"Buy prairie boots!"

NCR Handelsblad – 4th January 2004

There are certain problems that you shouldn't have more than once a month, then it's certainly time to act. For example, to stand in front of your overfull wardrobe not knowing what to wear. And to whine about that endlessly. Or worse: to suffer in silence. To buy new clothes then take them to a recycling depot within a week, in discrete garbage bags - making the neighbours think you have a drinking problem, because they also take empty bottles there. Then something's got to happen, especially in January. New Year's resolution 2004: to ensure that I never not know what to wear anymore.

Of course, you can have your colours analyzed. Or hire a personal shopper who accompanies you to a store. But because its a new year, everything has to be set right for once and for all. So the only thing one can do is go to London for an Image-Profiling session with Sarah Whittaker. She also looks at what colours suit you best and what clothing is good for your body shape, but more importantly: she analyzes your personality and categorizes you as one of 35 style types - they're like archetypes for clothing - so that after that you will know what to wear for the rest of your life.

It's pure clothing therapy. And no one needs to know.

Sarah Whittaker (34) lives in the Notting Hill area of London, well known since the film, but she grew up in Brussels where her father worked for an international company. She was in business herself for a couple of years: among other things, she managed accounts for IT firms, her largest deal was about twenty million pounds. But one day, you probably guessed, she drove around in her flash car and thought: what am I doing? She remembered an old love. "I always wanted to be a fashion designer, I used to make my own clothes in school. But at my final exams, I was so nervous that I couldn't do anything - I just froze. So I decided to study economics and marketing, although I hated economics." But she is good at managing client relationships, and that is something she can use now.

Sarah quit her job and started her own clothing advice bureau, Inside Out. As she advised more and more people, she gradually developed her collection of style types. Although they had never known before, her clients suddenly and to their satisfaction appear to be a 'Princess', a 'Vamp', or an 'Aristocrat', profiles in which they recognize themselves and that have certain types of clothes to go with them.

And not only her clients are categorized with great precision. From the bright pink bean bag in her living room, Sarah constantly juggles around with names of film stars, supermodels and politicians, with analyses of their clothing, to clarify her style types.

"Elle Mc Pherson, you know, the model, is a Siren", she says for example. "Those are the nymphs in mythology, they allured men to them who then disappeared forever. Sirens enchant people without knowing it - or so they say. 'I was only talking to him!', they say. But if you confront them, they will finally admit. A friend of me is like that, she never does anything, but if you look at her she is in full Siren-mode. She really enchants people. She's like a mermaid, like water. Sirens have a very soothing, soft presence, but you can't get a grip on them." And indeed: Sirens wear elegant clothes in soft, supple textiles, full of movement and subtle details.

Of course, Sarah doesn't know the stars personally, and just like for a psychologist it can be hard for her to judge them from a distance. She noticed immediately that Hugh Grant was an Aristocrat. "Refined, well-educated, well-bred, always a jacket or a good shirt. He's very royal, in Love Actually he played the prime minister and that was very convincing." But it was more difficult to categorize Nicole Kidman: "Originally, I had two or three style types in my mind for her, but I couldn't figure it out. For some reason she can wear black, which doesn't fit her colour palette." Half a year before the film came out, she made a note: Moulin Rouge." I had just visited a shop where they had those little laced boots and long skirts with ruches. It is that naughtiness, she is soft and innocent, but underneath she is hard, seducing like the girls in Paris. And that is why she can wear black. So when Moulin Rouge came out, I instantly said: yes, that's it! Nicole Kidman is a Parisienne!"

It is more easy to categorize a client. They mostly come to see her at home. There she talks with them about their character, their clothes, and mostly about the way they were as a child, the things they liked to do then - Sarah is convinced that that is the period of your life when you are completely yourself, unspoilt by the demands of society.

Because she has seen so may people, she has categorized her clients before they notice. She prefers to take her time - and then, a profiling session feels like a crossover between a vocational guidance consultant and a psychoanalytic session - but she can do it in ten minutes if necessary. "Men are often very easy", she says. "They only want to know what they have to buy. Last week I had two men who both spent five, six grand in four hours on clothes that I had pre-selected for them. Three coats, four pairs of trousers, five shirts, I think one of them bought three suits. 'Just analyse me, they say, and I do not need to tell them my analysis. Although I like to do that, and I think it is important."

