“Sponsored by Nuff Nang”

I think I can hand on heart say that my day out with Michelle the winner of the Westfield Styling Session and $1000 gift-card was one of the most heartwarming and emotional experiences I’ve ever had on the blog.

To see someone transform before your eyes and discover new colours, styles, and combinations was just wonderful- not to mention a new bra size to boot. Michelle is quite unique in that she suffers from Dysautonomia that has limited her capacity to get out and about and well and truly put shopping for a new wardrobe on the back burner to say the least.

With this experience she had checklist of some things that she really wanted to achieve for the day:

• Find a dress to wear to her son’s Deb

• Getting fitted for and buy a new bra- something she hadn’t done since 2007

• Find comfortable and stylish alternatives to PJ’s that is what she spends a lot of time in at home due to her illness.

• Shoes for the Deb

• New jeans

As we only had a couple of hours together to try and achieve this thank god for Jo Blankfield Westfield fashion stylist is all I can say. She’d had a heads up on Michelle’s check list so already had a plan in place, but even I who considers herself a savvy shopper didn’t think it was possible to check off the above in 2 hours.

I thought I’d share with you her words on the experience and what it meant to her:

“Hi Phoebe,
Just wanted to write to thank you for the wonderful day yesterday. It was amazing and much more than I expected. I really did feel like a fashion virgin, and it was great to be shown colours and styles that I would never have even thought about. I think I’ve thought of my body as the enemy for so long it was hard to wrap my head around the idea that it may have any redeeming aspects or that I could ever feel confident fashion wise again. Yesterday gave me that back. My lovely husband drove myself and Kerri straight up to Doncaster when he picked us up, so I now have the deb dress from Jacquie E and love it especially with the shoes. I have even booked in to get my hair done, so I’m on a roll.

Rather exhausted today but it was very worth it, and my boys ran me a bubble bath and grabbed me a glass of wine when I returned home. So a great birthday all round. I am currently in my pj alternatives and have one of the scarves ready to pop on for when I go pick my boys up from school. There is also a pile of my old sad bras waiting for their ceremonial cremation.

Thank you once again for an amazing day and helping me find my mojo (and go up 3 bra sizes!) once more.

Cheers

Michelle”

Have a look at our styling session and Michelle’s journey to get her fashion mojo back again…

Before:

Michelle spends a lot of her time at home caring for her family, her dogs and dealing with her illness. She was after clothes that would be comfortable and get her out of her PJ’s. You can read all about her daily musings over at her blog.

The Styling Session:

First stop: new bras. Michelle hadn’t bought a bra since 2007 and guess what? She went up 3 sizes and left the bra she arrived in for the day in the bin at Bra’s & Things.

Westfield stylist Jo Blankfield stops at nothing to get the right fit, even if it involves crawling around on the floor. Gold.

We thought this might be the outfit to wear to her son’s Deb because it was along the lines of what Michelle had in mind. There was however another dress in Jacqui E that blew all of us away and made Michelle just shine.

On her new shoes from Betts…

“Must say those shoes are the most comfortable heels I’ve ever owned. Even by the end of the night my feet still didn’t hurt. I even managed to do the mother son dance/shuffle at the end of the deb, which made my night. It was also the first time in a long time that people actually mentioned that I looked great, rather than the usual ‘tired’ or ‘pale’, and that was even with my cane, which many had never seen me with. I’m thinking my mojo may well and truly be back. :)”

After: