How to Style What You Own: Executive Wardrobe Tips with Celebrity Stylist JenniLee
Create Magic At Work®
Host Amy and celebrity stylist JenniLee discuss the profound connection between personal style and self-identity. They explore how clothing
Key takeaways
- JenniLee utilizes the 'Spark Method'—Self-reflection, Practical and Practicality, Authentic alignment, Recognition, and Kindness—to guide personal styling.
- The pandemic era introduced the 'business mullet,' characterized by professional attire on top and comfortable pajama bottoms below for video calls.
Main topics
- Personal style as non-verbal communication
- The Spark Method for styling
Notable quotes
Style is language. Everyone speaks it, but they're not necessarily fluent in it.
Conclusion
The episode serves as an inspiring guide for using fashion as a tool f
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) And I always say this, style is language. Everyone speaks it, but they're not necessarily fluent in it. They don't necessarily take into consideration what they are saying with what they're wearing every day, not just to the audience of whoever they're getting in front of, but also themselves. Like, what are you telling yourself when you put on whatever outfit it is? Are you telling yourself that you want to stay hidden? Are you telling yourself that you want to be magnetic and attract people to you? Speaker 2 (0:33) Hey, it's Amy. Welcome to Create Magic at Work, where we cast visions for a future of work where business decisions ripple outward to our teams, our communities, the planet, and humanity as a whole. If you're ready to edge walk instead of sleepwalk through your leadership, you're in the right place. So let's start making magic Speaker 1 (0:52) at work. Speaker 2 (0:54) Did you know the average professional spends around 20 minutes a day deciding what to wear, leading to decision fatigue before the workday even starts? Yet research shows that 80 % of people wear only 20 % of their wardrobe. On top of that, enclosed cognition proves that the clothes we wear directly impact our psychological processes, performance, and confidence. Joining us today is Jenny Lee, a New York City-based celebrity stylist and image consultant with over two decades of experience dressing stars like Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt, and Lauryn Hill. Her work has been featured in Harper's Bazaar and Rolling Stone, but today she works with ambitious professionals who want to dress for who they are becoming. Creator of the trademarked Spark Method, her core philosophy is more styling, less shopping. I love that. I'm not a fan of shopping. It gives me stress. So welcome to Create Magic at Work, Jenny Lee. Speaker 1 (2:01) I'm so happy to be here, Amy. I can't wait to have this conversation. Speaker 2 (2:05) I have been really excited to talk because we talk about really deep topics on Create Magic at Work. And I'm really excited to talk about this one because it feels fun. And it also feels emotionally impactful. Like it does have this underlying deep meaning to it. So first off, tell us, why is a person's wardrobe a reflection of who they are? I Speaker 1 (2:35) mean, it's next to whatever face cream you're using, whatever makeup. It's literally... the closest thing to you on your body every day. You, except in small subsets, you really do have to wear clothes every day. And I always say this, style is language. Everyone speaks it, but they're not necessarily fluent in it. They don't necessarily take into consideration what they are saying with what they're wearing every day, not just to the audience of whoever they're getting in front of, but also themselves. Like, what are you telling yourself when you put on whatever outfit it is? Are you telling yourself that you want to stay hidden? Are you telling yourself that you want to be magnetic and attract people to you? Are you dressing for the male gaze? Are you dressing for professional gaze? Are you dressing for the female gaze? There's so many different ways to really be considered and thoughtful about what you're putting on your body every single day. Speaker 2 (3:36) Okay, so let's get into it for the workplace. And you can tell me how you feel about this. I feel like something really shifted during the pandemic when everything was work from home. And I fully participate and take part in it. This kind of... Either the flexible work from home or the work from home has contributed to what I call the business mullet. Speaker 1 (4:06) I'm well versed. Speaker 2 (4:07) The professional look on top, but then on the bottom, you're probably wearing your pajama pants or something because you're on Zoom all day or your slippers. What are your thoughts on that? And also, I do think that people go out more now, and I would love to hear what you think, people go out more now kind of dress in... pajama sweat look at times when I recall a different time before the pandemic where you kind of got yourself together before you left the house. So thoughts on all of that? Speaker 1 (4:39) Yeah, I mean, the pandemic really was a massive shift. There was, we