For Sarah's philosophy is that people can judge you better and react more adequately when they see on the outside what you are like on the inside. It saves you the energy to play certain roles. Many women, for instance, seem to decide in the morning whether they go to work as a schoolgirl or as a vamp. After they have seen Sarah, they do not need to dress up like that anymore, because someone either is a Vamp or she isn't, and if a schoolgirl wears Vamp clothes it is very confusing and uneasy for everybody. The women herself doesn't feel comfortable in her clothes, and the people around her notice that she is not a real Vamp anyway, but they do not immediately see what she is instead. "People will only think that a girl like that is assertive if she can be at ease, be herself, not somebody else. That is what is meant by authority dressing." And if you dress in clothes that are compatible with your style type, you will start looking in the mirror a lot, Sarah warns. "And yes, you will like that."

The difference between girl and vamp has a lot to do with the maturity of someone's energy. It is one of the first things Sarah looks at: a women is a Maiden, a Matriarch or a Seer. "The Maidens are those who still look like ten when they are fifty, like Mia Farrow or Audrey Hepburn", see explains. "They are the fairies and pixies in mythology. You can tell by their smile and something in their eyes, they have that 'let's go and play'-energy." The Matriarchs are different. "They seem to be grown-up since they were six. They are the mothers. They can have something of the critical parent. Maybe you have friends who tell you how to do things when you haven't asked them anything, they just tell you: no, you should do it this way. So you feel like you're out with your mother. Matriarchs also run the world, it's easy for them because they are grown up. And the Seers, the last type, they are wise, they know everything. Seen everything, done everything. They are the Queen Bees, like Grace Jones. They don't run the world, like the Matriarchs, they run their own worlds. They live on another planet, they can be quite unapproachable."

Sarah tells about her archetypes as if they are real people that she knows well, who live in the French institute of unities where they keep the Metre and the Kilo, or like Greek Gods on a mountaintop. There are Seers that no one dares to talk with. There are Matriarchs who own land and like to go hunting. There are Maidens who stamp their feet in shops in order to get what they want. But there are also Maidens who are very quiet. "You, for example, are a Prairie Girl."

There you go. I am a Prairie Girl. And what type of girl might she be? Of course, Sarah knows her very well, better than I do at the moment. She appears to be a girl of about eleven, twelve years old, quiet and calm, often with blond hair, tousled by the wind, because she is outside a lot. Not like Meg Ryan, she is more tomboyish, the prairie girl is more feminine, Sarah explains. "She got something of the damsel in herself, a girl just before puberty. No, not the damsel in distress - although the Prairie Girl often does get offered help without having asked for. Another client, also a Prairie, always gets extra meat at the butcher's, although she is really a lady. People also save bags full of second hand clothes for her. But the damsel in distress, that's more like Sarah Jessica Parker, a typical Baby Doll: little shoes and heels and fifties clothes. Like a little girl that's all dressed-up: oh, look at me!"

And who are well-known Prairies, like me? "Well, Cameron Diaz, for example. And Jodie Foster, Jodie Kidd, Katie Holmes..."

But I don't hear those anymore. For years, I have had to bribe my male friends with home-cooked meals in order to have them say that I look like Cameron Diaz, and it only works when she plays a clumsy blonde, like in Charlie's Angels. And here is someone who offers it almost free. I instantly grow into my Prairiegirlhood. What can I wear with it? Sarah knows exactly. "Longer skirts, they look good on the Prairie". With boots, for example. Or shorter skirts, but not too tight. Prairies like to wear natural textiles. Layers. And it has to be soft, touchy-feely. Corduroy, cotton, wool. Everything you wear has to feel as if you can run through the fields in it. Not on a muddy day, of course."

It all sounds good. The biggest shock is that I cannot wear black anymore. That's a no, "a black cloud on a spring day". Well, if you state it that way, I don't want to wear black anymore. And I should wear gold, but I haven't got it, I used to wear silver. But that's something I probably should just tell my husband.

When I go outside, the world is my Prairie. Especially London's clothing stores. At first I feel like saying "Hello, I'm a Prairie Girl, what should I wear?", but more quickly than my credit card allows, expensive bags filled with corduroy skirts, cheery wools and prairie boots appear on both of my arms. "Now I understand that you were bored with your old clothes", my shopping friend tells me in a cheery voice when I step out of a fitting room in another prairie suit. And at home my husband asks how I managed to get a tan in London. For I look so healthy. Or did I do something to my hair? No, just new clothes.

And then there is a comprehensive personal Prairie Profile to help me adhere to my resolution. Sarah sent me three A4-pages in an 8pt typeface with all imaginable information about what suits me best: textiles, prints, patterns, make-up, bags and jewels. A portrait in clothes. And it looks alike. There's only one sad correction on what she told me in London: gold may still be better than silver, but wooden beads are actually best, for the Prairie Girl. I think I will have to keep that to myself.

Contact Sarah for more info or to book a consultation