Asking for a Friend - Health, Fitness & Personal Growth Tips for Women in Midlife

Ep.134 Alison Bruhn on Midlife Fashion Reinvention, Personal Styling, and the Trends

• Michele Henning Folan • Episode 134

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Transform Your Style with Alison Bruhn: A Fashion Journey for Women 50+

Join Alison Bruhn, a former teacher turned fashion expert, as she shares her inspiring journey into the world of personal styling. Alongside her daughter Delia Folk, Alison co-founded The Style That Binds Us, a platform dedicated to celebrating fashion for women of all ages and sizes. In this empowering episode, Alison reveals how she reinvented her career and now helps women like you embrace fashion as a tool for self-expression and transformation.

As we enter midlife, our bodies and lifestyles evolve, and so should our wardrobes. This episode offers valuable insights on how to navigate these changes with confidence and grace. Alison shares expert tips on how to avoid the trap of holding onto outdated styles and how to adapt your wardrobe to reflect your current self. Learn how to embrace your body with self-acceptance, build a wardrobe that suits both your personality and lifestyle, and move beyond the casual staples that dominated the pandemic years.

Discover how to approach fashion with a fresh perspective, no matter your size or shape. We’ll explore the latest trends, including the chaotic world of denim, and offer practical advice on finding the perfect fit—especially if you're on the shorter side. From the rich colors of fall to the lively hues of spring, Alison explains how to incorporate these seasonal trends into your wardrobe effortlessly. Plus, get excited about the return of preppy and nautical styles with a modern twist that promises to elevate your look.

Whether you’re looking to refresh your wardrobe or gain confidence in your personal style, Alison’s expert guidance and services, from virtual consultations to personalized styling sessions, offer the perfect solutions. Alison’s recent recognition by Fashion Group International highlights her commitment to making sure all women feel seen and stylish, no matter their age.

Tune in to learn how fashion can be your key to personal reinvention and expression at any stage of life.

You can find Alison Bruhn and her daughter, Delia Folk, at https://thestylethatbindsus.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thestylethatbindsus/

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Are you ready to reclaim your midlife body and health? I went through my own personal journey through menopause, the struggle with midsection weight gain, and feeling rundown. Faster Way, a transformative six-week group program, set me on the path to sustainable change. I'd love to work with you! Let me help you reach your health and fitness goals.
https://www.fasterwaycoach.com/?aid=MicheleFolan

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Michele Folan:

Health, wellness, fitness and everything in between. We're removing the taboo from what really matters in midlife. I'm your host, Michele Folan, and this is Asking for a Friend. Body changes are pretty inevitable at this stage in the game, but what does that mean when it comes to our clothing choices and our hesitancy in expressing ourselves with a little style? Do you feel like your fashion sense is stuck way back in the carpool line from years ago? Or are you like me and you gravitate toward leggings every day? And may I just say there is nothing wrong with loving comfort. But do we have an opportunity to jazz things up a bit with a few new basics and some color, to get us out of our clothing rut? And COVID casual staples? Guess what?

Michele Folan:

Women are redefining many areas of their lives, so why would our style be any different? That's where today's guest comes in. The style that binds us is a community of all ages, colors and sizes, brought together by a dynamic mother and daughter team that share their passion for all things style and fashion. Welcome to Asking for a Friend, Alison Bruhn. Thank you, I'm so glad to be here. Well, I first of all want you to introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit more about you, where you're from, where you are now and then, if you could walk us through your career path.

Alison Bruhn:

Sure, I'll try and not take too much time doing it, but I'm Alison Bruhn. My daughter Delia and I have a business together. We've had it for six years and many years ago, when I graduated from college, I was a teacher for first grade, second grade, kindergarten. So I ended up at this stage in my life teaching again. But now I'm teaching grownups mainly grown women, which is easier, mainly grown women, which is easier. It's a lot of the same techniques. It's a lot of the excitement, but also hopeful, but kind of vulnerable. You're still that same basic person.

Alison Bruhn:

You were in first grade, but anyway, I taught school for eight, 10 years and then I became a stay-at-home mom for a while because I had remarried. I'd gotten divorced when my daughter was very little and then I remarried and so I had stepkids in the mix and my daughter, who was only five, and a new husband and everything. So just to be able to do one thing as well as I could, the children at school that thought I was their mom. They had to go. They found another teacher for them so I could stay home and set up a new home for everybody. So I did that for a long time and then, when my daughter, delia, went to college, I realized I had free time on my hands and I wanted to do something. I mean, it's so much work when you're a stay-at-home mom and I applaud everyone that does that and at this time I was ready to do something for myself, though, and I'd taken care of a lot of other people for a long time, and I thought, well, I'm not sure I want to go back to teaching little kids, even though it had brought me incredible, immense joy when I was doing it. But at this stage in the game, I thought maybe I'll do something a little more glamorous, and so I went back to school. I found a program at FIT, which is the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. People like Michael Kors and Vera Wang a lot of people like that have gone to that school, so they have a certification program there where you learn basically the science behind getting dressed, and so then I started working with clients, one-on-one primarily women and then as a personal stylist, doing all kinds of things bridal any kind of change in life you can imagine. We addressed all of that, and I really realized in the process the clothes were just the medium. Really, it was about reminding a woman of who she is or giving her the strength to get through difficult times or building her confidence up and things like that. And that's the part I really loved actually feeling like I'd made a difference in somebody's life. That part was really thrilling to me.

