Discover Your Signature Style over 50 with expert Nancy Queen

Jen Hardy [00:00:01]:
As you’re coming in.

Nancy Queen [00:00:03]:
Yeah. Can you hear me?

Jen Hardy [00:00:03]:
Can you hear me? Yes. Can you hear me?

Nancy Queen [00:00:06]:
Yes.

Jen Hardy [00:00:07]:
Okay. There we go. I don’t know what was happening. I turned off my mixing board, turned it back on, unplugged everything, plugged it over.

Nancy Queen [00:00:16]:
You know, after doing a lot of this stuff, I found it’s kind of the norm.

Jen Hardy [00:00:22]:
Oh my goodness.

Nancy Queen [00:00:22]:
And crazy stuff happens.

Jen Hardy [00:00:24]:
Yeah. And Wave used to be so good. I used it for everything, and this is the second inter it didn’t work for a different reason last time, and we’re gonna have to have a talk because that’s who I usually use. So Wow. But

Nancy Queen [00:00:36]:
Well, this setting is nice too.

Jen Hardy [00:00:39]:
I love butter. I love it so much. So, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know why I chose the boardroom, but here we are. We’re in the boardroom. I’m excited to hear how she can help you discover your signature style after 50!

Nancy Queen [00:00:46]:
We’re businessy. Well, I’m, I gotta tell you, this is not my normal situation. I live in California and I’m currently on the East Coast right outside of Philadelphia. My dad had some health problems, and I’m here for a few weeks taking care of him. So, assure that your viewers can relate to this, you know, having to care for your aging parents.

Jen Hardy [00:01:13]:
Yeah, absolutely. And you look beautiful. Your setting is beautiful and

Nancy Queen [00:01:17]:
thank you. They have a very nice home, but I’m very proud of it, but it’s just, that’s where I am. We’ve got snow outside and totally different setup.

Jen Hardy [00:01:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. But it looks good. Is that okay? Is it a sweater or is it a stole on your

Nancy Queen [00:01:35]:
This is a sweater.

Jen Hardy [00:01:36]:
You look so, oh, you look so pretty. Okay. So Thank you. You and I have totally different, you know, things, but I love it. And I think people need what you’ve got. And I downloaded because I went to your website, you know, the hour before, you know, we were interviewing because I’ve I’ve done other research. But I found the style words, and I thought maybe we can talk about those. I felt like that’s a really good way to help people find their own when they don’t know.

Jen Hardy [00:02:05]:
Like, I don’t know what my style is. But then you look at that, and things pop out. I don’t know. So there’s so many different things we can talk about.

Nancy Queen [00:02:13]:
That’s a great place to start. Yeah. I can talk about all those things all day long.

Jen Hardy [00:02:18]:
Yeah. And and so and so just so you know, I know a lot of people talk about, you know, not doing glitter and not doing and then that’s kind of my thing.

Nancy Queen [00:02:26]:
So my Yes. I love it.

Jen Hardy [00:02:28]:
But, but I love the classic, you know, just Ralph Lauren thing that is I I yeah. That’s my my go to. So alright. So we’re technically already recording. So I’ll introduce you a little bit, but I’ll let I find that it’s more interesting to have a guest kind of introduce themselves and tell what you want us to know.

Nancy Queen [00:02:47]:
Okay. Sounds good.

Jen Hardy [00:02:49]:
Introduce introduction later, the intro and outro. I don’t bore you with making you listen to that. So we’ll just kinda get right into it and and just have a conversation and see where it goes. And you are gorgeous. Oh my gosh. You are so beautiful, and I love your hair.

Nancy Queen [00:03:04]:
I appreciate that. Thank you.

Jen Hardy [00:03:05]:
I’m having a really bad day. So whatever.

Nancy Queen [00:03:11]:
Well, it can only get better. And you know what? When I found out the news about my dad’s health, I was like, I need to make life easier. And I went to the, I had a hair appointment, and I just was like, just cut it all off. I just need life easy right now. So

Jen Hardy [00:03:25]:
Really, really pretty. I like it.

