Introducing Sydney

And today’s guest is my friend Sydney. Sydney is a personal stylist, a mindset coach, a business strategist, and a writer. She brings structure and organization coupled with subconscious wiring to help people streamline and simplify the chaos around them, particularly in their closets.

Back in 2009, Sydney launched a website called Chic Stripes, which was a personal style blog that she has since transformed to also include a successful personal styling business– abusiness teaching other personal stylists how to profitably run their businesses, as well as the new Style Lab, which helps individual people discover their personal taste.

We’re going to talk a little bit more about that today. Sydney also holds a Master’s in Social Work, and a Master in Christian Education. She is a certified yoga teacher, trained in motivational interviewing technique, cognitive behavioral technique, and neurolinguistic programming.

She is an incredible sort of Jane of all trades with this real emphasis on empowering women to find and live into their personal taste. Sydney’s married and is a cat and chicken mom. We share chicken memes with each other on occasion online, which is one of the ways that we stay in touch, in addition to seeing each other around town and crafting together monthly with Richmond Creative Club.

I’m so excited to share Sydney with you today and hope that you will get as much out of this conversation as I have already gotten out of just the email that prompted this discussion.

I’ll talk more about that in a little bit. Before we dive into the conversation with Sydney, let me share a quick segment.

Segment: Peaks of the Week

This segment is Peaks of the Week, where I share a couple of things that have been absolute favorites in my life. And since today’s episode is all about finding your personal taste, I thought I would share three items of clothing. One is a set, so it counts as two, even though it’s going together, that I go to repeatedly, and that I have bought multiples of because of how much I love it.

Take it or leave it, these are things to explore.

As we’re diving into and discussing personal taste today, you can check out these links in the show note and see if these are things that you would like as well.

Vuori Joggers and Hoodie

The first one is this Vuori jogger set. My sister first gave me a pair of these incredibly heavenly soft Vuari joggers for Christmas a couple years ago, and I wore them so often that I Invested in another pair with a matching zip up lightweight hoodie to Be able to wear more often.

So, I rotate between the two pairs. I’m wearing one of them at least a couple of times a week, if not both. In fact, I’m sitting here recording in my black joggers, a blackboard, a t shirt that goes along with them. And I have my zip up hoodie in my backpack. The nice thing about this set is that a, like I mentioned, it’s heavenly soft, like unbelievably comfortable and soft.

It feels like you’re wrapping yourself in a lightweight, wonderful blanket. That without it being too hot because I wear it all spring long. It’s elastic waist drawstring, super stretchy with pockets, all like absolute check marks for me in comfort. And it looks good.

It looks like an upscale version of pajamas. It’s like athleisure at its best. I’m a huge fan, so I will link the joggers that I love, have multiple pairs of, as well as the zip up hoodie that goes with them.

When I wear it as a set, this is like my go to travel outfit as well. When I wear it as a set, I feel so put together, even though I’m also like the most comfortable that I’ve ever been.

Rubber Birkenstocks

The second thing coming up on spring is Birkenstock’s rubber sandals. I have a pair of leather Birkenstocks, which I love, the classic Arizonas. I have the platform ones. I wear them in the spring and summer primarily, but I found last year that I wanted to wear them to the beach and to the pool and they don’t handle water very well.

So, I invested in a pair of the rubber Birkenstocks. The ones that I have are the t straps, so they look like a flip flop version, but I really love just the regular Arizona style t straps. double strap regular ones. And you can get them a lot of different places. I will link to them in the show notes, but you can find them at Dick’s or REI or Zappos or Birkenstock website.

They have so many different colors. They’re inexpensive. They’re like $50 for the pair. And you will wear them nonstop in the spring, summer, and you can wear them to the pool, to the beach. They handle water well. I’m really So excited I’m taking Plum and my friend Taylor, and I were going down to spend just a few days in Florida next week for spring break and I told Plum this is something that we need to get for her in advance.

She needs new summer shoes and I’ve got a pair and she’s going to get a pair in the next couple days. I’ll probably put them in her Easter basket. They’re that versatile and that wonderful. I highly recommend.

Ribbed Madewell Tank

The final peak of the week today in my spring summer fashion style recommendations is the Supima Rib Cutaway Take from Madewell.

