Wardrobe Wisdom: Exploring Sustainable Style and Career Success with Threads of Hershey

Founded in 2014, Threads of Hershey's philosophy is clear: everyone needs a wardrobe whisperer. A wardrobe whisperer simplifies and enhances your closet style, helping you discover flattering silhouettes and versatile essentials. As your wardrobe whisperer, Threads guides you through essential steps: closet editing, styling, and strategic shopping, boosting your confidence and productivity. In this episode, we discuss: 

• Pivoting Professional Skills for Passion-Driven Business
• Trust and Listening as Foundations for Success
• Emphasizing Personal Confidence Over Trends
• Style: The Art of Editing, Not Just Adding
• Style tips for the current season
• The Universality of the Threads' Method
• Supporting Miss Pennsylvania Miranda Moore's "Take Action in Fashion" Initiative

Show Guests
Kristen Campbell, the founder of Threads of Hershey since 2014, fuses her passion for fashion with her scientific background. She employs the Threads Method, a step-by-step approach, to simplify and enhance clients' wardrobes, positively impacting their well-being. 

Kristin Argento, Co-Owner and Director of PR, Marketing, and Strategic Relationships, drives brand growth by crafting precise messaging, enhancing client access to cutting-edge fashion offerings, and fostering community engagement.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Career Refresh With Style Coaches
• 13:55 Personal Style in a Hybrid Workplace
• 17:08 Dressing for the Day
• 20:04 The Threads Method
• 25:27 Styling Tips for Creating Flattering Silhouettes
• 28:24 Clothing's Impact on Career Success
• 34:48 Promoting Sustainable Fashion and Wardrobe Editing
• 39:39 Fashion Trends
• 48:19 Styling Services and Instagram Links

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, I'm Jill Griffin and you're listening to the Career Refresh. Today I am introducing you to Kristen Campbell and Kristen Argento. I call them my special Ks. They are style coaches and the co-owners of Threads of Herchy. I have had them style me in person. I've had them do it virtually. They've done this also for many of my clients and their entire approach is based on establishing trust and listening, and our closets can come with a lot of thoughts right, and how we represent ourselves professionally can be done with ease when you have the steps and you have a method for how you want to get dressed and we are not talking about any BS patriarchal.

Speaker 1: 0:47

You need to look professional. You need to look this way or that way, because professional for one industry or company is very different for another industry or company and there are no hard rules that go across the board. It's about understanding yourself personally, understanding the environment, you're working with it and then deciding how you want to represent yourselves. We're talking today about creating that future you, how you want to look and represent. So when we are confident about how we represent ourselves, everything from interviewing to presentations all become a little bit easier.

Speaker 1: 1:20

In this episode, we talk about how they pivoted their professional skills I mean we're talking to people who worked in science and politics and marketing and PR and how they pivoted all of those skills to create a passion driven business. We also talk about how everything they do is based on trust and listening as the foundations for their success. And they really work on about the art of editing, not necessarily just adding and buying more pieces. They also have a threads method in which they'll start to share with you today, and they have a book coming out next year, folks, so we will definitely bring them back when the book comes out. They also talk about the work that they are doing with Miss Pennsylvania, miranda Moore. She has an initiative take action in fashion, which is an initiative, and they also talk about creating sustainable clothing swaps and how they're doing some of this work in Pennsylvania right now so that you can have an elevated style, but there's also an opportunity to have sustainable fashion.

Speaker 1: 2:28

So, friends, definitely give a listen. You know this is time to grab your notes up or piece of paper, because you want to jot down what they're saying. And, as always, if you have questions, email me at hello, at JillGriffinCoachingcom, and we will get those questions answered. So I wish you a fabulous week. Dig in, and I'll see you soon. Hey, kristen and Kristen, I'm so happy to be doing this with you both today.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Hello, how are you, hi Jill?

Speaker 1: 2:58

So, for our listeners, we are here today with Kristen Argento and Kristen Campbell, and I call them my special case and, with great disclosure, as we jump into the content of today's episode, I am also a client of theirs, so I'm going to ask you both. You can decide who answers first, okay, so I'm going to ask you both what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up? You?

Speaker 2: 3:26

go first. On that one I'm going to go first yeah sure yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:30

So I definitely wanted to be a scientist and in fact that's what I trained for in college and I have an undergraduate and graduate degree in environmental science. And I was saying to Kristen earlier you know, when I think about my career in the trajectory, I was very much a girl of the 80s where we were still taught that girls were not good at math and science, and I'm one of those people. I'm really stubborn and I said, well, darn it, I'm going into math and science and I'm going to be really good at it. And so I did. I worked really hard in that field and I loved the people that I met.

Speaker 3: 4:09

But I would say there was always something else that was kind of nagging in the back of my mind. I just always loved fashion and style and I was very preoccupied by that. In fact, I would go to the lab and graduate school and show up in heels and nice clothes and my colleagues and the other students would make fun of me because they're like, what are you doing? You have to mix chemicals and you're wearing a lab coat and I said, well, at least I want to look cute while I'm doing it.