Nancy Queen [00:03:27]:
Thank you.

Jen Hardy [00:03:28]:
You’re welcome. Alright. So today, we have Nancy Queen. I love your last name. I think it’s so

Nancy Queen [00:03:34]:
cool. You.

Jen Hardy [00:03:35]:
And she is if you if you can’t see her right now, she is absolutely beautiful and very classically dressed, and she’s got some amazing advice on how to get ourselves together. I know this could be a time where we’re changing our style and kind of figuring out, you know, how we’re gonna dress and what we’re gonna do. And, Nancy, you are the answer lady for all of those things, and thank you so much for joining me. Can you tell a little bit about yourself and how you got interested in this sort of thing?

Nancy Queen [00:04:06]:
Yeah. Well, I I have always been a fashion girl. In fact, it was a mean nickname when I was a kid. They used to call me fashion queen, and it was in a very hurtful way. But now it’s like my mantra. I am a fashion queen, and my last name is Queen. So how much better can that be? So, I actually went to school for fashion. I’ve worked for Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Nautica, The Limited.

Nancy Queen [00:04:35]:
It’s a very long list, and I even worked on the manufacturing end of it. So sweaters would go to the mill and I would do everything to get them ready for production. And it’s been a long journey of fashion, and I took a side turn and went into the knitting industry for about 20, 25 years, and, I got a part time job because I lost some weight. I lost about £60, and this was, maybe 2 or 3 years ago. I lost a lot of weight, and I thought I’m gonna wear what I really love to wear. And there was a little there’s a Lilly Pulitzer store near me, and I’m like, I’m just gonna go get a part time job there. And I would work, like, 3 or 4 hours a week, and all it did was remind me how much I love talking about fashion and how much I love helping people and have loved helping people with their fashion dilemmas over the years because I can’t put together a cooking recipe, but I can tell you what’s gonna work together and a lot of people are like, oh, I just threw that into the recipe to make it and I’m like, that would be awful if I did it. So yet for me, putting things together is just mindless and very easy and something I love helping people with and helping them discover their fashion identity and how much of your own personality is wrapped up in your your personal style that you put out there to the world.

Nancy Queen [00:06:04]:
So that’s really how I got here. I still have my, my knitting website and channel, and that’s actually even much bigger than my shopping on champagne channel and YouTube, and that’s called Noble Knits because my last name is Queen. So there’s a website called Noble Knits and a YouTube channel, lots of knitting stuff, but this is my my baby right now, my pet project shopping on champagne, and it’s just so invigorating and enjoyable to help people with fashion dilemmas and goals and things like that.

Jen Hardy [00:06:44]:
Well and I tell you, I found you actually through ConvertKit. They recommended that I sign up for your your, email. And let me tell you, if you’re listening, you have to sign up. It is one of the best emails you’ll ever get in your inbox. Shopping into the thing. We’ll have a link in the dough notes, and we’re gonna say these words a few times because I really think if you’re listening, you need to sign up. It’s she’s just got some really good classic tips for dressing. And one of the really neat things that we had talked about a little before is that a lot of people, especially I feel like around your fifties, things are changing.

Jen Hardy [00:07:21]:
You might be empty nester, and you’re thinking, you know, I I was, you know, so and so’s mom, so and so’s wife, so and so’s whatever. But who am I now? And and that’s a question a lot of women are asking. And where are we gonna go? What is our personal style? And you have a thing on your website about style words. Can you explain that a little bit? Because I thought it was brilliant.

Nancy Queen [00:07:43]:
Well, I put together I think there’s a 120 some words on there, and they’re just words to help you identify. You know, I just wanna back this up a little bit because people think they have no idea what their style is, but I bet if I dug in their closet, I could tell them their style in just a couple minutes because it’s almost like Dorothy in the wizard of Oz when she’s got the shoes on and the good witch says, it was in you all the time, and she clicks her heels and goes back home. It’s the same thing. It’s in you all the time. You your style is there. You just need to uncover it by doing a little digging and figuring it out, and it’s really like I said, it’s there. And we get bogged down with so many clothes that we have. We’re in a very disposable society right now, and we make a lot of wrong purchases whether it’s the, a sale that you had to you had to get a deal or was a gift with purchase or it was the end of the season or a friend or relative was shopping with you and they pushed you to buy something.