were all, everyone globally, we were very afraid. So I think subconsciously, you were also just dressing to comfort yourself physically. So, you know, there was a reasoning behind that. Yes, there was the idea of like, I don't have to address the bottom half of my body because no one's going to see it. But I think that the idea of wearing really comfortable clothes is what we needed to kind of calm ourselves down and give us this little bit of. It's going to be okay. You don't have to wear those, you know, really tight jeans or uncomfortable trousers or obviously high heels because that doesn't really matter right now. So I do think that happened. And then on top of that, I think we were coming off this tail end of athleisure, which just sort of like blew up during the pandemic and the whole like beige-ification of it all, which is another inherent sort of. blandness that really took over fashion. And then now we are on the, we're completely on the other side and people are having hybrid work where they're going in part of the week. I'm seeing here in New York City, a real inventiveness and excitement around getting dressed again. But there are the people who really latched onto that comfort way of dressing, which in essence was kind of forgetting about. what it means to put a look together and haven't really taken the time to rediscover how they want to present in the world now. So I think there's just like some people who are a little bit lost. A lot of clients come to me now saying like, I had a style before the pandemic. I got really comfortable and I've gained weight. I've had body changes. And now I really don't know what my direction is. I've shifted careers. I've gotten a different job. I don't go out the way I used to. I don't need to. There's so many factors that play into it. And there's a lot of people with wardrobes that just do not reflect who they want to be right now. And the idea of tackling this feels overwhelming. So if you're already struggling with that decision fatigue of like getting dressed in the morning and you're not really. bothering, then the idea of tackling the bigger problem of like, how do I get dressed can really be a deterrent to even want to dive into this work. Speaker 2 (7:19) And most of us that experience those feelings have a full closet of clothes. Yeah. And I would. I mean, I'm generalizing, but I would venture to say are continuously making purchases at least at the very least once or twice a month. And then there it goes in into that closet full of clothes. And we still feel stuck. Even if we're going out to meet friends. I've seen that joke on Instagram, like some reels or something where it's like all the clothes are exploded all over the bedroom. And it's like, yep, this is what I got to. And it's always a black shirt and a pair of jeans after you've like imploded your closet. Speaker 1 (8:06) Yeah, I call that the wardrobe tornado. Speaker 2 (8:08) There we go. The wardrobe tornado. Yeah. How can we utilize the clothes that are in our closet? Because one of your thoughts, which is incredible, I love it, is we don't need to buy more clothes. We need to be better stylists. Speaker 1 (8:23) Give Speaker 2 (8:23) us a tip on how we can Speaker 1 (8:25) incorporate that. Step one, make a date with yourself. Think of yourself as a stylist to yourself and give yourself a two-hour date in your closet. And if you have an overstuffed closet, then make it even simpler and say, I'm only doing bottoms. Speaker 1 (8:47) You know, put on the plainest white t-shirt that you have, try on all your bottoms. And if you are the type of person who continually, a lot of people with their shopping habits, like you said, once or twice a month, they're buying the same things over and over. You know, I had a client once I went to her house and she had 50 white button down shirts, many of them with tags on. She just compulsively kept buying the same article of clothing because it's what she understood. She knew how to style it, but she became overwhelmed with choice and had started buying because she had the shoppies, the itch to shop. She was buying lesser quality of this one item that is such a staple, but you don't need 50 of them. You could be great with three excellent white button down shirts. And that's know how to style it in multiple different ways. You don't need a lot of clothes. But I say like give yourself a stylist session and start pulling out what isn't needed. Save only the best, only what feels amazing for you right now. And I'm not saying get rid of. those things that have special meaning or hold sentimental value. I think it's important that every closet has what I call like a photo album where you have that stuff to the back of your closet. It's not front and center. It's not reminding you, oh, you haven't worn me in 10 years. Why don't you wear me? How come you don't fit into me? You know, you don't want anything that makes you feel bad as soon as you open your closet doors. But it's fine to have things in a pocket towards the back that you're like, remember, I went to see Beyonce in that outfit and how wild that was. And