“The Power of Tailoring”
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Style and Strategy Podcast, where personal brand meets leadership and style. I'm Sonya, a personal brand and style coach who's been exactly where you are juggling career and business success. Personal growth and finding a style that truly fits. After decades in corporate leadership, I've learned that showing up isn't just about what you do, it's about how you align who you are and how the world sees you.
This season, I'm bringing you practical strategies, bold insights, and honest conversations to help you amplify your presence, unlock your next level, and lead with clarity and confidence. Let's dive in. ~ uh, So. ~Welcome back to the Style and Strategy Podcast. I'm Sonya, your host, and in today's episode, I wanna take you inside something that has been on my mind lately, and that's in my [00:01:00] wardrobe. Of course. So recently I took five pieces to the tailor, not because they were worn out, not because they were cheap or trendy.
It was actually the opposite. They were really well made pieces, beautifully crafted and pieces that I really loved, but had stopped working for me and I really wasn't ready ~to, ~to let them go. And so what I realized was that sometimes the most powerful style shifts isn't what you're buying next, but what you refuse to let go of.
I'm sure many of you have been there before. When you've had a look in your wardrobe, there's been pieces that it's been really difficult to shift them out of the wardrobe 'cause you're not wearing them anymore, but knowing that there's something about them that you really want to keep. ~Well, ~Well, in those circumstances, and for me [00:02:00] personally, I chose to refine something instead.
So let's talk a little bit today around tailoring sustainability and why extending the life of your wardrobe might just be one of the most strategic things you do this year. So according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, extending the life of clothing by just an extra nine months can reduce its environmental impact by 20 to 30%.
That's huge, and it speaks to something I believe in really deep deeply. Sometimes we don't always need more. We need to make what we already have work harder for us and work right now. I know there's a lot of talk in leadership spaces around simplicity, ease, sustainability, and [00:03:00] this is where all of those things really meet style.
It's really saying this piece has value, but I've changed. And so how can I get it to meet where I am today?
So let me take you through the pieces I had tailored. So I'm gonna start off with pants. Pants are part of my leadership brand. They're part of my signature style. So I love pants and someone who is 154 centimeters. Most of the time I can't always find a pair of pants that are cropped or short enough for me.
And there are these amazing brands out there that do cater for those of us who are on the,~ um,~ vertically challenged side, but not always the case. So I've had to take those two pants there, and that's just part of the tailoring I have to do all the time, especially because I love a wide leg pant as well.
And so without [00:04:00] getting them tailored, it means that it would be cutting a whole lot of styles out of there. But that was one part, not so much in line with what I'm talking about today, but just for those of you who are wondering how. I always have these pants that fit,~ uh,~ from a length perspective. So I had them take them up and I always do that.
And that's just one adjustment that changes everything because I have pants that I really love. And I guess as part of that is. When you try something on and you know, it works everywhere, and yet the proportion or the silhouette is off, then your energy's gonna be off as well.
~So. ~So. I know that wearing a pair of wide leg pants is part of my DNA and ensuring that, you know, I've got them tailored to the right way because everywhere else they fit beautifully, then it's just something that I do. [00:05:00] The second piece is around a dress that I had stopped wearing. It was a beautiful cotton shirt dress, and I love a shirt dress I find you get a lot of wear out of them. But for this one, the fabric was really lovely on this, but where it started to cut, because I wasn't wearing heels as much as I was before, just made me feel frumpy. To be honest,~ uh,~ and yet I didn't wanna let it go. So what I did was actually shorten the hem on this one.
Not dramatically, but just enough to make it feel much more wearable for my work from home kind of lifestyle. So it went from dressy. To a bit more comfortable and something that I could reach for much more often and wear really as what I call a duster as well. So opened, buttoned, ~you know, ~as a layering piece,~ um,~ as well really easily.
And now I love it again. The third [00:06:00] piece that I had, that I wasn't reaching for anymore, was a bias cut skirt. And for this, the fabric and the color are amazing. It's a beautiful emerald green. It was really the fact that like many women out there, I felt like it was cut on the bias a little bit too much for me, and I just didn't feel comfortable in it anymore.
And I know that's something a lot of my clients can relate to. ~So. ~In this case, I wanted to adjust it so that the bias wasn't so strong, right? And I actually ended up getting it tailored. So there's, there was a slight slit on the side, certainly not a thigh high slit, but something that didn't create,~ uh,~ such an angular.
~Uh, ~positioning on the skirt, and that changes the whole experience of wearing it. And I know through summer I'm gonna be able to wear it a lot [00:07:00] more.
I always tell my clients that you really wanna focus on what you wanna highlight. What are your attributes? What are the bits that we wanna focus on? And not so much on those areas that, ~you know, ~take away from the joy and, but I'm also realistic. I know that many of us struggle with those areas and I am not a stranger to that either.
~Uh, ~and ~so. ~If it doesn't feel right, then it's about trying to adjust and work out where are those attributes and where do you wanna draw that attention to next. So these are my three examples of where tailoring has come into play. And it's not about necessarily fixing mistakes. So when I say mistakes, so I don't want you to think about, I had this piece, it was a mistake.
I shouldn't have bought it, especially if you have worn it, because it's about evolving with your style and letting your wardrobe really reflect who you are today. So you don't always need something [00:08:00] new. And don't get me wrong, right? I love a new piece and I love beautiful quality clothing, but what I love even more is looking at what's already in my wardrobe and asking can I style it differently?
Can I make one adjustment to wear it more? Can I align it with the version of me today and not the one from yesterday? That's really where sustainability can meet leadership presence, because when you dress from alignment, everything else feels easier. You end up shopping less, you waste less. You trust yourself more, and honestly, you stop feeling like you're falling behind kind.
~So. ~So if you're staring at a wardrobe, a full of almost pieces you used to love or wish still worked, then pause before you donate and discard and ask yourself, can it be shortened? Could it be softened? [00:09:00] Could it be simplified? Can this be tailored to who I am now? Not who I was. And if you're ready to stop second guessing and start building a wardrobe that really reflects your leadership, that's exactly what we do Within my program, Activate, we build a system that gives you the clarity so tailoring becomes part of the strategy and not a last resort.
Thanks for tuning in this week, and I'll see you in the next episode.