This tank top is a thicker strap, almost like a bigger strap. Like a muscle tee, but it’s fitted. It’s a little bit high necked, but not so high that it chokes you. And it’s just a beautiful cut. I like the way that it looks on my body. You may like the way that it looks on your body.

It is so comfortable. It retains its shape well because of the ribbing and it comes in a variety of colors. So, the first year that I bought it a couple years ago, I think I got black and gray. And then last year I added white and red and dark blue. And I was noticing that this year they have yellow, and they have some salmon, and they have a deal.

And it really is my go-to top in the warm weather. I love that I can layer it. I can put it underneath a vest or a button up shirt. I can put it underneath a jumpsuit. I can layer a jacket, a lightweight jacket like my Vuori zip up on top of it. It feels good going to the pool and the beach.

It feels good playing tennis or even doing like a hike. It also dresses up well, so I can put, some high waisted jeans and a belt and boots on and look like I’m meant to get dressed in that outfit. Those are my peaks of the week. For spring summer fashion, the Worry athleisure suit, the rubber Birkenstocks and the Supima cutaway tank from Madewell.

And all the links will be in the show notes as well as in the full show notes that you can always find@livefreecreative.co slash podcast. Check ’em out there and let me know what you think.

Conversation with Sydney:

Miranda: Okay, now let’s dive into my conversation with Sydney. Hey, Sydney, I’m so glad that you’re here. Thank you so much for agreeing to come on Practically Happy today.

Sydney: Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me.

Miranda: I reached out to you after I read your email. I subscribe to your sub stack, which I love.

Thank you for putting out such great emails. I love an email newsletter recently and yours are some of my very favorites. I really appreciate the work you’re doing there. This email popped up in my inbox, personal taste versus personal style. And I started reading it and it was like all these light bulb moments.

And I, I just loved it. And I was so excited about the idea of just having a total perspective shift in the way that I think about getting dressed. And I think, maybe it’s a little arrogant, but I’m like, I don’t have like major perspective shifts all that often these days. Especially around things that are mundane that I feel like I’ve got a handle on.

Would you give, the listeners just an idea of like where this idea of personal taste versus personal style came up for you and like how you thought about it as you were preparing to share about it on your sub stack.

Sydney: Yeah. It, honestly, I had almost the same sort of revelations that you did in this, which is why it struck me so Largely, or just it was so relevant because I feel like personal style is very heavy for a lot of people.

So, there’s this kind of larger debate of fashion versus style, right? And fashion is the things you buy, style is how you wear it. But even that can feel heavy for people and almost but what if I don’t have style? If I don’t have this personal style, what am I going to do?

And when I heard, this was in another podcast, the Culture Study Podcast, I link it in my, email newsletter, but it was talking about this idea that like trends really pulls you away from your personal taste.

And when I heard that word taste, it was just all those light bulbs going off in my own head of, this is an approachable way for people to think about their personal style. Because when I think of taste, what came to my mind was like, taste buds, right? Not like this, some people think of taste as Oh, your taste in art is so good, or it’s so high and elevated.

But I was just like, nope, this is about whether you like mushrooms or tomatoes or pineapple on your pizza. Or you don’t. And how that relates. Which none of those things really

Miranda: have a moral value the way that you might assign to someone who has, like good taste in art or good, like I think we in other ways use the idea of taste sometimes in a little bit of a hierarchy of like good taste versus bad taste.

But when you think about what you eat is just, what you like and what you don’t like and that’s all okay. There’s not really a oh, sometimes I feel bad if someone doesn’t like something I like in terms of food just because I’m like, oh, I really Enjoy that. It’s too bad that you don’t but also that doesn’t mean my life is better than theirs or that I am like somehow more refined or something so I like how personal it gets when you think about your clothes as something that you can Personalize as much as your taste.

Sydney: Yeah, and I really like this idea that I do think getting dressed should be just as easy as when we think about the foods we like or don’t like. And I know that is a stumbling point for people sometimes, but I also believe that style can be taught. And There’s this kind of idea that style is maybe hard for people, but taste is easy.

So, it’s okay, if you know you like X, Y, and Z and don’t like X, Y, and Z, how can you start to take that same sort of philosophy or way of thinking to your closet when you’re shopping? what do you like? What do you not like? And can you just wear the things you like? Don’t wear the things you don’t like and just release it from some of this heaviness and like seriousness That we put on it when we’re getting dressed

Miranda: Yeah, and I thought that quote was so interesting the idea that like trends lead us away from our personal taste what do you think of that and of just the idea of trends in general? What purpose do they serve?