Nancy Queen [00:08:49]:
So we’re cluttered with all these clothes that really don’t serve us and it’s kind of like that 80 20 rule you wear, 20% of your clothes, 80% of the time, and if you can weed through that and realize what’s in there. And one thing with the style words is they really help you to put work working words to your apparel so that you can identify that. So when you’re going and looking at your closet and saying, is this me? Is this my style? You have the words that you need. Like like, you actually just described me. Yes. Classic. I like a little bit of chic. I like to be updated even though it’s classic. Now she’s teaching women to, “Discover Your Signature Style After 50.”

Nancy Queen [00:09:33]:
I like a little modern edgy. You know, you were mentioning my hair. Yeah. I like a little edginess with the hair, like a little attitude going on. So all those words that describe that when I look in my closet or when I’m going to shop, those are the words that I’m looking for to say, yes, is this me? And I find that a lot of times, I really narrow the brands that I buy because they kind of speak my same language. Right now, I’m really into yeah. I told you I I love Lilly Pulitzer, and I’m really into Eileen Fisher and Frank and Eileen. What I love about those two companies is they’re certified b corps, so they put a lot of, great wages to their employees.

Nancy Queen [00:10:18]:
They make sure there’s not, there’s all good labor practices going on and that the employees are well taken care of and they use renewable resources whenever possible. I know, Eileen Fisher has a buyback program where they you won’t don’t want your old clothes, we’ll take them and recycle them. We’ll resell them or we’ll turn them into something else. And so those speak a lot to me right now, and I just like the clean lines, and I think it’s because things like this that I mentioned to you with, like, dealing with my dad and so many other things going on in my life are so hectic that I like to have things kind of paired down so that I’m not making a lot of decisions, and that brings me to another point. I feel like, you’re talking to chatty Cathy. You pulled the cord, and I’m just going, but, not too long ago, I did a project 333 capsule wardrobe, and what that is is it’s, you wear the same 33 pieces for 3 months, and that includes all of my accessories, my jewelry, all of my clothes, my shoes. The only thing it didn’t include was, like, pajamas and underwear and loungewear at home. But if I’m going out of the house, I had to be in those 33 pieces.

Nancy Queen [00:11:41]:
And I found that it really helped me focus on the clothes and just I I had I wasn’t making all these clothing decisions. I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, Jen, but there’ve been times when I have a pile of clothes on my bed because I just don’t know what to put together. And I’m sure your audience is the same way. I’ve seen my daughter go through the same thing. And the thing is it took that decision making process out of it because the pieces that were in my 33, project 33 capsule wardrobe were all pieces that I liked, they all worked together, and they could work for a variety of things. In fact, the pieces that I’m wearing now are from that project 333. I found that I, even though I stopped that, like, I did more than 3 months of it, I’m still wearing those pieces now. So, yeah, the the it really and it all comes from those keywords and really helping me know my style because all all of the things that I put in that project 333 capsule wardrobe were part of those style words.

Nancy Queen [00:12:54]:
And it could be anything. I know looking at you, your style words are gonna be totally different than mine. You’re you’ve got lots of glitz and glamour, beautiful surrounding. What would you say are your 3 style words?

Jen Hardy [00:13:06]:
You know, that was that is an interesting question because I don’t know. I was I was looking at them, and I don’t, I, I don’t know. It’s, it’s hard for me to figure out what my style words are.

Nancy Queen [00:13:22]:
Okay. If you had to say, well, if you had to say 3, it looks like you’ve got some bling on there. So I would say a little blingy, you know, you like some

Jen Hardy [00:13:33]:
kind of funky a little bit because it’s kinda different. And, yeah, I would like to say glamorous, except I think I teeter on the edge of tacky sometimes. I know I do. Like, yep. I know

Nancy Queen [00:13:46]:
We’re going with glamorous.