Speaker 3: 4:35

So it was always a big preoccupate, you know. It always preoccupied my mind and the things that I did and I think I knew then the value of what clothes could do for you, just emotionally, mentally, psychologically for me. It made me feel good, smart, accomplished, when I wore those things and I feel like if I wasn't wearing those things I felt otherwise. So it was just something that I tapped into and kind of realized, without knowing I was there.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Beautiful, beautiful, and then Kristen Argento.

Speaker 2: 5:09

So, I'm quite the opposite. I wanted to be a nurse, my mom was a nurse, and then I changed my mind. I'm going to be a lawyer. My dad was a lawyer, right?

Speaker 2: 5:17

So it was kind of following what I knew and I went to University of Pittsburgh to be a nurse and that didn't last very long and I then majored in multiple things until I finally settled on communications.

Speaker 2: 5:31

And what I loved and what I still love about communications is literally the backbone of what we do in everything In our personal life, in our business life, with friends, the interpersonal side, the external side, the media side, the pop culture side.

Speaker 2: 5:47

I mean, I just really enjoyed my studies and I feel like for our business now it is so helpful because I went through this journey of politics to communications, to marketing, to nonprofit work. If you are a communications major and you have that, you can work pretty much anywhere. But what I love that it does for our business is it's kind of all of the unread rules that are out there I have a base in and so reading the room is so important and especially for our clients coming into a very trusted space and being able to read the room is something that is just innately in me, I think from all of my communications training, and I feel like that has helped us being able to see and read emotion very quickly or body language, all of these things, that being more aware is just so important, especially now, I think. So I landed here. I never expected to land here, and I love what I do now.

Speaker 1: 6:49

So take us through, so our listeners know you both had careers and then you started Threads of Hershey as a stylist and helping people really step into their best selves and what they feel comfortable. Tell us how that happened.

Speaker 3: 7:06

Yeah, I don't think we ever imagined that this is what we would be doing at this stage, but I can say that we're really glad that we are. I mean, we really do love what we do, but it was kind of a roundabout way that we got here. So when I moved to Hershey 10 years ago, kristen and I were already friends. She was living here and I was very much in a state of transition and I said to her this town revolves around chocolate. That's the main production and manufacturing that goes on here. So what the heck am I going to do? And she doesn't remember it. And she remembers a lot of things, but I do and I don't remember anything. Because it was such a profound moment in my life where she said to me you need to do what you love, which is helping people with their closets.

Speaker 3: 7:47

Back in DC, before we moved, I was organizing closets for people. I was dressing people for events and wedding. I was dressing my family members for things. It was always something that I just did for fun but never thought of it as a career. And so Kristen set me up with some friends and helped me kind of develop a business plan. How long would it take to work with a client. What would it cost, what would we need to do? And because I was new here, she really just kind of forced some of her friends into this situation and gladly went and they were like.

Speaker 2: 8:18

her style is phenomenal.

Speaker 3: 8:19

I want what she's wearing.

Speaker 3: 8:21

But it really did kind of take off and so, but I it was very lonely, I did it by myself and it's not only just the physical of like hauling clothes and and putting office together and doing it in a in a time.

Speaker 3: 8:33

That's a very reasonable and feasible time for people, but Kristen and I before our clients and after our clients, we really have to I don't know if the word is dissect or process or what it is the situation that we're going into and then the situation that we come out of, because there's a lot of emotional, psychological energy that's exchanged because, like Kristen said, it is really about.

Speaker 3: 8:57

It is, of course, about helping people with their wardrobe, but it's more about creating a safe place for people so that they can realize and understand their connection to the clothes, the things that are buried in that closet. That might be things that are feelings that are harmful, or feelings that are really great, that that are not kind of shining through. So it's it's it's a lot for one person to do. So when Kristen came on five years ago, the business really changed for the better and together I think we provide a much better product for people and the outcomes we've seen are what keep us loving this job, because it's never the same. The transformations are always really, really amazing, and we get to witness them with our very eyes.

Speaker 1: 9:45

That was harder to do than you expected.

Speaker 2: 9:52

So for me, you know, I came to the business late, so for me, I had to learn the fashion side of things. I had to learn the style side. I had to learn the threads method that Kristen had come up with, and I had to then feel comfortable enough that if she and I often go to clients together, but if she was sick or one of her kids got sick or something, I had to feel comfortable enough to do it myself. And I mean one thing is she? There is a superpower she has with this that I will never have. I am learning a lot and I'm still, you know, constantly searching and learning. But I'm not kidding you when I say clothes like pop out to her or to her closet People, you know she's styling something and she's like boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm like how did you see?

Speaker 2: 10:33

those, they just kind of pop out. So that's something I've had to learn and I'm there, I think, or I'm getting there maybe, where I can now feel confident and comfortable enough to go to a client myself. So my learning curve was very big. I was confident on the business side, on the marketing side, but being in someone's closet and to have them trust me, it took a long time, which is probably a good transition too. I think trust is probably the hardest thing for us to get from our clients, because we are in such a vulnerable space in their bedrooms, in their closets. It's a very. The closet is packed full of emotion. You know, you have memories in there, you have clothes that fit.

Speaker 2: 11:13

You have clothes that don't fit you have, yes, Plus money, yeah, you have grandmothers, parents clothes in there, and so you step in there and there's a lot of emotion that hits you and so we need people to trust us and that is probably the hardest thing. It can take anywhere from five minutes to two sessions and it really depends on the profession.

