Now that you have put the Spring back into your house and diet, it is time for us to spring clean your wardrobe with our Stylist, Carol Sae-Yang.
Carol’s Style philosophy ‘When you feel good on the inside, you also shine on the outside…when you feel good and look good, its a win win’.
ABOUT CAROL
Carol’s economy of style and energetic Sagittarian traits inform her visionary MO, whilst her drive and industry know-how will hook you from the get-go. From enabling private clients to cultivate and own their individual look, in turn boosting their sartorial mojo, to styling a shoot or furnishing a private residence, she brings her exacting eye and acute organisational skills to every project.
Carol’s fundamental quest is to equip clientele with a very clear and positive vision of themselves or their brand.
As a stylist, Carol possesses over twenty years of experience in fashion, commercial and interior styling, working with private clientele plus Australia’s top photographers, models, and high profile personalities for major publications and television networks. Having completed studies in journalism and fashion design in Sydney, Carol established herself in print media as a beauty and fashion editor landing the plum role of producing and styling covers and shoots for The Sydney Morning Herald supplements including ‘Good Living’ and ‘Spectrum.’
Carol then spread her wings as a freelance stylist dressing both men and women for numerous productions on Channel 10, Channel 7 and MTV Australia whilst contributing to key print titles including Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Bride to Be and various Hardie Grant publications. She also created and managed her own bespoke fashion label Halcyon Collections for four years and worked as a merchandise and sales specialist for the iconic fashion label Scanlan Theodore.
More recently, she was the resident Style Lecturer at the The Whitehouse Institute of Design in Sydney, in a part time capacity. Her role involved preparing students for a range of creative and technical roles in the design industry (including: fashion styling, creative direction, visual merchandising, magazine publishing, event design and management, plus interior design and food styling).
Strengthening her branding acumen, Carol is also actively involved in the commercial arena, styling and producing content for advertisements and personal branding.
In 2019, Carol was appointed Style Director of the iconic shopping destination, The Queen Victoria Building in Sydney validating her ability and credibility as one of the most sought after personal stylists in the industry.
A functional and confident wardrobe is one of the most valuable assets you can possess. It has an impact on everything – from work, the people you attract and the respect you receive. Whether you’re after relaxed or polished stand out looks, Carole will help you great your ultimate style edit.
Dressing well and interpreting trends can feel intimidating. If your goal is to emphasis your best features, Carol will give you valuable lifetime shopping advice and interpret what styles, colours, fabrics, cuts and brands that work best and how to pull an outfit together.
Carol’s 10 Tough Love Commandments to whip your wardrobe into shape.
Purge with Purpose – You’ll need large labelled bags for this session: KEEP, REPAIR, DRY CLEAN, CONSIGNMENT, DONATE AND TRASH. Now it’s time to open your wardrobe with aim to remove everything from it. Start with the obvious winter items you want to keep (coats, thick jackets, wool pants). Pilled jumpers and well worn coats should take a well earned trip to the dry cleaners. Once they’re back home, store them away so they are fresh for next year. If anything needs a zip or hem repair, place them in the repair bag.
Your big investment items that you don’t wear but are in good condition, put these in your consignment bag for your online sales project. For anything that looks a little tired or slightly out of date, keep for the donate bag.
If you haven’t worn it over the last 18 months, then it is time to go!
Hang Like A Pro – Remove ALL wire and plastic hangers and bin immediately. Use non-slip velvet hangers with bars to hang pants. They’re thin and don’t take up as much space and their velvet surface makes it harder for clothes to slip off them. Best of all, they’re all black and look uniform along the wardrobe.
Divide and Conquer – They key to functional closet is keeping the clothes organised in groups. First, separate items by type (skirts, shirts, pants, tees etc) on your bedroom floor and bed. Jeans and all forms of tees should be separated for drawers or shelves together with lightweight jumpers (the rest relegated to hanging space).
Fold with Orderely Precision – Separate singlet tops, tees and long sleeved tees into different piles. If you have the room, split these further into colour zones: creams and whites, neutral beige tones, pastels, darker shades, navy and black. Also, fold your jumpers and jeans in the same manner.
Keep Your Favourites Nearby – We all have favourite tees and pairs of jeans, so always keep them folded on the top of their piles. Ideally place your everyday favourites on one open shelf. On those mornings when you hit snooze one too many times, this shelf will save you.
Colour Code with Orderly Precision – Now that you’ve reduce the quantity of clothes, it’s time to refill your wardrobe. Taking visual merchandising cues from retail settings, organise by style of clothing, left to right, light to dark. Start at the LHS of the rail, hanging small items such as tops followed by long-sleeved shirts, skirts (short to long), pants, dresses and light jackets.
Again, work each section via colour with pattered items slotting into the relevant pastel or darker hued areas. Carol suggests to mix high and low casual and formal separates in via this tonal scheme. This way you get more mileage out of investment pieces by pairing them with less formal items that you may never have considered before.
Cautionary Care – Think about what you place next to each other. Sequins can catch, so always fold a sequin or beaded item inside out to protect the clothes on either side of it. As for longer dresses, make sure there’s no pile up of shoes directly beneath their hem to avoid crushing. Always take items off their wire dry-cleaning hangers (they get hang crease marks within 24 hours). Lastly, black and navy tones can be confused in a dark closet so keep pants and tops of these shades separated to avoid accidental pairing clashes when you’re out in the sunlight.
Shoe Sanity – Push your spring and summer shoes to the front of your wardrobe and if you’re squeezed for space, place boots in plastic bags and inside a lidded clear storage tub (for the attic). To provide more space, place shoes heel to toe beside each other so more pairs are visible in the front row. Party heels go up the back and the frequently worn favourites stay at arms reach.
Hang Those Belts – Instead of stashing your favourite belts in a drawer, create a row of hooks to hang them on so they’re visible. Ideally black belts on one and lighter shades together on another.
Add a Mirror – In addition to its obvious function, a mirror will also help make your closet feel bigger. Add a full-length mirror to the back of the door or on the back wall (if you have a larger walk-in closet) so you can see your shoulders down to your shoes. Also place a smaller one at eye level for trying on jewellery and accessories.
Yesterday, our Director Mandi had a Carol wardrobe makeover experience. It is something she would recommend for everyone for this Spring to give you the strength to part with those items that no longer suit your style, you have multiple pairs of the same kind of shoe and things that you will never wear again that you can put on ebay for someone else to enjoy.
Need help to organise your closet to put your best foot forward, then you need a ‘use it or lose it’ styling session with Carol. Speak to our team to book your wardrobe slash session with Carol and you will receive 20% off for all bookings in the month of October 2020.
One of the tools that Carol swears by is the Handbag Hanger. If your bags are stored on top of a dusty wardrobe or left on the floor of your wardrobe. The Handbag Hanger will get them off the ground, safe and sound, helping them to stay young and beautiful. Use the special code: CSYSTYLE to receive 20% off the full range.
Join Carol as she shares her top 5 times that she has on her ‘I need right now’ list for Summer 2020, complete with a links to buy.
Using a shop smarter new service, Carol can send you a video tailored to you, your body shape, your personality and your lifestyle to shop you summer wardrobe.
