YOU’LL LUV THIS!….

Closet Karma is back with fresh faces,new ideas and lots of fashion fun!  We will be updating the blog more often now with the goal of daily postings, so check back often for new sections like:

“DEALS OF THE DAY!”

Where we will feature a below cost item that you can purchase for CRAZY  CHEAP!!!  But you’ll only have 48 hours to act!

I COVET THIS!

Carol is rockin' the Fedora.

WHAT’S IN?  WHAT’S NOT? WHO CARES!
Every week we will feature a celebrity who is making a splash on the red carpet and in the world!   We are talking about celebs fronting affordable fashion you can try at home!  Plus!  You will get exclusive dish on their pet projects and passions.

TOUR DE CLOSET!

No closet is too far…no closet is too small and NO closet is too crammed!  Follow Teresa as she discovers what has been “closeting” her own karma when it comes to clothes!  Plus have an opportunity you have your closet featured on Closet Karma!

AND THERE WILL BE LOTS LOTS MORE!!!!!!

My staff and I are dedicated to not only ridding you of those demons lurking in your closet!  But we are determined to make you feel fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KK AND HER HUSBAND BRIAN CAN TACKLE ANY FASHION TRAGEDY AND TERESA WILL SET YOUR CLOSET STRAIGHT!

A Healthy Closet Means a Healthy You.. Pt 2...7 day prep 2

Recently, I died my hair dark and decided to dress a little more sophisticated. Why? I have been traveling a lot for business and I kept running into obstacles; things weren’t going the way I wanted them to. I just felt I needed a change. I wanted to tell the universe and those around me, “Hey! I mean business!” I change my fashion all the time. It helps reinvent myself and get a new perspective on things. One of my best friends said to me “Oh, I like this new look! Remember when you were into wearing gold lamet a few years ago? That was horrific!”

I personally don’t ever regret a fashion choice make, except once, when I let a stylist talk me into wearing a dress on a TV show - my gut said NO, but at the same time, I thought, “she’s a stylist - she knows what she’s talking about!” Never again! I was in tears when I watched it, which just supports my initial statement. Your fashion needs to be YOUR fashion, not someone else’s.

When I was wearing gold sequined tops, I was a young director living in West Hollywood. I had short red hair and I loved to go dancing- I wanted to stick out in a crowd. Everyone moves to LA and has a dream and I wanted people to say, “Hey, what is she about?” I’m blonde naturally and everyone in LA was blonde. In fact, it was that time of my life where I discovered the power of color and how different colors can help inspire and guide you. Mind you, I would not dress like that now because that is not my fashion style anymore, but, no regrets- my fashion then lead me to my life now, which ultimately lead to the birth of Solas. My point is, it doesn’t matter what other people think. As long as you walk out that door every morning and feel great about you and your fashion. And the first step in feeling great about your fashion, is feeling great about your closet which we will discuss next Tuesday! kk

A Healthy Closet Means a Healthy You...7 day prep

Ok, so now you’ve identified what kind of shopper you are.  If my hunch is correct, you have fallen into two or three of the categories at different times in your life.  Right?  So what does that mean?  Well, believe it or not your shopping habits and your closet’s status is directly related to your self-esteem, your feelings about money and how you view the world.  Sounds crazy, I know, but I can walk into any of my friend’s closets and deduce a lot.  I can also tell how my family or friends are feeling based on what they’re wearing on a given day. Sometimes I have to expand my search to the trunk of their car, or storage closets where they may be hiding items they “intend” to return, but you get the idea.

Think about it.  When you feel hot and sexy, what do you do?  You dress hot and sexy.  And when you feel frantic and crazy, how do dress?  When you feel bloated?  The list goes on, and your closet, believe it or not, is not far off.  The difference with our closet, however, is that 85% of us keep it the same way and have for years, which, unfortunately, is a reflection of deeper emotions and feelings about ourselves, money and the world.

I am not here to organize your closet or revamp your wardrobe, instead, my goal is to make you feel better about yourself, help closet and help you to never feel fun and it has nothing to do with down the red carpet.  It is about “I’m not into fashion.”  I don’t think not into food.”  We need fashion to colony, but even people there are my kind of fashion, or Kate Holmes’  you say to the universe, “I am not    making an excuse to not celebrate

you have a healthy relationship with your guilty about shopping again.  Fashion is what is on the runway or strutting you. I have had so many people tell me that is possible.  That’s like saying, “I’m live-unless, of course, you live in a nudist fashionable!  You don’t have to be into fashion or Vogue’s fashion.  But when into fashion,” what you are doing is yourself and who you are.

Check back next Tuesday to continue your 7 day prep and learn how to celebrate your own personal fashion! kk

Shoe Time

Blue Jean Blues

Recently, I was speaking with my friend Jacky, and she was mentioning she had purchased a pair of jeans that the salesman (cute at that) had convinced her to buy. At first she was very shy, and afraid of the super slinky tight bottom fit. She wondered if this boy's dynamic smile and wit are what convinced her to make such a Sergio Valenti type purchase. But when she strutted her stuff a little more she realized "Hey my butt looks great! " and even more importantly, the hottie had taught her a valuable lesson: she was wearing her jeans a size too big.

It got me thinking about how I am terrified of ever trying on a pair of jeans that might be too small, and how many times I have witnessed my friends in denim get the end-of-the-night " saggy bottom syndrome "(this is when the jeans you thought looked great at 7:00pm turn into a stretched out "i took a poop in my pants" look by 10:00pm) Instead of getting all philosophical, which I could, and talk about how we as females have a huge problem with body image and should stop looking in the mirror and seeing someone twice her size, I will make this a simple lesson of fashion choice.

Let's look at the history of the designer jeans. I think the most recognizable designer blue jean campaign had to be when Brooke Shields strutted her stuff whispering "Nothing gets between me and my Calvin's." Rumor has it she literally soaked in water so those jeans would fit her skin tight, because designer jeans were meant to fit like a glove.

Before that, jean styles included bell bottoms, and before that , well, jeans were what the working class wore to the factory. So, my thoughts are this: know your jeans and how you want to wear them. If you are shopping for a sexy pair that'll look hot with your new top, take a chance, hold your breath and squeeze your bottom into a smaller size. Don't be afraid to go a little tight because there is nothing worse than a dopey butt and saggy front. If you are looking for comfort and you're worried about muffin top (a syndrome I am well aware of... when your belly hangs over your jeans like the top of a muffin), don't buy the jeans that are designed to be skin tight, buy the cut made for you.

The next time I blog about jeans I will list some of my favorite designers, but today I have included a few tips that may help you get to know your body and how your jeans should fit you.

1.) WHEN YOU BEND OVER, YOUR JEANS SHOULD NOT GAP IN THE BACK.

2.) NO BAG IN THE CROTCH OR BUTT AREA. IF IT'S BAGGIN' IN THE STORE, IT WILL BE BAGGIN' TONIGHT EVEN MORE!

3.) SIDE SEAMS SHOULD BE STRAIGHT, IF THEY CURVE, THEY ARE TOO TIGHT AND NOT A GOOD CUT FOR YOU.

4.) THERE SHOULD NEVER BE LINES PULLING ACROSS THE CROTCH AREA. NO CAMEL TOE EITHER LADIES!

5.) THE JEANS SHOULD NEVER BE TOO BAGGY IN THE LEG UNLESS IT IS A FLAIR CUT, AND THOSE SHOULD ONLY FLAIR AT THE BOTTOM.

6.) DON'T BE AFRAID TO BUY JEANS YOU HAVE TO HEM. DESIGNERS HAVE NOT PERFECTED JEAN SIZES OR CUTS AND IT IS BETTER TO BUY A JEAN THAT FITS YOUR BODY WELL AND WILL COST YOU $12 TO HEM, THAN TO HAVE JEANS YOU NEVER WEAR BECAUSE YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE.

