A Guide on Shopping With Intention and Style Discovery with Size-Inclusive Personal Stylist, Heensie!

At Free Label, we've always sworn by the simple yet meaningful mantra: 'Buy less, wear more.' Why? Because we believe your clothes should be more than just fleeting fashion moments; they should be wardrobe staples that stand the test of time. Our goal is to fill the gaps in your closet with pieces that bring joy, not just for a season, but for years to come.

Now this is easier said than done so we invited our pal and size-inclusive personal stylist, Heensie to share their tips on discovering your personal style, shopping with intention, and curating a wardrobe filled with pieces that are practical for your everyday life and also spark joy!

Meet Heensie, a wardrobe stylist with a specific focus on size inclusion, dedicated to furthering diversity in the fashion space. She collaborates with clients of all sizes worldwide through virtual support, fostering an accessible environment for all to discover and nurture their signature style. Going 'beyond the clothes,' Heensie provides clients with a creative, supportive, and highly introspective styling experience. You can learn more about them and their styling services here. 

Heensie says the urge to overspend is constant in today’s world and to foster a mindful closet, you want to approach your spending habits with compassion and curiosity. Curious about how to kickstart this journey? Here are 3 powerful exercises developed by Heensie for a more conscious shopping experience.

Exercise #1: Understanding Your Spending Triggers 

Understanding when and why you shop can help curb unnecessary spending. Heensie suggests keeping a running log of the times you feel the urge to make a purchase. 

Step 1: Note down how you feel in the moment and how you’ve felt in the hours leading up. 

This will help you identify if you’re making a purchase to self-soothe or because it brings you joy and is useful/practical. 

Now that you’ve taken the time to reflect on our purchase, you want to determine if your potential purchase is beneficial. Heensie reminds us that we want the purchases we make to improve our lives on a practical level while still bringing fulfilment and enjoyment. When it comes to adding to your wardrobe, this can be done through thoughtful shopping and style discovery. 

Exercise #2: Discover Your Personal Style Pillar and Lifestyle Priorities 

We all have different style aesthetics and lifestyle priorities and we want to identify what these are for us. It’s important to have pieces that are functional and not to neglect your lifestyle considerations while still also matching your personal style.

Step 1:

Start by writing down the most common settings you find yourself in and where you spend your time on an average week. Do you work from home or at an office? Do you like to socialize or are you more of a homebody? 

Step 2:

Reflect on what you enjoy wearing in these situations. Be real with yourself and remember that everybody’s day-to-day looks different. While you might find major inspo from a celebrity or influencer, their day probably looks a lot different from yours! 

It’s also important not to get too focused on just functional pieces that serve our daily needs. We also want the clothes we wear to bring us joy! A sustainable closet that’s practical and thoughtful is finding the balance between your personal style and lifestyle needs.

Step 3: 

Now that you know what your day-to-day functional needs are, it’s time to get creative and start to figure out what clothes bring you joy and what your style is. 

Heensie suggests creating a visual reference on a platform like Pinterest. To help you get started, Heesie has graciously created a free resource of Style Discover Keyword Prompts here. 

Once you have your style vision board and your list of practical lifestyle considerations, you should have a pretty good idea of your wardrobe priorities.

Step 4:

From here, Heensie suggests doing a wardrobe audit to pinpoint where the gaps in your closet are. Check out the Wardrobe Audit Decision Tree that Heensie has put together here. Once you’ve identified the gaps in your wardrobe, this will help you shop with intention!

Exercise #3: Reflect before checking out 

Now that you’re feeling ready to shop with intention, Heensie has one last exercise they recommend before checking out! 

Step 1:

Take a step back and pause to reflect on your emotions by asking yourself these mindful shopping prompts. Remember, the goal isn’t to not shop at all but rather to make sure that the items you purchase bring you joy and satisfaction in the long run!

One of my biggest takeaways from Heensie’s workshop was to find the balance between the practical and joy-sparking pieces that fill the gaps in your closet. When you find pieces that do it both, they tend to become wardrobe staples! 

And once you do identify what your needs are, we have some solid wardrobe staples that folks have said filled a gap in their wardrobes 😉 

You can check them out here!