Speaker 3: 11:33

Like when we deal with clients, if they're professionals, like say they're a CEO, they're used to being in charge they really struggle to kind of let go of that role. So we kind of have to be in charge of the closet audit when we're working with them and push them in some directions that they may or may not feel comfortable going. But when we work with a CEO or a boss, it definitely takes a little bit longer to get to that point where they're like oh okay, I see what I need you to do, I can sit back, I see what I need to do. So, yeah, it's a very interesting transition. It really depends on kind of their professional position, definitely.

Speaker 1: 12:07

Okay, okay, yeah. And I would just say for myself one of the reasons why I always recommend the bold debut to clients, regardless of where clients live right, because we have planes and trains and automobiles and we can travel and Zoom yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:21

That when you are stepping into the job, you want the job. You just got the interview, you're going after the promotion you want within the organization you already work within. We always want to walk the balance between the idea that how we dress is that it ends up being patriarchal, and we need to dress a certain way to have a certain job. That's not what we're saying here. What we're saying is whatever feels right for you. How do you represent it so that when you step into the clothes, you're feeling your best self that they are not wearing you.

Speaker 1: 12:58

You don't look like you're wearing a costume or great idea, but doesn't feel like you, and I just think that that's one of the most beautiful things that you all do for even the clients that I send your way and that they've said too is that they feel that they really feel seen and heard and that you're not making them something that you think they should be or that, oh, this is on trend, so they should look this way. You're really listening, with your intake form and your threads method, which we're going to talk about today, how people can step into really feeling comfortable but a little bit elevated For whatever elevated means for them. How did you come to figure that out? I think that's an interesting question.

Speaker 3: 13:41

I feel like that's the kindest recap we've ever had and we're going to have to use segments of that for ourselves, because I feel like you really captured what we do.

Speaker 1: 13:49

I'll be here all week first. You're so good, you're so good Tip your waiter.

Speaker 3: 13:53

I love it.

Speaker 3: 13:55

But I think why Kristen and I are so busy right now is kind of what you touched on.

Speaker 3: 14:00

It's not so much about things that are trending right now I mean, obviously, fashion changes and silhouettes change but what's really going on right now is this idea of identifying and discovering your personal style, and that's much harder than, say, a mini skirt is in style and everybody has to go out and get a mini skirt.

Speaker 3: 14:20

That's not how it works now. So it is a much more complicated process of really editing the closet unearthing what the things are in there that really truly represent you, that fit well, that work well for your style and your lifestyle. Because I think over years, you just start to collect things and you think if you keep collecting things, your style will improve or it'll be easier to dress, or you're driven by fear and you think that if you let go of things, you're gonna need it, or at some point it's a thing you had, yeah, that you wish you had, so I don't know it's. You did a really good job of capturing how it is really. Style is discovered and uncovered when we're working with somebody in their closet. It's not ramming trends down somebody's throat, right?

Speaker 1: 15:05

So what I again would also surmise is that it's almost, it's a very coachy term, but we hold space for people. We're not trying to rush in and fill the void. We ask the question, we pause, we wait, and there's the normal thing that happens in business where if you don't answer fast enough, I'm gonna fill in the question and I'm gonna maybe modify the question or ask something else, because there shouldn't be dead air. But the beauty of what can grow in the quiet, right, Let time have her patience, let it just lay, and having that space is what I think people so beautifully create when you work with your clients. So I wanna get into the threads method, but I also wanna make sure that everybody knows that this is a gender inclusive conversation and that we're not just talking, we're talking about all genders, right, However you identify how you can step into this.

Speaker 1: 15:58

One of the first things I wanna ask you is we are in this environment where we are in a hybrid workplace.

Speaker 1: 16:04

Some of us are still full, remote, Some of us are in the office, Some of us are in between, and what I see and I joke about this a lot because Lord knows what I I mean the amount of people I meet and what I see in their backgrounds.

Speaker 1: 16:17

And again, we are not talking about having a professionally architectural digest background that you have to be in when you have a call, but we're also talking about how your space can be orderly, but also what you choose to put on your person as you choose to have that video call if you're working. What I'm also hearing and it's a layered question, sorry what I'm also hearing is that when people are on video whether it's Teams or Zoom working from home, and then they go into the office, it's almost like they're not recognized because they're showing up two completely different ways. So I'd love if you would just both talk to that like tips for that hybrid space and how to stay true to, perhaps, the comfort of working at home, but not so different that when you go to the office the people are like, oh, nice to meet you and they don't know who you are.

Speaker 2: 17:08

I think Chris and I would both agree that you need to get dressed for your day. It doesn't matter if you're working behind a camera like this and you're doing Zoom all day or you're going into the office. You want to dress for the most important part of your day, so that most important part might be a Zoom call. But we also know through all of these years of experience that the better you feel, the better you perform. And so if you're sitting in sweats and a tank and you haven't brushed your teeth and you're working, you're not going to perform as well as if you did get up and not full face of makeup, but at least even for a male sitting in shorts and a tee, versus sitting in like even an elevated jogger and a three-quarter zip sweater. We have learned that people perform better when they get dressed for the most important part of their day. We also want you to be able to transition.

