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?

Yeah but they're all obsessed with 2 specific styles of Puma white trainers which you never see mentioned on MN. Never seen a mention of stan smiths, golden goose, air and grace, supergas, converse, AF1s, disruptors etc on the group!

Mixed feelings here. She has obviously made a lot of women feel more confident and good about themselves which is a great thing. However, I don’t think she and her stylists always get it right when they do an analysis. They seem to say that the majority of women are hourglasses (and when they post photos of themselves on their new clothes, it is plainly obvious that they are not that shape) and sometimes they get the colour season blatantly wrong too which is shit for those women as they are then going around wearing colours that don’t flatter them because they are following what they have been told to do.

I also think that the censorship on the Facebook page is too much and inconsistent. Like the person who was warned not to talk about teeth whitening - well ok, but in that case why did they spend last summer pushing fake tan? Dying your skin to be a different colour isn’t really any different to lightening your teeth so why is one acceptable to talk about but one isn’t? Bright lipsticks can really draw attention to your teeth which can make you feel bad if they’re not white, so it’s a good question to ask.

Their body positivity is skewed too. I am all for embracing every shape and size. But members aren’t allowed to refer to themselves as fat/large/chunky etc. That’s NOT body positive - if you are fat/large/chunky/whatever, you should be allowed to describe yourself as such and not allowing people to do that suggests that those words and body types have negative connotations. They don’t and they shouldn’t. It’s similar to when a fat person says they’re fat and someone says “ooooh, you’re not” or “but you’re so pretty”. Well...yes. The two things are not mutually exclusive. It winds me up. I think it’s good that they only allow positivity, but they really do need to think about that message.

The confusion about what body positivity actually means does annoy me. For example, Three years ago I lost nearly 6 stone. That type of weight loss does not leave your body unscathed, and I need/want to dress for that. But my analysis raves about my teeny waist and flat tummy, and that’s just a denial of my lived experience. I’m ok with my body I’d rather acknowledge the practical issues I have than deny them. And even worse, be corrected and denied a voice by someone I paid for advice from. For me, to proscribe the use of words like ‘fat’ is insulting and undermining and selective, because it presumes that ‘not-fat’ is the preferable, positive and desired state.

Yes, exactly that Ilovecherries.

I received an analysis and it is, in parts helpful and I’m glad I got it done. However, I found it condescending the way that it didn’t acknowledge the issues that I KNOW I have with dressing certain parts of my body. It’s all very well saying to follow the advice for an hourglass (or whatever shape they have said you are), but that doesn’t mean that you won’t have limitations that other hourglasses won’t have. Belting stuff often just emphasises that my waist is a bit thick these days - thy r tricked don’t work for everyone of that shape.

A woman has just posted an outfit pic on the group (she looks bloody gorgeous in it and I am absolutely not criticising her) and mentioned that she has been analyses as an hourglass. She is not! She very clearly has an extremely thin straight up and down body shape (rectangle? Is that what they call it?) It is obvious. Yes she has been told she is something she’s not. Which doesn’t matter for her as she’s still choosing clothes that look stunning on her, but would be very unhelpful if she didn’t have the eye to do that herself.

I'm starting to doubt my SBS colours now....
But I really can't fathom any of the online DIY tools or YouTube videos either (I trult don't know which kind of green/brown my eyes are and it matters as it dictates the season and likewise for pink / golden undertones on skin) hence why I did SBS. But it said I'm a summer and I hate pastels....

Firecracker I'm a summer and hate pastels too. I used to think I'm a winter as I have brown hair and blue/grey eyes but the bright jewel colours of Winter are too harsh.

I think if you look at House of Colour there are variations within each season which make more sense sofischoice.me/tag/autumn-type/ helps explain it

Made much more sense to me when I found it

I think it's probably not possible to accurately diagnose someones season from a photograph. People use fake tan and lighting can affect what an image looks like.
I agree with @ilovecherries that I didn't find the analysis about my body shape particularly truthful - it was full of compliments but didn't address the issues I had expressed concern about at all which was the whole reason for me getting an analysis in the first place.

Firecracker there are more colours in the Summer palette than pastels. You can wear anything muted and cool.

I’m not sure how susie explains the seasonal colour analysis but a lot of the Facebook group seem to think summer = pastels and spring = bright colours and so on. Obviously that’s not the case at all but it does seem to result in a lot of posters not seeming to understand what colours are in their season.

It also doesn’t help that a few of the stylists wear colours that aren’t in their season, but won’t mention it isn’t in their season when other members ask. They just wear hot pink and tell people they’re an autumn (fictional example!) so all the autumns go out and buy hot pink! Indeed there have been lipstick colours shared by a stylist for a particular season that are very obviously not suitable for that season.

Of course you don’t need to religiously follow your season but to someone new to colour analysis I think some clear explanations and consistency would be good.

I haven’t even touched on analysing people from photos on a computer screen and how unreliable that will be!!

My advice if you are interested in having it done properly is to go to House of Colour or somewhere else official.

I have seen the post/pic you mention @Broadwayb and thought exactly the same thing - clearly not a hourglass and I really don't see how anyone who calls themselves a stylist could possibly get that so wrong.
I think something which genuinely started with the ethos of empowering women, giving them confidence and showing them only positivity has become a "stack'em high, sell'em cheap" type service which is of poor quality, provided by unqualified and unskilled people and censored to the extreme (which is never a healthy sign). It's more #greed than #kind.