Alison Bruhn:

And then Delia graduated from college and she knew she wanted to go into fashion. So we're from Alabama, she went to school in Virginia and I was hanging my shingle up and working with people in Georgia and Alabama and eventually up to Richmond and New York and Greenwich and it started kind of going all over the place. Some through Zoom, some through in-person FaceTime, all the things, wow, okay. So she got to New York and she had interned at Versace and then she went to work at a high-end department store here called Barney's New York, which has since closed. But she was working with emerging brands ready-to-wear beauty and and jewelry and all the things. So she would introduce brands to me that I could introduce to my clients and she was wanting to tell the story of the brands and I was telling the story of the women and eventually, we decided to come together and do that.

Alison Bruhn:

She left Barney's and we came together and we have had a YouTube channel and a podcast and blogs and we hold events with designers anything we could do to connect women and new brands for them. You know, we just got so busy. It was just too much because we're a small team with a lot of interns and things like that. So I realized that we created some online courses, so there's only so many hours in the day, so this way, people all over the place could take these courses. And it was very similar to working with me one-on-one, and I wanted to reach as many women as I could and teach them the basics of getting dressed in a way that they knew their body type and their coloring and all the things that would be imperative for them to know in order to be able to get dressed and answer all those questions.

Michele Folan:

There's so much here. All right, first of all. So, I'm going to back up, because you said some things earlier on. First of all, that you wanted to do something for yourself. That lit you up, and I love that that's a theme that we talk about quite often on the podcast that there are women in midlife that are doing some really awesome things, and I don't want to say that our responsibilities have held us back, because we loved and cherished those times in our lives. But to be able to step out of your comfort zone and be brave enough to go after you know a degree and and then you move to New York and I want to back up to that one too, because you divorced. Right, Tell me a little bit about that process divorcing later in life and then having to land on your feet.

Alison Bruhn:

So you know it wasn't something that I expected. I was also divorced when Delia was very young from her father, so I hadn't expected any of that to happen to me, but it did. And the second divorce was during COVID and there was actually a name for it gray divorce, because so many women especially were realizing that time is short and if you're not fulfilled and you don't feel like you're in the place that you need to be, once the kids have grown and everything, I don't talk about it a lot, but anyway, it was a decision I made to get out of a 22-year marriage. It was really difficult and took a long time to really.

Alison Bruhn:

I think I'm still probably processing all of that, but I moved from Birmingham, Alabama, where I have always lived and raised my family, and moved to New York where my daughter was and we had already been working. We'd already created this company together a few years before and wherever I was, I needed to be the other place as far as work. I needed to be in New York when I was in Birmingham. I needed to be in Birmingham when I was in New York. And so I thought, well, if we're going to really make this thing work and see where we can take it. I'm going to move to New York at 59 years old and I did and I, you know, live in an apartment in New York City by myself. A lot of the things that I never had to do before, you know, I've had to do myself and, as far as, like you know, health insurance just all the things that you don't think about, right, or at least a lot of people of my generation, women didn't really think about so much, right.

Alison Bruhn:

So it's been a steep learning curve, but it has been really exciting, and that's all I know to say about that. We work really hard, we're entrepreneurs, so it's super busy, but it is, I feel like it definitely keeps you young.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, and I think in being an entrepreneur in your 60s, you know, if you look back at your life 20 years ago, many of us are not doing anything near what we thought we would be doing. No, not at all Right. And it's kind of a little bit of a kick in the pants, or yeah, I don't know what it is, but it's like wow, I didn't think, never in my wildest dreams.

Michele Folan:

No, never Did I think I was going to be doing a podcast at the age of 60? Right, right and a health coach, right Living in New York. City single.

Alison Bruhn:

Yeah, I know right, okay, entrepreneur to begin with, I mean, I never even really.

Michele Folan:

But it shows that we can do anything at any age, right, but you have to give yourself permission and free yourself to do that and not be held down by constraints of other people's thoughts and about yourself, those things that hold us back. So, okay, well, thank you for sharing that story, because I think it does really give you a ton of credibility, that you've been in the shoes of many of my listeners and that you're a real person. So thank, you?

