Ladies, when you really tune into your style, fashion—from accessories to mix-and-match pieces to full-blown night-on-the-town ensembles—can be mega fun. In my humble opinion, when we follow a particular trend or attempt to look just like our favorite Instagram influencers, that’s when our wardrobe woes start to really stress us the heck out. Here’s a challenge for you: Spend a Saturday morning going through your closet, and donate anything that doesn’t feel very you. If you didn’t wear that high-waisted bikini this summer, you’re probably not going to wear it next summer either, and that’s A-OK!
WOMEN IN NUMBERS: 2 and 1/2 Hours
For me, part of the outfit-assembly agony involves that guilt of wishing I liked certain pieces but always falling back on my old standbys. Eliminating that stressor might save a ton of time. And, gals, as we all know, we spend way too much time trying to figure out what to wear. In fact, on average, women spend about two and a half hours every single week thinking about our wardrobes. That’s more than we spend talking on the phone, exercising and even emailing!
WOMAN TO WATCH: Whitney Casey, Founder of Finery.com
While our clothing styles have changed and our closets have pretty much tripled in size in the past 100 years or so, most of us kind of go about dressing the same way: We don’t take the time to plan, and instead, fret about putting together the perfect outfit, then frantically spend 20 minutes we don’t have flinging items from the front of the closet to the back until we get so fed up, we simply decide on an ill-fitting get-up we never even liked.
That’s why today’s Woman to Watch, Whitney Casey, is employing a little clever finesse to combine fashion and tech in a new, thoughtful and incredibly helpful way. Her new fashion-focused biz, Finery, is a total lifesaver for women. Known as the Wardrobe Operating System, Finery automates users’ wardrobes in an anyone-can-do-this kind of way. With functions that help users with clothing organization, styling, shopping and access—all through its simple web platform—Finery creates your personalized digital wardrobe by scanning your email receipts to locate info and images of every item you’ve purchased, making it all fully automated in one place. Yep, it’s fashion’s most fashionable new accessory!
Finery definitely solves a problem for a lot of women, but it’s so much more than a simple techie tool. Finery not only collates your present and future purchases, but it also adds your last decade of style buys and pings you with notifications about returns and sales so you don’t miss a fantastic deal on that designer dress you’ve been lusting after all season!
Obviously, Whitney is quite the fashionista, an attribute she refined while working as an Emmy Award-winning—and always well-dressed—news anchor for CNN and ABC News, and as a newspaper columnist and media specialist for match.com. Whitney’s stellar career experiences definitely helped contribute to her indomitable vigor for creating something truly innovative in Finery.
Despite her career cred, one challenge Whitney faced when getting Finery up and running was pitching the idea, not because the concept wasn’t brilliant, but because it was nearly always just men occupying the boardrooms she pitched to—not necessarily the key demographic that would latch on to her amazing fashion-tech idea. But this ambitious gal never gave up, and with some savvy entrepreneurial skills, took on the male-dominated tech and venture-capital realms and launched Finery with confidence, pizazz and obviously, a whole lot of style!
QUITE THE QUOTE
Regardless of your style preferences, if your wardrobe is 100 percent you, there’s no going wrong. As actress and style icon Emma Stone said:
“I can’t think of any better representation of beauty than someone who is unafraid to be herself.”
This is Melinda Garvey signing off until next time. Remember, ladies, empowered women empower other women. Share On the Dot so more women can have a voice. Thanks for getting ready with us.
To learn more about our conversation, check us out at OnTheDotWoman.com and talk to us @OnTheDotWoman on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear your voice.