Speaker 2: 18:01

What if you are on your Zoom call and you get a call from your boss that says I need you to come in here. We have a last minute meeting. Well, you hop up and you're out the door versus I've got to go shower. I've got to go get changed. This is now stressful. Now. I got to figure out what I'm going to wear, so we feel like that part's very important. We do practice that. We do get dressed for the most important part of our day. You will see Kristen at the grocery store or raking leaves, and what she's wearing when we're working.

Speaker 3: 18:27

Leather pants, silk shirts, doesn't matter, I wear my clothes.

Speaker 2: 18:32

We wear them. We all save clothes for special occasions. We wear our clothes. We get dressed for the day, minus workout clothes. When you're working out, obviously that's different, but we feel like that's very important.

Speaker 3: 18:42

Yeah, I think a really interesting story that I just want to add onto her answer is that we had a client who worked from home before COVID and then after COVID we met with her and she said I'm kind of tired of dressing like this. Then it became a thing where everybody was dressing in leggings and sweats and we talked with her about her day. So she would get up, put one outfit on to go drop her kid off at preschool, another outfit to come home and work from home, another outfit to go pick up her kid or go to soccer practice, and then another outfit when she came home to cook dinner. So we said to her even though you have this flexibility right, you're getting the aha moment.

Speaker 3: 19:22

So, even though you, have this flexibility you're making your day much more difficult than it has to be because you're changing all of these different times.

Speaker 2: 19:29

And the laundry and the dry clothing, exactly right, and the mess and the folding and the hanging up.

Speaker 3: 19:35

It's so much. It was this client really that helped us solidify this idea of dressing for the most important part of your day instead of dressing for all of the parts of your day. So, yeah, it's become a really big theme and even when we're working from home, Chris and I really do enjoy dressing up and it's meant a lot to us and our hope is that we'll impart that on other people that dressing and dressing in a way that makes them feel confident is going to be something that they just incorporate on a daily basis.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Really really good, really good. All right, tell everyone what is the Threads method.

Speaker 3: 20:12

So the threads method. So going kind of back to my education, so it really did start from a process-oriented approach. When I went in and I was working with clients, we would talk about the guilt or the sad energy that they had about pieces. So it was very much about trying to come up with a process that didn't eliminate that emotion but that was very straightforward. So taking each piece out and evaluating it from a set of questions that we ask every client for every single piece do you love it, Does it fit, Is it in good condition? Then, based on those answers, you decide whether you keep that piece or not.

Speaker 3: 20:50

Now, of course there's always stuff that falls in the gray area, but I would say 99 percent of your wardrobe. You can decide and make really good decisions about whether it stays or goes, based on this set of questions. So it is rooted very much in this process scientific approach. Then, once we edit your closet and you release the things that don't serve you any longer, we put outfits together. You'd have to know how to wear your clothes. That's a really important part of the process.

Speaker 2: 21:17

You can do that yourself too, by putting together flat lays. We're putting things on the hanger, trying them on in front of the mirror, taking pictures of yourself.

Speaker 3: 21:25

Yeah, it's really important to take pictures. I think once you start doing that, you'll even figure out that your closet is more versatile than you realize. So if you like an outfit and you swap certain pieces out, you can make two or three more outfits. That's really important. You've mastered that Jill Absolutely you have.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Yes, you've helped me by every article of clothing that I have has been photographed. Oh, I love it. We can build that. That's important.

Speaker 3: 21:48

Yeah, you have to know how to wear everything and you want to wear everything. You don't want to have things in your closet, like we said, that you don't wear. Then, interestingly, the third and probably, I hate to say, least important, but the third part of this is the shopping. And I would say, kristin and I, for us it's always a question that we get first.

Speaker 2: 22:07

What are you guys buying? What are you buying? What are?

Speaker 3: 22:09

you purchasing this season and for us it sometimes catches us off guard because for us it's the last piece and it's not that an important piece, but it's something that we know after we've edited and we've styled our looks, and then we figure out what's our short list of things that we want.

Speaker 2: 22:27

And it's usually short. It's usually not this long list and it's also very how strategic it is. It's never and she changed me on this it's never about impulse shopping. I'm never going to the outlets just to go to the outlets. I'm never going to Nordstrom just to go to Nordstrom and Browse. I'm going for a specific purpose, for that one piece, those two pieces that I have that day that I know I need to finish the look that I couldn't finish for my fall wardrobe.

Speaker 3: 22:55

I agree, and I think we're all more successful. Like, men typically don't shop as a hobby or a habit, so they are typically more successful with their wardrobes right and the wardrobes are smaller.

Speaker 3: 23:06

The wardrobes are smaller and they are able to be more flexible, I think, from season to season, whereas women it's more of a hobby. Some people do it well, lots of women do not do it very well, and so shopping becomes just the hardest part in the process, when it actually can become. I guess what we're trying to say is the easiest part, the smallest part of the process, the least overwhelming part of the process.

Speaker 2: 23:30

If you get the other pieces in place and if you follow those three steps, it will cost you so much less money than if you were to go to the store and shop impulsively for three months for your season I need this, I need that, I need that when, in fact, you didn't probably need any of those things and you probably only wore them once or twice. Yes, so your cost per wear on that was enormous versus if you had that list and you really recognize what you were missing and you invested in a pair of, let's say, $125 black pants that you are going to wear 50 times this season. Now your cost per wear is $2 in change.

