As busy professionals, you’ve got a lot to juggle: your job, your boss, co-workers and employees, your home, family, and finally your image. Clothes, shopping, image…who has the time to think about it, not to mention the money? Good News! There’s a great wardrobe technique you should know about called clustering. It’s a concept all smart professionals can use. It saves time and money and helps you create a personal image that will enhance your professional image.

A cluster is a small group of coordinated clothes. You may be thinking, “She must be talking about mix and match. I know all about that.” Clustering goes beyond mix and match and allows you to build a complete wardrobe that will last for years. A well- planned cluster includes enough garments for a variety of looks to fit all of your needs. The technique not only saves you the headaches of figuring out what to wear, it also saves you time, because you’ll know what to look for when shopping…pieces that work with your cluster! Another benefit of clustering is that you can build your wardrobe as quickly or as slowly as your time and budget allow.

The strategy (Read more...)

I was giving a presentation last week and one of the participants asked me "Does size matter?" My answer? No! No! No! As women, we're so conditioned to judging ourselves by the clothing size we wear. On top of that, manufacturers and designers are driving us crazy with the inconsistencies in their sizing. The fact of the matter is that the only thing that really counts is being healthy and making sure our clothes fit us correctly. A number is just a number! You can take a size 6, an 8, and a 10 from 3 different makers and lay them all on top of each other. Chances are good that often times they'll all be the same exact size! I always say that if I ever got tired of image consulting (which I can't ever imagine!) I would lobby congress for a law to require sizes to be standardized. As I mentioned earlier, our identities are often tied to the number we wear. And most of us feel better when that number is smaller. It seems to make sense that designers would realize that if they make their clothes true to size or a little bit big, they'll sell more (Read more...)

I was working with a client on Friday whose mother had come into town for an extended visit, and was organizing everything in sight. (I so wish my mom would do this!) Very shortly after I arrived at my client's home, said mom whisked me into the enormous closet to showed me what she'd done with the jewelry.

She had put cork board on the wall above the built in dresser. Then she had put in tons of push pins and hung the jewelry on them. Okay, so it's a really simple concept, but it was amazing how organized it was and easy to see the jewelry. Obviously, it worked for necklaces and some earrings, just not posts and bracelets. Still!

After we'd gone through my clients existing fall wardrobe, and I was accessorizing her "new" outfits I'd created, I was able to see the jewelry so much easier than when I'd even just had it all laid out on the dresser in the spring. One caveat though, you have to keep sterling silver in plastic bags so it won't tarnish, but I can picture pinning the bag on the (Read more...)

In just a few mere days, all of the Fall Fashion Preview issues of the fashion magazines will be hitting the newsstands! Admittedly, it's a pretty exciting time of year for me. Although the magazines have been giving small glimpses of fall for most of the summer, September is when the big, thick, "bibles" hit. You may be wondering why I'm talking about this. It's simple, one word, okay well two: Wardrobe Planning! By seeing the new trends and designer offerings, you can begin to get a good feel for what you need to update and complete your wardrobe. (Read more...)

In all of the excitement of welcoming everyone, I forgot to include my website address. It may be here on the site somewhere, but hey, I'm in fashion, pretty low tech! Please visit my website, www.elementsofimage.com.

Welcome to my new blog! I'm Dana Lynch, owner of Elements of Image, an image consulting firm located in Denver, Colorado. I specialize in working with professional women helping them not only look great, but I teach them how to use their image to speak up for them--in other words, non-verbal communication.


I'll be talking about professional dress mostly, but since we all have a full life, and we wear clothes for the majority of it, I'll also be musing about fashion and clothes for your entire lifestyle.




If there's ever a topic you'd like to see adressed or if you have any fashion or image related question, please let me know. I'll be blogging weekly, so please visit me again!