I hope you have SWEET JEANS TONIGHT!
LOVE,
kk

CLOSET CHAOS

So I feel like you have had enough to chew on with the steps of the past few days. What I want to focus on today is the concept of chaos.  According to Webster dictionary these are the definitions of Chaos.
:cha·os (ks)
n.
1.  A condition or place of great disorder or confusion.
2.  A disorderly mass; a jumble: The desk was a chaos of papers and unopened letters.
3.  The disordered state of unformed matter and infinite space supposed in some cosmogonist views to
have existed before the ordered universe.
4.  Mathematics dynamical system that has a sensitive dependence on its initial conditions.

Now my personal definition of chaos is when sh&% hits the fan and I have no idea how to handle it. Your car breaks down, your boss is mad you’re late, the kids are sick, and you have no way possible to remedy any of the above.  So the downward spiral effect is the house gets dirty, which makes you grumpy, you get grumpy and the next thing you know, anything negative that could happen does happen.  Suddenly you are in a place of great disorder or confusion.  So WHY and HOW does this happen? Well I am not sure about the HOW.  I have to be honest I believe a hundred percent in "controlling" your destiny but I think there are some thing you just have no control over.  It’s like the seatbelt sign that lights up on the plane "brace yourself we’re going to enter a batch of turbulence."

Once I got a new car. The first in 10 years, and really the first I got on my own.  I was so excited about this car; it was a hybrid, leather seats, Bluetooth you name it.  Eight days after I got it I was in a major car accident.  The car was destroyed and I was lucky to walk away like I did.  I was devastated.  I literally cried for like 5 days and kept thinking really negative thoughts like, "What if I hadn't had my seatbelt on?"  Then a week later I get a letter in the mail that my license was suspended due to an old unpaid ticket.  I was totally confused.  I had gotten a U turn ticket four months before, but it had been determined not guilty.  I got even more depressed.  Then my cell phone broke and the list goes on.... as it turns out, the license suspension was a total mix up with the courts.  My phone was under warrantee, and a bunch of other problems that were drowning my life were very reversible.

Now I believe the car accident was out of my control.  It was meant to be a lesson to me.  I should have felt blessed and lucky that I walked away like I did with minor injuries.  Instead I took it to a bad place and everything followed.  This brings me to definition #4 of Chaos.  The mathematical one: ' a dynamical system that has a sensitive dependence on its initial conditions.'  The initial condition was me and the kind of mental state I was in. Unfortunately, it was negative.  So when the accident happened, the outcome of the accident was really determined by how I reacted.  When I had this epiphany a few weeks later, I decided to take a look at my surroundings.  In the course of 3 weeks my house had turned to a state of disorganization.  My closet was a mess.  YES ME the closet queen.  It was a wreck!  My bills were in a pile and light bulbs were burned out everywhere.  My home became the center of all my chaos. My initial condition was NEGATIVE and everything else followed.   

If I had been paying attention, I would have noticed my closet slip a week after the accident.  I was creating a "do it later" pile. As I got more depressed I just thought I could find the time to do it later. And when you don't feel good, you don't look good.   

The reason I am telling this story is I want you to understand that every little thing matters. You might think it is cheesy that I believe your closet is the heart of who you are, but it’s true.  My husband’s closet is empty when he is depressed.  He gives like everything away and then feels bad because he has nothing to wear.  That is his chaos.  It comes in all shapes and forms and the great thing is your closet can be a way to cope with the bad turbulence in your life. If it is healthy and happy it can be your go to place.   

I should have thanked my lucky stars I was ok after the accident.  And the first day I was no longer soar I should have put on my best dress and popped some champagne with my husband to celebrate.  I should have taken what I perceived as a negative thing and turned into a positive.  Even if it feels awkward at first, you have to learn to dress the part.  I promise if you dress the part the rest will happen.  There is no one out to get us.  The world is full of energy and it can be positive or negative.  Have you ever seen someone walk into a room and literally light it up?  That is energy.  And on the same note, how about when someone walks into a room ticked off?  Not so bright, right?  Your closet needs to be a positive place.

All you have to do is buckle your seatbelt during the occasional bumpy ride, and when you survive, start new.  "Dress the part" of a positive person who has a wealth of good luck coming their way.  DO NOT “CLOSET" YOUR CHAOS.