Speaker 3: 24:05

Yeah, I mean, we're our own customers, because I think one of the things when we realize this because I feel it's always important to realize these personal examples I would buy white jeans because I knew white jeans matched everything, and so I just kept buying white jeans because I would go into a store and I'd be like, okay, these fit, I can figure out how to make these work, but they weren't really adding any value to my wardrobe. It was just one more pair of white jeans, and so when I started to organize and go through things, I was like, well, I'm missing this and this and this that would really elevate my wardrobe, but I just keep buying white jeans. What a terrible mistake. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 24:40

Okay, we still fall into it, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's making me think of. Most people have a part of their body that maybe they wish was slightly different and they want to either hide that. What would you say to anyone who's listening right now who's like, yeah, I would love to wear a shirt like that, a pair of pants like that, but in their head they're saying I can't because dot dot dot. How would you approach that with?

Speaker 2: 25:07

them. So I think that it is so important to try all of these trends and all of these shapes. I think it's incredibly important and more so, one okay for two reasons. One, because you'll never you'd be surprised at what works on you that you don't think is going to work on you Very. I remember just recently.

Speaker 2: 25:27

I have always said I can't wear wide leg pants. I can't, I can't wear them. I got a pair of Madewell jeans. They were wide leg. I took a picture. I sent it to Kristen. I said well, confirmed, I can't wear them. And she goes hold on. So here we are working. You know this is what I do, but I still question it. She said they're, they do work. They're too long, mm-hmm. Let's cut them and let's take three or four inches off.

Speaker 2: 25:48

Because for me, I, with that wide leg, I couldn't go all the way to the ground. I needed to raise up, I needed to show a little bit of skin on my ankle and for real, it works. I showed that skin at the ankle and I can wear a wide leg, can't? I just can't wear a wide leg pant. That goes to the ground. So you need to play with your shapes. You have to try on, you know, the tighter top, wider bottom, even if you are thicker at the top, even if you have a belly. There's all these different things you can do to camouflage. I know I'm there, I'm camouflaging every day, but I had take pictures of myself. I am honest with myself, I take pictures. Layering is huge. So if there's pieces that you want to cover front tucking, side tucking I can't front tuck.

Speaker 2: 26:31

That's not happening. But I can side tuck, I can pocket tuck. You can do all these different things with your body shape. You have to play around with it. It can't come in the door from you know, sacks off, fifth, and you put it on without any style. It's all about the style. I think that there's so many things that you can do to make the shapes work for you if you play around with the lines. I agree.

Speaker 1: 26:53

Yeah, couldn't have said it better. One of the things that you taught me that I want you to tell our listeners is about I'm going to call it the message of the sleeves right and how sleeves should be at certain lengths, based on the full silhouette. Take people through that so they can take away some tips from this episode and actually deploy that in their own wardrobe.

Speaker 3: 27:17

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like this is one of the biggest tips that we teach our clients because it makes you look smaller, right? So by creating space at certain points on your body, you can make yourself look smaller. It also casualizes. So I feel like rolling up your sleeves serves two really important purposes. So we always talk to our clients about creating space somewhere.

Speaker 3: 27:41

So it could be here, it could be at your wrist, it could be at your ankles, but it's really important back to the science to have a place for your eye to rest, and your eye is looking for breaks and it's usually where the skin presents itself. So if you're pushing up your sleeves sorry, I can't really show you with on camera and your sleeves come to the smallest part of your waist, that's where the eye is going to rest. So the illusion is that you have a small, tiny little waist and it doesn't drag when you wear your sleeves all the way down. It drags the eye down, usually to the larger part of a woman's body and so our hips, which is our hips. So just by pushing up your sleeve, you get a much better silhouette and you've casualized your look, which is kind of where we are right now, just in terms of style.

Speaker 1: 28:24

Right, right and the other tip that they both whipped out of their pockets when they were in my own closet was rubber bands.

Speaker 2: 28:33

I was like how do you get?

Speaker 1: 28:34

this to stay and they were like, literally had, and there was no like uncomfortableness where my blood is not circulating around you know my upper forearm. They just quickly judge the sleeves and put rubber bands and then boom, magically the sleeve stays there. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 28:52

We're so glad that is stuck with you. I love that. And listen, it's not, these are not big investments. Right, Like they're taking the jacket that you love and rolling up the sleeve and getting a rubber band and off you go and you feel great and you look great.

Speaker 1: 29:04

Yeah, so take our listeners between what you think the connection is between clothes and someone's career.

Speaker 3: 29:14

So, gosh, this is a big one, like. There's two parts of it that we often talk to groups of people about and one of it is, you know, obviously the seven second rule. So when you're with somebody, in seven seconds they're going to make an impression about you and it's based on your appearance. Many of us understand and know that concept if you've ever interviewed for a job and you're trying to move up in your professional career. But I think what we talked a lot about today and we haven't actually named it is in cloth cognition, which is how clothes make you feel about yourself, and I think we don't spend enough time thinking about this piece. We just put clothes on and we go out the door and we feel uncomfortable, but we don't even recognize, we don't even make that mental checkmark that we feel uncomfortable.