Jen Hardy [00:13:47]:
50 something and lots of glitter. But I do you know, I try to walk the line, but it’s it it is a lot of fun. I, you know, I never dress like this. I never liked anything that stood out. Everything was just, like, black and in the background. And I have found over the last few years, I’m really enjoying getting what I want and and wearing it.

Nancy Queen [00:14:08]:
Yeah. You

Jen Hardy [00:14:09]:
know? And and having fun with my clothes in a way that I haven’t done since I was a teenager.

Nancy Queen [00:14:14]:
Yeah. You know? Well, you know, I think it’s very interesting because I spend a lot of time thinking about this, and I’m sure you do do to do as well with an over 50 channel. We have been all those major moments in our lives, getting through school, you’re graduating, you’re getting married or starting your career, having children. How many books are there in the children’s section or, in the adult section for parenting and just having a baby and your pregnancy and weddings? Oh my gosh. There’s so much wedding info. But then you’re going through life, raising your kids. There’s not much change, and then boom, all of a sudden, we’re going through menopause. We’re going through, empty nest syndrome, maybe changes in marriage.

Nancy Queen [00:14:59]:
You might have had a divorce or you’d lost a a spouse, your parents are getting older, the kids have gone out of the nest, and there’s no direction and no one helping. And really that’s you’re kind of left with like, well, what do I do now? Who am I now? Because all of those things that I’ve been so busy dealing with have been stripped away And it’s like, woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. I’m left with this person. I don’t really know who I am anymore. So just uncovering who you are with those style words is a great way to start.

Nancy Queen [00:15:32]:
It’s a free printable that’s on the website, and you can see all the words, but it’s also you can download it and print it off and circle the words that are really you so that when you’re shopping and when you’re cleaning out your closet, you can stay focused on the words that are true to you at this point in time. And like you said, we really do change who we are as we go through life. You said you didn’t really wanna be noticed, but now you’re out there. You’re a big, podcaster. People probably know who you are, and it’s okay to be shown, and it’s okay to, be blingier and more noticeable because that’s the phase of life you’re in. And I think that it’s important at every every single time we change, anything in our lives, we need to reevaluate. It’s like, okay, the clothes that worked for me as a career woman are not gonna work for me as a stay at home mom, and they’re also not gonna work for me, coming out of a career going into being retired or, you know, what I’m doing now. There’s your life keeps changing and you do need to keep changing your wardrobe to evolve with your lifestyle.

Nancy Queen [00:16:46]:
So it’s really you need to know your keywords. You need to understand your lifestyle and make sure those words current those, keywords and the clothes in your closet are aligned. That’s perfect harmony there. And that you’re most of all comfortable in everything that you’re wearing.

Jen Hardy [00:17:09]:
Yeah. Comfort is a big thing.

Nancy Queen [00:17:11]:
Because if

Jen Hardy [00:17:11]:
if if you’re not comfortable, you’re not gonna wanna wear those beautiful clothes. No. I think the style thing is the the sheet with the words is so good too. I was thinking even for our children, like, especially our teenage and adult children, if we Yeah. Will because that was our girls because, you know, you want to pick them up close, but sometimes it’s hard. Is this them? Is it not them? And I feel like that would be helpful for gifting as well. And you talked about a capsule wardrobe, and I have heard about this. And the idea of it, I think, is brilliant, but I never completely understood.

Jen Hardy [00:17:43]:
Can you explain what a capsule wardrobe is?

Nancy Queen [00:17:46]:
I would love to. So a capsule wardrobe is just a section of clothes, basically, that you wear together. So it doesn’t have to be. People think, oh, I have to get rid of all of my clothes, and I can only have 33 clothes. That is not what happened at all. Basically, when I built my project 333 capsule wardrobe, and somebody said to me, I have a private community within shopping on champagne. It’s called the champagne circle. And one of the women in the champagne circle said, well, why would you do that? And I said, well, it was kind of a fun experiment, and it took away decision fatigue.

