​Choosing my 50th Birthday Party Dress - and some thoughts on Personal Styling!

So I had no idea what I wanted, I just wanted it to be special! I was rather hoping that something might jump out at me when I wasn’t looking but that didn’t happen.  So I put a date in the diary, invited my daughter to come with me and booked a personal styling session at House of Fraser in Westfield.

With a personal styling session you get a one and half hour free slot in a lovely large private changing room and a stylist who asks you some questions about what you want and then she goes onto the shop floor and chooses lots of dresses for you to try on. 

I wasn’t quite feeling the love for the dresses that were bought to me though.  I felt that they were for an older lady (okay I’m going to be 50, but I don’t look 50) and they were all of a similar style, mostly fitted shift style dresses, I would like to have seen more variety.  In fairness my brief to the stylist was quite basic as I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but I was hoping for inspiration! 

I am very glad my daughter was with me as she was able to help me in and out of dresses and do zips for me as the stylist didn’t appear very much as she was looking for dresses, I’m not sure how I would have managed otherwise.  Plus it meant she did not see me in the dresses so could not get a feel for what looked good on me and what didn’t.  Again, thank goodness for my daughter!

Once we changed the brief we did get a better selection of dresses that worked better on my figure and we narrowed it down to one from Coast and one from Karen Millen.  But again I didn’t get heels to try on with the dresses until much later on and then no suggestions for accessorising my short listed dresses.

So in the end we put the Karen Millen dress on hold and headed off for lunch and to have a look around Westfield.  We decided that heading directly to the Karen Millen shop itself might make sense and the assistants in there were immediately helpful and enthusiastic.  Showing me lots of options and getting bags and shoes for me to try on the whole outfit.  I am sure that as it is a smaller shop they know their stock much better but I did enjoy this experience more and I wonder if I’d have been better off heading straight to Karen Millen and Coast?

So I came away with a beautiful dress (in fact the one I chose in House of Fraser) but perfectly accessorised with shoes and bag and much more confidence that it was the right dress and I looked fab in it.  Karen Millen at Westfield has a large and open changing area and the assistants are very willing to help you and recommend options.  I know where I am going next time!

I won’t tell you any more about the dress until my party on the 16th December!
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Love
Michelle x

Westfield shopping wearing pleather trousers from Mint Velvet and a faux fur gilet, necklace is also Mint Velvet and bag is from Brand Alley

Personal styling suite at House of Fraser

Karen Millen at Westfield