Alison Bruhn:

Yes, definitely, and I work with so many women, our ages, hearing the same things over and over again. Either I had to go back to work at 59, or I chose to go back to work, or I've gotten divorced. I'm a widow. I'm a widow. My body's changing. You know all of the things that you know. I'm well aware. I'm living it. You know all of the things that change as we age.

Michele Folan:

Alison, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back as 2025 approaches. Human nature and tradition prompts us to start looking ahead at goals for the new year. We tend to gravitate toward health goals, many of which may have been on the list for 2024. But that's okay. This year can be different, maybe if we have an option that caters to the changing needs of midlife women. That is not only effective with macro-based nutrition and daily 30-minute workouts for any fitness level, but science-backed methods that are sustainable. It's called Faster Way.

Michele Folan:

Let's take away the fear of failing one more diet, buying the supplements that didn't work or having the same New Year's resolutions year after year. Are you ready to commit to you? Make this the sweetest gift that you give yourself this year. My next round starts January 6th, so you can get ahead of the game with free access through the new year by signing up now. If you have questions, please reach out. See the show notes for details. Welcome back to the show, and I did allude to the fact in the intro that we do go through body changes that we've experienced. This has left us feeling a bit out of touch with what may be good, stylish fashion choices that work with our bodies now and instead of hiding behind loose clothing. Do you offer some tips for women behind loose clothing, do you offer some tips for women?

Alison Bruhn:

I guess the first question would be what missteps do you see that women make at our age? The main misstep, I would say, is when you keep trying to make the things that used to work work, but your body has changed. What is this? Why are these pants fitting differently? I haven't gained any weight, I can't figure this out. And you just keep buying the same kind of pants and trying to make it work and force it and it just doesn't.

Alison Bruhn:

And the other thing I hear a lot is back in the day, you should have seen me, you know. Oh, I was this, I was that, I was cute, you know all that kind of stuff. Well, it's not over. First of all, and second of all, this is the day right now. It's the same thing with when I lose weight. I want to hire you.

Alison Bruhn:

But when you are not at your ideal weight and you may not be even when you get to an ideal weight at our age it's going to be different than it was then, because things have changed. And my daughter would say you just need to tone up, you just need to tone up. And I'm like you know what? At 60, you definitely can tone up and I definitely should and I will. But some of this is still going to be there, some of the things that have changed on my body. So, yes, of course, learning to accept who you are now and just be so thankful that you're alive.

Alison Bruhn:

But I do feel like sometimes we're walking around in shock every day. What is this? What is this? Every day, something new is popping up and you really have to be a fierce advocate for yourself and talk to yourself in a positive way to not sometimes get sort of down about that. But that is the thing wearing oversized clothing, feeling bad about yourself, it's like the ball gets rolling and rolling and then you end up in a really sad place and it is like I don't even know myself. Who am I under all these layers of clothing, especially if you have to go through like?

Alison Bruhn:

I had to have a hysterectomy a year ago and when that happened I discovered elastic pants for the first time. But elastic pants are different now than they used to be. When we think about our grandmothers wearing their elastic pants, but those kinds of things everybody's saying what's this deal with my tummy? Now I can't. So it's a. You have to navigate this and you have to understand that it's. It's here and we're doing great. You know we're thriving, but also there are going to be some changes and learning how to dress in a way that makes you feel great. Taking all of those things into account is the way it will work best.

Michele Folan:

Well, and you mentioned that the clothes are the medium, and I think what you're trying to tell me is that there's the initial mindset work that goes into place first, kind of coaching somebody into accepting some of those body changes. Yeah sure, could we lose a couple pounds? Can we eat better, right exercise. In the meantime, how do we feel good in our clothes? And I think that would be a great place to start here. So let's talk about basics.

Alison Bruhn:

Well, that's a hard question because everybody's different and everybody lives in different places. Like, someone in Florida is not going to need the same things in their closet as someone in Ohio or New York. But what you do need is some sort of a core wardrobe that works for you and not that worked for you years ago, because what I hear a lot of is so when you go shopping, you don't usually go shopping for the perfect white shirt or the perfect black pant or even the perfect jean, and that's kind of.

Alison Bruhn:

Sometimes jeans are as bad as trying to find a bathing suit, right, oh yeah. But you're going to go buy the things that pop out at you that you love, like, oh, this is so pretty and you're so excited, it gives you that boost and everything. But then you get home a lot of times and you can't figure out how to wear it, or you can only wear it one way and you know you've got things in your closet. Surely there are other ways I can wear this piece. So the main thing is building a current working wardrobe, building that current core. It's like, okay, if you're decorating your house, you need the furniture in there, and then you add the pillows and the curtains and you add on the layers like that. So building that really strong foundation for your lifestyle. Now your budget, now your body type. Now it's time to do a refresh. Yeah.

