Tip Tuesday #7- Know When to Shop for the Best Deals

It's now the end of January and the Holidays are officially over and with it goes the frenzy of sales. Sort of... While Black Friday and 12/26 sales are behind us, that doesn't mean you can't get a good deal, so don't think you now have to buy everything at full price. As a matter of fact, unless you're buying a very high end luxury item, specific brand, or need something in a pinch (there are even exceptions to all this) you should never buy anything at full price. Having worked in the retail industry for umpteen years, trust me when I say, save your money, you can always get a deal!!

Here's a chart outlining the best times to shop for certain items. 

January- Stores need to make room for spring goods so the mad dash to get rid of anything winter is on. You'll find very deep discounts on winter items- boots, coats, scarves, gloves etc. I will say, at this point it's all been picked over but, you can definitely find some great deals on winter items.

February- Spring goods start hitting stores and it's a slow time for sales. But, now is your chance to browse all the new spring looks and note down what you want to buy when the sales start. If you're in the NYC area, during this "down time", why not  go out and catch a Broadway play. It's "off season"  and you can get a really good deal on theater tickets now.

March- Planning on travelling for spring break and realize your suitcases have seen better times? Well, you're in luck, because it happens to be the best time to get a great deal on luggage. Also, some of that spring merchandise will start going on sale, so start looking for those coupons and take advantage of One Day Sales.

April- Remember all that spring stuff you saw in February and held off on buying for a better deal? It's deal time and just in time for the start of spring! Goods that came in in February are making their way to the clearance racks. Best bet would be to shop early so you're not left with picked over merchandise. Also, summer goods start coming in now, so while you're shopping for spring clearance, browse summer merchandise as well. 

May- Summer is in full swing in stores (even though it's not officially summer yet). Summer deliveries are out with big sales starting, especially around Memorial Day.

June- Tired of looking at your chipped dishes or want to complete your incomplete dish sets? Now is your time to do it. With wedding season in full swing retailers have lots of home products on sale, even those fine china pieces that you keep wishing would go on sale.  

July- Let the summer clearance begin!! More aptly, time to buy summer SANDALS! Summer shoes and clothing are on sale to make room for early fall / back to school merchandise. 

August- Summer clearance is still going on and now true summer items, like bathing suits, are heavily discounted. This is the time to stock up and save for next summer. The family (Mom, Dad and kiddos) will always need shorts, tees, bathing suits etc. so buy them a size bigger (for the kiddos) now while they are on clearance, and you'll be all set for next summer.  Back to school items start hitting stores, so see what's out there, but hold off on buying them. 

September- Labor day sales are the best time to buy outdoor furniture, pool stuff and all "summer activity" things. Again, buy them now and save them for next year.

October- When is the best time to buy back to school stuff? During back to school! Fall merchandise is on clearance to start making way for all the holiday goodies. You can get amazing deals on denim end September / beginning October. 

November- And so begins the Holiday shopping season. I have three words for this month- Black Friday Sales, 'nuff said.

December- Sale, Sale and more sale. The best day to shop all year is 12/26 when all off the post holiday sales start. Once again, stock up and save on winter items or if there is something that you wanted to buy and can wait till after the holidays, now is the time to buy it. 

Take it a step further and plan to shop on Thursdays, it's the best day of the week to get a good deal since most retailers start their weekend sales on that day. 

Hope this all helps you save money and find the best deals!

What are some of your amazing deal shopping tips?

Tip Tuesday #6- How to Tell if Your Shoes Are Made Well.

Picture it- You’re in a shoe store, you see a pair of shoes you love (that also happen to be at a great price) and when you try them on they fit perfectly. You scream “I’ll take them!!!” You immediately start texting, tweeting, facebooking, a picture of your new shoes with the caption “I know you’re jealous :)”. Next day, you’re struttin’ your stuff, wearing your new shoes on the way to work, and BAM the ankle strap breaks and you go falling forward. The next thing you know you’re down on the ground stunned, sad and have a skinned knee. Not a great place to be with what you thought were a great pair of shoes….

With a chunk of my career being in both men’s and women’s footwear, I’ve learned a thing or 9,000 about shoe construction and what a well-made shoe looks like. Here are some quick and easy things (along with VIDEO) that you can do in the store to make sure your perfect shoe will go the extra mile.  

Once you’ve tried on the shoe, found it be comfortable and it passed the visual tests- hand your kid your iPhone, sit down and let the inspections begin. 

Here's the information in text form, as well as some additional tid bits.

