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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Image Consultant Boosts Confidence on Inside, Helps With Clothes, Hair on the Outside

Journal Staff Writer
Journal Santa Fe

You have to admire the woman's chutzpah: to move to Santa Fe and open an image consulting business. A place where black jeans with black cowboy boots are considered "black tie." Where a woman's idea of packing for Manhattan means digging out the silver and turquoise jewelry she never wears here.

"Oh, but Hawaii was even more laid-back," says Gillian Armour, who moved her image consulting business from Hawaii to Santa Fe some four months ago. "In Hawaii, it's 'I could care less,' but here it's a more studied laid-back look."

No, please— say it ain't so! Really, we don't care, either. That's why we left New York City and Los Angeles and Chicago and all those places you have to wear wingtips and sensible pumps. We don't care about style. Really.

She disagrees. "In Hawaii, you see large men and large women wearing large clothes in large prints," says Armour. "It's based on a true lack of information and knowledge— no clue about 'what looks good on my body.'

"But here, by virtue of people's exposure, more of it (fashion, yes) seeps in."

And the "studied" comment? Is she saying that we deliberately try to look as if we don't care, when we really do? "Studied, because it's not sloppy, it's not trashy, and quite often, it's well-accessorized, with a great belt or a great purse or a great jacket," she says. "There's something— even if it's just one item— that says, 'I do care.' ''

And Armour says that, even with our great accessories, we're fortunate to live in a place that's accepting of our eccentricities. "Because Santa Fe is a small town, there's not a judgment on appearance as there is in larger cities," she says.

OK, well, maybe we'll buy that. (It's just that we hate when a newcomer notices it, as only a newcomer can.) And it's not that we're new to image consultants, but we wanted to know: Why should we care?


Life changes

To answer that question, Armour says there are usually two times people are concerned about their image. "One is when it's promotion-driven," she says. "People come in and say, 'I'm gunning for a promotion.' ''

And then, as we've all probably heard before, it's important to dress like someone would in the job they want to have.

The second time people start caring about their appearance is mid-life, which Armour points out, can cover a lot of time periods. "The body has changed, perhaps the esteem has decreased," she says. "Whatever is happening for the person, there's also an identity change going on."

Armour says one of the rewards of her work is helping people realize they don't have to lose weight before they can start on an image makeover process. "I deal from the inside out," Armour says, "and I have a credo: This is never going to work unless you are ready for the change, and the change has to start with an attitude adjustment toward your body."

Her experience has shown that changing the image first, in the form of closer attention to fabric, color and cut, can actually motivate people to lose weight. "It's a Catch-22," says Armour. "Someone starts to look better, other people start to notice and give them feedback, and the feedback keeps the transformation going."

In one of Armour's most satisfying makeovers— a mother of two children in Hawaii— the woman was dressing every day in flip-flops, shorts and big T-shirts to cover her weight gain. "She loved being a mom," says Armour. "She didn't like how her body had changed.

"I had her go home and get comfortable looking in a mirror, naked," says Armour. "Then she came to me in a leotard and tights and we did measurements. That begins an acceptance of the body. My job is how do we work with the body to camouflage and create illusions? That's what clothing is all about— line, proportion, color. We also did a hairstyle analysis with digital photography and computer analysis."

It wasn't that the woman didn't want a casual look. "But there are many ways you can do casual," says Armour. "You can do casual, laid-back thrift store, or you can do casual laidback Banana Republic.

"Instead of cotton T-shirts, I put her in linen blouses— some are blends that don't wrinkle."

And rather than the Lycra bike shorts the woman had been wearing, "I put her in cargo shorts, safari and Bermuda shorts, something that was much more flattering to her body," says Armour.

"Most people who have dressed casual, laid-back— when they discover how great they can look, they never go back," says Armour.

She also maintains that businesses are discovering that better-dressed employees are more productive employees. "The dumbing down of the wardrobe in the workplace is having an effect on the bottom line," says Armour, "so a lot of my business is with corporate clients. I come in to raise the awareness level."


Desire for fashion


If you're wondering what motivates someone to become an image consultant, Armour says in her case, part of it was always being the new kid in school. "I was born in Holland to Dutch parents and I lived all over the world," says Armour.

Her father, Peter Van Royen, was an internationally renowned botanist whose field of study was the orchid.

"The importance of first appearances is always at the forefront for a child, and being in a large family (she was one of eight children), there wasn't a lot of money to spread around, so I had a desire for fashion."

Armour attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles and got a job at I. Magnin while still in school. From there, she began a career in retailing and manufacturing, both in this country and in Europe.

Her move to Santa Fe came when she and her husband made a lifestyle decision. "We wanted to be closer to the grandchildren," says Armour.

Besides her work in image consulting, Armour has a line of jewelry that she began designing in Hawaii. "My jewelry is dramatic, big and organic," Armour says, in pieces ranging from branch coral to rock crystal. "I use only minerals and gemstones in their natural forms."

She says the jewelry was immediately popular in Hawaii. It turned out that even women who didn't want to draw attention to themselves in their clothing didn't mind drawing attention through their jewelry.

"Women felt safe wearing dramatic jewelry," says Armour, "rather than dressing up and attracting attention to their bodies through their clothing."

For a look at Armour's jewelry, check out www.armourgallery.com. The jewelry ranges in price from $37 to $700. To check out her image consulting services, go to www.gillianarmour.com where prices range from $75 to $800.


3 Steps to a New You

Want three easy ways to spruce up your image? Consultant Gillian Armour suggests these:

1) Get a great haircut. "It changes your look immediately," says Armour.

2) Get a jacket or blazer in the correct color for your skin tone. OK, this might take a little research or an appointment with Armour. But short of that, use this guideline: If you put on a certain color and your eye goes directly to the garment rather than to your face, it's the wrong color for you. As an example, Armour says many people tend to choose a black jacket or blazer because it's versatile. "But black shows every line in the face," she says. "When you see someone wearing black, if your eye goes to what they're wearing, that means it's draining all the color out of their face."

3) Make sure you have a good fit in everything you're wearing. "A heavy woman can still have a great hourglass figure, even though she's heavy," says Armour. If you're not sure what looks good on you, try different silhouettes.