Nancy Queen [00:18:22]:
I didn’t have to think about it. I would just put on something cute and know that they all work together. So it’s really to pare down on the decisions that you have to make in a day. I read somewhere that we make, like, 34,000 decisions in a day, and I’ve read a few things about the president’s. I know Obama talked about this a lot was that he did not he had enough decisions to make in the day. So his meals were always planned. He never chose his clothes. He kept everything very streamlined to cut down on this decision fatigue.

Nancy Queen [00:18:55]:
So that’s one of the reasons why, and the other reason is it just helps you pull things together quickly. So you could have several capsule wardrobes within your closet. Let’s say you have one that’s just for weddings and special events. So you have a little section of your closet that are all your, like, gowns and fancy dresses and all the shoes that go with those. And when you do that, you don’t think, oh my gosh, I have a wedding coming up. I have nothing to wear. I have to go buy all new clothes. I need a new dress, new shoes, new handbag, the works.

Nancy Queen [00:19:32]:
Well, if you already have that set aside and you know, oh, I have these 3 dresses, the shoes that I love, they’re so comfortable, and I have this bag that goes with all of them, Boom. That is done for you and things are ready to go. And then you could have a workout capsule wardrobe. That’s all your workout clothes that work together, your sneakers. You might have a couple pairs of sneakers, and that’s a capsule. And then so they work you can do it that way where they work for different phases factions, I should say, not phases, but different factions of your daily life. And this one I ended up wearing because the clothes were so versatile. I ended up wearing it all the time.

Nancy Queen [00:20:13]:
There was no need to change. Even when I was at home, the only time I would change was to put my pajamas on. So it it really depends on your life and your lifestyle how those capsules are gonna be put together. And a capsule wardrobe could be, like I said, for if it’s like a wedding capsule wardrobe might have 30 pieces in it. It’s just a really good way to section off your wardrobe so that you can find what you need when you need it for those, different parts of your life. Does that explain it well for you?

Jen Hardy [00:20:58]:
Absolutely. And and I love the idea of having different ones because I so I took all of my blingy things, and I have them in my office closet. And my husband said, well, why are you moving your clothes out of our room? I said, no. Because I wanna know, you know, when I’m doing work things and when I’m going out, exactly what I’ve got, and it’s all together. Yeah. So I don’t have to dig through everything else and find it. But I never thought of sectioning different capsules off. Aside from that one, I love that idea.

Nancy Queen [00:21:24]:
See, you you already have a capsule wardrobe, and you didn’t even realize it. You just did it to make your life easier, and that’s the whole concept behind it. It really helps serve you. And then when you do that, you realize you’ve got your little capsules, and then it it makes a it blaringly obvious what is not part of any capsules and really needs to get out of your wardrobe.

Jen Hardy [00:21:46]:
Yeah. That’s it’s brilliant. I’m gonna go that’s what I’m gonna do tonight because I throw away a lot of laundry, and I’m gonna sit there and do yeah. Because it just makes so much sense. And as we’re sitting here, I’m thinking there’s a couple of tops that just don’t go with anything, but I like and they’ve been and I haven’t worn them for years, and I keep shuffling them around, and they would not go in any capsule. So I am loving this. Okay. So so if you’re listening to me

Nancy Queen [00:22:11]:
So

Jen Hardy [00:22:12]:
Yes.

Nancy Queen [00:22:12]:
Yeah. Go ahead.

Jen Hardy [00:22:13]:
No. I I was just gonna say, you’re signing up. You’ve gotta do this just shopping and champagne. Okay. So go ahead. What were you gonna say?

Nancy Queen [00:22:21]:
I was gonna say that, when you’re putting together your capsule wardrobes, like you said, it really makes it obvious. So what I like to do when I have clothes like that that are really, I say that I like them, but I never wear them. A lot of times, I’ll put them on. Like, what is the reason why you’re not wearing it? Maybe you love the blouse, but it doesn’t fit right or it’s not comfortable or you’d like you said, you don’t have anything to go with it. So next time you’re shopping, you could take it with you and see if if it if all those other things, like, if it’s comfortable and not broken and you like the way it looks on you, then go see if you can find something to go with it. If not, maybe it needs to go away from your closet because it’s not serving you any good. And another thing, especially when we hit this age of our lives, I found that a lot of women, hold on to things for emotional reasons, like, oh, I wore this to our anniversary for our 15th wedding anniversary, and it just is such a special dress. I I would never wear it again, but, you know, I can’t get rid of it.

