Join a new community of women entrepreneurs

I (Simonne) am very excited about a trip to Guildford on Tuesday 19th November to speak at an event with the Hub Dot. It would be great if you could join us.

Connecting through Children
A coffee morning unlike anything you’ve seen before

Tuesday 19th November
9.30am PROMPT ‘til 11.30am
at Anthropologie,
149 High Street Guildford,GU1 3AD

Tickets are £10 and must be purchased in advance.

I connected with Simona Barbieri, the founder of The Hub Dot through a client of mine and felt an immediate resonance with her and the refreshing approach of her concept. We felt a synergy - both of us coming from, what she described as, a 'soulful business’ perspective.

Simona started the Hub Dot last year when she was looking for a new approach to networking where women could come together and support each other and, most importantly, meet for real, rather than in an online environment. So she sent out an email to friends, family and colleagues inviting them to her house for an informal coffee morning.
To help people engage with each other, she created the concept of wearing coloured dots, denoting not who you are but how you would like to engage. 
For example, a red dot means “I’m established – whether in business, career or motherhood – please feel free to ask more”; a yellow dot means “I have an idea, can anyone help”. By wearing any combination of five coloured dots, participants had an easy way in to conversations without anyone labeled or categorised.
The first event was a phenomenal success and since then Hub Dot has snowballed into an international community of inspiring businesswomen, with regular events in London and Naples and more planned for other major cities. 
Events are of very different shapes and sizes, but all use the same formula of the coloured dots and a range of speakers, who speak for just a few minutes – not selling their brand but sharing their stories with honesty and integrity and a great sense of fun.
I’m delighted to be able to be a part of it, and if you’re in the Guildford area next Tuesday please register to join us:
Tickets are £10 and must bepurchased in advance.
If you’re not, do check out the films on the Hub Dot website for a taste of these upbeat and uplifting occasions.
Thanks. Simonne Gnessen  Simonne@financial-coaching.co.uk

Is clothes shopping a costly mechanism for maintaining self-esteem?

     Remember the first time you went out and bought yourself something to wear? With your own money and without your mum in tow? For many people this was a rite of passage from childhood to  adolescence. The time when possessions started to act as an extension of the self. When the clothes we wore were critical to the development of our identity. It's no coincidence that materialism peaks at mid-adolescence, just when self-esteem starts to take a bit of a dip. And fashion psychology tells us that, for many, clothes shopping becomes a lifelong (and costly) mechanism for maintaining a reasonable level of self-esteem.

     In the course of a lifetime it’s estimated that women in the western world shell out an average of £84,000 (or $107,000) on clothes. If a woman’s clothes shopping years extend roughly from age 16 up to 86 years (although more is spent in the younger than the older years) that’s 70 years, or 3640 weeks, of clothes-buying. And that works out at £23.07 per week. Every single week. It’s a frightening sum. And yet:

• A survey I carried out revealed that 82% of people have at least one item in their wardrobe that they have never ever worn. 
• I also found that one in ten people have at least ten unworn items still with the label on.
• A US survey reported on EliteDaily.com said that 60% of women say they still struggle to find something they want to wear to work or on a night out. 

     Contrast this with Marie Curie, who got married in her navy dress and wore it every single day afterwards, because it wouldn’t show the stains from working in the lab.  Nowadays many women put effort into finding the perfect garment to solve her current wardrobe crisis. Or  current emotional crisis. And many modern woman are seduced into believing that each season must herald in at least one new dress, jacket, coat and pair of trousers. 

    But the secret of dressing well may lie in wearing what you’ve already got in your wardrobe. Reinterpreting those clothes in a stylish and individual way, without needing to add another item. In fact, having more clothes simply adds to the confusion and dilemma of dressing by creating option overload. And buying more simply leads to hedonic adaptation, as I have written about in an earlier fashion psychology blog.  

     Researchers know that our brains encode perceptual information in predictable ways. The brain groups together items that are similar and categorises each new experience according to how alike it is to a previous one. It is wired for sameness, so no wonder novelty feels so exciting. That's why simple changes like going a different way to work, rearranging the furniture or trying a new type of food can give the brain a stimulating prod, diverting it from the old well-trodden path and sending it down a new, excitingly different, pathway. 