Speaker 3: 30:03

But that impacts all of your relationships. If you're going to interview for a job, if you're checking out at the grocery store, if you're interacting with your spouse or your kids and you don't feel good about what you're wearing and again, this may be conscious or subconscious it's going to impact so much about your life that you weren't even aware of and I think, professionally, if at least this part of what you're doing. Your dress is not in place and really it can be and it should be, and hopefully you've taken away things that can help you get to that place from this podcast. You know everything that can fall into place in the rest of your life for the better part, because you're already starting your day off on the right foot. If you walk out and you feel good, and then hopefully the idea is that your career then kind of follows right along that and I know for some people that might be a really big leap. But we've worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of clients still and we have seen this come true many, many, many times.

Speaker 2: 31:07

And it goes back to what you had said earlier about not necessarily dressing for the position you have now, but really you want to be dressing for the position that you are shooting for, that you hope to attain, that you will attain one day, and so we really do also encourage people to dress for that future position, or at least start thinking and changing their mindset into what does that look like? When we are talking to professionals, we are often talking to them when they're in transition. They have either just left, they are thinking of leaving, or they are starting a new position, and so we get to see the before and after. But we also, when we're in transition and sometimes people don't even articulate to us that you're in transition we get in the car, we do a debrief and we're like they're in transition, we can see it. Yeah, yeah, there's a reason they called us.

Speaker 1: 31:57

Yeah, right, right. I think also the thing that you know as an executive coach, what I talk to people about so much is like their future self, the future you, and really spending time thinking about that future you. And how are you like, literally envisioning yourself interacting with colleagues or clients or executive leadership or if you are the executive leadership, then perhaps it's partners in the press and really thinking about, well, who's the future you that's sitting in that chair? What is Hishi they wearing? What do they look like? How are they holding themselves?

Speaker 1: 32:34

So we're not flipping a switch where you know, today I'm a director, tomorrow I'm a CEO, because we need to build towards getting that Right. We're understanding that if we don't start playing the part that we want, if we don't start matching our ideas and aspirations together our ideas, actions and aspirations together we don't create it. And that's why it's so important to play with visioning, to play with those exercises. You know we hear people talking about vision boards. Whether you're doing an old school vision board or you're saving clippings of pictures or magazine clippings in a notebook or a journal of, I love the way this person is dressed, or I love the way they look like they're owning the room. That's why we're doing this, so that our actions match our aspirations Absolutely. I think it's really really important.

Speaker 3: 33:27

Yeah, I love that and I love that you teach people that and I think people get too busy or they think they're too busy to do exactly what you're talking about and you can do it on the bus, train, plane, car, you know. Shower. It's really important and it is the driving force behind your career.

Speaker 1: 33:46

Yeah, what would you say to someone who perhaps is, for whatever reason, in between jobs or saving for something that's important in their lives that says, yeah, I would love to. You know, jill, kristen and Kristen, I'd love to do this, but I just don't have the money? What would you say to someone and we're not going to be toxic and tell you to spend the money anyway where we think, in how you're dressing, but how would you tell them to approach their wardrobe?

Speaker 3: 34:12

Well, first of all, they can always call us. We are always happy to do. We do 15 minute consultations for free. We'd be happy to do that for anybody and, honestly, whenever we hear of someone that's in distress, especially when it comes to dressing and especially when it comes to being in between a career, I mean, kristen and I would probably drop stuff and help people anyway, because this is what we do and this is what we love. And in the end, if people end up being successful because we've helped them dress, I mean that for us is sometimes even more important than any money that you can put in your pocket.

Speaker 3: 34:48

But I think there are some simple things that you can do. And again, it comes back to this idea of not buying anything. It comes back to the idea of editing stuff. So if you just went in your closet and spent an hour and took out all the things that you don't love or don't wear or don't fit you right and put it in a bin, we're not even saying you have to donate it or get rid of it Just pull it out of your workspace. Think of your closet as your desk and you only want those important papers and files in there that you need and use every day. If you get down to that very select group of clothes, you're automatically going to elevate your style and your wardrobe, and so that's probably the simplest and easiest thing that you can do is just start to take out the distractions. But again, call us 15 minutes. We can kind of talk you through maybe some of the simple things that you can do, based on your personal situation.

Speaker 2: 35:38

Exactly what you're hoping to get to, and a simple formula is usually what we recommend to people when they are getting dressed, and we can help them with that formula.

Speaker 3: 35:48

Yeah, we don't want anybody to think that we're unapproachable, because we have people that obviously are CEOs of banks and doctors and lawyers, but we also have people that live paycheck to paycheck.

Speaker 2: 35:58

New moms just struggling to figure out now that they're not working or they're working part time.

Speaker 3: 36:04

Yeah, I think it's really important that.

Speaker 2: 36:06

Young business professionals, men and women, just getting started with very small budgets.

Speaker 3: 36:12

Here's the bottom line we all have to get up every day and dress, whether it's for work or for whatever we're doing, and that, for a lot of people, is not an easy task, and our goal is to make it an easier task for people so that they can succeed.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Okay, I think that's really important. So one of the things that we were all talking about before we joined the today is that how you are working on a clothing swap, which is really about promoting sustainability. I love this. Tell our listeners about what you're doing there.