Michele Folan:

Well, and we talk about our COVID comfy clothes and we're obviously getting out more. People have returned to the office for the most part. You know we're maybe your hybrid, right? You know it's getting excited about clothing again. Right, you and I were talking about the fashion industry and how the fashion industry has really had to flex during this time, because those stores that really honed in on, like, say, Ann Taylor, they really honed in on career clothing how have they done through all those transitions of people working?

Alison Bruhn:

Right. It's an interesting thing because no one had ever experienced this before. So everybody's doing real-time in individual people, but so are brands, and then also now with this weight loss medicine, that's another part of the conversation in fashion too. What's going to happen to brands that have just decided to carry a larger array of sizes? Now they're going to. They just have to keep pivoting and keep rethinking things and things like that. So it's a very complicated time, but the best thing that's come out of it to me is that they are making new fabrics that are comfortable.

Alison Bruhn:

So you can still be in a pantsuit, but it is a more comfortable fabric and you can wear it with a cool Oxford or a loafer or something, instead of the high heels and the pants that are in the jacket. That's tight. It's a more sort of like a relaxed elegance. But that's where people get confused. They feel like they want to be comfortable. Now, I'm not going back, I'm used to being comfortable and that's what I want. But when they're comfortable at work, a lot of times they don't feel polished, so they still don't feel quite right, like something's not quite right. I don't feel. You know one brand that we work with a lot. It's called MM Lafleur, it's a workwear brand and she coined a term power casual after COVID, so it's kind of moving into street clothes, we'll call them, but with comfortable fabrics.

Alison Bruhn:

And one of the things when I talk about the science of dressing when you're wearing something super comfortable and you're about to go into an important meeting or you have a lot of difficult work to do, sometimes it's called enclosed cognition, but your brain is getting these messages of I'm so comfy it's sort of like nap time or snack time Instead of I'm feeling so powerful. Right now I can take on the world, but you're all cocooned. So we're having to navigate that too, and a lot of people don't even know that's what's happening. Why do I feel so sleepy? Well, you're in pants that are basically elevated sweatpants and a little cashmere sweater or even more like a sweatsuit that has some puff sleeves. So your brain is like thinking where am I?

Alison Bruhn:

And so, anyway, that's the thing that's been confusing, and people are especially women. It's harder to figure out business casual for women. It's harder for people our age feeling not frumpy, but they don't want to dress too young, and so there's just so many questions and the fashion business has really struggled because they are so. Especially the designers are like I don't want to design any more $600 sweatpants. I want to get back to designing for the female form, what I learned and wanted to do when I went to school, for this and everything. So these brands like Quince and Everlane and all these brands that you know have come into play are great for a lot of people, price point wise, but you know, everybody kind of looks the same.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, and I think that's where I go back to the piece about basics. Having a good crew neck sweater and a denim jacket, because I'm wearing my denim jacket. It's kind of like my uniform. Yeah, you do need maybe a pair of black pants. We need a pair of denim that we're comfortable in.

Alison Bruhn:

Right and also like the white tee that you're wearing under your denim. The white tee that you wore 20 years ago is going to be different, probably, than the white tee that you wear now. Yeah, the things that you want to be able to like. Take the jacket off. So a lot of people our age don't love their arms anymore, so they would not want to wear the little if they wanted to take their jacket off because, of course, of the age, maybe they're having hot flashes. They want to be able to layer and take things on and off. Finding the right white tee that doesn't cling here, that covers up the arms, that isn't sheer, that's the right neckline for you. All of these things.

Alison Bruhn:

This is the hard part of building the wardrobe is because it's not fun and it's like scientific. How many white t-shirts do I have to go through until I find the one that I can wear alone, or under a denim jacket, or under a blazer and a skirt, with a bit of a heel for a dressy look, with a gold chain? So that's what I was talking about as far as the basics. The basics are. And then even a black pant Like okay, are you going to be willing to wear heels if you're, because the wide leg pant with the high-waisted trouser right now is huge, it's like almost all you can find. But if you're short-waisted like I am, the high-waisted trouser does not look good on me, so I have to really scrounge around to find a pant that right now that fits my body type.

Alison Bruhn:

So these are the things that are the musts in your closet, or you can't get dressed, but they're going to take some time and what you do is you go to your closet and instead of at the last minute, when you put on your white tee and you're about to put on your jacket and you realize, oh no, it's pilled and it's clinging to my stomach and this just isn't a good look anymore. What happened? Well, don't be sad about that. Just say, okay, it's time for me to update my white t-shirt and you just put it on your list and you update things. Go on a hunt.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, exactly Right. You know you bring up high-waisted pants and we do need to talk about this, because I'm 5'2 and high-waisted pants look ridiculous on me. I mean really, these pants hit me right under my boobs.