 

kk

 

Cleaning Thy Closet: Week 2

So now that you’ve had more than a week to mull over steps 1-3, it’s time to cleanse even deeper my friends. Bust out the sage and strike a match! Today is all about questions 4 and 5 (to refresh your memory, read "A Healthy Closet Means A Healthy You")

4.) Is there anything on the floor of your closet?

Oh, how I wish “nothing” was my answer.. but, alas, when I am stressed out, feeling lost or depressed, I notice a mound of anxiety start to build on the left side of my closet floor. Mind you, I’m not sloppy, nor am I neat; therefore my pile is off to the side and hidden where no guest or husband can see it. Yet still, it’s a pile. Usually it’s a pile of "I'll wash/organize/dry clean these later." You get the idea; “later” is never good for the soul. “Later” turns into “too late” and eventually births a “never done” sort of feeling. I have been cursed with the gift of procrastination my whole life. When I was little I would wait til the very last minute to tell my poor mother I had a project due. She would run around like a chicken with her head cut off helping me buy whatever supplies I needed. When I was in college, I would wait until the day before to write my 20-page story for class. And once into adulthood, I waited until about 4 months before the date to plan the wedding of the century— and it was themed, had 250 guests, costume changes and a wedding party of 24!

The problem in my life is that I have never been punished for such behavior. In grammar school I always got A’s. In college, I could crank out a 20-page story, no problem, and my wedding? Well, it was a huge hit. In fact I honed my skills so much that I became a television producer and director, where I received accolades for the fact I was an "on the spot" thinker. But the truth is, at home, when I looked in the mirror, all I saw was a frazzled girl looking back at me. I was always tired, I never felt like I had enough time to do anything and I have to be honest, sometimes I felt so overwhelmed, I wouldn’t do anything. Which of course lead to having to do everything last minute.

I once met a woman who told me the most important thing about your bedroom is what is under your bed. If you sleep above clutter it will seep into who you are and what you ultimately do and don't accomplish. Interesting huh?! Now I’ve taken that thought a step further… in saying that your closet represents you. And if you have a pile of "I'll do it later" in your closet, guess what? You have just started your day with that thought. It’s really important that the floor of your closet always be clean. I know this can be difficult, but keeping the closet floor clean is as important as flossing. You may not see the harm in keeping it cluttered but over time, trust me, the after math is nasty and hard to correct.

For those of you who have the color-coded closets, we will deal with that later. But for this step you get a "get out of jail free" pass. And I commend you for your spotless closet floor!

5.) Do you wear 80% of the items in your closet?
This is sort of a trick question because if you answered "Yes, I have a lot of empty hangers in my closet" to question 6, then you most likely answered yes to this question too, BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING IN YOUR CLOSET. An empty closet is not the solution and there are ways to fill it no matter what your budget. Next week we will focus on filling your empty closet, but for this week I want to talk to those of you who have full closets and are not wearing what is inside of them.

If you wake up in the morning, look at your closet, and say "I have nothing to wear," you have started your day on the wrong foot again. You are basically saying "I have nothing in my closet that makes me feel good," which in turns says to the world "Hey watch out, I am about to have a crappy day because I look and feel crappy!" Listen ladies, we are never going to feel 100% all the time, but your closet is your foundation and support and you have to fill it with healthy reserves. Just the other day I had to go to an event and all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch and watch Lifetime. It was raining outside, I had worked all day, I was PMSing and I just did NOT feel like leaving the house. A friend of mine basically told me to suck it up and put on the outfit that makes me feel the hottest. Thank goodness my closet is stocked every season with at least 5 go-to 911 outfits. I went home, put on the 80’s retro music station, which makes me feel like a super star, and started to put on my 5 most fabulous outfits. In the end I went with a dress I bought at Forever 21 for $12 on sale. I threw on some fantastic jewelry, knee high boots and a hot pink Solas Darling Clutch. I have to say I looked like a FOX. And because I FELT like a fox, no one noticed how I was REALLY feeling (like I was bloated with 10 pounds of water weight! Not to mention the  huge zit growing on my chin.) Instead, I got tons of compliments on how great I looked. I’m glad I fed my closet! If this were two years ago I would have been tearing through my closet and crying. I would have skipped the event and therefore missed an opportunity to meet new people.