Bound for life- Make sure the upper is bound to the sole properly. Hold the shoes up together and make sure they are even, flip it to the back, make sure the heels are even. Visually inspect for uneven stitching or exposed glue. Then go on and (sort of gently) try and separate the upper from the sole. Look out for stitching coming loose or gaps forming. Tug at heels, straps, buckles or any hardware, again, look for any separation or loose stitching.

Get acquainted- Go on, stick your hand in it. Feel to make sure the lining is secure, applied correctly and that there is no exposed glue. Feel the upper to make sure there are no exposed edges that could hurt your feet.

Flex It- Flex the shoe. Does it make a cracking noise, or feel like it’s pulling? That’s an indication that the sole was either not attached properly or the wrong size upper could have been put on the wrong size sole.

What is it really made out of- If you are buying leather shoes, you want to make sure it’s a good quality leather. If you have a dark color shoe and see a white cast or white speckles, this may be mold!! A good indicator that the leather was not handled properly. You can even scratch is slightly to see if the “leather” comes off.

At most you’ll end up spending a few extra minutes in the shoe store (I can think of worse places to be) conducting these easy “tests”. But at the end you'll know you're buying a well made shoe.

Hope this information helps and Happy Shoe Shopping!

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How to Wear Radiant Orchid for Your Skin Undertone

Pantone has named Radiant Orchid as the Color of the Year- 2014. 

Here is how Pantone describes the color-                                                                      “Radiant Orchid blooms with confidence and magical warmth that intrigues the eye and sparks the imagination. It is an expressive, creative and embracing purple—one that draws you in with its beguiling charm. A captivating harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid emanates great joy, love and health”- pantone.com

Radiant Orchid is a beautiful purple color and I’ve always been drawn to this color. I used a similar color as the accent on the 344pm website. This color not only works in clothing, fashion accessories and make up, but it’s also a great color for home accessories, paint color, and furniture.

While radiant orchid is a fabulous color, I will say it could be a little tricky to wear depending on your skin undertone. Here are some tips on how you can wear the color of the year based on your skin undertone.

First, determine your skin undertone-

Your skin undertone is basically the tone that is under your skin and is categorized as cool, warm or neutral. This is different from your skin tone (the skin color that’s visible), categorized as light, fair, medium, olive, brown and black. There really isn't a direct correlation between your skin tone and your skin undertone. For example, a person with a light skin tone can have a cool undertone and a person with a black skin tone can also have a cool undertone.

Don’t know your skin undertone? Here’s an easy chart I put together with various industry standard questions that can help you figure out your skin undertone. Please note, there are variations, and if you go between cool and warm then you are considered a neutral skin undertone.

 

How to Wear Radiant Orchid If you’re a Cool Undertone-

Since radiant orchid is a cool shade your skin undertone works great with this color. You can wear it on its own, mix and match, or even go head to toe, it’s all up to you!! Click through the examples below on how you, Ms. COOL Undertone, can dress up or dress down radiant orchid. 

How to Wear Radiant Orchid If you’re a Warm Undertone-

Radiant Orchid is a cool shade, so you may need to do a little “enhancing” when wearing this color. The first tip would be that you shouldn't wear radiant orchid close to your face because it could give you a “washed out” look. But, go on and incorporate this color in pants, skirts, accessories, handbags and shoes, basically anything away from the face. You can also use this color as an accent color, mix and match it with other colors, or wear different shades of it. Radiant orchid is in the purple family and purple looks great on warm skin undertones so, for example, you can wear a purple blouse, grey pants and add on some radiant orchid shoes for a trend right look. Click through the examples below on how you, Ms. WARM Undertone, can dress up or dress down Radiant Orchid.

Now that you are armed with the knowledge of how to wear the color of the year based on your skin undertone- go forth and go shopping for all that is Radiant Orchid!! 

PS- Want information on the items above? Head over to polyvore.com. Click on Members, put in my member name- mk-344pm and all of my "sets" will pop up.  Are you a  member of polyvore? Follow me for access to more outfit inspiration. 

Tip Tuesday #5- How to Organize Your Closet

Happy New Year!! I can’t believe the craziness of the holiday season has come and gone and here we are, in 2014… Wishing you all a happy, healthy and peaceful year.

I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions per se, but I usually start the year with certain goals I’d like to accomplish. This year I’d like to get “healthier”- not really watch what I eat (I’m usually pretty good with that) but, to overall get my body and mind in balance. The other goal I have is to get more organized. Now for those of you who know me, and my OCD tendencies, you know I’m already pretty “organized” (we’ll go with that word), so stop rolling your eyes, that’s not what I mean by organized… By organized I mean I need to get a system / structure in place and get rid of the clutter!!

