Your Style Rehabist Monika Nielsen wants you to know something: You get to show up to your life however you want. It’s your choice. You get to do you, your way.
Think about getting ready in the morning. You’ve just woken, changed out of your pajamas, maybe taken a shower. Standing in a towel or wearing nothing, searching for something to wear, picking through clothes that don’t fit anymore; this is a vulnerable moment that can lead to frustration, shame and grief. It’s a formula for starting the day feeling lousy.
Instead, Monika wants “you to walk out of the house feeling confident and fierce, ready to walk into any room and command the meeting, show up at the party, close the deal or make a new friend.”
She wants women to do this with the body and life that they have now. Not 15 years ago before kids, or once 10 pounds have been shed.
“I help people emotionally detach from unmet expectations,” Monika says. “We pull apart why, I help them walk through those feelings and help shed them. Then I usher my clients into a giving place where their best things get to become someone else's best things.”
She begins with physically going through her clients’ closets. They delineate clothes into categories: fit and feel good, no longer work, and can’t let go because they have an emotional connection to it.
“The closet is the place dreams go to die,” Monika says. The process of purging frees her clients not only of excess clothing, but more importantly, the burden of negative emotional connections.
Next, Monika helps her clients clarify and capsulate. They review their lifestyle needs and style, then shop their own closet to create easy outfits for the different occasions in their lives: work, date night, easy weekend, etc. She even creates room for the "grubbies," she just stores them out of sight, so they aren’t hiding the feel-great outfits.
Once her clients’ closets are minimized, Monika’s calls on her many years in retail to help her clients find the items that they still need. Monika is an uber-efficient shopper, weeding out all the marketing tricks retailers use to help her clients buy only what they really need. She calls it shopping with intention, "knowing what you need, where to find it, and avoiding the extras."
In addition to helping her clients, Monika is focused on helping the community. She works with local nonprofits like Dress for Success so that her clients can “transfer the blessing of clothes they no longer need onto someone who does.” She also likes to avoid fast fashion for the sake of the environment, and really tries to shop local, supporting women-owned boutiques in the area.
Pictured here are three local boutique owners that Monika works with to their best-dressed tips.
Amazing Lemons, Tamara Smith: It takes the same amount of time to throw on a cute top and jeans as it does to put on a ratty T and yoga pants. The right jeans can be just as comfortable too. @amazinglemonsboutique
Monika’s tip for denim shopping: Take your most honest friend with you, so you know what they really look like from behind. @monikanielsenysr
Jenna Jackson, JJChic: Little details matter. The french tuck on her slightly baggy shirt gives it shape, while the pleating at the top adds just enough detail to make it special. @shopjjchic
Kym Schnittker, Out West Chic: Accessories simplify getting ready, not complicate it. A simple white T-shirt with a fabulous necklace. Don’t have time for a full blow out? Pull your hair back and don a dangly set of earrings. @owc_boutique