quality petite ladies lady clothing designer clothes petite stylish beautiful gorgeous short shorter fashion

Weeding
Take a look through your wardrobe and remove:

• Oversized, shapeless, ill-fitting clothes, or garments with bulky fabrics.  These will all make you look half your height and twice your weight?
• Loose and baggy clothing that do not emphasise your waist.  These will just takes your height away and will turn you into any one of The Seven Dwarves.
• Dresses or tops that are ‘baby doll’ or ‘dropped waist’ styles (unless you’re trying to blend in at a 5-year-old’s birthday party!)
• Skirts that are over-full, gathered or puffball styles – these will turn you into Cinderella’s pumpkin.
• Jackets that stop on the thighs?  These don’t hide a large bottom or hips – they make them look like the Grand Canyon.
• Any style with big shoulder pads, batwings or large puffed sleeves – they bulk you up on top like Popeye the Sailor man.
• Clothes with over-large patterns – these are out of proportion with your petite frame and will make you look like a lampshade.
• Tired garments that are past their sell-by date.
• Clothes in colours that drain you, make you skin look sallow, sap your energy or colours you simply you don't feel good in.
• Repeats (unless you wear a uniform), why would you want six smart pairs of plain black trousers?  Pick the best and ditch the rest.
• Garments that do not fit with your lifestyle - if those jodhpurs have been lurking there for years but you hate riding then get rid of them.

Now that’s a little better, bag these up and send them to the charity shop.

Cleaning
Slide all the garments that are left up one end of your wardrobe and give it a good clean.

Experimenting
Put all your shoes and boots out on display and have your accessories e.g. belts, scarves, handbags, and jewellery at hand.

You can now begin to create your new "capsule wardrobe". From the garments that are still hanging in your wardrobe select a ‘key garment’. This is a garment around which a total look is created or designed. It may be an expensive, favourite, special coloured or exciting new garment you have just purchased. 

A ‘key garment’ may be a skirt, trousers, blouse, shoes, even a belt or jewellery. Now look at the rest of the clothes still hanging in your wardrobe and identify articles, which will mix and match with the ‘key garment’. These can be jackets, skirts, trousers, jumpers, blouses, tops, scarves, shoes, boots, bags, belts, stockings, tights, socks, and jewellery. Each ‘key garment’ may have several different blends or alternatives.

Have lots of fun and see how many outfits and looks you can create. Allow the style or texture of the ‘key garment’ to influence the style or colour scheme of the outfit. Don’t forget the right colour shoes, the right heel height, scarves, jewellery, belts can completely make or transform a look.

Organizing
Now re-arrange the items in your wardrobe. Allow 80% of your wardrobe for items you wear on the top half of your body e.g. blouses, shirts, jackets, jumpers and T shirts and 20% for the items you wear on the bottom half e.g. skirts, trousers, shorts and jeans. Group your trousers, skirts, dresses etc together. Similarly organize your tops and arrange them by colour so you can easily find them. Knitwear should be folded, avoid hanging it on hangers as it will stretch and loose it’s shape. Hangers should be wood or plastic rather than metal. Keep your shoes polished and ideally in a clear box system so they don’t get dusty.  Alternatively, display them on a rack. Hang your belts on hooks rather than rolled up which can result in them cracking. Fold scarves and store them flat. Have a good sort out of your lingerie, hosiery and jewellery.

Shopping
You will undoubtedly have to make a shopping list, of items that you need to purchase to complete a look. 

Be strict, only buy clothes that: 

• Work with your existing wardrobe, unless you find a new irresistible ‘key garment’. You will also find that you become highly selective in you choices, you will have far more outfits from far fewer clothes, dressing will become more enjoyable as you have so many combinations to choose from. You may want to spend the money you have saved on more expensive, beautifully cut clothes.
• Will fit and flatter your petite figure. You can always be assured that it is safe to buy from the Karen Gillam Petite Collection as you can guarantee that the utmost attention is given to these very important factors.

• Quality not quantity – think about ‘cost per wear’. This is dividing the cost of a garment by how many times you wear it e.g. an expensive trouser suit that can be worn many ways, for instance the suit jacket with jeans or a co-ordinating skirt; the suit trousers with a co-ordinating jumper and cardigan or shirt and alternative jacket. This becomes less costly than a wardrobe full of bargains that don’t co-ordinate.
• Colours that are right for you (if you are stuck in a rut and / or only buy black then have a professional colour consultation with my image consultancy, Dress Code UK – visit www.dresscodeuk.co.uk The colours that suit you will all magically blend beautifully with each other making it easy to build a wardrobe of clothes that compliment each other.

HAPPY SHOPPING