Class Review: Style & Styleability

I’ve been working at my current job for almost a year now. One of the biggest things I was looking forward to/dreading was the change in dress code. In my last office, we were super casual. I tried to look decent since I was the first person people saw when they walked in. But there were definitely days with basketball shorts and sweatpants being worn by some of the staff. Now on the other hand, jeans are strictly for Fridays, and I’ve traded in my flip flops for closed-toe flats and boots.

It’s been both exciting, and a little scary. It had been literally 15 years since I’d had a job with some kind of dress code (that wasn’t a uniform). That means my “business casual” wardrobe was seriously lacking.

Over the course of the last year, I’ve been doing my best to stock up on work pants and tops that can pull double duty between work and play. But, while I was definitely feeling better about getting dressed in the morning than I had in a while, I still wasn’t completely confident about my style…whatever the heck that means.

Enter Hilary Rushford.

Thanks to some very effective Facebook advertising, coupled with the random fact that we have a couple of mutual acquaintances, I found myself signing up for an email list to gain access to some of Hilary’s free introductory “3 Steps to Simplified Style” videos. You can watch an intro video (from Hilary’s YouTube channel) here:

What can I say? She charmed me, and I was hooked. And she must have some magical salesmanship. I didn’t even do much research before I registered for the full “Style and Styleability” course. GASP!

A cool $397 later, and I was ready to go.

The class consists of five weeks, and each week involves:

• a downloadable journal filled with nuggets of wisdom, sample pictures, and probing questions
• a couple of videos focusing on that week’s lessons
• a prompt to encourage sharing in the corresponding (private) Facebook group
• a link to a weekly live video call with Hilary, where she answers questions submitted over the course of that week*

I’ll admit to have been dealing with some personal things in my life that kept me from going all in throughout the course. Despite that, I did keep up with the work as best I could.

While I don’t think I walked away from the class with any groundbreaking information, I don’t regret doing it in the least. What it did do was help boost my confidence; seeing that so many others share the same every day insecurities somehow makes them fade a little. It’s about learning that no one else sees you as critically as you see yourself.

Hilary also helped put into words concepts that I didn’t realize I already knew – things like playing into the feminine form rather than trying to fight against it; remembering that it’s typically the third article or accessory that really pulls an outfit together; the importance of tailoring.

I did not however, feel the connection to the “Treehouse of Trust” (that FB group I mentioned) that others in my class seemed to. While, as I mention above, it is always reassuring to see others dealing with the same struggles that you are, I am far from considering any of those women (as lovely and encouraging as they are) my “tribe.”

Another downside to signing up for Style and Styleability was the pretty relentless string of sales-y emails that followed. Hilary offers some great free webinars, but most are pushing you into one of her or her affiliates’ paid offerings. That makes sense, of course. A girl’s gotta pay the rent! It just gets a little tiresome. And sometimes that kind of selling can make the rest of the product seem somehow less authentic.

All in all, I’ll say it again: I don’t regret it. Depending on where you are in your fashion journey, this class could be anything from completely life-changing to just a reminder of how fun getting dressed can and should be. It helped me see that, surprise, I’m doing pretty okay on my own.

*Please check when you sign up. I have heard that every round of the class does NOT include the live calls anymore.