Clueless Emily Innes their stylist up north regularly wears colours not in her Spring palette and just echoes what Susie says that cut is more importnsbr than colour so it's ok. And most of all if you like it and feel fabulous you should wear it whatever it looks like- which makes me wonder what the point of analysis is...? 🤷‍♀️

TrashPandaTime I agree with you, I don't see that colour analysis can be done by photo. I'm an anemone summer (HoC) but on paper could pass as an autumn....green eyes, freckles, brunette with red tones in my hair.

It's important to remember that even within your season not all of the colours are your best ones. House of Colour give ratings for each colour in terms of which ones suit you best worn 100% head to toe (these are your wow colours), 75%, 50% and 25%. So a cotton ball summer could look amazing head to foot in pastels, but a deeper summer (like me) won't. Pastels suit me but are better as accessories like a pashmina or top rather than all over.

The summer colours are so much more than pastels. We have deep sea greens, jade, amethyst, grape, french navy, burgundy, smokey greys, raspberry, rose......very pretty, but blue based, soft and muted. That said, some colours have real depth and a vibrancy, just softened a little compared to the striking-ness of winter and spring colours.

To be honest I’m someone who has always had my own way of dressing the thought if someone telling me what to like annoys me . Any sort of en masse styling advice leaves me cold .
I’m also curious that some of these stylists that have been appointed are just people Susie styled at some point some of whom clearly don’ t have any discernible style of their own, there is more inspiration on non monetized instagram pages . The only reason Susie can wear what she likes is because she’s a clothes horse because she’s so slim . Just all a bit meh to be honest .

Also if you have a business it’s part and parcel to have criticism it can’t all be be kind and positivity .

I was happy with my analysis and think that some information is going to apply to multiple people so don't see duplication of advice as a bad thing. However I think there should be room for constructive criticism of the service and also fb posts.

The PDFs use copyrighted images taken from the internet. I hope she’s paid the licensing fees to Getty’s etc. There’s no image credits. The PDFs need a rewrite.

My friend submitted a post to the FB group which got denied ‘for duplication’. Yet within the next fortnight, two posts very much the same wording / theme got approved. The moderation feels inconsistent and heavy handed.

If a customer says, I have fat thighs, acknowledge it - don’t ignore it, but suggest methods of disguise

The PDFs use copyrighted images taken from the internet. I hope she’s paid the licensing fees to Getty’s etc.

This is ironic because recently susie mentioned how she has trademarked the phrase "basic bitches", and then got all up in arms when members started linking things like a hoody from pretty little thing with basic bitch written on it. I guess she doesn't understand copyright 😬

'Basic Bitches' is the most infantile phrase.

I missed the post about basic bitches. She didn't get the feminist memo about the word 'bitches' I guess 😀

I think the comments on here are being taken on board though even though it won't be acknowledged.

It's been very quiet on the Instagram stories today and the few things that have been posted by the Scottish one her hair and make up have been done.

Having had an analysis and an online shop I do think parts of it are good. However the faux nicey nice of the fb group is really getting on my nerves. It’s all starting to be the same posts, and no one can post anything that is even slightly constructive. Which basically makes it censorship.

My analysis was excellent but online shop really really underwhelming if I’m honest so I’m relieved I didn’t go for a personal shop.

But they said, all these new stylists are exactly the same price as Susie. Now granted Susie has been doing this a while and is in Bluewater most days and knows what’s in the shops.

I am sorry, but I am not paying the exact same price - £150 - for someone she’s just hired who doesn’t have Susie’s experience! It doesn’t work like that. People are paying for a service and if you get someone not as experienced, you should pay an adjusted rate.

The falseness and schmaltzyness of the group has really started to put me off it

I suppose susie will get a big % off the £150 the other stylists charge as well though, if people are paying her £150 a shop and she's making say £50 off every shop her stylists do she'll be laughing all the way to the bank. It's a fantastic business idea. I managed to buy a online analysis the first time I tried so was a bit sceptical about how much is said about them selling out quickly. It seems to create more demand by having everyone thinking it's a fight to get the spots every week.

I agree that it's a great business model and Susie will be charging the stylist for using her brand and good for her! She said in an article that she only has to work 4 days a week and for someone who didn't do so well at school and academically, she's certainly doing well now. Again, good for her. However, she needs to ensure the brand stays on track. I doubt she's reading these comments but if her PR person is a professional, she'll be reading and taking it on board. Susie comes across as quite fragile, mental health wise so she's probably best off avoiding negative comments. The PR person is paid for that so let her analyse and filter. Oh and if the PR person is watching, look into the concept of customer FEEDBACK and allow it. Maybe to avoid triggering Susie, the PR person could collect feedback and collate data. But shutting it down as not kind, is not viable for a customer-eccentric business.

The Scottish one is stunning and has great style. Who wants to see her rubbing her eyes, no make-up, spots and unwashed hair, looking like she can't be bothered. It doesn't look professional. She can still keep it real though, just more presentable. She's working in the field of personal style and image after all!!

I meant customer-centric 😜

I don’t think it would be professional to present for any job in your dressing gown, make up free, unwashed hair, chewing gum etc

I agree mabelmoo much like you don’t pay the same for a junior stylist as you would a salon owner