Alison Bruhn:

It's that, yeah, so it's just a bad look, but you might be a little short-waisted as well as being short, if that's happening to you, because it sounds like your torso is shorter than your legs, which is a good thing as far as balance goes. But anyway, yes, it is a real issue, for sure for so many of us.

Michele Folan:

Well, and then we have to talk about denim. What in God's name is going on with denim? Because I talked to somebody the other day who is a fashion influencer on Instagram and she said she threw away all of her skinny jeans to find out that skinny jeans are back. Tell us what's going on.

Alison Bruhn:

Right. Well, one thing that's going on is you know it used to be like here are the three big trends for the fall or for the spring, and now, because of Instagram and TikTok and all these influencers, there are a million trends and they're going like, by the time you get a pair of barrel jeans in, they're over, and then you need this and you need this. So really, what the best thing to do is find a brand and definitely a style in that brand that works for your body type. If you are short-waisted, you need a lower rise jean. But we also have the belly now a little bit. So it gets really complicated because, like I said, in times of trouble these brands, they're going to see one person selling the heck out of that high-waisted pleated trouser. So now they're all going to make it. They're all going to make the oversized clothes. Well, those look good on like 1% of the population. So everything is a little more complicated.

Alison Bruhn:

But jeans wise, I mean, if you love skinny jeans, I never was a huge fan of skinny jeans because, unless you don't have much of a hip, it kind of gave you this V shape and then your little feet were out at the bottom and it kind of went up like this, so it's way out of balance. I like either like a straight leg or a tiny little bit of a boot cut, even if you're not wearing any kind of a heel. But if you had like a booty that just has a little bit of a heel and a little bit of a boot cut, it really makes a person's figure look, look nice. Yeah, so the trends are what I spend a lot of time doing now. I feel like is okay, here are the trends and this is the way you can wear them over 40 or 50. I talk about that when I work with Katie Couric Media do videos for her new newsletter. I mean, it's not new, but it's relatively new about this kind of thing. Like, okay, new, but it's relatively new about this kind of thing. Like, okay, here are some trends and these are a few that I chose that you could actually wear in real life, whereas, yeah, and the skinny jean, I feel like the skinny jean.

Alison Bruhn:

The thing about the skinny jean is it never really went away, because if you wanted to wear like a riding boot or anything like that, you needed a skinny jean. If you wanted to wear like a riding boot or anything like that. You needed a skinny jean, right, you couldn't get the other jeans fit down in there. But the big oversized jeans and the oversized blazers and all that, that is an issue that goes back to the cocooning in COVID. Okay, well, now we have to go back, so we're just gonna make these big oversized clothes and the pants hems like puddle on the floor. I mean, it's crazy, right? Yeah, there's no place really for us in there, necessarily.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, and I don't think a lot of that stuff's wearable. I mean, I bought a pair of barrel jeans just to try them and I look like Bozo the Clown and you kind of look bow-legged. Yeah, they were ridiculous. But I think skinny jeans you know the revival of the skinny jean. We're starting to see taller boots come back, which are great for tucking them in. So I, you know, I didn't get rid of my skinny jeans because they are my. They fit me the best of all the jeans that I have in my closet.

Alison Bruhn:

So and also I was reading a fashion editor was talking about yesterday and she was saying that what she does now is she gets the skinny jean but she gets it in the longer length and then she gets it cut off and get it altered, because it's when it hits right at the ankle bone or above that it doesn't look really flattering on a lot of people. But if it can come down a little bit longer then it doesn't chop you off at that point so much.

Michele Folan:

Oh, that's a great tip. Okay, I like that.

Alison Bruhn:

Yeah, especially if you're wearing like a skinny jean all the way down but it's not so tight at the ankle and then you have on like a little booty or something. Especially if it's like a black jean and a black booty, then your leg is going to look even longer.

Alison Bruhn:

Yes, the colors that are trending this fall, not necessarily the ones on TikTok I don't pay a lot of attention to TikTok just because I don't have the time but on the runways and what is translating into the stores, are this really pretty? Merlot or burgundy, and then also gray, like flannel gray, like men's suits traditionally. Basically it's like that, and so you'll see.

Alison Bruhn:

I got a dress. It's a picture on Instagram right now, on my account, of this simple gray dress and it's in this gray flannel-ish material and I feel like I don't even know the 40s, 1940s in New York or something. It's elegant, it's ladylike, it's a great look, even if you have a suede or like a flannel Oxford or something in it. And gray is not my color. I never wear gray near my face because I have warm undertones, so it normally doesn't do me any favors, but I like it so much right now I don't know why it's really resonating with me. This fall I wore it. As my mother would say put on your lipstick, put on some lipstick, a little more blush, so that it didn't bring out like circles under my eyes and stuff like that yeah, you didn't.

