Cheeky666
11-11-2008, 03:03 AM
So as some of you may be aware, this week I had an image consultation with Jae from Kinowear.com. Now before I decided to do this, I had mixed reactions from people, but I kept an open mind and once I set my mind to something I pretty much just get on with it.
I paid $145 (about £90) for a 2 hour phone consultation with Jae which promised to breakdown my style and help sharpen up my image. The reason I chose Jae was I've been reading his blog and I really liked his articles, which seem to be focused on dressing to create attraction. To me the guy had already given me a lot of value for free and I felt he knew what he was talking about. Also I know he was qualified as a member of the Association of Image Consultants International - www.aici.org.
Overall, I was very impressed with what I got and the consultation definitely exceeded my expectations. Some of this was specifically tailored to me, but there is a lot of advice that I think may be useful to you guys too.
Firstly Jae asked me to fill out a client questionnaire to get a full understanding of what I wanted to get out of the consultation. Then he asked me to get some feedback from my friends, family and colleagues. Thanks to those who filled this in for me. Finally he asked me to take some photographs of my current outfits and upload to an online photo album. This had to include a head shot as well as as many different outfits as I could.
Now even before I had the actual consultation with Jae, I had started to think different about my image, my style and fashion sense. I started to de clutter my wardrobe and threw out some clothes that I hadn't worn for ages. I started to take more care over the clothes I wore on a day to day basis. You might as well fix as much as you can yourself and I would recommend this to all of you.
So the phone consultation started off with Jae going through my feedback from my friends and collegues. Overall he said that I had good style and I was doing all the basics correctly. There are other clients he has who don't have a clue and I (thankfully) didn't fall into that category. However, the underlying tone from my feedback was that I dressed a little boring and we agreed that the way forward was to take my image/style from good to great! He told me he was going to be ultra critical to make sure I took my style to the next level, which is exactly what I wanted.
It was good to get feedback on what was working for me and what wasn't. Positive comments I got were on my hair, facial hair, apparently I have a great smile, and Jae liked the blazers.
Jae took my through each one of my photos and broke down my style. What was working and what wasn't. He asked me to take a step back and ask myself what my first impressions would be of someone who dressed as I did. Even doing this simple thing was quite eye opening. I suggest you all look in the mirror before a night out and ask yourselves what would someone else's first impressions be?
Jae could tell me natural style is quite smart and formal. He said the image we would work on is that of a millionaire. How do I give off that image of looking successful and could even be a millionaire. I liked this idea as it would develop the style I already have.
Jae gave some advice that I already knew such as:
- Never wear more than 3 colours at a time
- Try and match your belt and shoes
- Your socks should match your jeans/trousers not your shoes
- Always wear dress socks with shoes
But there was some more tailored advice:
- To make sure a dress shirt fits, do it up to the top button and make sure you can fit two fingers in between your neck and the shirt collar.
- To make sure a blazer/suit jacket fits, make sure you can fit a maximum of one fist in between the jacket and your stomach.
- Faded, washed jeans are going out of fashion. Stop buying these anymore.
- It is better to have two pairs of really good jeans rather than 5 pairs of mediocre ones ( think Diesel, Gstar Raw )
- Fit is so important. I was already aware of this, but not to the extent that Jae showed me. Fit is so so so important. Good fitting clothes mke the difference between looking average and a million dollars.
- Longer shoes will make your legs look longer
- The thinner the belt, the classier it looks. The thicker the belt, the more casual it looks.
- The most important things to be aware of with your dress is top and bottom. Anything near your face and you feet. They need to be spot on as this is what people see the most.
Jae gave me some advice on what kind of cut jeans to wear, he showed me examples of where to buy things. For myself, low rise jeans suit my body type and when he showed me examples I could see what he meant.
You guys should check out - http://www.asos.com/Man/
In fact everything he spoke about, he had an example of online, so I could see exactly what he meant which helped me to understand why he was recommending certain types of clothes.
Overall we went way over the 2 hours that I paid for, and instead of just telling me what to buy he gave me a much better understanding of why things look better. He gave me a colour pallette of what colours would look good for my skin tone, and he by far exceeded my expectations.
I have a list of items I want to go out and buy and also a list of items that I don't need to spend loads of money on. A good well fitting suit is a great investment for me as I wear a suit to work everyday. He also recommended that I get a subsciption to GQ to keep up to date with trends and he showed me what to look for in the pictures.