Nancy Queen [00:23:29]:
And that’s not the memory, so you’re filling you’re filling your everyday closet with all this visual clutter that’s really not helping you with your daily life. And, it would be like piling the bed with all kinds of stuff that has meaning to you when you can’t get in your bed. You know, it’s the same thing with having this packed closet full of clothes that aren’t serving you. So the more you can get rid of things, it really does help you lighten your load, feel better. And you actually feel just so much, such a weight taken off of you when you part with those things. So what I do because a lot of people don’t like to part with their belongings, especially not right away. So what I suggest is that you take those clothes and either put them in, like, a vacuum storage bag under your bed or another closet or basement or garage and forget about them for, like, 6 months to a year. And if you haven’t thought about those things once, time to say goodbye.

Nancy Queen [00:24:35]:
Send them to, I use, thredUP because they send you a big bag. You put everything in, they put the label on it, you drop it off at, like, the FedEx store. I think they have a few options, post office, things like that. And then they’ll pay you when things sell. So I’ve made 100 of dollars just on sending them things that I am no longer gonna wear, and I don’t have time to list every item by myself. They do it all for me, and it’s mindless. Or you can donate it to there’s plenty of women’s shelters. There’s Goodwill.

Nancy Queen [00:25:12]:
There’s I actually have a whole list on my website of places where you can donate items. So keep that in mind as well.

Jen Hardy [00:25:21]:
And I like that you just say, you know, keep it for a little while just in case because so many people go through and purge everything and get rid of everything. And then people say, oh my gosh. I really wish I wouldn’t have done that. So I think that’s really good advice. Yeah. And you don’t need to open that box, though, and go through it, do you? No. Right? If you haven’t thought about a certain thing, don’t don’t look.

Nancy Queen [00:25:42]:
Right. Because then you don’t need it. Okay. It’s gone. Yeah.

Jen Hardy [00:25:45]:
I I love

Nancy Queen [00:25:46]:
But just giving yourself that little one layer buffer before you make the final ditch. And I can tell you, I never go back and look. There’s really no it’s like, okay, I have a ton of stuff in my garage that can just go right out the door. I won’t need to even look at

Jen Hardy [00:26:03]:
it. I love that. Okay. Coming back to capsules, are we including shoes in the capsules, or is it shoes and accessories as well?

Nancy Queen [00:26:09]:
Or Well, for that project 333, I did because that was just part of the way this, I forget the name of the author, but there’s a book written called project 333, and I do link to her in my on my website. But, she didn’t she told you to include it. So I thought I’d be authentic to the experiment and and include everything. And it was really nice. It’s like I had 2 pairs of earrings to choose from, 4 pairs of shoes and again I didn’t miss it and you know I’m here visiting my father for probably about a month and I like I said, I have all the same clothes from that project wardrobe. So it also makes it great for traveling. I had been at a, a YouTube event back in September or October, and I pulled out all my Eileen Fisher stuff because it’s so great for travel. And I’m like, I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna try it for project 333.

Nancy Queen [00:27:08]:
So I added a few more pieces that I went and bought, and that has been my wardrobe. And like I said, that is what I brought with me on this trip, and it just the system the idea of the system really works well. You’re not guessing because you’re buying and building pieces that all work together. You’re not like, oh, I’m gonna bring this floral print shirt that only goes with these jeans and these shoes. So everything like, I have 2 pairs of shoes that will go with everything in my suitcase right now. I have shirts that go with all of the pants. So, like I said, I only did 4 pairs of shoes in the capsule, but I would consider when you’re putting together your capsule that you do don’t think of it as limiting yourself. Think of it as streamlining yourself to make it easier.

