On Saturday, I took a friend who I’ll call A. shopping to pick out an outfit she could wear to a wedding this week, at the behest of her boyfriend D.

Part one of the makeover story is here, and today I get on to the good bit: the shopping!

We spent most of a day going through A.’s wardrobe, talking about what she likes and dislikes and most importantly, buying pretty clothes.

I got to A.’s place a little after 9:30 on Saturday morning, so we’d have plenty of time to decide what we needed and look for it before the shops got too crowded.

A., her boyfriend D., Mr BQ and I sat down and had a coffee and a chat. Since we’re all good friends, it seemed right to start the day by relaxing a little.

Then we got down to business and had a look through A.’s closet, to see if there was anything there I could work with. As I said in part one, A. is a lot less interested in clothing than I am. Her wardrobe reflects that.

After a big rummage, I found exactly one garment that might be a possibility: a moss green satin top.

I also discovered that A. doesn’t seem to own any good basics. No plain skirts, no well-cut pants, no cute little jackets, no adorable shoes… really, nothing much but t-shirts, jeans and Doc Martens!

My next step was to come up with some great outfit ideas so I’d know what to look for in the stores, so I stood around thinking for a little bit. Everyone else seemed to think it was funny that I was concentrating so hard and all I was thinking about was clothes!

Once I had some ideas about what to look for, we said goodbye to D. and headed to the shops. I told A. she should bring the green satin top with us so she could try things on with it.

Next stop was Birkenhead Point, the biggest and best outlet mall in Sydney, which happens to be close to both A.’s house and mine.

We started at the Nine West outlet.

A. hates heels (she finds them too painful to wear) and has so few pairs of shoes that I wanted to find her something pretty and basic that she could wear almost anywhere. I pulled out all the black flats I could find in her size and pretty quickly we found some point-toed sling backs that looked adorable on her.

Her immediate reaction?

“My feet look like garden gnome heads.”

To her credit, she came around to the new idea of pointy-toed shoes pretty quickly and decided she actually liked them.

We asked the sales assistant hold them for her while we went looking for some clothes to wear with them.

We then headed upstairs to the David Jones outlet. (DJs is the closest Australia has to a Barney’s or a Harrod’s and their outlet often has lovely designer stuff for great prices.)

I concentrated on finding good quality basic black skirts because A. didn’t own anything like that. Initially, she didn’t like anything I picked out for her, but she agreed to try them on anyway when I promised I wouldn’t make her buy anything she didn’t like — all she had to do was try them on for one minute to prove they were as dreadful on her as she expected them to be (none of them were).

Out of the half-dozen skirts I picked out, one was excellent: a black wool trumpet-shaped skirt that’s mid-calf length with buttons along one side and a ribbon that ties at the waist. Best of all, it would look great with the shoes we had on hold at Nine West.

With two items picked out, I thought some more about what to add to create a wedding-appropriate outfit. While A. could have worn the green satin top in a pinch, it isn’t especially flattering and she doesn’t really like it, so we decided to have a look for something nicer. Also, it’s winter here so A. also needed a jacket or cover-up to keep her warm.

We wandered through Witchery because they’re usually great for cute little cardigans, but came out empty-handed.

I then decided Country Road might be worth a try, since they also do some nice knits. It was there that the highlight of the day happened: A. picked a gorgeous item that suited her perfectly all by herself!

While I was taking a quick look at skirts, A. went and looked at jackets. She came back with a stunning emerald green linen cropped jacket. She’d been skeptical enough about pointy shoes and knee-length skirts (both in black, her usual colour choice) that I assumed bright colours were an even bigger no-no. How wrong I was!

I was momentarily thrown because a beautiful bright green jacket hadn’t been part of my original plan — and it really clashed with the moss green satin top — but A. loved it and it looked great on her so I encouraged her to buy it.

We then had a lunch break and I reformulated my plans so A. could wear the wonderful new jacket to the wedding.

Immediately after lunch A. went back and bought both the pointy shoes and the cute black skirt she’d left on hold earlier in the morning, because they’re both items that work really well with the jacket.

The main ingredient that was missing was a top that would work under the jacket. After thinking about how they’d all look together, I realised there was only one choice: a black knit top with a deep V-neck and some detailing around the neckline.

Surprisingly, that very standard black top was actually the hardest thing to find all day!

In all, we went into ten stores looking for the elusive black top, and A. tried on heaps of different tops before we found the right one — but eventually we did.

We were all a bit shopped out, so I left A. with a homework assignment, picking out the accessories she still needed:

• a green necklace to fill in the neckline of the top
• a little black bag
• the right undergarments to go under the top

(Much as I love a makeover, I draw the line at picking my friends’ underwear for them!)

I gave her a list of places to go and look, and hopefully she’s picked something adorable to finish off the outfit.

She looked really thrilled with her new purchases and thanked me profusely for my help.

I was really happy because we succeeded in finding things she’s likely to be able to keep wearing, but the overall outfit is still wedding-appropriate.

The outfit is mostly black, but in my opinion the ‘no black at weddings’ rule can definitely be bent a little for habitual black wearers. Brightening up a smart new black outfit with a gorgeous bright jacket is enough to be respectful at a wedding — there’s no need to force pastel dresses upon bohemian types, ever!

A.’s boyfriend D. (the one who called me to ask for a makeover) was also very pleased with the outfit. When he got home that evening, he called to tell me what a great job I’d done.
Hooray for me! ;)

I’m now trying to get a photo of the results. I don’t usually take a camera for a day of girly shopping, so I missed out on the photo op. Darnit!

With any luck, I’ll have a pic to show you by the end of the week… fingers crossed.

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