Sydney: Making companies money, largely. I’ve, so in all my kind of blogging and styling and getting dressed, I’ve never been a trans person in that I’ve, been on the forefront of trends. I think they can be useful because they introduce us to different things.

I am very into the high waist mom jean right now and you will not get me in a pair of low-rise skinnies for probably the rest of my life. And I am. Loving this like trend, right? but where that breaks down is where like skinny jeans may circle around again or even low-rise jeans And I’m like, I don’t want those I’m good with this thing I found that the trend bought me and now that infiltrated my Personal taste my personal style of this is the gene.

I like this is the jean I hate and it’s a very kind of clear-cut Easy decision for me now at that point. To appreciate what the trends brought but then leaving behind what? I don’t like.

Miranda: Yeah. I love this idea of trends being like our, maybe our exposure to, or like the window into new options where we maybe get to discover or explore things that we hadn’t been aware of before.

And at that point we choose whether we want to incorporate them based on our personal taste rather than this is the right way to dress right now.

Sydney: Totally. I like to think of trends to a little bit like. You’re watching the clouds in the sky, and I just let them go by me, right? Like I can choose to decide to say Ooh, I like this, or I don’t like it.

I don’t seek them out. I’m not always trying to seek out the trends, which I think is. Something where that heaviness comes in for people because they’re like, oh, I need to be on trend I have to buy this or this is what all the magazines say I have to wear and I think it’s just easier to just Let it go by you and if something catches your attention grab it and if it doesn’t cool I can just keep on going

Miranda: Totally.

I feel like I came to this idea of not being really, pulled around by trends, not through a cognitive process of realizing that they might not serve me, but more through my experience in experimenting with minimalism and recognizing that I wanted to have this really edited foundational wardrobe that were all things that I, That fit my body that I felt good and comfortable in and that I could mix and match in a million different ways.

And I, I came to that through an initially like a big closet declutter and I ended up with Maybe 20 percent of what my closet had been, even just in recognizing I didn’t need to feel bad for my clothes. If I hadn’t, if I wasn’t wearing them, I should donate them. Like I didn’t, there wasn’t like this emotional, there didn’t need to be the emotional attachment that sometimes we give to our belongings and recognizing like, oh, the things that are left are all the same.

Like I’m reaching for the exact same shapes and styles and fabrics, and it was like a good mirror that I couldn’t see until I cleaned off all the excess. I was like, oh, I do have some taste and it’s the things that I’m reaching for repeatedly amid all the fluff. And when I cleared the fluff, it was like so obvious what I actually wanted to wear and in the, It’s probably been almost 10 years since that initial closet clean out, that I wrote about on my blog in 2014 or 15, I occasionally, very occasionally, and I can like almost pinpoint the exact items of clothing that I’ve bought that have gone against what I knew and felt were my, was my actual taste.

And they never end up being something that I wear more than once or twice. maybe I’m, I, it’s like I tried, I try and then I’m like, no, I don’t want ruffles. I don’t want a ruffle on my body, and I will try I’ll get sucked in by the pretty mannequin anthropology or like the style blogger that makes it look so good and chic and then I get it and I put it on and I’m like, I feel like a peacock.

This isn’t for me. And it’s okay to not want ruffles. It’s okay to not want, the whatever pork on my plate. that’s fine. so, You and I, it sounds have come to this idea of it’s okay to like what you like, but how would you begin with someone, 98 percent of my listeners are women.

Most of them have children and are at some stage of like partnership, womanhood, motherhood, all different ages from, mid-twenties, all the way up to mid-fifties and beyond our bodies go through so many changes. Our, seasons of life go through so many changes. And I would guess for most of them getting dressed.

Isn’t something that just is so easy and so delightful. I’m guessing for most women, they’re at some port part of season, even just the change of seasons that we’re heading into spring. And it’s time to pull out our warm weather clothes and see, what do we even have from last year?

What still fits? What do I want to wear? What do I need to fill in holes in my closet? How would you start someone on the pathway of recognizing what their tastes might be in the clothing realm versus the food realm?