Michele Folan:

You didn't want it to wash you out. Yeah, you know, I knew I used to be in the industry, in another industry, where we had to focus on color. And so I was very familiar with Pantone and I was laughing that Pantone's color of the year was peach fuzz. Right?

Alison Bruhn:

I know I don't remember spring too, but she was on our podcast the woman who picks that for fashion. She's so nice, she's older, she's been doing it forever and ever and ever. She's written a book about it. She talked about how they picked it. It was very interesting. It's a whole army of people. They look all over the world at every kind of movie, tv. What's happening with the kids in China? They really put a lot of thought into it, I think, and now the fashion designers are not paying attention to that. The fashion designers a lot of them start with what textiles are coming out for the year, and that's where they see the colors that resonate with them. And then when you see it coming down the runway and you're like, ooh, that looks so beautiful on that person. Like if gray is not your favorite gray flannel, like if gray is not your favorite gray flannel trouser, or a little ankle pant with a great sweater or jacket, or you know, it's just a great fall. It just makes you think of fall, right, yeah?

Michele Folan:

Yeah, and unfortunately it's going to be 80 degrees in Cincinnati today. So well, it's going to be warm here too. Yeah, wacky weather. Yeah, I'm still not. I haven't gotten into the fall mode. I still have my warm weather clothes in my closet. I haven't switched everything over yet. Should we invest in a color analysis? Do you think that's helpful?

Alison Bruhn:

I think it is very helpful to know the colors that look best on you. We have a course about color, but a lot of times you have to be careful where you get your information. I'll just say that If you go get a color analysis and they say, okay, you're a winter and these are the colors that winters can wear, well, you're a winter and another person is a winter and you don't look anything alike. You have different colored eyes and everything. So it needs to go deeper than that and it is an important thing to know because it's a huge piece of that puzzle when you're getting dressed. I mean, that's like a no brainer, easy way to get compliments. Yeah, especially if you're not feeling so good.

Alison Bruhn:

And this color works for me. It kind of brings out some pinkness to my cheeks. So, especially if I weren't feeling good, I would throw on my red blazer. But if I threw on like a blue red blazer, like a red apple, kind of a cooler tone red, it would not do me any favors. So that's the difference. Like, even with like a lavender or a purple, you know there's red lavenders and there's blue lavenders, and so it is a great way to get compliments, you know to to wear something flattering, even if you can't figure out your body type. But you know that Royal blue brings you tons of compliments put on the Royal blue. That's a you know, that's something, without knowing anything else that you could start with.

Michele Folan:

Okay, and I knew there was the. I think it was called Color Me Beautiful, absolutely.

Alison Bruhn:

It was big back in the 80s when we were in college.

Michele Folan:

Uh-huh, and back then I was a winter, but God knows what I am now. So let's talk about shoes and boots. This came up I had my clients yesterday on a call and we were chatting. I told them I was interviewing you today, yeah, and we started talking about shoes and boots and how heel silhouettes have changed. Is the kitten heel back?

Alison Bruhn:

The kitten heel is back, it's been back for a while. And I think it's also a way of getting women to still kind of get that silhouette without having to wear a high heel, because it's more feminine and flattering than a block heel. But it's not the easiest sometimes to walk in unless it at least has a slingback. Slingbacks right now are really having a moment too, and that's it's a little bit higher than a kitten heel and the pointy toe. There again it goes back to this lady like look, but when you put that kind of shoe with a jean, you know, and even if it's like a white, crisp white blouse, then all of a sudden you feel modern. Yeah.

Michele Folan:

That look sounds really nice. Yeah, I can get behind that. Yeah, exactly, and I've kept a lot of my shoes because I have a hard foot to fit, so I've kept a lot of my shoes. They're in the basement and praying that they would come back. Absolutely, I guess. My advice for anyone listening is if you paid a decent amount of money for a piece, whether it's a blazer or a great pair of shoes hang on to them as long as they're not taking up an inordinate amount of room, or they'll never fit you again or something like that, right?

Alison Bruhn:

Or it was a defined style, because a lot of people our age when I go into their closets they have these Armani suits that they were very proud of, that they had in the 80s and they were going to a lot of meetings and even like philanthropy boards and things like that. And now when they put them on it looks like they're wearing their grandfather's blazer and they invariably always say I cannot believe I ever wore this or that I spent that kind of money. But can I consign it? And the consignment shops will tell you, no, that would be considered vintage now. So the consignment shops won't take it, even though it's Armani. So not everything, you know. Some things you could get remade, I guess. But if it fits you well and you love it, don't ever stop wearing it and certainly, you know, save it if you feel like you know.

Michele Folan:

Okay, I think that's fair. I think about things that I have in my closet that I pray they come back in style and then I eventually have gotten rid of them. So I try not to.