The first thing to organize - my closet!! While I usually do a closet purge at least 2x a year I will say, unfortunately, I have not been able to do one since last year and now I’ve got hangers sticking out all over the place. So, if you’re in the same situation as me and want to know how to organize your closet- here are some tips on how to do so.

The one year rule- First go through your closet and pull out anything you have not worn in the past year. Then from that pile, pull out the basics, but only ones that fit!! (ie- white button down shirts, navy blazers etc.). I tend to put these items back in my closet since they are timeless and can be worn regardless of fashion trends. However, if any of these items are pulled out the second go around, they don’t go back in the closet…

If it doesn’t fit, you must… toss it…- No matter what your personal style, body shape, hair color, skin tone is, if you wear something that doesn’t fit (either too small or too big) it’s just plain unflattering… Now, if you’re on a real deal weight gain / loss program and you’re looking at these items as motivation to get to a certain weight (if you are- good for you!!!) go ahead and keep them. If you’re not, chances are you won’t fit into these items again. So, don’t let them create clutter your closet, just get rid of them. And if by chance you do end up gaining / losing weight it’s all the more reason to go shop for new clothes :)

Sort clothes by category- Now that you've tossed the unneeded items, it’s time to organize your closet. I like to organize mine by category- shirts, pants, blazers, etc. all separated so I can easily see what I own and can therefore mix and match to create many different outfits.

Assess your needs- Once you have your clothes organized you can then see what you need. For example, you may be going back to work in an office, with a clean closet you can see if you need more work clothes, and then go shopping!!!

I have a pile of clothing on my closet floor- Now, for the stuff to get rid of… Personally I like to donate them. There are several organizations, for example Dress for Success hosts donation drives, Salvation Army, Good Will or any organization of your choice. There are also garage sales, clothing swaps, etc.

Hope this information helps you to de-clutter your closet and therefore enable you to shop for more clothes, I mean, be less cluttered…

Life changes, your personal style doesn’t have to

As life changes, so does your wardrobe, but not your style... Making these transitions can be difficult and stressful. There’s the transition from “recent college grad” wardrobe to “working in corporate America” wardrobe. There’s, my personal favorite (I'm being a bit sarcastic), transitioning from “no baby” wardrobe, to “pregnant” wardrobe, to “returning to work after maternity leave” wardrobe. One of the biggest concerns that I hear from my clients is that now that they are a- (fill in the blank- mom, retired, SAHM, etc) they will have to change how they dress and this tends to make them feel overwhelmed and not themselves. To that, I always tell my clients to stay calm and know that even though life changes, their personal style doesn't have to. If you're a SAHM and consider yourself trendy, you don’t have to trade in your skinny jeans for “Mom Jeans”. If your style is traditional, you don’t have to switch out your button down shirts for casual t-shirts just because you have decided to work from home versus an office setting. Sure, there will be some adjustments to how you dress, but you don't have to change your style.

Here are some tips to how to stay true to your personal style while adjusting to many of life’s changes.

The Right Fit- Make sure you stay true to your personal style, but also make sure your clothes fit properly. Something I figured out the hard way- your body will change overtime... Gaining weight, losing weight- it happens... I realized that my mid 30’s, post baby body was not that of my mid 20’s single gal body. I looked at all my cute (yet now tight fitting) low cut ruffle tops from Forever 21 and thought I should just give up and turn them in for moo moos… But, I loved my cute ruffly tops. So instead, I reassessed my body shape / size and shopped for items that still suited my personal style, but now reflected my lifestyle and size. So, I moved away from the size 4, tailored fit chiffon ruffle blouse to the size 6 cotton (with a bit of spandex) ruffle blouse. 

Mix and Match- Every life change doesn’t mean you have to clean out your entire closet and start over with a new wardrobe. You can still wear your favorite pieces that reflect your personal style (but make sure they fit, see the above point). If you decide to quit Corporate America and start a business, while working from home, you can still incorporate the suits you love in your everyday wardrobe. Sure, maybe you’ll go a bit more casual, but suit blazers can pretty much work with almost anything. A navy blazer with a button down shirt and jeans will look great, whether you’re working at your home office desk or even in a coffee shop.

While the constant is knowing that life changes, the good thing is YOU (and your Jimmy Choo’s) don’t have to change with it…

Want a second opinion on what works for your personal style? Contact me and, together, we can figure out a wardrobe that works for you.