     So next time you're tempted to make a 'quick fix' purchase take a step back. Ask yourself if you actually need something new. Or if just need some novelty, to give the sartorial part of your brain a jolt. If so, why not try the following with the clothes you already possess?

• Mix unexpected fabrics and styles to create exciting contrasts; leather with chiffon, tweed and taffeta.
• Forget dainty heels and mix the prettiness of a frock with socks and flat boots.
• Soften the hard edges of leather by pairing a biker jacket with vintage lace or cashmere.
• Try layering or mixing garments in unusual combinations. Wear one dress over another, layer two or more t-shirts, wear a vintage bra over a vest-top or a petticoat over a skirt.
• Men’s clothes are often better tailored than women's; try a man’s jacket belted with a vintage brooch for a cool style. Or turn a large cotton man’s shirt into a shirt dress by elasticating the waist.
• Reverse clothes, wear them upside down or inside out for a new quirky take on an old garment you’re bored with. Rip off and replace the buttons or tie dye the fabric.
• Don't wear things in the way they were intended. A belt can be worn as a necklace. A table cloth transforms into a quirky wrap-around skirt. I have a scarf that’s actually the sleeve of a man’s jacket complete with paisley lining. The friend who made it also makes skirts by sewing lots of men’s patterned ties together. Sleeves sewn together can add up to a funky and unique skirt.

Upcycled outfit by Asli Jackson

• Don't throw out old jumpers, use the sleeves to make cuffs, fingerless gloves or leg-warmers. 
• Revive old trousers as shorts to be worn over funky tights, or unpick the seams and turn into a skirt.
• Cut slashes in an old woollen jumper, hot wash it to seal the edges and create a lacy effect, wear over a contrasting colour t-shirt.
• Take inspiration from artists, like Anu Tuominen who makes bunches of woolly gloves into a shawl, or a scarf from dozens of mis-matching colourful woollen socks.
• Look out for workwear or old military or naval uniforms and make the most of their durable fabrics and stark simplicity.
• Break every colour-matching rule. You will inject energy into any outfit if you STOP MATCHING EVERYTHING.
• Look for recycled fashion labels like TRAIDremade who make an art and a business out of upcycling and transforming old garments into new.
• Or From Somewhere who rescue discarded fabrics from the dustbins and floors of fashion rooms and turn them into beautiful clothes.

     It is sad to think that billions of tons of unwanted clothes get thrown away every year. And that millions of pounds worth of debts are racked up every year through people buying clothes they don't need with money they don't have. 
     So instead of shopping for new clothes why not use some of these creative ideas to save money and work on developing an individual style from the clothes under your nose.  Make your wardrobe work for you, instead of you working for your wardrobe.

When money has a male face

When Winston Churchill was accused of being drunk by Bessie Braddock he is alleged to have replied,  “And you, Bessie, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning, and you will still be ugly”.

What a charmer. I bet Bessie wasn’t one of Winston’s greatest fans. Nor, were she still alive, would be Elizabeth Fry. For as the only female historical figure to feature on an English banknote, she has just been bumped off the £5 note by the former PM.

Quick quiz then. Do you know which leading figures feature on the following English bank notes?

1. The £10 note

2. The £20 note

3. The £50 note (old style)

4. The £50 note (new style)

Scroll down for the answers*.

Currently the £5 pound note depicts Elizabeth Fry reading to prisoners in Newgate Prison. From 2016 she will be replaced by Winston Churchill, giving every note a male face.

Feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez has attacked the Bank of England for failing to eliminate gender discrimination under the Equalities act. Her solicitors have written to the Bank threatening court action and they have two weeks in which to respond. It’ll be interesting to see how they wiggle out of this.

Is this further confirmation that the money world is dominated by men? 

Which female figure would you like to see on an English bank note? I'm sure Maggie Thatcher might prove a popular though controversial figure, and I think Blue Peter presenter Valerie Singleton is a strong contender. 

*

The £10 note shows Charles Darwin, a hummingbird and HMS Beagle

The £20 note has Adam Smith, with an illustration of 'The division of labour in pin manufacturing'

The old style £50 notes feature Sir John Houblon and his house in Threadneedle Street. The new style £50 notes show Matthew Boulton and James Watt, with steam engine and Boulton's Soho.