follow up Shopping List. It was early and she was dressed to give a presentation that day.  She felt “AMAZING.”

This is what makes me different from other image consultants and stylists, one of my USP’s if you will (the other is eBay but we’ll cover that in another post). It’s all very well saying to clients “this style of dress will really suit you” or “you need some find some trousers in this style” when odds are the client has neither time nor shopping fervour to go out and find them. A lot of my clients are pushed for time and/or have never had much success with shopping and that’s why they have called me in the first place.  They want answers:  how to organise their wardrobe and style themselves, how to save time getting dressed and make money from the items they no longer wear. What they don’t want are more futile shopping trips and wasted money on ‘meh’ purchases. 

After I have sorted a wardrobe and ascertained the ‘gaps’, I put my knowledge and expertise to work to fill them for the client. That’s why I included the Shopping List as part of the Sort, Style and Sell service (click here for more information). I do all the leg work – checking sizing, availability, seeing if I can get them a discount. Then I send them the Shopping List via email. This is done in tandem alongside a Pinterest board so they can see how their new wardrobe will fit together.

So back to the dress which made my client feel “AMAZING.” Which one was it? The Baukjen Jersey Drape dress. It is double layered so it “holds and contours the figure” which translates as YOU DON’T NEED SHAPEWEAR. My client vouched for this, the rest of her message said 

“The material is thick and wraps around, sucking me in. I have a presentation this morning and it feels great!”

Job well done, Baukjen!

Figgahugga

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Amanda from Figgahugga asking if I would like to try one of their dresses. I usually wheel out the shape wear in January (ask me about the shape wear/Urbis lift story when you next see me) and the rest of the time just wing it with a mix of no VPL pants so the offer really interested me especially as the Figgahugga range is designed to be worn as part of your wardrobe, not just underneath in the manner of Bridget Jones's Big Pants (if you don't know what I'm on about watch the film clip here). In received my dress and a lovely note from Amanda who has the most beautiful handwriting, FYI.

On Saturday one of my closest friends got married and I chowed down on the buffet: ham, potato wedges, bread (and I don't usually eat bread due to a wheat intolerance but this was a special occasion) salad, numerous pieces of cake....now double that and add a few more pieces of cake. And chutney. And coleslaw. And third helpings of ham. By the time I exited the do my food baby looked like it was 6 months old. This, I decided, was the perfect time to try the Figgahugga and this was the result...

Not a food baby in sight. 

So - they aren't the easiest thing to get on. There was a moment when the dress was mid thigh when I thought "it's too small." Then a rather panicked moment further up around my hips when I thought,

"I can't get it on! But I can't get it off!"

But I'd committed so inch by inch I pulled the dress on as instructed in the video on the Figgahugga website and my panic subsided.

Then I looked in the mirror. I was speechless:

(speechless) 

I am 33, I work out, don't smoke, don't drink so I am in pretty good nick but that tiny blue dress had worked its magic and there wasn't a food baby in sight (although there is a hideous carpet, for which I apologise). Plus the blue colour I had chosen looked immense with my red nail/lip combo.

Now the thing is - am I going to wear it? I always said that when I started The Wardrobe Angel I wouldn't recommend anything to clients I wouldn't use myself and I can hand-on-heart say that I will wear this again.

I set about styling the dress with the contents on my suitcase (I was staying in a hotel in Manchester post-wedding). Styling the dress with a top and shoes from Zara and a Luca Jack ring, turned said dress into a skirt. I'm not into the whole bodycon look so I love a bit of volume to balance out the silhouette and keep some of the goodies under wraps. My legs - I love my legs - come on summer so I can get them out! Plus the Figgahugga has silicone around the bottom hem to keep it in place so no flashing the cash incidents, and they are a British product.

Immense.

Click here for the Figgahugga website.

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And proof that you can walk in said Figgahugga....The Wardrobe Angel cocks her leg... (it was 1am - there was no way I was going outside to walk around the hotel car park!)