Alison Bruhn:

Well, sometimes, why don't you be the one who makes the trend? If it looks good on you and you love it, wear it.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, no, you know what? That's true? Yeah, okay, At our age, yeah, so, in terms of fall trends, besides the gray and the maroon because we had, wasn't it magenta was the color of the year last year.

Alison Bruhn:

Maybe I really used to pay attention to it. Now I don't pay attention to it as much as what's coming down the runway, just because I know that'll trickle down to the stores.

Michele Folan:

Were there any other trends that you really liked for fall?

Alison Bruhn:

I have always loved leopard print and I think it has to do with my coloring. If you have high contrast between your hair and your skin, then high contrasting patterns look good, at least on your top half, and so leopard print kind of mirrored what was going on up here, so I've always loved it and it'll kind of go away and then they'll act like it's come back, but it never really went away, you know. But it looks great with red, it looks great with black, it looks great with winter white. You know, it looks great with so many different things.

Alison Bruhn:

So and this year is a leopard print year, so if you like, it yeah, if you like it, bring it out that leopard print coats or even if it's just a little leopard print bag or even a headband or something. That's a little accent. If you like it, if you don't like it. Yeah, belts are great and it goes along with that lady sort of classic elevated look. Okay.

Michele Folan:

I like that, All right. Next question not to get ahead of ourselves, because I know we're just in the midst of fall Right. Are you seeing any trends for spring yet?

Alison Bruhn:

They're already talking about pre-spring is coming out. Now a little ahead of the times, but yes, and they are.

Alison Bruhn:

One of the things they're doing is brightly colored outerwear which is almost like a candy store, if you can picture those colors, sort of a medium light blue or a sort of not a hot pink but like a bubblegum pink. Yeah, different kinds of jackets in those kinds of colors. So that would be something that you could wear in like March and on into the summer, but certainly a way you're tired of your winter stuff but it's still chilly. So if you have a pretty, it's brighter than like a powder blue, but something like that would be. That's definitely going to be a trend.

Alison Bruhn:

And then preppy is going to be a trend, but it's less like what we think of preppy from when we were in high school and it sort of has more of an urban twist or like those movies like Brides Head Revisited or whatever those movies, whatever era and time that was, when they were Wallace Simpson or whatever they were wearing, like those polo, sort of short sleeved cashmere sweaters and twin sets and all that kind of stuff. Okay, that's going to kind of be in definitely for spring. And then there was something else I wrote down too, oh, bold stripes. So you know, stripes are synonymous with spring, but they're going to be some high contrasting stripes that everybody's showing. And then also one thing that I love too is like the sailor look, and some people are actually even doing the like the sailor. Um, uh, collar top stuff, I know, I know, but a lot of them are more like, you know, knit like fishing net, like sweaters and just cute little jackets, that kind of look, nautical, okay, something like that.

Alison Bruhn:

And then the main one that I think would resonate with a lot of us is do you know who Carolyn Bissette Kennedy was? Yeah, okay, so she's had a book come out about her lately and I guess it was the anniversary or she would be 60 now or there's something. But this year there's been a lot of talk about her and her style, and so a lot of the things they're showing now are things that they had inspiration from her and they are literally like a black pant or a black long skirt with that white button down shirt collar, maybe popped, of course, on the runway. They're showing it with like a black bikini underneath the white shirt. We wouldn't be doing that, but just, I think the theme is still like they're trying to get us out of those super. They want us to be comfortable. That's a comfortable look, that's you know the, but it's also a little bit tailored and a little bit uh, bringing back a little bit of chic.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, okay, and I liked her style. It was very clean, clean lines, you know, black cashmere turtleneck and a pair of black pants.

Alison Bruhn:

I mean it was very, very clean and to me.

Michele Folan:

That's simple. I know that's a simple way to dress. I kind of prefer that, and I wear too much black, I've been told. So I really do try to mix things up a little bit with some color, but gosh, it's just.

Alison Bruhn:

I know it's so easy. It really is, yeah.

Michele Folan:

How do you work with clients? So is it? You do in-person and virtual, depending where they are.

Alison Bruhn:

Right, I do that. And then now we have these courses that people can take. If you know how to send an email, you can take one of the courses. They're an online course but it's not like a one and done where. It's not like a course that would be the same for everyone. It brings it down to your unique needs and what your closet should look like and the colors for you and all the things that we do one-on-one, but it's in a digital course form.

Alison Bruhn:

And then now we have these packages. There's a three-month package and a six-month package that take women with me one-on-one, like we talked about through FaceTime or Zoom. If you're in Ohio or somewhere like that, like we talked about through FaceTime or Zoom, or if you're in New York or the surrounding areas, we do it in person, where we go from whatever the obstacles are that you're having in your life, to taking the three months to get the obstacles solved for you. So you have reached your goals and you know you can use your wardrobe to go on and reach your potential, really using getting to use your wardrobe as a tool for success.

