Styled by Susie - anyone done it?

[Alanis41]

Hi all, I've been following the tribe group on Facebook for a while but just wondering if anyone here has tried it. I can't seem to get to the bottom of what they advise, seasons etc. Is there something similar closer to London. And she keeps advising chunky trainers, is this a thing now?

stopfundinghate I don’t disagree with you either. I don’t think anyone should be trolled, but there is no internet police and I just don’t think saying “but I only have a small following” is a defence against criticism. Because if you follow that line of argument a line has to be drawn and who is going to do it? In fact I think that as susie is running a for profit business she should be held to a higher standard than say influencers who don’t necessarily monetise every aspect of their internet presence (of course lots do). And... this is why tattle exists

@Oopsadaisydoddle
Thanks for sharing your story. It sounds like you’ve been through the ringer ... I genuinely sympathise. At least we both agree about treating people with respect and the fact that you don’t always know the inner story of why someone might be a certain size.

I genuinely recommend Red Leopards, if you are still seeking style advice. They work with all sizes and they are funny and quirky older women with good dress sense in my opinion.

I was very happy with their advice. They are more expensive, it’s true, but worth it and you can give feedback, if you are not happy with them. They don’t recommend high street brands but it does mean a focus on quality. I have far fewer clothes in my wardrobe but the cut and quality is good. Also, I still recommend trying to get some sort of refund from SBS. Why don’t you try? Then use that for Red Leopards?

I did go back to the admin via email, and got what I felt was a terse response that there is a lot of positive feedback from clients within the Facebook group and on the Facebook page, so they reject any criticism of the service. Their response was very dismissive

I am not on the FB site but from the impression I am getting is that there is no negative feed back because you aren’t allowed to leave it, might have got it wrong but that was something I didn’t understand

@Oopsadaisydoddle
They do an online service!! Have a look. They are three mature ladies and no white trainers advice anywhere 😀 They look at cut and colours. Straight talking. Might be worth following them for a while on Instagram and try and get the refund from SBS ;-) We can all do with a spruce up from time to time! And why not eh? Be kind to ourselves first!

@Oopsadaisydoddle

I also recommend this lady (Link below) but she only does colours, not clothes. She can do online consultations though and is super sweet,

kind and inclusive. All shapes, sizes welcome! Also there is a lot of free advice on YouTube. Good luck with sprucing and don’t let the negative experience with SBS put you off.
dressyourcolors.com/

Calling disgruntled customers trolls is just ramming her head in the sand. I appreciate that since the stylists have created a positivity vacuum that brokers no criticism of their poor service, that perhaps ‘discovering’ that not everyone is delighted by SBS might be a shock. Much like the shock I got when I opened the so-called ebooks and felt seriously misled about what I had purchased. I genuinely don’t want anyone sitting in the bath crying but equally I’m upset that a service I paid for delivered zip for me. I paid for the service, attempted to post on the Facebook group and got rejected (told there’s multiple similar posts, yet within 48 hours two other posts in the same vein were approved), then got a very cut and paste analysis with the low quality PDF ebooks, and when I complained, the response was dismissive.

Could SBS please google service quality, servqual etc and take some proactive steps to improve their business model? If it’s successful when delivered in a substandard way, imagine how successful it could be with improvements?

@Oopsadaisydoddle
Yeah, I get it. You don’t want to do another analysis after spending on the first one. You can follow the leopards for advice. They are FUNNY too so you have a few laughs, as well as style advice!

@Flowerpot1278

I thought I was an apple due to the mum tum (actually the tum way before I was a mum) but I’m an hourglass, and her tips for styles that suit that shape have knocked pounds off me. I had a hatred of skinny jeans but the pair she recommended really look great and again so flattering. I was skeptical id learn anything new, and maybe some don’t. I’d be way too scared of going in person to do a shop though and I’m not sure I’d want her choosing specific items for me as I seem to shop in different places to the ones she normally recommends, but the analysis is a bit more general than that, although there are some specifics. Also for a glasses analysis and again that was brill!

Would you mind letting me know which skinny jeans were recommended, please? I would like to try a good pair of skinny jeans.

• As I have been urging people since I started my business, please only comment if it’s kind. Please only message if it’s kind. Because we are living in a world where shaming people is the norm.

The answer isn’t to shut down social media, throw our phones in the bin or stop reading the news.

The answer is to be kind. Don’t send that message, don’t shame someone, don’t make their day worse. *

That’s from SBS blog - the answer also isn’t to ignore or block constructive criticism. The answer isn’t to provide a poor service and expect customers to suck it up so the stylist’s feelings aren’t hurt. It’s not kind to charge people (what is possibly a significant sum of money for their budget) and provide a couple of poorly written PDFs and copy and paste analysis’.

Another vote for Red Leopard. They post videos of them doing colours and you really see complexions light up. They do a bigger range of colour seasons and all have individual style.

I've just spent the past half hour or so browsing Red Leopard's Instagram and I am LOVING the videos with the colour drapes! For the first time I can see the difference and I'm actually guessing some of them correctly.

There’s a female comedian who Red Leopard follows and she is really funny. Nice to have a laugh while looking for style inspiration. I find the whole SBS tribe quite tense and full of drama.
The Leopards also show very precise videos of how they analyse colours so it does inspire confidence.

@Oopsadaisydoddle
Good for for making your own clothes!
I think you’re right about having an analysis in person - it’s probably better. I have heard good things about HoC. I think the most important thing is to find a stylist you relate to. I relate more to the leopards than to Susie for example. Keep looking and don’t forget the SBS refund!

I have had a HoC colour analysis and a style analysis.

The colour analysis was excellent. She really demonstrated which colours worked on me. She did the “warm or cool” “clear or muted” delayering much like those on the red leopard Instagram which helped me see it.

This was about 10 years ago so things may have changed, but I got a swatch wallet with all my colours in and a booklet that explained my season in words and gave colour combo advice and makeup advice. Once she’d decided and shown me I was an autumn she then redraped me in every colour in my swatch wallet and rated them all for me with me and my friend’s help (who also got her colours done on the same day). I was completely sceptical before I went, but now I’m a bit of a weirdo because I love talking about colour analysis and my swatch wallet is one of my favourite possessions

Style analysis was more recently but probably still about 7-8 years ago maybe? It was not as good as the colour analysis imo. In part I think because they still use body shape to assign style and also because most HoC consultants are of a certain type that doesn’t wear the same sort of style as 25 year old me at the time!!

However, I do think she got my style correct. I am a natural ingenue. It explains why in a suit or blazer I look like a wally, and similarly I don’t suit “sexy” clothes or a cleavage and so on. I do struggle to follow the advice though whilst still being fashionable. Especially when current trends are quite minimalistic or edging towards masculine.

Basically I’d defo recommend the colour analysis. With the style analysis I’d say do more research maybe? Look at other services as well as HoC, and look at kibbe body types etc online.

Also thank you for the red leopard Instagram recommendation! Really enjoying watching the draping!

@Oopsadaisydoddle and I saw SBS say Kate Middleton is a winter when Red Leopard said she is a summer and explained why.

The insta videos of red leopard draping are rather addictive to watch

Thanks for the Red Leopard recommendation. I'm going down an Instagram rabbit hole as we speak. They seem to know what they are talking about.