Style can feel superficial, especially for women who've been working to be seen as more than how they look for most of their lives.
“From a young age, I’ve used my clothes to tap into my inner self-assuredness when going into situations when I was way outside of my comfort zone. I remember walking down the aisle in my first communion dress. I remember my first day of a new school in a new town in 5th grade. I remember every day of sorority rush at a school 2000 miles from home where I didn’t know a soul.
It wasn’t about how I looked in those moments. It was about how I felt.” – Boutique Box CEO, Catherine Cassidy
Our WHY as a company is simple: We believe it should be easy for women to find clothes they love that fit. Style is a powerful communication tool – it creates connection with others and it connects us into our authentic power and presence. We call this Intelligent Style™.
Intelligent Style is an external representation of your inner self.
It strips the masks, the personas, the ‘shoulds’, the shame, the costumes we wear to be ‘taken seriously,’ to fit into a mold, to avoid bias, to avoid being sexualized.
Intelligent Style is freedom to be you.
If you’re downplaying any part of yourself — your gender, your culture, your personality — you’re not bringing your full self and your best work to your team. You’re operating with a handicap.
And we recognize that for women it actually takes a lot of work to get to this place to feel totally safe to be seen. Even then, you may not feel totally safe AND YET you’re brave enough to be vulnerable to be seen. This is why we’re so passionate about supporting you in creating your Intelligent Style.
Ready to create your Intelligent Style? Start embodying the 3 Core Values of Intelligent Style.
BASICS DON’T HAVE TO BE BORING
You don’t need another pair of black pants. But, you do need the pair of black pants that are perfect for you.
Your black pants won’t look like your mom’s black pants or your best friend’s black pants.
And, they don’t have to be boring. What they do have to be is a pair that makes you feel your best and the most YOU you can be. So, they could be simple. But if they make you feel YOU, then they’re not boring.
There are just a few variations on black pants that could do that for you…
And when you commit to ONLY buying clothes you love that fit, you will not only find yourself buying less, you will also find yourself wearing more of your closet.
Which brings us to …
SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE INVEST IN THEMSELVES
“Behind every successful man is a woman.” Indeed! Because the societal expectation of the stay at home spouse afforded men to work without worry of caring for the family or the house. All those ancillary needs were met without their extra time or energy.
And now that men are single longer or, if they get married, their spouses are working as well, men are quicker to invest in something that makes their lives easier, saving time and energy.
Perhaps it’s because women’s wealth and security had been tied to essentially being the property of men for so long before we started creating our economic freedom post WW2 that we’re still untying those knots in our belief systems that keep us from investing in ourselves.
Regardless of the reasoning, the truth is simple: successful people invest in themselves and saving their time and energy.
With style, this manifests in only allowing ourselves to buy the $30 pants from Target that work OK rather than the $200 pants that feel like butter when we can indeed afford the investment piece.
So, let’s reframe the investment …
We’ll have to replace the $30 pair in 3 months (again and again) and the $200 pair will last us years (and likely until something shifts and we give them away rather than throw them away).
“You don’t need a giant wardrobe to have a great wardrobe.” – Catherine to every single personal styling client
What you need is a wardrobe full of clothes that you LOVE and wear. Investing in the pants you LOVE means you don’t have to spend the time, energy and money to buy another pair every 3 months. We call this return on your investment ROW, or Return on Wear.
Beyond style, some ways you can create a support system for yourself, even if that means starting small.
Some ways you could start investing in yourself to save your time and energy:
Pay the small fee to have your groceries delivered
Fluff & Fold laundry service
Cleaning Service for the deep clean, as needed
Boutique Box membership (of course!)
Some ways to invest in yourself when you need to be mindful of your spending:
Create a daily self-care routine that empowers your day (morning journal, exercise, daily nature walks, reading, cooking … whatever it is that feeds your mind, body and soul)
Set a budget for your wardrobe updates and create an action plan to mindfully update with pieces you LOVE
Get a Library card for your book cravings
Which brings us to …
EMPOWERED PEOPLE EMPOWER PEOPLE
“As you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give permission to others to do the same.” – Marianne Williamson, Return to Love
As you own your Intelligent Style, you give permission to the women around you to do the same.
This has happened time and again with Catherine’s personal styling clients. They would step up their style (simply for themselves and their time), and they would notice that the women in their office started stepping up their style, too.
The evolution of fashion and the trends for women through the decades have been dictated by societal norms, shifts in the economy, women entering the workforce and navigating male dominated industries, and as we highlighted earlier, the desire to be seen for more than how they look.
The French word for ‘suit’ is ‘costume.’ And for many people, that is what getting dressed for work is – putting on your costume to get out the door. We dress to fit into a mold of ‘should’ that keeps us safe and doesn’t ‘distract’ from the work we’re doing.
But your playing small doesn’t serve the world. We need your light. We need YOU. Not everyone is Malala. But no one else is YOU.
And as you let your own light shine, you light the way for others to do the same. As we do that collectively, we will see the change we want to see in the world.
Boutique Box can’t solve for every challenge women face in this world, but we can make getting dressed empowered in your unique style easier. The women we support are the ones who will solve for the challenges we face collectively.