You have to wear what is in your closet. Please DO NOT hold on to old sizes or outfits that you swear you are going to wear “later.” It is only holding you back. Who you are today is more than OK. You are fabulous. You have to dress for today if you want to plan tomorrow. It is ok to keep things IF YOU WEAR THEM, but you cannot hold on to the past. I have friends who have 3 or 4 different sizes in their closet. YIKES! HELLO! Do you know how depressing that is? Get rid of them! Post them on EBAY and  when you lose the weight or whatever you are holding onto them for, you can buy yourself something new with the money.

Listen ladies, my thyroid broke so I know better than anyone the grave sadness of looking at a size 6 pair of jeans when your ass has become a ten. But guess what? I gave those 6’s away, and now I am giving my size 10’s away also, because I lost the weight. If I had kept a closet full of 6’s, my friend, I would have been riddled with depression and I would be buying a larger size right now instead of going down in size. Who you are is who you are supposed to be. Today; right now. And you need to show the world that you love yourself. The rest will come, I promise. This week, go through your closet and start getting rid of things you have not worn in over a year. I will allow you to keep 10% of those things you pull. You can call this your Wish List-- “I wish this would come back in style," "I wish I wore these $200 pants more often" and "I wish I was the same size I was when I was 14." But you can kiss the rest goodbye!

Later this week I will post a list of resources where you can sell these old clothes. Another fun way to get rid of old things is to have a Swap Party with your friends. Everyone brings items from their closets and tags them with a price and you can swap and trade. What is bringing you down can brighten someone’s day!

Stay tuned for the answers to 6-10 soon!

kk

The Curse of the Closet

If you're a first time Solas blog reader, be sure to catch up on the preparations of designer Kara Kurcz's 90-day Fashion Detox by scrolling down to the January 22nd blog!

And now, The Curse of the Closet...

There is nothing worse than having a cursed closet. I swear, I clean out the bad spirits of my closet every spring, but come the following winter there are demons lurking in every nook and cranny. So what is a cursed closet, you may ask? Well, it is a closet that puts out negative energy— it literally is working against you and your self-image. It emits thoughts of failure and guilt and can easily trigger anxiety. If you are following along with my exercises, you most likely discovered a few things about your closet from last week’s blog. Today we are just going to tackle questions 1-3 and do a few simple exercises that will help our closet become healthier.

1.)    How many items in your closet still have the tags on them?

If the answer was none, then you can move on to the next item on this list. If the answer was 2 or more listen up. You have one of 3 things going on. You are either
A. A Compulsive Shopper (which we briefly touched on a few weeks back),
B. An Impulse Buyer, or
C. The Procrastinating Fashionista. This is the young lady who buys things she will be able to wear "someday," either when she loses weight, gets a new haircut, or finds the perfect event. The Procrastinating Fashionista has a million excuses for why she is in denial of her closet.

Why are the three of these things a HUGE problem? Well, it’s simple. They make you want to hide from your closet, and when you ignore your closet, you are denying yourself a chance to express your inner beauty. When we buy things and feel guilty, we tend to hide them in the back of the closet, or in a place where we don’t have to look at our “mistake” everyday. If you are a Compulsive Buyer you probably know the dreadful feeling of seeing all those shirts lined up in different colors, with most of them still tagged. You are probably embarrassed and a little shameful. When I went through my compulsive stage, I hid my closet from people, which directly affected my self-esteem, how I viewed money and the world around me. The Procrastinating Fashionista does a huge number on her self worth, every morning she is looking at a pair of pants or a dress that stares back at her and says, “Haha, you can’t fit into me!” Rarely do I find that this type of closet actually inspires my friends to lose weight or change their lives. It is just a constant reminder of what you are NOT, instead of what you ARE... which is AMAZING no matter what shape you are in physically, financially or emotionally. This is no different than when you buy an outfit for a special day. If that day is an event in 3 weeks, it makes sense. But if you have a fantastic pair of pants hanging in your closet just waiting for a “special” day, you are basically telling the universe, “I am not special enough to wear this today, but someday maybe I will be.” Every time you open that closet you are staring at a negative message: “Haha! You nerd! You aren’t cool enough to wear me yet!”

