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I don’t know about you but I am fervently anticipating the next season of Project Runway, not only to gasp at the highly restrictive parameters of each design challenge but also to listen to the counseling of Tim Gunn, design educator, mentor and now, the Chief Creative Director for Liz Claiborne, Inc. (who also owns a current obsession of mine, Kate Spade LLC). I just bought and finished his book, “Tim Gunn: A Guide to Taste, Quality and Style“, which was written with his pal and former co-worker, Kate Moloney. Tim is a fan of redaction. His goal in this book is to have us be fans also. Using clothes and accessories as metaphor for words, readers are encouraged to formulate, in a particular style or language, the message which we wish to or should convey to society. Or visa versa, think of your wardrobe as a novel, and Tim helps to strip away the subplots and diversions to reveal the primary premise.

With his slightly acerbic humor (have you heard his pod-casts?), and ushering in Soren Kierkegaard as the styling coach, Tim leads the way to a work-out of ridding what not to wear: the ill-fitting, the age-inappropriate, the dullards, and the ones you just never wear. Price, whether it had cost a month’s rent or a bag of potato chips, is not a consideration in this exercise. You’ll be surprise at what you find is left and what this core style says about you. And, to help you along with feeling better of what you have achieved, there is a chapter dedicated to the archetypes of fashion and style which you can compare to your core style.

I did take these rules to action. I did divide my closet and carefully edited it according to Tim’s guidelines. I was elated when I got rid of those items that held me down: the ill-fitting items, the “IT” items I purchased for emotional solace (but did nothing for me physically), the items that I was saving in hopes they would come back into fashion. As if by fate, an actual style or look did emerge for the collection of remaining pieces. My only complaint now is that while I still have a need to “therapy buy”, I can’t bear to make myself buy something that would veer away from my central theme. What a dilemma.

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