Did you know I live in a bilingual community? Most people know Canada has two official languages – English and French – but you may not know that French isn’t just for Quebec! There are Western towns like mine where French is alive and well! Signs are bilingual, French is spoken in the streets and my kids attend French immersion schooling. All that hasn’t improved my French much! I’m banking on my children translating me through French wineries and Parisian museums one day! Nonetheless I have many awesome bilingual friends and work with many bilingual teachers in my day job including Rachelle! Rachelle is kind enough to follow my blog and recently changed from a alternating-days teaching gig to an every day assignment. That meant she had to adjust to wearing work clothes every single day! I would respond to this predicament by immediately going thrifting for 50% more clothes, but Rachelle instead asked for my help to find some new outfits within her existing wardrobe. Mais oui, sounds magnifique!
Rachelle’s closet-edit goals were to find some more outfits, challenge herself to try new things and avoid falling into a style rut. Now, I’ve worked with Rachelle many times over the years… she’s pretty stylin! She has a killer figure and is not afraid to wear skirts and dresses in kindergarten! She always looks put together and in control. Just like me. Yep. (Be quiet. Ferme la bouche!) Her closet and dresser were already well-organized, and her accessory cabinet was tres charmant! (Rachelle, please ignore all my French errors. Merci.)
Just like with Megan’s closet edit, we weeded out anything worn or ill-fitting and then asked the question, “does it spark joy?” to help make final decisions about pieces. We also followed the Konmari order. Here are some of the tops that didn’t survive the afternoon…
Rachelle likes the forgiving fit of pretty romantic tops with a banded or elastic waist band. I see plenty of that style at thrift stores so I’m certain she would SCORE, but alas, I wasn’t there to take her shopping! As we went through her pieces, we realized that Rachelle was just waiting for someone objective to give her “permission” to get rid of pieces that she already knew didn’t spark joy. I was happy to do that and if YOU are needing the same affirmation, let me go ahead and say: DONATE THEM! Your meh is someone else’s WOW! Some of the pieces Rachelle kept…
Now onto some of the outfits we came up with:
As we went through Rachelle’s closet, I made a list of a few key pieces to look for when shopping or, preferably, thrifting:
CHAMBRAY, like yesterday
mustard anything, but a cardi would be epic
cute blazers to mix and match with her pieces – thrifted blazers run around $6 making them much more doable for the kindergarten environment (as you may have surmised from my extensive blazer collection!)
wide belt option and more skinny belts
dark wash skinny jeans
red pants
long pendant
more violet, Rachelle’s fave colour
khaki skinnies
striped dress
Miz Mooz footwear for troubled feet comme moi!
And there’s a few pieces that Rachelle will keep an eye out for to replace ones she discarded:
We also reiterated AGAIN that hand-me-downs only seem to work if initiated by the recipient, otherwise you tend to be given pieces that don’t spark joy. Pardon moi, but it’s the truth! In Rachelle’s closet, we switched the tops and pants to better fit the space, reorganized colour sections from dark to light and Rachelle plans to move her bags into her closet for space-saving at the precious shared front closet! After I left to retrieve mes enfants, Rachelle ditched several sweaters – teachers get hot and classroom temps are unpredictable so you need layers like blazers and cardis that you can pull on and off!
Rachelle, it was beaucoup de fun playing dress ups! I hope you find these ideas inspiring and use the styling tips with other pieces in your wardrobe! You always look like a million bucks so it can only go up from here! Let me know if you ever want to go thrifting! I’m sure you’ll SCORE, I mean, trouver beaucoup de choses!
I was blogging with my eyes closed last night so updated this from the post that got emailed to subscribers (just in case that’s YOU, you might want to take a second read… and ignore all my bad French!! I of course read it my mind with a very francais accent and grande glass of vin in hand! Dramatique!!!)
looplooks
I love posts like this because I love doing the same thing for my friends! My favorite outfits you created are the sheer multi-colored shell with the black blazer and showing Rachelle all the ways to wear the polka dot top. Tres bien! (Je parle un peu de Francais :-))
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I was blogging with my eyes closed last night so updated this from the post that got emailed to subscribers (just in case that’s YOU, you might want to take a second read… and ignore all my bad French!! I of course read it my mind with a very francais accent and grande glass of vin in hand! Dramatique!!!)
I love posts like this because I love doing the same thing for my friends! My favorite outfits you created are the sheer multi-colored shell with the black blazer and showing Rachelle all the ways to wear the polka dot top. Tres bien! (Je parle un peu de Francais :-))