10 essentials to style

My daughter, an aspiring fashion stylist, was watching Tim Gunn's new reality TV show, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, the other day and yelled at me to come and "check it out". "It's you", she said.

For those of you who don't know, Tim Gunn is the fashion guru from Project Runway, who loves to say "Make it work" and uses a lot of big words, which nobody knows what they mean. Anyway, on his new show, he goes to women's houses and "makes them over" by throwing out all their clothes and sending them off to shop for his 10 essential pieces.

On the episode we watched, the woman was a mom of two kids (I'm a mom of 2 kids). She was 5'3" (I'm 5' 4"). She only wore T-shirts and capris and jeans when it was winter (I only wear T-shirts, capris and jeans) She basically only wore solid colors (I usually only wear solid colors) Well, Tim Gunn made her throw out all of her clothes! He was horrified at all her capris (especially the cargo style, which are my favorites!) and said tsk, tsk tsk. He said they made her look shorter and heavier.

He proceeded to tell her to go shopping for his 10 essentials. Here's his list with my comments:

1. The black dress (mine would be covered in cat hair)

2. The trench coat (I'd feel like a private eye in one of those!)

3. Classic dress pants (of course these would be worn with heels, so I'm not going to do that)

4. White blouse (who will iron this for me?)

5. Jeans (I'm OK with this one!)

6. Cashmere sweater (I don't really like sweaters, too itchy!)

7. Skirt (can you see me mopping the floor and cleaning the bathroom in a skirt?)

8. Blazer (too constricting!)

9. Day dress (perfect for a soccer game? I don't think so)

10. Sweat suit alternative (I don't really wear sweat suits, so my alternative would be...you guessed it - CAPRIS!)