Nancy Queen [00:28:01]:
Why do you want 50 choices of shoes when you’re trying to pick out one outfit? Like, what are your favorites here? What are your go to’s? I have a lot of shoes in my closet, but I hardly wear any of them. I have maybe 8 pairs that are really my favorite go to’s that I wear every day. So same thing with, my exercise clothes. I have sneakers and I have slides that are like athletic slides. That’s it. I have maybe a couple colors of each, but I don’t really need tons of options. So you’re thinking of your shoes the same way you’re gonna think about the clothes. They’re all gonna mix and match and work together.

Nancy Queen [00:28:41]:
Like, I’m sure you could tell me, Jen, that you have certain shoes that you like to wear with those blingy outfits in your bling closet. I’m sure there’s certain shoes that go with that that, you know, plain shoes are not gonna look really good with your blingy stuff.

Jen Hardy [00:28:57]:
Yeah. They’re not.

Nancy Queen [00:28:59]:
Right. So it’s the same philosophy. It all works together.

Jen Hardy [00:29:04]:
Alright. I love it. Okay. And so let’s say somebody’s thinking, alright. I’ve hit this age, whatever age it is, and I I need a whole revamp and I need to just start over. Where how do they baby step that? What would be the first step?

Nancy Queen [00:29:21]:
That is an excellent question, and I would start with a basic capsule wardrobe. And those are the essential boring pieces that we all have in our wardrobes that we don’t even realize, but they’re like the workhorse of your whole closet. In fact, you could build your whole wardrobe on basics and be very happy with it. I don’t know about you, Jen, because you like bling so much. But I know that a lot of people would be just fine with basics. And I’m talking like, you know, I have on a basic white blouse. Even though it has like a little Mandarin collar, it’s longer length. It totally suits my personality, but it’s still a white cotton poplin button down shirt.

Nancy Queen [00:30:03]:
Everybody needs a couple of those, and maybe you pick 2 or 3 colors, like a nice blue or a pink. You know, what are your favorite colors? Think of that. And might need a pair or 2 of really good fitting jeans that fit your body style. In fact, I just did a whole YouTube series that’s, all the genes for every body type. So I went through each I did a separate video for each body type, and if you’re an inverted triangle, here’s the jeans that are gonna look great on you, the styles to pick that are gonna suit your body. Same thing with apple, pear. I did all of them and so, you wanna pick some good jeans. You wanna pick a few good layering pieces like a blazer or cardigan pullover that are gonna allow you to build and mix and match your wardrobe.

Nancy Queen [00:30:52]:
And then once you have those basics down, then you’re really gonna start applying your style words. And I think that a lot of people go shopping mindlessly. I we we’ve it’s kind of a cultural thing, especially here in the US where we, I’ve had a rough day. I think I’m gonna go do a little retail retail therapy. So you go and you’re mindlessly shopping and, you know, stores are totally primed to make you buy. Like, the newest things are up front. There’s no clocks. There’s great music, all kinds of things like that.

Nancy Queen [00:31:33]:
Did we freeze? Oh, I felt like we froze for a second. So when you get into a store, it wants you to buy. The store is ready to make you impulse buy. But if you do this little trick, you will not have that problem. When you go shopping, you wanna think of it when you’re going shopping as if you’re going to the grocery store. You don’t go to the grocery store when you’re tired and hungry and have no list. You go you have a list. You know what you need.

Nancy Queen [00:32:03]:
You head to your aisles. You buy what kind of stuff you need to make your recipes, and then you head home. Well, you need to take that same application and do that when you’re shopping for clothing. So what you’re gonna do is it starts in your closet. You’re gonna go to your closet, and this always happens to me when I’m getting dressed, and I’m sure it happens to everyone. You’re standing there in your closet, and you’re like, like you said, I have this really cute blouse. I haven’t worn it in years. I love it, but it doesn’t go with anything in my closet.

