Eight Things Everyone Should Have in their Closet....you be the judge!

I was so excited to watch a segment on the local news last week informing me the “must haves” I should have in my closet...okay sarcastically I really wanted to pick the segment a part to merely reinforce that you cannot trust any fashion experts who have never met you.  You, your body, your opinions influence what works for you and what makes you feel like a queen (or king) and we all are as unique as those darn snowflakes everyone keeps telling us will never match another.  We don’t just have a personalized color palette in the Element work; we also have different styles, textures and even sheens to our skin!  I recently was a part of the Elements Advanced Workshop hosted here in Mpls and it went so much deeper and personal with respect to patterns, sheen and even shapes found in our individual bodies.  Clearly that was a total sidebar but I really hope one day we won’t be trusting magazines, TV shows, or even our close friends and family as the ones left with the decision as to what will make us look and feel our best….the decision lies with you and only you.  And now onto the segment I watched…..

It started out rather promising!  I was kind of amazed.  They discussed how most of us only wear roughly 20% of our current closet (yes that reads 20%).  Don’t believe me?  Why don’t you experiment with this theory in the next week….or I could just save you the trouble and remind you that I am always right J we come up with excuses about how we might wear it eventually or perhaps once we finally lose those love handles or maybe once we get our butt back that we had pre-baby it will finally fit just right.  I don’t mean to be a bad news bear here but it probably won’t happen.  The trend expert on this segment then goes into the fact that your closet should be in “real time” you should be able to wear anything that is hanging in there and I couldn’t agree more.  Then they went into eight specifics men and women should have in their closet.  Let’s just keep this in mind:  I have recently read everyone should eat bananas as part of their diet.  Sounds like sound advice for the masses right?  Well my husband gets super sick from eating bananas, just as I do from eating “whole grains.”  My point? You, and only you, know what’s best for your body.  But if you really would like a little personalized guidance, that’s where the Element Workshops come in quite handy (shameless plug concluded). 

Here are their Eight-must haves for men: 

1. Grey wool suit:  this suggestion would actually work for three of the four elements, it would never work for a FIRE so not exactly a home-run but not quite terrible….not sure if I would trust advice based on this criteria
2. Blue blazer:  Similar as last suggestion, not horrible, would work for half or potentially 75% of the male population, but certainly not all.  (and some poor FIRE dude went out the next day to buy a blue blazer and it will just going on hanging in his closet….oh the tragedy)
3. Crisp White Shirt:  Every man thinks he needs a crisp white shirt.  Only one man should own it:  EARTH Element with a potential for AIR as well.  WATER and FIRE dudes: save your pennies-don’t do it!
4. Casual t-shirt:  no issue with this suggestion since it’s not really much of a suggestion. Okay. they are NOT talking about the shirt you received at the last 5k you walked in, they mean t-shirt but still dressy enough to wear to the office in a professional environment
5. Casual Sweater (preferably cashmere).  Similar to suggestion above-not much of a suggestion.  If you know anyone who doesn’t have a casual t-shirt or casual sweater we can certainly stage an intervention. ASAP.  But I would not suggest that everyone wear cashmere.  If a texture is NOT in your element, you won’t wear it.  It’s that simple.  So if cashmere is not part of your element (which it won’t be for 75% of the population) don’t bother.
6. Well-fitting khaki’s:  I bought one pair of well-fitting khakis in college to wear to a bartending job.  I hated wearing these things, they were too well-fitting.  Granted I’m a lady but lets think about this:  the color of khakis will look seriously stupid on some of the guys we know.  I saw President Obama in khakis once and I almost puked.  He is an EARTH and these did nothing for him-except make people even more uneasy about his decision-making processes…..just trying to add some humor here folks. 
7. Brown Oxford’s:  Will NOT work for all elements, and if they don’t work for you, they will continue to sit in the closet.  My husband just recently got rid of a pair of these because he naturally NEVER (not even once) wore these expensive shoes but couldn’t get rid of them…..ironically because he had never worn them.  Welcome to my life. 
8. Dressy Jeans:  Fine with me for people to own dressy jeans, just don’t get black: your chances are very slim that you will look good (or slim) in them. 
   
   

Next blog I will be discussing this segment’s top eight suggestions for women.  I am warning you they start off with a staple being the “little black dress”….heaven help us. 

Uncovering the Earth Element...more than meets the eye

Design-seeds.com

I must mention that the EARTH Element is in fact where I began my journey with the Elements.  The owner of the small company I had been working for a few years back, waltzed in one day looking gorgeous and announced that she was going to go gray.  Day after day she wowed us with her new clothing selections and eventually her gorgeous silver white hair!  My friend, Theresa, and I looked on in amazement.  This lady was about 30 years older than us at the time (guess she still is-ha!) and us twenty-something’s wanted to know what her latest secret was to looking fabulous….even her presence seemed different.  She told us she recently took a class and found her Element…EARTH.  The rest, as they say, is history J

We would never type an individual based on personality, we can only type them on their physical body but some EARTH personality traits include their ability to see the whole picture and quickly notice what is missing and how to make it better.  When I first got married I thought my husband,  Jason, was just extremely critical and unemotional.  When I started my training in the Elements with Barbara (the founder) she explained to me that the criticisms, as much as I may not see them this way, are actually Jason expressing his love for me from his EARTH element.  The EARTH sees how to make the situation better and wants to do so out of love.  Also, the unemotional piece is just how they actually express their emotions-the irony is not lost on me.  The EARTH generally tends to not wear their heart on their sleeve-think Jackie O at her own husband’s funeral. The EARTH has all the same emotions that every other Element does, they just tend to keep them inside. 

The colors that work best on an EARTH are what we call the “pure” colors, there is nothing added nor nothing taken away from the colors that comprise their palette.  Some of their colors include black, white and the jewel tones.  They are tone ONLY Element that can wear black, I repeat the ONLY Element (most likely this is not you, reading this blog).  Whenever we are wearing colors that that not in our Element (like black for most of us) it will emphasize our flaws-such as bags under eyes, blemishes, wrinkles-rather than accentuate our body’s natural energetic vibration. 

Happy 35^th Birthday this week to the EARTH I married 3 years ago, Jason J