Styling Silicon Valley Coding Stars

In last week’s blog post,  we shared a little bit about one of our new clients who is a talented software engineer. This young Linx client has transformed in the few months of working with him…from shy and nervous around ladies to confident and sporting some serious swagger. 

Yesterday we spent a couple hours with him for a wardrobe consultation at Jcrew in the Stanford Shopping Center and helped him put together a few looks for both casual everyday wear and date appropriate attire. 

Our goal going into any wardrobe consultation is to help our clients achieve a look that works for him/her, while being comfortable, and appealing to the opposite sex too. For this client, we felt like J. Crew was perfect for his lifestyle, age appropriate (as he is in his late 20’s), approachable and meeting his budget too. He’s more of a down-to-earth, laid back cerebral type who desires comfort, ease when wearing clothing, and something that is a reflection of his personality (versus something that is pretentious, stuffy, too fancy, or frankly…too pricey.)

We spent an hour pulling items before our client arrived and chose looks ranging from great blazers, to gingham dress shirts, pocket squares with personality, preppy oxford shirts, fitted trousers, dark demin jeans, punchy socks,  hip fatigue jackets, driver loafers, and chill suede boots. 

After we pulled all items (with the help of my assistants beau, Leon, who used to be a stylist at J Crew), our client arrived ready to start the process.

We spent a total of 3 hours together introducing him to all of the looks we put together. He liked everything and surprisingly, the only items he reacted negatively towards were hoodies and cool sneakers! Go figure. We figured he would be all over the Zuck-like hoodies for coding at work and loving the colorful kicks but he said definitely NO.

All in all, it was a very successful shopping day. I even took his new suede shoes to the local cobbler to get weather proofed and my assistant is delivering his freshly pressed clothes to his front door tonight. Talk about VIP service! Now that our client has gone through his preparation steps for dating, he is now positioned for successful matchmaking. He feels great, looks great, and enters the dating scene with excitement, curiosity, and confidence.

 

Valentine’s Date Scenario III: His House for Dinner

If you’ve been following our Valentine’s Day Style Guide series, then you know how much fun we’ve been having challenging our friends over at Tog + Porter to come up with outfits for different Valentine’s Day date scenarios. We’ve done classic romance with my ‘Over the Moon for You,’ date. Then we did something a little more out of the box for a newly dating couple called ‘Adventurous and Quirky’. Now it’s on to the third and last date, ‘An Invitation to His House for Dinner’. What makes this date especially interesting is the couple’s dating history. The gals over at Tog + Porter actually have a name for this date; they call it the “Determining The Relationship” or “DTR” date.

Here’s the details I gave them about the couple and how the night would unfold:

This couple has had 5 dates and always very fun and “PG.” He’s been the consummate gentleman but after consulting with his buddies felt he needed to see if that serious romantic *spark* was there. He’s into her but they definitely haven’t had an exclusive chat yet. She feels like he is a total diamond in the rough and she is seriously liking him.

He sends her an email to come over to his home for a Valentine’s dinner. She’s never been to his house and a homemade dinner sort of makes her sweat. It feels really “real” and “serious.” The dates so far have been easy going and fun. Lots of laughter, affection, and chivalry. She feels butterflies thinking about this date because she knows it could lead to something more serious.

She emails him back and accepts the sweet invite asking if she can bring anything. He says, “Nothing…only you.”

The day of, she heads to her liquor shop and gets an incredible cognac to share. She also brings him an Hermes tie with little puppies on it wrapped up beautifully. He just got a rescue pup, so she thought this would be a cute way to acknowledge this and thank him for a lovely evening.

He’s gone far to impress her. Rose petals on the floor in the entryway, champers to start with, steaks and veggies he grilled, and chocolate chip cookies they baked together.

She stays the night and wakes up in the morning to piping hot coffee and the smell of his cologne lingering on her. She’s doesn’t want to leave.

Now for the big question: What to Wear? Here’s what I told T+P stylist Maureen about the couple’s style:

He’s more of a buttoned up type (successful career in finance) and opts for the preppy look on the weekends. Being from the East Coast, she is definitely more Kate Middleton than “The Olsen Twins” in her style and she’s pretty conservative in general.

As she thinks about this date, the more she realizes she doesn’t want to be stuffy. Instead, she wants to look sexy but not trying too hard. In other words, it is about bumping up her sex appeal a few notches.

Maureen knew exactly where to take it from here. “She needs to show him she’s into him, serious and ready to move forward,” she said. “She wants to look and feel sexy and her look should be suggestive, but not too inviting. She should also bring an element of comfort to her chic so she looks relaxed in his home.” While my client might be resistant to this outfit at first, the ladies at T+P say they’d encourage her to push the envelope a little and give something new a try. I agree it’s the furthest thing from stuffy and she’ll undoubtedly knock his socks off once the jacket comes off.

“She should feel her absolute best and allow her outfit to emulate her mood and draw even more attention from him than she’s already garnered,” said Maureen. I couldn’t agree more and I think this is a mission accomplished! This second outfit is feminine and flirty (both good), but just the right amount of edge thrown in to keep it interesting. 

Maureen also added a slightly less inconspicuous overnight satchel bag.

Have an important date coming up? Let the stylists at Tog + Porter help you accomplish your style goals and put your best foot forward. If you still need help with your Valentine’s Day outfit, be sure and sign up for a style consult ASAP, time is running out.