Michele Folan:

Okay, I like that, and you and Delia won an award back in June. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Alison Bruhn:

We did. That was a big surprise. That was a huge surprise. I can't even describe how big of a surprise that was, because it's a big deal. The Fashion Group International has been around for a long time and its leaders in the fashion industry years ago they added it's like you know, the fashion designer of the year and all these different big award, lifetime achievement awards and all these kinds of things and they added in this award not too, not maybe two years ago, three years ago, maybe, even not that long. What was the first time?

Alison Bruhn:

For content creators, which we don't consider ourselves like influencers? What we do is, if we want people to know about a brand, if it's a brand that I'm recommending my clients to a lot, we know the brand, we really believe in the brand, we think it's great, then we will. On our Instagram and in our newsletters and things like that, we will talk about the brand, because if you're not working with me one-on-one, how would you know about the brand, that kind of thing. But we create a lot of content around just building confidence and anything we can think of to empower women. We create content around that help them whatever their needs are, and so it was for content creation and we got it.

Alison Bruhn:

Another woman that was up for it had started an online magazine, fashion magazine, and the other guy was I think he was a stylist too, but he was. I think he's more of an influencer too. I don't know, but you know, because we we just still don't even know how, how that happened. But anyway, when we got it, we kept looking at each other and they said go up, go up to the stage. So we were so honored and happy because everything that we do is really about enhancing women's lives and empowering them. So we felt like, well, if we're getting an award for it, obviously it's working, yeah that's really great Congratulations.

Michele Folan:

Thank you. That's a really great feather in your cap. This is primarily a health and wellness podcast, yeah, but I think that there's other aspects of life that kind of play into that wellness piece, and I think feeling good in your clothes and feeling good in your body and feeling confident is kind of part. It's under that same umbrella. So that's why I thought this conversation would be really fun to have today, absolutely.

Alison Bruhn:

Well, I was just going to say that most of us now we know how we're supposed to be eating and we really try and do our best about that as we age too, but still our bodies are changing and so, like you said, when you're doing all the right things you feel like, but you still don't feel like you look the way you would like to look, or whatever that takes a toll on you mentally, like what you're saying. And so I think that, yeah, it's not shallow, it's not vain, it is. You know, it's like everybody works so hard to make their houses look cozy and charming and everything. Well, half, not even half, the people are going to see your house that are going to see you if you're out in the world. You know so.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, and it's not shallow, I think it's um, it's a form of self-care and creativity.

Alison Bruhn:

Yeah, you know. Yeah, okay, yeah, we're on the same page there. I do want to ask you this is a little more of a personal question what is one of your core pillars of self-care? Doing well, because I'm an entrepreneur, but that's my goal for the end of 2024, but especially going into 2025.

Alison Bruhn:

Now I had, over time and because of what I went through the last few years, I had gained weight not just like three pounds, but probably 15 pounds or whatever, gradually, and so I've worked to get that down. And now the next part is being strong the core. And also I'm always trying to figure out the best things to eat, to put in my body and stuff like that. And also maybe this is something you can help with, like the supplements, like everyone is like oh, you need to be taking magnesium, you need this, you need that, you need this. And then I'm like well, how does anybody know? You know, is that going to mess up somebody's medicines they're taking, or will it have the opposite? I mean, that kind of stuff scares me in the wellness industry. Like, how are we going to figure all that out?

Michele Folan:

Yeah, that's a really great point to bring up. And there are certain things that I take, but my doctor knows what I take because I tell them every time I go and we look at if there's any drug-drug interactions with anything I'm taking and so, yeah, but that's a great point to bring up. So, yeah, good reminder for everybody listening Don't start taking stuff if you don't know how it might interact with something else you're taking. Right, Alison? Where can the listeners find the Style that Binds Us and you and your daughter?

Alison Bruhn:

Well, everything is on our website the Style that Binds Us. That's our hub. It talks about the courses. It talks about the other things services that we do. You can sign up for our event list if you're going to be in the New York area. We have blogs and newsletters and everything. Like I said, you can sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Instagram, facebook, linkedin the style that binds us. And then we also my daughter and I, both have our own individual Instagram feeds too. So we try. You can even find us on YouTube. I've done videos about how to wear a leather jacket over 50 or whatever. We just try and get as much information out there for women and we have a large reach because she's early thirties and I'm early sixties, so perfect, something there for you and your daughter or your daughter-in-law, yeah.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, no, that's great. I want to thank you, allison, for being on the show today. This was really a lot of fun, it's been great.

Alison Bruhn:

I've loved it. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for being here.

Michele Folan:

Hey, thanks for tuning in. Please rate and review the show where you listen to the podcast. And did you know that Asking for a Friend is available now to listen on YouTube? You can subscribe to the podcast there as well. Your support is appreciated and it helps others find the show. Thank you.