Sydney: Yeah, that’s in a way, it’s like such a heavy question, right? Which is what we’re trying to get away from is this heaviness, but I do just feel that I think as women we have a lot more things to shift through when it comes to getting dressed and like you said Things change all the time.

So I’ll talk about this a little bit more in a second, but what I really emphasize to people is creating what I call the structure of style.  I’m like a checklist type of person I love things that help me just almost like flow chart make decisions for me and so When I’m working with my clients or working with people I’m teaching them the structure of style and how to get there and that’s really Around what I call the four foundations Style foundations which are based on your vibe, your body, your colors, and your silhouettes. So these are four things that you have to pinpoint and you have to do it’s almost this like style education for yourself that you may have done before at some point and you may have not.

But once you learn how to do it you can do it anytime you have those changes in your life, right? You get older you get pregnant you go through a divorce like you move, you can walk yourself through this sort of like checklist scenario.

Miranda: Yeah,

Sydney: and it really is based around this idea of getting curious in your closet finding the patterns that are in your closet, experimenting in your closet, and pulling out different data points, right?

So, like, when I talk about your body, it’s your measurements, that is data, that is information, it doesn’t have to be emotional of I’ve gained weight. You can make it that way, but I think that just makes it hard. even myself, I think I gained, maybe 10 pounds over this past year.

And so half the pants in my closet don’t fit and it’s been an interesting process for myself to be like, all Like I need to buy some pants that are a size up. I might need to adjust some of the proportions and that’s okay, right? Like I look better when I’m trying to put right sized clothes on my right sized body instead of old clothes on, or old clothes on my old body, it doesn’t work.

And that takes work to depersonalize some of these things, but again, that’s why I love this just structure. With the body, it’s a numbers game. with your colors even, I approach that from a tiered approach of These are the colors that you like to wear.

So that’s when it comes to patterns, finding out what is in your closet. If you like wearing black, white, and gray, just wear black, white, and gray. Like you don’t need to have patterns if you don’t want them. If you love bright colors, have that in your closet, right? So, to me, it’s less about some of these other methods because knowing your colors, those work great for some people.

For me, It’s very confusing. I don’t think I’ve ever understood it. And so, I know if you are like a checklist type person, it really needs to be this analytical data of here’s the colors I’m wearing. Here’s the ones I wear sometimes. Here’s the colors I never wear because I don’t like them.

Totally. And I also think the last piece of that is just, it’s important to be flexible in that too. All these things are going to change. And then one day you may wake up and decide, great. I love neon green along with my black, white, and gray. So, I’m going to edit it. It’s just a decision and then you can be like, yeah, I hate wearing white.

You take it out, right? Getting to that place where you’re being able to be curious and look at the patterns that’s going to serve you so much more than just trying to pluck an outfit from somebody you see online and trying to put on your body Like it’s just not going to work.

Miranda:Let’s take a quick second for today’s podcast sponsor, Factor Meals.

This has been one of the biggest upgrades to my lifestyle in the last couple months. Factor Meals are ready to eat, never frozen meals that are chef crafted, dietician approved, and ready to go in just two minutes. I’ve had a pretty good handle on a consistent breakfast and a great dinner meal plan for my family.

Lunches is where I kept getting hung up and factor meals has slid into my lunchtime routine seamlessly. No more sad sandwich routine for me. I’m eating some incredible meals. My very favorite so far is the jalapeno lime cheddar chicken that comes with a cilantro cauliflower rice. This meal is packed with protein and nutrients and keeps me going for the rest of the afternoon.

I also really the chorizo chili, which I eat with tortilla chips, and the sun-dried tomato chicken with zucchini noodles. So good, so easy. Factor is the perfect solution if you’re looking for fast, premium options. They’ve done the math and it’s less expensive than takeout. Every meal is dietitian approved to be nutritious and delicious.

And like I said, it has been my new favorite lunchtime hack. I love that it’s super flexible for your schedule. My family right now is getting 12 meals a week that my husband and I both share along with our teenage son. And that might not be the right number for you. You can get as many or as few as you need by choosing your own meals each week.

You can also pause and reschedule your deliveries at any time. If I’ve piqued your interest, head to factor meals. com slash practically 50 and use that code for 50 percent off. That’s code practically 50 at factor meals.com/practically 50 to get 50% off. That link and code will be in the show notes, so you can easily head over and give factor meals a try.