There is a lot to be done, but for this week, all I want you to do is take everything with tags on it OUT of your closet, unless you will wear it in the immediate future.

2.)    Is your closet color-coded?

If you answered, NO move on. If you answered YES, let’s chat.

Listen, I am all for the idea of neat and orderly. I believe that organization brings success, reduces anxiety and gives a sense of clarity. However, you have to decide if the motivation behind your closet is healthy. Like I said, our closet represents what is going on with us inside. Again there are several reasons you may have an EXTREMELY organized closet. The most common is control. If you are the type of person who freaks out when a picture frame has been moved slightly left on the mantle, I am guessing your highly organized closet gives you a false sense of serenity. I am not here to judge you. In fact, I could care less if for the rest of your life your living room remains spotless with every knickknack in place— that’s between you and your roomie. But your closet needs to be liberated. Why? Because you are most likely spending way too much time analyzing if your maroon pants should sit with the purple family or the red. Instead you should be focusing on how hot maroon makes your green eyes look! You need to start thinking of yourself as a canvas, and every morning when you open your closet there lie your paints and brushes. You can’t look at your closet as something you need to “control.” Especially for type A people, a closet needs to be an expressive outlet. Eventually we will talk about how to organize our closet in a way that positively reflects who we are as Fashionistas. But for now I am asking you to not organize your closet for 7 days because I want you to see what you wear the most and what colors you gravitate towards. Hang all the clothes you wear most often in the middle, and next Tuesday we will revisit this.

Another symptom of an organized closet is money guilt. Believe it or not, the reason the Compulsive Buyer over-buys is the same reason you don’t buy as much. Money is a tough subject, but I believe, from the bottom of my heart, when we focus on the fear of failure, we are limiting our ability to achieve happiness and wealth. Trust me, there are ways to be fashionable and frugal. Once you know your style and you get excited it about it, you wont have to dislike shopping anymore.

I want you to get an empty shoebox this week and start cutting out magazine photos of styles you admire and like. Just collect them, don’t look at the price and don’t feel like you have to pick things in the same category. Everyday put at least one image in the box and next Tuesday we will discuss them.

3.)    Is your closet outfit-coded?

Do you plan your outfits and hang them together? Be sure to read the answer from #2 if you are organized, because doing this allows you to utilize your closet better. Organizing your closet by outfit can be EXTREMLY healthy, as long as your closet doesn’t look like a department store warehouse with clothes that are unworn.

Check back next week to see steps 4-10. I know this is a slow process, but trust me, it will make you think about your closet and how it reflects back on you— and it will all be worth it in the long run!

kk

A Healthy Closet Means A Healthy YOU!

Your 7-day prep for the 90-day Fashion Detox...

Ok, so now you've identified what kind of shopper you are. If my hunch is correct, you have fallen into two or three of the categories at different times in your life. Right? So what does that mean? Well, believe it or not your shopping habits and your closet’s status is directly related to your self-esteem, your feelings about money and how you view the world. Sounds crazy, I know, but I can walk into any of my friend’s closets and deduce a lot. I can also tell how my family or friends are feeling based on what they’re wearing on a given day. Sometimes I have to expand my search to the trunk of their car, or storage closets where they may be hiding items they “intend” to return, but you get the idea. Think about it. When you feel hot and sexy, what do you do? You dress hot and sexy. And when you feel frantic and crazy, how do you dress? When you feel bloated? The list goes on, and your closet, believe it or not, is not far off. The difference with our closet, however, is that 85% of us keep it the same way and have for years, which, unfortunately, is a reflection of deeper emotions and feelings about ourselves, money and the world.

I am not here to organize your closet or revamp your wardrobe, instead, my goal is to make you feel better about yourself, help you have a healthy relationship with your closet and help you to never feel guilty about shopping again. Fashion is fun and it has nothing to do with what is on the runway or strutting down the red carpet. It is about you. I have had so many people tell me “I'm not into fashion.” I don’t think that is possible. That's like saying, "I'm not into food." We need fashion to live— unless, of course, you live in a nudist colony, but even people there are fashionable! You don’t have to be into my kind of fashion, or Kate Holmes’ fashion or Vogue’s fashion. But when you say to the universe, “I am not into fashion,” what you are doing is making an excuse to not celebrate yourself and who you are.