I'm not sure if he is doing any more phone consultations but for the price I paid, it was well worth it.
I paid $145 (about £90) for a 2 hour phone consultation with Jae which promised to breakdown my style and help sharpen up my image. The reason I chose Jae was I've been reading his blog and I really liked his articles, which seem to be focused on dressing to create attraction. To me the guy had already given me a lot of value for free and I felt he knew what he was talking about. Also I know he was qualified as a member of the Association of Image Consultants International - www.aici.org.
Overall, I was very impressed with what I got and the consultation definitely exceeded my expectations. Some of this was specifically tailored to me, but there is a lot of advice that I think may be useful to you guys too.
Firstly Jae asked me to fill out a client questionnaire to get a full understanding of what I wanted to get out of the consultation. Then he asked me to get some feedback from my friends, family and colleagues. Thanks to those who filled this in for me. Finally he asked me to take some photographs of my current outfits and upload to an online photo album. This had to include a head shot as well as as many different outfits as I could.
Now even before I had the actual consultation with Jae, I had started to think different about my image, my style and fashion sense. I started to de clutter my wardrobe and threw out some clothes that I hadn't worn for ages. I started to take more care over the clothes I wore on a day to day basis. You might as well fix as much as you can yourself and I would recommend this to all of you.
So the phone consultation started off with Jae going through my feedback from my friends and collegues. Overall he said that I had good style and I was doing all the basics correctly. There are other clients he has who don't have a clue and I (thankfully) didn't fall into that category. However, the underlying tone from my feedback was that I dressed a little boring and we agreed that the way forward was to take my image/style from good to great! He told me he was going to be ultra critical to make sure I took my style to the next level, which is exactly what I wanted.
It was good to get feedback on what was working for me and what wasn't. Positive comments I got were on my hair, facial hair, apparently I have a great smile, and Jae liked the blazers.
Jae took my through each one of my photos and broke down my style. What was working and what wasn't. He asked me to take a step back and ask myself what my first impressions would be of someone who dressed as I did. Even doing this simple thing was quite eye opening. I suggest you all look in the mirror before a night out and ask yourselves what would someone else's first impressions be?
Jae could tell me natural style is quite smart and formal. He said the image we would work on is that of a millionaire. How do I give off that image of looking successful and could even be a millionaire. I liked this idea as it would develop the style I already have.
Jae gave some advice that I already knew such as:
- Never wear more than 3 colours at a time
- Try and match your belt and shoes
- Your socks should match your jeans/trousers not your shoes
- Always wear dress socks with shoes
But there was some more tailored advice:
- To make sure a dress shirt fits, do it up to the top button and make sure you can fit two fingers in between your neck and the shirt collar.
- To make sure a blazer/suit jacket fits, make sure you can fit a maximum of one fist in between the jacket and your stomach.
- Faded, washed jeans are going out of fashion. Stop buying these anymore.
- It is better to have two pairs of really good jeans rather than 5 pairs of mediocre ones ( think Diesel, Gstar Raw )
- Fit is so important. I was already aware of this, but not to the extent that Jae showed me. Fit is so so so important. Good fitting clothes mke the difference between looking average and a million dollars.
- Longer shoes will make your legs look longer
- The thinner the belt, the classier it looks. The thicker the belt, the more casual it looks.
- The most important things to be aware of with your dress is top and bottom. Anything near your face and you feet. They need to be spot on as this is what people see the most.
Jae gave me some advice on what kind of cut jeans to wear, he showed me examples of where to buy things. For myself, low rise jeans suit my body type and when he showed me examples I could see what he meant.
You guys should check out - http://www.asos.com/Man/
In fact everything he spoke about, he had an example of online, so I could see exactly what he meant which helped me to understand why he was recommending certain types of clothes.
Overall we went way over the 2 hours that I paid for, and instead of just telling me what to buy he gave me a much better understanding of why things look better. He gave me a colour pallette of what colours would look good for my skin tone, and he by far exceeded my expectations.
I have a list of items I want to go out and buy and also a list of items that I don't need to spend loads of money on. A good well fitting suit is a great investment for me as I wear a suit to work everyday. He also recommended that I get a subsciption to GQ to keep up to date with trends and he showed me what to look for in the pictures.
I'm not sure if he is doing any more phone consultations but for the price I paid, it was well worth it.