Now back to my conversation with Sydney:

Miranda: So, I love the cue for experimentation, like looking at what you already have, a little bit of a process, without necessarily the, debunking and the decluttering can be helpful. in addition to this, but it doesn’t have to be, it can just be like, what, just maybe paying attention to what am I putting on?

And what do I like? I loved in your email. You talked about this idea of like, when you put something in your mouth, whether you like it, like you can taste whether you like it. For me, black licorice goes in my mouth, and I feel like throwing up. Like I will, do everything I can to avoid it.

It’s one of the very few things that I don’t like tasting. but I love that you talk about how this is a physical bodily response. Yes. That may even be like more of an emotional response to clothing. Like when you put something on, what is your immediate feeling? What is the feeling in your body?

What is the feeling, as you’re looking at yourself or even just feeling it on you, does it feel good? Does it feel like something that you want to continue wearing? Do you feel confident? Do you feel like you like yourself? And if you don’t, that’s a good indicator that something’s wrong about that outfit.

Take it off, get rid of it. Don’t wear it anymore. If you don’t like the way that it feels. Little by little, you take, taste your closet and maybe you start to come to some of these understandings and the structure that you’re talking about. I love the idea of just having this objective in positive psychology.

It would be called second order decisions. I have a whole podcast episode about this idea of deciding ahead of time before you get to the real decision. So maybe the decision is I like to wear like you, like your example, black, white, and gray. You go to the store looking for a new dress.

You’ve eliminated, everything in the store that isn’t black, white, and gray. So, your decision gets that much easier. And our brains love that. Like they love the hierarchy of priority. And so, it makes us feel better when we have a little bit of a guideline, even if we’re the ones creating it. And, like you said, we can veer from it, but if you just get to a place where you have a basic understanding, then all your decisions Get easier, and you also start to feel a lot better.

Sydney: Yeah. No, totally. That’s like the number one thing it makes shopping and getting dressed so much easier. Once you understand what silhouettes you like to wear why you like to wear them the fabric you like the colors you like, you can just eliminate more than half of what you’re looking at in a store.

And I think also too what’s great for that is it actually opens up a lot more opportunities for you to go you to the stores maybe you wouldn’t normally because I think a lot of times we avoid stores or brands because we’re like, that’s not us, but once you know what is you, have that to serve as your filter to say, oh, I could pop in here, see what they have that matches my filter and then pop out, which I think is a really cool option that actually gives you more opportunity.

Miranda: Yeah. So just by way of example, to help give some clear, like a picture of what this might look like, what are some of your personal guidelines for yourself? what are the things you’re looking for? What is your absolute knowing? What are the colors and patterns and shapes that you like?

Sydney: Okay. I will preface this by saying this is personal for me and may not be helpful to really anybody else listening, because it’s based on my vibe, my body, my colors, and silhouettes.

Totally.

Miranda: And I think the idea is more just to give some concrete examples around, what does this sound like for someone who’s, I’ve never thought about style, or taste.

Sydney: For me, and I talked about this recently in one of my emails, this is very specific around the types of shirts that I like to buy.

And I only buy sleeveless, or long sleeve, or like three, four sleeve shirts. If I, do not buy short sleeve shirts. If I buy a short sleeve shirt, it must be a very Big or oversized or chunky sleeve like I do not like the tight a kind of dolman sleeve Yeah, would

Miranda: this even be too short? You can’t see my sleeve is about to my elbow’s friends

Sydney: If it’s to the elbow, that would probably work. I just don’t like them when they’re tight, right? there’s like everybody’s oh you need a basic white fitted t shirt Like I don’t like it. There’s something about the sleeve that it just doesn’t work for me, and this clicked for me recently like a couple months ago, and I’ve been doing this You Work on my wardrobe for a while.

And so, it was cool though, to have that data set come into place because I knew, I listened to that little gut of I know I just don’t like these types of shirts, but I didn’t really know why. But it was okay enough for me to just trust that and be like, yeah, I don’t need to buy them. Even though I did try for a long time, I still would try to force it.

