Cardigan Empire – Page 22 – Salt Lake City Fashion Stylist

Diagnosis-the torture chamber
Inside this ambry lie items endowed with the powers of self-flagellation and holy glorification. Items are distinguished primarily by size: smallish, mediumish, largish. If the body is enrobed in smallish clothes with minimal wrestling, the day is deemed good and the wearer is appraised acceptable. Her closet exists to punish and reward her.

Prescription-editing
Back up sizes should be either be removed completely or hidden from the forefront of your personal showroom. If it doesn’t fit and flatter fire it. You are the closet CEO and board and all the items exist to serve your interests, not the reverse.

—————–

Diagnosis: the museum
Inside this cold storage lies a rich, tangible history. The frock worn when eyes were first laid on Romeo hangs next to her cheerleader’s glory guise, her wedding ensemble is pressed beside the blouse donned during the debut of her most favorite episode of Downton Abby. Her closet is sentimental rather than functional.

Prescription-archive
This closet needs to relocate to the basement. If items are kept they need to remain out of site, in protective garment bags. Better yet, take a picture and donate the actual item.

—————–

Diagnosis-the rubbish bin
This rumpled receptacle vomits when opened. In the refuse there may be well-made trousers in need of hemming, scuffed designer leather boots, a favorite silk shell stained with soy sauce, a cashmere sweater dined on by moths. This closet lacks discipline and sanitation.

Prescription-Boundaries
Start with a clothing ambulance in which all injured items are rushed to repair or taken to the clothing morgue. Continue convalescence in a boundary intensive wardrobe sanitarium.

—————–

Diagnosis-The Disjointed Den
Trends from all different directions exist here. There are many items lying dormant and undisturbed, brooding with the irritation of their un-removed price tags. Sometimes this disorder is caused by a simple split personality: work is straightforward and boring, personal life is over the top to make up for the difference. Two different languages are unable to blend and conjugate a single look. Other times it’s ugly clothism evidenced in the un-equal representation of anemic bottoms against plentiful tops. It’s as if there are only nouns without any verbs or prepositions. Whatever the cause, this schizophrenic wardrobe is unable to communicate a cohesive outfit.

Prescription-Unification
Mend the sartorial union by declaring an official signature style. This cooperative lexicon will help you your clothing to converse. Next make sure your vocabulary is rich with equal representation from each of the clothing categories.

—————–

Diagnosis-The Repeat
This sideboard encloses one style of twin set in five different colors, the only visible pattern is vertical stripes, and the floor is veiled with a colony of sensible black shoes. This area acts as a mechanical uniform dispenser.

Prescription-Inspiration
Install a pin board and collage aspirations from magazines, catalogs, blogs, and especially your own successes.

—————–

Whether you wardrobe represents one or many of these examples, we will be purging them, psychological dispositions and all. Next up is your 5 step closet recovery program. In the end you’ll have a wardrobe you can actually wear.

ShaneCo_AVE_Mothersday_083-r
When is your family complete? Or how do you know when you’re done having kids? In case you’re new to my scene, I have 4 children age 6 and under. Showcased above from left to right: Oscar (3), Fitz (9 months), Levi (5), and Coco (6).

My spouse Andrew says you know you’re done when your husband is curious as to who the father of future children will be, because he, is done. But watching my Fitz Winters reach his 10 month marker this Mother’s Day makes my heart hurt. What will I do when there are no pudgy thighs to squish or toothless mouths to kiss or roll filled necks to smell?

ShaneCo_AVE_Mothersday_081-r

Once again, my Andrew would interject that he is willing to stand in for all those activities. But I almost wish my ovaries would fall out at age 35 leaving me without a choice, clean of conscience, rich with closure.

I searched for my children through deserts of infertility for more than half a decade, I finally found my daughter through adoption, and my biological sons came miraculously in the years following. I feel like this is my life’s work. So how do I gracefully abandon what I believe is the most important thing I’ve ever done or will do? How do I graduate from my child-bearing years and move on to whatever is next?

And what is next? If my family is complete then I’ve already met the most important people in my life. I have my husband. I have four beautiful children. Are there no more babies to name? No more faces to conjecture over? No one else to fall in love with?

Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t want to endure nine months of body invasion, add 3-4 thousand diapers to a landfill, and potty train another bottom. Raising kids is hard, mostly thankless, and every additional soul leaves me with less and less capacity for anything else. I can barely complete a sentence after 6 pm most days. My brain has been shot with so many verbal ejections of Mom or literal screams for my attention, that you’d think I was trying to recover from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder once the kids are tucked safely into their beds.

ShaneCo_AVE_Mothersday_066-r

I guess the big question I need to answer is “Do I want another baby or another child.” Because those are two different things.

While I ponder on these questions, maybe Andrew could help me celebrate (aka bribe me) this Mother’s Day with these Shane Company Threader style dangle earrings or an Adjustable Popcorn Chain Bracelet or a Pave Filled Diamond Anniversary Ring. I can’t promise it will convince me to stop adding to our family, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

ShaneCo_AVE_Mothersday_165 (1) Trina Turk White Paltrow Floral Lace Pencil Skirt and Pretti Scalloped Lace Top from Alixandra’s Collections

Riley Poplin Shirt & Holland Heeled Sandals from Banana Republic

Photography by Rennai Hoefer of Ten22 Studio

Why your closet is sick and how you can heal it

How to know when your family is complete.