I'm A-Frayed Knot!

I attended a seminar this week and no sooner had I walked in the door when my friend, who happened to be one of the presenters, ran up to me said "Thank god you are here!", grabbed my arm and dragged me into the ladies’ room. This woman is a wife, mom, author, marketing specialist, and runs at full tilt at all times. She is fun, creative, smart and amazingly inspiring with all that she does. She is like your sister, BFF and Wonder Woman all in one package.

She had just returned the night before from a 5-day road trip with multiple teens, arrived home to unexpected guests, had this presentation to give and was going up to Boston afterward for a business meeting the next morning. Once in the bathroom, she opened her bag and ruffled through her haphazardly packed items to change for the presentation. She looked at me with frazzled eyes and rumpled hair and said, "Help me look put together." There weren't a lot of fashion options in that bag, but we made it work. She walked out of the bathroom looking confident, stylish and ready to rock the room with her dazzling personality and wealth of knowledge.

I think most of us have had some sort of frazzled fashion moment at some point or maybe constantly. I'm always amazed at what I can pull off in a flurry of oh crap I should be half way there already and I can't find my other shoe.

The best thing to do to prepare for these times, and what I do for my clients that have regular speaking engagements is, to have a mini wardrobe set aside to pull from. I recommend dresses since they are so easy to put on and always look put together. A fitted jacket, colorful blouse and trousers (I'd usually say slacks, but I have a friend who really dislikes the word slacks, so I'm working on acceptable alternatives) work well too. Keep these items clean and pressed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. I'd even line up shoes and accessories with them too, so if you are swirling in from a meeting with your kid’s teachers and have a talk to give, you can slide into one of the chosen ensembles and slide back out into the world knowing you look good and like you have it all together. No one will guess you were a spiraling vortex of "DEAR GOD I’m LATE" just moments before.

We are told to prep for all sorts of unexpected things in life. We keep extra batteries for flashlights and candles at the ready for power outages; snow scrapers in our cars; heck moms have all sorts of just in case items in their magic bags. So why not have an emergency "Pre-Styled section" of your closet. Arm yourself with event-ready wardrobe options. By carefully selecting outfits before you need them, you'll be ready for whatever fashion emergencies come your way. A little preparedness does wonders for smoothing out those frayed edges.