And it still didn’t work. I would just take it off. but when it finally clicked, I was like, Oh, now I have more information about if I do want to buy a short sleeve shirt, What I’m looking for and why and I think for me some of that does come into my body type and my body shape And visually balancing my different proportions it comes in a little bit with kind of the vibe of clothes I like which tend to be either a little bit boxier there’s a little bit drapier.

There’s more fabric and then in terms of this is very specific to it, but in terms of the silhouette, it’s very clear cut. It needs to look a certain way and be a certain shape for me to like it.

Yeah. So hopefully that’s helpful. What about, yeah, what about colors? So, colors? Yeah. So, I do them on like a tiered basis if you will.

I do have a set of things I never wear, which is I don’t. Very rarely will wear patterns or stripes. and that’s just across the board. I don’t do polka dots. I don’t do stripes. Really don’t do florals. I do have a couple occasions in my life I do have a couple exceptions in my closet, but if I had to, pare down my essentials, I probably wouldn’t make it.

And so, for me, I really base my wardrobe off, sounds like my example, but black, gray, white, navy, and then I’ll have a few different accent colors that I love, olive, gold, maroon, and that’s really it. About it. Sometimes I’ll do like a pop of like pink or something different. I think I just bought like a kind of pale pink baseball hat to just like experiment with Yeah, and I’ll do some brighter colors like in athleisure and that’s just like my personal kind of Colors I like to wear.

I’m sure if I did some sort of, color analysis, I could be like a soft summer or something. And maybe that would give me a whole different set of colors to wear. 

Miranda: Sounds more like an autumn to me. Sydney sounds more like autumn. 

Sydney: It could be. I don’t know. See, I don’t even know.

But I personally find that I don’t care. It’s too many options for me at that point. Yeah. to where I’m like, I don’t particularly care if I quote unquote look good in this color. There are colors I like to wear, and it gives a certain feeling to me when I wear them and a different feeling when I wear other colors. And so that’s goes into color choice as well.

Miranda: Yeah, I love that. I think I’ve used that app. there’s several different kinds of color apps where they put all the rainbows around your face and then you can just swipe through. And I think the ones that I’ve used, I’m sure they’ve all been free versions, is Ben. More than like I can look and see the way that different colors make my own face and complexion look different.

But of course, that will vary a little bit depending on the time of year and how much I’ve been in the sun and things like that. but even without that, like I’m, with you that I’m like, I don’t wear, I don’t, might not wear enough color regularly to feel like I need like a whole palette of rainbow colors to choose from.

I’d say for my personal wardrobe, like if I just opened the closet doors, it’s a lot of blue and green. Mostly that blue green a little bit of black, white, and gray just as like neutrals if I do a red It’s a deep red like in the summer. It’d be more like a salmon, like desert color and in the winter I have one of one sweater and one tank top that are the same kind of like really Earthy red like almost like a clay colored that I love kind of a dark terracotta But I feel the same way that I like will be attracted to and really like avoid colors I don’t wear almost anything pastel and maybe some of those things Come up in not like the way they make us feel, but also if they look weird, you put it on and you look and feel weird.

Like it’s that bad taste in your mouth, sort of thing. Dark green is probably my most consistent. if I see it in that color, I’m like, Oh, that’s, weird. That’s the one for me. I think I have six different styles of dark green sweater I know I have at least two dark green dresses and partly because my eyes are green and whenever This is funny, but like I get really good feedback when I wear dark green Without exception every time, I wear something dark green Someone usually it’s a random stranger will say.

Oh, that looks Really good with your eyes. They noticed that the matching and I’m like, oh, I’ll wear more of it then. Thank you. Appreciate it. I appreciate the validation, yeah. interesting how much of it comes just from experimentation and just trying things out and experimenting with intention, not just I guess all of us are experimenting every single day as we get dressed, because if we were paying attention, we could notice how things are making us feel.

Good or bad or what elements are introducing those different, those different taste feelings, but until you turn on the intention piece and the paying attention of, I’m going to spend the next few weeks getting dressed and thinking about it in a specific way and feeling through it.

And I think this now change of seasons is a good time to be. and so, I’m going to be doing some of that because a lot of us will be maybe turning over some parts of our wardrobe and have the space to say, does this work still? Does this, do I want to move on from this? Is there something different I want to try?

Can you tell me, you are launching Style Lab, which is new for you, right?

Miranda: It’s a six-week program which could guide someone through this process of experimentation, elimination, recognition, and be the scaffolding to help someone develop or discover their personal taste.

Sydney: Yeah, it is a as you said it’s a six-week self-led program all my programs are this teach a woman how to fish and she can fish for the rest of her life sort of model, right? So, I really love to do with my clients instead of doing for them.

I think We learn a lot better when we get in there and we Have a hypothesis and we test it and it might work out how we think it does and it might not and that’s okay we just do it again or we make adjustments and so Style lab is this six week program where you’re going to get six different worksheets in your email once a week Every week for six weeks It’s going to lead you through this process of finding those four style foundations that I thought that I talked about earlier.

So really diving into finding your vibe How do you do that? What does that even mean?

Miranda: Yeah, like how I’m curious just pause for a second. What how would you define your vibe? Yes, so vibe is A combination for me of words and feelings, how you want to feel in the image you’re projecting. And I lead people through this sort of like multimedia exercise to find that because it’s not about outfits.

We do not look at outfits to help us find the vibe, right? Because that’s somebody else’s vibe that you’re being attracted to so I’m curious about you. What’s inspiring you? How do you want to feel? What does that look like? So, we go through and spend some time doing that We’ll go through your body.

So, the body measurements. How do you take that? What body type are you? What body shape are you? How does that impact the clothes that you are buying or putting on? we go through You Determining the colors that you want to wear, the color palette, what’s primary colors, secondary colors, what do you never wear, and then we go through silhouettes and shapes.

So those are those four foundations. We do a lot of looking at your closet, a lot of kind of pattern recognition, and that’s the first half of the program. And then the second half of the week is really, space for you to get in and put stuff together and experiment in your closet based on the work that we’ve done in that first half.

So, it’s not about buying things. You might find some things that you’re like, oh, I could probably benefit from having this. But I think you can create a new wardrobe for yourself out of the wardrobe you already have without having to buy a whole new one. And so That is the goal and the purpose of Style Lab.

Miranda: Yeah, I love this idea of getting to know yourself through, some active activities. And there’s a couple calls in there, right? Some

Sydney: coaching calls. Yeah, I’ve got two, yeah, two group calls. So, you can ask questions, get some feedback. It’s going to be hosted through Voguish, which is my sub stack. And so, there’s a private chat in there as well for people so that they can put pictures or get feedback.

So, there will be some support to it as well.

Miranda: Yeah, I love it. I’m excited. I’m going to join it and just, I feel like I have a pretty good handle and I don’t shop a whole lot. I’ve talked a lot about it on the show over the years because of my minimalist bend and philosophy. I usually only shop twice a year.

Right now, is about the time I’m thinking about like with the change of seasons. What, are the holes in my wardrobe that coming up for the summer? And I just need to try all my clothes on and see how they feel, but I’m excited to think about it in a new way. I really like the idea of, breaking it down and having it written down and, having some guidelines so that I don’t, I just stick to my no ruffles, and I don’t get, I don’t get, wooed by the beautiful things that I see.

Sydney: Yeah, so we start April 1st, so soon ish, yes, coming up. If you’re in by like week one or week two, that’s enough time to do the exercises. So, I think people will probably end up spending an hour or two a week on them. going through and doing your own process.

Miranda: Yeah, I really love the timing of it too, because like I’ve mentioned a few times, like I think the change of seasons is a natural time to be, unless you live in, Maybe let’s say like Phoenix where your summer and winter wardrobe are similar.

a lot of us are, if we’re not quite there, we’re almost there in Richmond. I keep just looking at the calendar and the weather and just Oh, let’s get back to those 70- and 80-degree days. It was 30 degrees this morning. let’s get back. But we’re S we’re so close. And it’s just such an opening and a renewing season in general.

This is what I like to do a lot of my decluttering, a lot of my spring cleaning and the idea of okay, let me get in there and see what my. Closet is going to look like going forward. And I really love the objective bend that you put on it too. I’m sure that some of your, educational history, I know you’re a social worker that you have a lot of training and coaching and mindfulness and yoga and the idea of a nonjudgmental approach to what You’re wearing what you want to wear, what changes you can make in a really like open format and just not feeling bad about any of it.

