Newbury Street Shopping Tour

My style is never static; my color preferences have evolved after certain events, like a class called “Color Your Image,” where I learned I was a “late autumn” so I began to inject vibrant pinks, reds, and oranges into the sea of black in my closet. On a trip to Venice in early 2001, I saw smartly dressed Venetian women walking through the campos and calles in a color palette of strong reds, tans, and whites--the last two, colors I’d always thought would wash me out. As a “late autumn,” brown is supposed to be my black, my primary neutral, and so I am currently beginning to add more brown to my wardrobe.

The class I took yesterday, “Fashion for Boomers," will definitely affect my style evolution in ways I cannot yet predict. Wardrobe consultant Susan Mullins turned out to be down-home glamorous and breathy with long eyelashes and frosted pink lips. Before we toured the three shops (a boutique off Newbury, Cuoio shoe store on Newbury, and Neiman Marcus at Copley), she recited basic fashion strategies: highlight your strengths and cover your flaws. For inverted triangle types like me, darker shades on top to minimize and lighter shades below to draw the eye. For pear-shaped types like one woman and Susan herself, more volume on top and tailored shapes below (she pointed to the straight-legged black pants I was wearing!) to balance out the proportions.

At Jari Boutique (236 Clarendon Street), Susan greeted the saleswoman and then led us from one display to another, whispering things like, “See that bronze metallic raincoat? It’s not too shiny. It would be great for any of you. It’s a little boxy but still classic.” We had been encouraged to incorporate the metallic trend into our accessories, and since I was wearing bronze metallic Mary Jane flats (Me Too, $50 on sale, Cuoio at Faneuil Hall), I was on my way.

Next, we considered the necklace on a mannequin wearing a drapy orange boiled wool jacket over a knitted black dress; it was probably made of some kind of plastic or resin and looked like orange banana chips rimmed with black. One woman said that’s the kind of jewelry she loved. The other woman asked if Susan bought the jewelry for each outfit and wore it only as an ensemble. Big surprise to me: Susan said yes! I thought that was kind of ... rigid. Since I don’t have enough jewelry to do that, and hardly wear it anyway, I need jewelry that can go with more than one thing!

At Neiman Marcus (Needless Markup!), Susan had expected to show us the lines of Dana Buchman and Tracy Reese. “We don’t carry those bridge lines anymore,” sniffed the saleswoman. “But we do have St. John Sport and Rebecca and Drew.” And that was the moment, for me, that redeemed the entire cost of the class because Susan was our buffer. Amid the chatter of our little group, I could ignore the feeling that I was being judged too poor to shop here and focus instead on our quest for a wardrobe basic: a patterned silky shirt that could go from day to night. Susan finally found an example to show us, and although it wasn’t any of my colors, I could feel myself changing as I considered it. This is exactly the type of thing I don’t have and could spend time looking for down the road! At our last stop, Susan explained that jeans can be dressy if they are dark. She put into words something I’d understood nonverbally: the concept of daytime and nighttime jeans. Daytime jeans go with sneakers; nighttime jeans go with heels, an evening shirt, and a jacket!

Above all, Susan encouraged us to go outside of our comfort zone, whether that meant trying a new store, a new color, or a new category of accessory. Following orders, on my way out, without the protection of the group, I browsed through some of the big names like Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney, and Prada, where I lingered over a jacket I’d seen worn by Don Cheadle in the August 07 issue of Esquire. A black wool jacket that morphed into navy silk three quarters of the way down. Not a blend of wool and silk but two separate regions of each! A masterpiece of construction.