Speaker 2: 36:47

So we're actually just discussing it this morning. We're trying to work out all the details, but we think it's really important to start looking at the difference between fashion and sustainable fashion. With everything that's out there right now, the ability to get clothes in hours really by hitting shop is just a little too easy and it is expensive. Long term is expensive and really the core of our business is our method saves you money and we would prefer that you took a minute and thought about what you needed. We talked about just with our method of edit style shock, and so we're partnering with a couple of different people locally and we're going to try to have this sustainable swap where you swap first and you shop local second, and that's really going to be our message. Having professionals bring a few items of clothing that they have never worn or they've worn very few times, it's just like that piece that isn't working for them in their closet. That could be really the piece that someone is missing from their closet.

Speaker 3: 37:53

Our hope is that, because we're going to do this with higher level executive and entrepreneurs, is that this is something that they'll carry on and promote in their businesses. Even people at the highest levels can share clothes, swap clothes and have fun doing it. We are partnering with Chick2Chick. They're two girls that have a podcast, that are former newscasters that do a great job promoting important issues, and they do a great job of swapping their clothes.

Speaker 2: 38:22

They absolutely do. They're eating where they're formal wear.

Speaker 3: 38:26

We've seen examples. It's really cool. And then we're also going to be promoting the message of Miss Pennsylvania, who really has a great philosophy about sustainability and she always reuses, rewears her dresses for her pageants, and so she is going to be speaking and be involved in our event as well, and so we're really excited about that, because this is a great platform and again somebody at the highest levels in very important events is able to do it. It means that anybody and everybody else can do it too Beautiful.

Speaker 1: 38:59

I'm going to put that information for everyone listening in the show notes. That's great. I know you've been working on a book around the Threads Method. Tell us about what you're doing there and what listeners can look forward to we have, we have, we have.

Speaker 3: 39:16

So obviously, writing a book is a big endeavor and we have been working on it for about three years and we it's been a process. So I think when we originally sat down we were going to hash out an outline, but really began with kind of hashing out who we are, what we do, how we do it and getting to the nitty gritty. So that's been a really great process and really helpful for our business. But yeah, our goal is to provide people that maybe can't meet with us personally the Threads Method and the guidelines for kind of how to follow it at home, because you can do it, you know, in the privacy of your own home. And what's great is that anybody, any age, any socioeconomic bracket, can do it at any time. I mean, you could pick a Saturday and take one hour and start to implement the Threads Method and see the positive outcomes. And so we really kind of want to spread that message and allow other people to experience the positivity of the method.

Speaker 1: 40:14

I love it. I love it All right. So, as we start to wind down, I would love if you would give our listeners some tips for, you know, the next couple of months. This episode will be dropping in the fall winter of 2023. So any tips or things that people should be thinking about as they go into dressing themselves for the quarter.

Speaker 3: 40:39

Absolutely so. We just did a really fun YouTube video of what's in and out for fall, and many of those trends will carry through the winter time for sure, so you can visit our YouTube page. But there's some key ones and Kristin's doing some of them really really well. So I'm going to let her talk about, especially her sock trend, which I think people are bucking. But man, kristin is doing it and doing it well.

Speaker 2: 41:04

I am really enjoying the new sock trends. Where we're putting sock, I wish I could. Oh, hold on, let me show you.

Speaker 1: 41:13

So for everyone everyone who's on the podcast tell them visually, kristin, what they're looking at, so they can envision it in their head.

Speaker 2: 41:24

So I have a platform um Oxford wing type shoe to toned with a little white, roughly sock, and my jeans that I have on our crop so you can fully see that ruffle sock and the sock is white.

Speaker 1: 41:40

So there's a real contrast there, but what we're seeing the kind of the way I dressed when I was in elementary school having to wear ankle socks and Oxford's exactly what's all this new?

Speaker 3: 41:52

always Jill, that is the trend.

Speaker 2: 41:53

So we're seeing a lot of loafers with socks and that's kind of how those sock trends started on the runways, and now we're seeing sheer socks with trim, with loafers with ballet flats, the. The sock game is really strong and we are. You're finally. A couple of months ago you couldn't find the socks in the stores. Now you can find them. Um, you know all different colors, patterns. There's a little femininity to some of them with the ruffle, Some are more sporty. But really it's about just giving it a try, because when we first learned of this, which was probably six, eight months ago, we both shook our head and said I don't think so. But then you start to retrain your brain and you can see that actually it's really fun, it works. It elevates your style a little bit. It's allows you to be a little bit trendy without it being an expensive touch. These socks are inexpensive and it's just fun to kind of show your personality.

Speaker 3: 42:49

I agree so that's one, the other, the other tips, that's a big one, I think. Another big one is definitely the silhouette has changed in terms of pants, and so for men it's gone to a slimmer, tapered pant, definitely something that's more slim, fitting, and then for women we've gone to a wider leg and again, like Kristen said, just try it. It is very comfortable, it looks good. Obviously you need maybe more of a fitted, slimmer top, maybe a shorter jacket to make a bigger, more voluminous leg work. But it really is a great fun thing and, just like the sock trend, it's something different than we've been doing. So it is fun and exciting in that you can kind of take your your wardrobe on like a little bit of a right turn.

Speaker 2: 43:36

So that's always a good thing. So the the gene has gone from the skinny to the straight and then the straight to the even wider. So that's kind of the trajectory it's been the last couple of years and you'll see it and you'll start to recognize it, if you haven't already that the leg is just getting a little bit wider and wider. Because, like I said, the tip that I have, if you are not teeny tiny which I am not if you go to the wider leg, you just have to bring it up a little bit. It can't puddle to the ground. You have to bring it up and show a little bit of your ankle and that'll really help the eye.

Speaker 3: 44:08

And if I could just say, the puddle is what adds the weight, right, so that's why you want to bring it up. All that puddle kind of creates volume.

Speaker 2: 44:14

You don't want any break as you're going down your pant.

Speaker 1: 44:18

You don't want it to I was just going to say for anyone listening. What we mean is when the clothes puddle and billow and they kind of like bend right at the top of the, Exactly.

Speaker 3: 44:27

And to that point it's the same for the men right, like we don't want to be used to have a break or a puddle like in the in the pant, and so we kind of clean that up and streamlined it and that's kind of the elevated, more professional look right now, not to say it can't be a performance pant, it doesn't have to be a wool pant Right, it can be a performance pant that just looks clean and that's totally professional and a great look, I agree.

Speaker 1: 44:50

I'm going to go back to the sustainability theme of like if it's, we don't need the extra material, if we don't need the extra material, right.

Speaker 2: 44:57

Exactly Right.

Speaker 1: 44:59

So I know that my listeners are sitting here going. So what am I doing? Am I throwing out all my skinny jeans, because, you know, if we're wearing wide lids again, those have come back. What do I do with my skinnies?

Speaker 3: 45:11

You know I actually this is what's so hard about fashion and such a yo-yo on behalf of the designers. I just saw an article where they took a bunch of recent pictures of celebrities and they were in skinny jeans and they said, ha-ha, the skinny jean is not gone, right? So again, I think it's back to this idea of what works for you works for you if you really love them and you feel like all of your clothes look great in them. We're not going to tell you to throw away all of your skinny jeans. The thing is that test out, tip a toe in the water, try some of these new trends maybe you like a little bit wider jean if it has a little bit of a higher rise, and you experiment with that and then slowly you change over time.

Speaker 3: 45:53

I mean, if you think back to when skinny jeans came in, I think everybody balked at that, right. So I think all of this is about you know, getting used to seeing the trends on other people and then it's easier to adopt it for yourself. But it is a process. One of this has to happen overnight, so we would never recommend that somebody throw out all their skinny jeans overnight. But slowly transition and, as you work new things in that you feel comfortable with, maybe you see how you really don't love them as much as you did five years ago, right and that's what I've noticed.

Speaker 2: 46:24

You know, as I slowly go through my edit for the fall jeans that I thought I'd die in, you know. Oh, it's time They've got to go.

Speaker 1: 46:33

Okay, okay, so I'm allowed to maybe put them in a box and store them somewhere, and then they're not almost like off season clothes. Yeah, that's a great idea. It is a great idea.

Speaker 3: 46:45

Yeah, I feel like it's always good to like take a step back sometimes and remove them from your space and think, oh, okay, as a security, maybe I might need them back. But if you feel like you can move forward and this is part of, I feel like, the journey that people take with their style they get more, they trust themselves more and are able to make those decisions which I think you're getting really good at then you don't feel so scared about making shifts like this. It's not such a scary process, because it really isn't a scary process. We have to learn how to downplay some of these things in our brain, but I think that, you know, with all of this hype about it, we think that, oh, removing the skinny jean is like this big, you know scary monster when you know fashion is just about taking little steps and getting to the place where you want to be.

Speaker 1: 47:37

Right and that it feels good for you, right? It's the same thing about side part to middle part, if you don't have a middle part. Don't have a middle part.

Speaker 2: 47:44

That's exactly right.

Speaker 1: 47:45

These are the things that are. There's always going to be a style refresh. That's what the fashion industry does, and you can decide whether or not you want to join in or do what feels good for you. So this was so helpful. So thank you, Bol, for spending time and giving people tips, talking, taking a run through the Threads Method. When do we think the book might be out?

Speaker 3: 48:08

We're hoping this summertime. Yeah, that's our goal. That's our goal for our completion yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:14

Wrap it up in the spring and see it in the summer.

Speaker 1: 48:17

Love it, love it, okay. So, for all of our listeners again and for our viewers, I am going to put their links in the show notes so that you can follow them on Instagram and also reach out to them. They do everything from closet edits to photo shoot styling. If you've got a head shot, a photo shoot, coming up because you need a new corporate head shot, like, what better way to have someone come in and help you really step into and embody what it is that you want to convey within that photo? So really, really helpful. They'll also do it on Zoom.

Speaker 1: 48:47

I mean, there's been times where I've reached out to them to say I have an event to go to and help me, and I didn't have to buy anything. All they did was go get my stuff and say, okay, we're not going to wear it that way, I want you to wear it now, like this. And I was like, really, and I did it up and here we are. So again, there's lots of different ways that you can work with them. Again, all their information will be in the show notes and, as always, everyone, thank you for being here and have a wonderful week and I'll see you soon.