BBC Radio Manchester - Retail Therapy Show

I was recently asked to appear as guest stylist on BBC Radio Manchester's Retail Therapy Show with Becky Want.  I was super excited to be asked to do it. The challenge was to conduct an almost live on air personal shop, meet someone in the morning, find out what they wanted, shop for it and then bring it back to 'base' and talk about all our selections.

So the challenge was on, I had just over an hour, a pretty specific brief and budget and the lovely Kirsty, my willing shopper to accompany me.

Kirsty's brief was pretty straight forward, she has 2 young children and a VERY busy life. She runs her own business (KJBS Financial and Office Systems), she's an active member of her children's PTA, is really involved in her local community and also co-runs a large successful networking group (Colony Networking).  She needs her clothes to work hard for her, to take her from school run to client meeting, to networking to meeting friends. Not only that, Kirsty really feels the cold and likes bright colours so this had to be taken into consideration too.

I had a look in mind for Kirsty, I wanted it to be classic but contemporary so not to age her, I wanted good foundation (capsule) pieces that could be mixed and matched and that she could add the colour to, and I wanted it to take her right through from school run to evenings with friends.  I also wanted her clothes to be durable, no hand washing or dry cleaning and no items that were going to take up her precious time to iron or look after.

First thing I wanted was a dress that would form the foundation to the look.  We selected a blue Oasis Shift Dress, this is quite a classic shape however the leather piping gives it the contemporary edge I was looking for. It is a stretchy polyester mix that will not crease during the day and can be layered a variety of ways to create different looks.

Next up came shoes, I wanted something with a heel, but not too high that they would be uncomfortable.    We chose a pair of ankle boots by Unisa, something that could be worn with different style dresses and also trousers.

From Zara we chose a gorgeous, fitted, wool blazer and a beautiful scarf that picked out all the colours from the selections.

From Zara I also selected this dress, a bargain at £35.99, again this is a versatile dress that can be worn alone with simple opaques or can be belted to add a bit of interest.

We also bought a black pencil skirt a black and white ponti top and a blue chiffon shirt.  We thought on the day that we had spent around £600 pounds (trying to add up under pressure) but it was closer to £450.  This equates to around £35 per complete outfit when you work out all the different combinations you could make.

It was a great experience and I really enjoyed shopping with Kirsty.  I have attached the clip if you fancy having a listen.  Let me know what you think.