The resale market is bursting with new items. This is the perfect time to simplify your wardrobe and freshen up your closet by shopping the resale market!
Do you feel anxious thinking about getting out of casual clothes now that we are entering a new phase in the pandemic and gathering more in person?
Are you sick of your clothes even though you haven’t worn them in ages? Itching to add to your wardrobe but don’t know where to start?
Do you feel overwhelmed with shopping at the mall where all you see are current trends and colors that don’t appeal to you?
We are all ready for change. We don’t want to go back to the way things were but aren’t sure where we are going or what we will be doing. It’s the same when thinking about what is in our closets and what we might wear.
I usually prefer dressing up and wearing accessories. But I have embraced the simpler way of dressing and now need to assimilate it with my romantic style and budget. For years, I have scoured resale stores and consignment shops for my own closet, for friends, and for clients. I love finding unique pieces and getting a bargain! Scoring the perfect piece that fits well, is a flattering color, and meets the budget adds value to the closet and feels like winning the trifecta! One or two of those pieces can make all the difference in a tired closet.
This is the perfect time to start or restart the process of making some simple additions to your closet that will freshen it up without breaking the bank. There is no better time to look to the resale market than now. Many of us have found clothing that no longer works for us or have changed sizes. The people who used the time during quarantine to purge have flooded the resale shops and online boutiques with great clothing that may have never been worn and is still in tags.
My philosophy is that having fewer high-quality pieces is much better than having a closet full of clothes that rarely get worn. Creating a wardrobe starting with perfect neutrals, adding colorful basics and supplementing with a few interesting unique pieces can be easy especially when you know the colors that harmonize with your coloring and the styles that suit your personality. And when you do that, it can be fun, not a chore!
If you are looking to get your wardrobe updated simply, the place to start is with basics (shoes, pants, skirts, coats, belts) in your neutral – gray, taupe, white, stone, black, tan or browns depending on your coloring and seasonal tone. Then add 5-10 or so colorful basics – t-shirts, blouses, wraps, accessories, sweaters. If you can find a few interesting pieces in your colors and style to pull it all together, your wardrobe can feel brand new without a large investment.
As soon as you find a great piece, get rid of two that don’t work anymore. That is anything in the wrong color, that doesn’t fit quite right, feels uncomfortable, or you are so sick of you can’t imagine ever wanting to wear it again.
Because I believe so strongly in matching the right clothing to the right person, simplifying life and eliminating waste, I created a new and gently used online clothing store offering clothing in all colors, styles and sizes. The Indigo Tones online clothing store evolved from an extremely successful charity clothing exchange. It was clear the attendees were eager to pass along great buys that didn’t work for them while finding new treasures without spending a dime. Getting gorgeous clothing to the right person so they can both look gorgeous is the goal!
I was honored to be interviewed in this article by Forbes this past year about the resale market and the Indigo Tones online shop and am excited to share it with you!
“I think it is truly ingenious selling 12 season accurately colour-coded clothes and other items on your website!” Jenni, Light Spring Online Shopper, Australia
If you find that you have purged your closet and have special pieces that you would like to consign, check out local Rochester, NY resale shops like Lu’s Back Door or Panache Vintage Consignment Boutique.
We also take donations at Indigo Tones for anyone who wants to be sure that quality clothing in excellent condition will get to the perfect person. All clothing on the Indigo Tones online resale shop is carefully selected for each of the 12 Season personal color harmony tones and is organized by style personality so you can rest assured it finds its way home!
Contact Kerry to donate.
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It’s a treat to introduce you to this month's colorful lives feature, Soft Autumn Tim Stich who is also my son!! Tim’s experience with shopping for clothing and wearing color is unique as I become a color analyst when he was quite young. When he and his sister Clare were little, I tried dressing them in bright colors with strong patterns as was the style then.....but even before learning about personal color harmony, I started to sense that the clothes overwhelmed them and began dressing them in softer colors and solids. I was even shocked the other day to discover when I pulled out his school photos that every single photo (even before I learned of his color palette) was taken in a Soft Autumn color. You can see how his life has evolved wearing the soft, earthy colors that suit his ruddy hair, freckles and soft blue/green eyes.
Over the years, he has mostly been very eager to wear what suits him and looked to me to help him distinguish soft autumn colors from the two seasons nearby - warm autumn and soft summer. We enjoy shopping together, especially now that he lives in Manhattan and the shopping is abundant. It can be a challenge to find his colors in sizes and style that fit but when its perfect, it feels great and he knows it. Read on to learn more about what it’s like to be a guy whose mom is a color consultant!
I am so excited to introduce you the “entertainingly irreverent” (Associated Press) Soft Summer, Valerie Peterson. Valerie is an extraordinary storyteller in a variety of media including scriptwriting, screenplays, fiction, non-fiction and book publishing/consulting. I analyzed her colors years ago in Rhode Island at a girls weekend hosted by a mutual friend (color analysis and girls weekends make a great combo!). In the years since, Valerie has embraced her Soft Summer colors in spite of living and working in New York City where black is a standard and practical.
It was a thrill when her publisher chose a photo of my family for her wonderfully spirited book, Peterson’s Happy Hour. On page 46, you can find me with my family - brothers, Mike and Tim and my parents Marcia and J. Michael Jones circa 1970. The book features many more photographic gems and recipes for a fabulous social gathering!
In this month’s colorful lives blog, Valerie shares her journey with her color palette. As with all her writing projects, she is humorous, colorful and entertaining! She has kept in great condition and still uses the Sci Art swatch book that I provided back in those days!! Be sure to check out her large body of work on valeriepeterson.net and read more in the blog:
While doing color analysis in Boston in June, I had the pleasure of meeting Danielle Burton and giving her a 12-Season Color Analysis. Danielle had recently experienced a 4-Season Color Analysis with a House of Colour consultant and was told she was a Winter. I was skeptical that she was any type of Winter (in the 12 season system, there are actually 3 Winters - Dark Winter, Cool Winter and Bright Winter). Her light eyes, natural lighter and soft brownish hair and skin tone were much more consistent with my clients who fall into the lighter seasons, especially Summer.
Since her hair had been highlighted, we covered it with a neutral gray cap to do the testing portion of the analysis, ensuring that the lighter color did not sway the results of the analysis. It was clear from the beginning that Danielle was responding more harmoniously to the cool tones even some of the lighter cool winter drapes which was consistent with her 4 season color analysis.
But, while she contrasted with any drapes that were dark and bright, she was softened and balanced by the lighter cool tones, particularly Summer. The dark colors brought out shadows under her eyes and the brighter colors overwhelmed her and brought attention to themselves. In the end, she looked lovely and perfectly balanced and harmonious in the Cool Summer colors!
"While I had a great experience at House of Colour, I do think they are missing out on a ton of research and color science by not including the 12 seasons and variants. The added layer of cool vs bright vs dark was a huge difference for me and really solidified which category I best fit”.
Enjoy reading more about Danielle’s experience with both systems and her reaction to her diagnosis as a Cool Summer:
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