And I think that something is women that were just like conditioned to do and like almost explicitly told to do is feel bad about how we look and what we wear, and we get it right. And then the style all changes in the fashion trends change because it’s been a week and a half. And so, everything in the store is new again.

And we’re like, I had it right for one day and then it all moved on and I feel bad again. I love the idea of finding, sorting through all that mess of. what we see out there and turning our lens inward. And there’s so much research about this idea of self-acknowledgement, self-efficacy, feeling like you have the tools and understanding of your own identity to be able to make choices that are good for you.

And getting dressed is something that we do every single day. Imagine the empowerment that comes from feeling good about it and feeling like, oh, you know what you want to wear and it’s okay if your neighbor or your sister or your mom or you know the fashion blogger down the street doesn’t get it and doesn’t wear the same thing that you feel good in what you put on a regular basis

Sydney: Yeah, I think accepting to like it and it is a process like I have days where I put on clothes and I don’t like Anything I wear yeah, there are some days right that it just happens and I just to the food analogy, it’s there’s some days when you’re sick and you just don’t want to drink your coffee, right?

Or drink your favorite thing in the world. And so that’s okay. Like I just, I love the kind of data, like you said, non-judgmental, but just a very straightforward. Here’s your information approach that I think gives us a lot more freedom to choose what is right for us and then know that right.

Miranda: I think having an idea, like having this sort of framework ends up saving you so much money in the long term because you’re not buying stuff that you don’t. One or that you don’t understand

Sydney: doesn’t work for you. Style Lab is, it’s 88 for the six weeks. If you go to my website, it’s chic stripes.com You’ll see a Style Lab tab, and there’s a coupon that will save you more money, and I think it’s 10 a week. So, it’s 61 when you sign up before the end of March, so the 31st. Yeah, skip your Starbucks for a week. Oh, and then you get a free annual subscription to Vogue ish. So, for all the paid perks, I do some style guides with things you can link to pieces, actual pieces that I’m loving, and a few other paid perks.

Special perks for people that, join as an annual subscriber, so you get that free membership.

Miranda: Yeah, which is already, I feel like it’s almost the same price as the annual membership for Voguish anyway. So, you’re basically getting one or the other. It’s a BOGO deal.

Sydney: exactly.

Miranda: And I’m already a Voguish, subscriber and I, like I mentioned at the beginning of the show, I love it so much.

It’s so much, not only are you sharing like great style advice and, like you’re from your stylist perspective, but also, you’re such a good writer and you’re sharing a lot of like human personal things that are happening just in everyday life that I, love the storytelling. it feels like a blog delivered to my inbox, which I appreciate since I don’t go blog surfing anymore.

I think, a lot of us OG bloggers, I know you started your blog in the early 2000s. I started mine as well, like in 2007. Yeah. And. It is so nice to be able to just have a little inside, scoop to a, a friend for me, a woman I admire. And so, I appreciate the time that you put into that.

And I’m so excited to, to do the style lab as well. So, for those of you listening, hopefully some of the tips and just the idea, the perspective shift of thinking about the way that you get dressed as taste, like choosing from a menu rather than like having to follow the big, whatever culture and society and all the, Instagram Tik Tokers are telling you about what to wear.

Spend a little bit of time figuring out what you like and being okay with, with how you feel and what you wear. And if you’d like Sydney to lead you along that pathway for a super affordable price, then consider joining style lab. I’ll make sure all the links are in the show notes for this episode.

so that you can jump in and, join us. Thank you so much for the time that you’ve spent with me today, Sydney. I really appreciate it. And I hope that you have a wonderful week. Yeah. Thank you so much, Miranda. Of course, I want to thank all of you listening for the time and attention that you’ve shared with us today.

I hope that this episode has helped you feel a little more curious about your personal taste. What do you love to put on your body? What do you consistently wear that you don’t really like, and you haven’t been honoring that feeling of distaste. I love how getting to know our personal taste and loving getting dressed every day will bring us closer to feeling more of ourselves feeling that authenticity and self-confidence and self-efficacy and all those things together help us feel more practically happy every day of our lives.

As we wrap up, I must call out that there’s just a couple more weeks to sign up for my women’s trip to Turkey this July, so if you’re interested in traveling with me, head to the show notes and get all the information you need there. Otherwise, I hope you have a wonderful week, and I’ll chat with you next time.

Bye bye!