Recently, I died my hair dark and decided to dress a little more sophisticated. Why? I have been traveling a lot for business and I kept running into obstacles; things weren’t going the way I wanted them to. I just felt I needed a change. I wanted to tell the universe and those around me, “Hey! I mean business!” I change my fashion all the time. It helps me reinvent myself and get a new perspective on things. One of my best friends said to me “Oh, I like this new look! Remember when you were into wearing gold lamet a few years ago? That was horrific!” I personally don’t ever regret a fashion choice I make, except once, when I let a stylist talk me into wearing a dress on a TV show— my gut said NO, but at the time I thought, “she’s a stylist— she knows what she’s talking about!” Never again! I was in tears when I watched it, which just supports my initial statement. Your fashion needs to be YOUR fashion, not someone else’s.

When I was wearing gold sequined tops, I was a young director living in West Hollywood. I had short red hair and I loved to go dancing— I wanted to stick out in crowd. Everyone moves to LA and has a dream and I wanted people to say, “Hey, what is she about?” I’m blonde naturally and everyone in LA was blonde. In fact, it was that time of my life where I discovered the power of color and how different colors can help inspire and guide you. Mind you, I would not dress like that now because that is not my fashion style anymore, but, no regrets— my fashion then lead me to my life now, which ultimately lead to the birth of Solas. My point is, it doesn’t matter what other people think. As long as you walk out that door every morning and feel great about you and your fashion.

What we are going to do is start with your closet. Now, repeat after me: “A healthy closet is a healthy me.” Our closet is like the multi-vitamin we are all supposed start taking in our 20s. We walk past the bottle everyday, sometimes we take it, sometimes we forget to take it, and sometimes we are just too tired and lazy to open the lid. But we need the nutrients that are inside of that capsule to help us live a strong and healthy life. In a way, that vitamin is the foundation of our health.  Well guess what? Our closet is the foundation to our fashion-- so stop ignoring what it is telling you. If it’s color-coded, it doesn’t mean it’s healthy; it might just be a way of controlling one aspect of your life because you feel you can’t control something else. If it’s messy and chaotic, I bet it’s because you’re busy lately. No time for yourself, huh? We all have ailing closets. The symptoms are all different. No one is born with a healthy closet; you build it with time and a little TLC.

So now that we have identified our shopping habits, let’s start with our closet habits. I want you to look at your closet and take a tally.  Below you will find a list of 10 things to look for. There are no right or wrong answers. We are just going to use our closet as a guide; sort of like puzzles pieces that will help us make a map to ourselves and who we are right now and where we can be in the future.  So for one week, I want you to analyze your closet nightly. Don’t change anything- just observe.

1.)    How many items in your closet still have the tags on them?
2.)    Is your closet color-coded?
3.)    Is your closet outfit-coded? For example: you plan your outfits and hang them together.
4.)    What is on the floor of your closet?
5.)    Do you wear at least 80% of the items in your closet?
6.)    Do you have empty hangers in your closet?
7.)    Is your closet over-stuffed? Is it hard to see what’s inside?
8.)    Are your shoes and handbags in the same closet as your clothes?
9.)    Is your closet EXTREMELY messy?
10.)  Do you have any trouble deciphering between clean and dirty clothes in your closet?

Next Tuesday we will analyze your observations and make simple changes that I guarantee will start to brighten your day. See you then!

kk

Kara Kurcz's 90-day Fashion Detox is Coming Soon!

Don't forget, every Tuesday Kara will share with you her 90-day Fashion Detox program. If you haven't been reading the blog lately, you can still join us! Tomorrow's blog explains the 7-day prep period before 90-day Fashion Detox finally begins!! Scroll down to the previous blogs and do the preliminary exercises so you're all ready!

And check back soon for more of Solas Travels.. we'll tell you all about Kara and Brian's trip to Hong Kong last month!