At Peace with Glasses

Years ago when I first trained to become an image consultant, I learned the following: The way you look affects the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act and then the way others react towards you. I experienced this at a very high level last Friday.

I was shopping for new glasses. I've worn glasses since I was 9 years old, but until I started wearing my current glasses, I never really liked the way I looked in glasses and never felt fantastic wearing them. (I wore contact for a few years, but I've developed a condition called dry eyes, and the contacts absolutely kill my eyes.) I also dreaded shopping for new glasses, as I never liked any of the new frames on my face.

This was all until I started working with Connie at Europtics in Cherry Creek North. She is fantastic at choosing frames that work for you. Her process is a lot like the one I use for image consulting. She asks about your lifestyle, needs and the look you'd like to project. Then she selects multiple frames for you to try on. Like me with clothing, she sometimes chooses frames outside the box, which sometimes work and sometimes don't.

I love my current glasses and get compliments on them all of the time, so I was excited to get another pair to give me a different look. Having accepted myself as a "glasses wearer" I liked a lot of the frames. I ended up putting several pairs on hold and went back later in the day. I ended up buying the ones I kept thinking about all day! They're slightly more subdued than my current glasses (which I am keeping,) but they're not too subdued. I found that anything too subdued just didn't feel like me, and I felt a bit nerdy and less fashionable. As an image consultant, I can't afford to look anything but stylish! (By the way, the ones I bought are in the middle above, but they're brown and they look completely different.)

And then I moved onto sunglasses, (cue choir of angels singing "ah".) I've never been a real label girl, but there's something about the designer sunglasses! I feel like a celebrity in my new Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses. And when you feel like a celebrity, how can you help but feel more confident, and in turn others will regard you higher...continuing the cycle. I love helping women look great and feel great about their image!

Think you can't afford designer clothing?

I was shopping with a client the other day at Saks. I have to say, this isn't the best time for shopping either for winter clothes or spring clothes. However, my client was in true need of some winter clothing.

The fall clothes have either been shipped out or the selections are really spotty. And the spring collections haven't been fully shipped. Truly, it's a pretty dire scene at most of the stores, but Saks had a pretty large selection of sale items left. I actually think they may have had things shipped in from their larger stores.

While I was pre-shopping, my trusted salesperson, Joanie, mentioned, "We have some things on sale." (She works in the Chanel department, where they have the best dressing rooms.) At first I didn't see it, but then she led me to a back corner where there were several racks of deeply discounted DESIGNER CLOTHES. I'm talking Max Mara, Escada, Armani, Akris Punto, and more.

My client found among many other great sale items, an Akris Punto jacket that was originally $1000, marked down to $397.

While it's a gamble, sometimes it can pay off to wait until the very end of the season to find some steals. If you don't think you can afford designer clothing or even to step foot into stores like Saks or Neiman's, think again.

While $400 is nothing to sneeze at, the designer quality you're getting is far superior to what you'd find at Anne Taylor or Macy's where a typical regular priced jacket $228. In addition to getting a piece that you won't see all over town, cost per wearing goes down, since you'll be able to wear it much longer.