Nancy Queen [00:32:38]:
So that’s a hole in your closet. So next time you go, maybe you have 2 or 3 of those shirts that are like that. Now your your goal is to go find the pants or skirt or shorts, whatever it is that’s gonna go with that top. And then you’ve filled that hole, or maybe you’re missing basic white t shirts or button down shirts, something that you always are like, why don’t I have any white socks to go with the sneakers? I would wear them all the time if I had the right shoes. I mean, if if I had the right socks. So whenever you have those, just take a note, either write it down on your phone or have a notepad nearby and make note of those things. So then when you’re going shopping, you’re shopping with intention instead of on impulse, And you’re only gonna be filling your closet with the things that really serve you and fit. Does that make sense?

Jen Hardy [00:33:36]:
Yeah. And having a list, like, at the grocery store that and not just hitting the sale rack just to see what’s on there. Yes. It’s out. That’s yeah. So and here’s another question. It’s a silly question. How do you keep your white T shirts super white?

Nancy Queen [00:33:52]:
I do use, I switched to powder. I have a one of those front loading washers, and I read an article somewhere that said that the blue I was using blue tide that everybody tends to use and it’s a the blue in it is supposed to keep the look of your, shirts brighter and but what it does is it gunks up your washing machine. So I switched back to the old powdered version. My clothes have never been brighter and, my my front loading washer no longer has any weird smells to it. It’s just there’s no gunk anymore. It was an unbelievable thing that made such a huge difference and so funny you asked that because it was a very small change. And like I said, I just used the powder in my front loading. I used Tide powder.

Nancy Queen [00:34:49]:
And occasionally I’ll throw a little bleach in there, but I’ve been using it less and less.

Jen Hardy [00:34:54]:
That’s interesting. You know, we just had an appliance guy come out and work on our washer, and he said, get rid of the pods, get rid of the liquid, get rid of the fabric softener. It’s messing up everything. Go back to the powder. And we haven’t done that yet, but we will. We will now because

Nancy Queen [00:35:08]:
Yeah. I’ve been using it for about 2 years, and it’s made a huge difference. And the other thing I recently did, and my whole family loves them, is I switched to the wool dryer balls. You can buy them on Amazon. They’re just these big fluffy wool balls, and you throw them in the dryer, like, 3 or 4. They come you usually get, like, a pack of 6, and you throw 3 or 4 in with a normal load, and they fluff up your clothes while they’re being dried, the wool will act as a natural dryer sheet. So you can say goodbye to dryer sheets. And, it allows because the balls are bouncing around and drying your clothes faster, it well, because they’re bouncing all around, they’re allowing your clothes to have more air in them, so your clothes are drying faster.

Nancy Queen [00:35:56]:
And I’ve been using it with our down comforters, and, oh my gosh, our comforters have never been fluffier and dried faster because of these dryer balls. So Alright. I’m I’m an advocate for both dryer balls and and powder powder detergent.

Jen Hardy [00:36:14]:
Well, that’s perfect. Okay. See. So we’ve learned everything from how to change the wardrobe to how to keep it up, and that’s that’s really good. Alright. Well, are there any parting words before we go? Anything that that we haven’t touched on yet that someone should know if they’re

Nancy Queen [00:36:28]:
You know, it’s a great time it’s a great time in your life to have fun with your wardrobe and rediscover who you are and just enjoy the rediscovering it again that you you haven’t had time to think about before. So that’s my parting words of advice.

Jen Hardy [00:36:48]:
I love it. Yeah. And it’s interesting because now we have time to get ready. You know? And we had young kids and all that. We have you know, you’re rushing out to going to school, doing all the things, and and I’ve really enjoyed, yeah, taking that time for myself that I didn’t have for a few decades there. So well, thank you so much, and tell us one more time where people can find you.

Nancy Queen [00:37:07]:
It’s shopping on champagne.com is my website, and I’m also on YouTube. I put out a new video every week shopping on champagne.

Jen Hardy [00:37:17]:
I love it. Alright. So if you’re listening, you’ve gotta go. And, yeah, we’re gonna put this up on the YouTube channel, so we’ll be joining you there. And thank you again. I appreciate you so much.