ec: Hey Corinne, thanks for taking the time to chat with me about your company, Urban Darling. Before we jump into all the pluses of working with Urban Darling, I am always curious where people come up with the names for their companies. What I love about Urban Darling is that you take on a different personae just by saying Urban Darling. I know when I say it I spend a little more time on the word darling…so do tell.

CP: This idea come to me that when I was starting a company I wanted a cool name that was easy to say and easy to spell. People butcher my name and I was really tired of that. Quite embarrassing too when you are in an interview and someone says your name incorrectly (not that you do Elizabeth, you are darling) so I opened up an Excel Spreadsheet and had 4 categories. I forget what they are now, but I brainstormed all these adjectives that described who I thought I wanted to represent and Urban Darling were on top of one another – I went to www.urbandarling.com and found that is was available and I bought it. I felt like I got a kiss from the Universe!

ec: Why did you first sense that fashion along with shopping were two passions that were in your DNA?

CP: Haa haa, yes definitely in my DNA – my mother is a nurse by trade and a seamstress by passion. She sewed all of her own clothing in high school. I used to joke that she would prop her Vogue magazines on her belly when I was cooking. It was infused into me. I remember when I was 10 years old and ESPRIT was big and so was pink and grey – I had this matchy matchy outfit that I loved but no SHOES to go with it. I was heartbroken and decided to wear my mother’s pink jellies (a full 2 sizes bigger) with the outfit. A fashionista was born.

ec: What made you believe that the time was right for Urban Darling? What expertise in your own background gave you the moxie to forge ahead with a company that does much more then just help women put this with that? From what I can tell, you have given women the right to feel great about themselves and the right to look freaking fabulous without breaking the bank or a sweat.

CP: Absolutely – we give a woman her permission back. It is an intimate experience for a lot of our clients; we connect and make them shine.
You know, I lead with my intuition and starting Urban Darling for me was as simple as this “Am I going to be an action person or am I am someone who says they are going to do something and never does it.” I got tired of hearing my own thoughts. I had enough leadership training, it was time to turn all of that inward. Since August of 2006 I have been a machine and asked myself “why didn’t I do this sooner?”

ec: I like how you market Urban Darling as the working woman’s wardrobe stylist. It seems that by working with one of Urban Darling’s fashion consultants a woman can discover a more confident and sassy version of herself along with one less thing to have to worry about in her demanding, time crunched life. Can you tell us more about Urban Darling’s philosophy?

CP: Our philosophy is simple: Urban Darling is defining, cultivating and revolutionizing the approach to wardrobe consulting with everyday luxury, humor, signature style, and living a modern life with sophistication and splash of sass. We are eco-friendly paying the purged wardrobe items forward to charities. Care to join the revolution?

ec: A lot of women look into their closets and bemoan the fact that they have nothing to wear. I believe sometimes women don’t because they fall in love (or hate) with clothing that will never work with anything in their closets and well intentioned garments are banished to the dark corner of the closets. When you take on a new client how do you help them renew, reinvent, recapture their wardrobe and embrace their new sense of style?

CP: Good question Elizabeth. It is really a bit different for everyone. We go through a closet audit with the Purge Merge Splurge™ process. Purge is touching every piece of clothing and put it in one of three piles: Keep, Alter, Donate. The worst of closets have treasures in those dark corners. We have the hind and fore sight to make educated decisions with our clients about their wardrobe.
Merge is taking what is left over and we will show you how to make the most of your current clothes and accessories.  We’ll talk about how to mix and match your current pieces, create new combinations and outfits and suggest pieces you may want to add that really reflect the personal style you are creating.
Splurge with the pared down wardrobe there is now room for some new things.  We’ll shop and show you how to find those great new pieces that reflect your style, budget, life and most of all, make you smile.

ec: When you or one of your Closet Auditors comes in to revamp a closet does every item get marching orders or do you hold onto basics and unique pieces?

CP: We always hold on to basics, unless a client has worn them to the ground, then we replace!

ec: How do your wardrobe stylists walk their clients through the Purge, Merge and Splurge! ™ program? And are there a lot of tears and gnashing of teeth during the process? I read that all gently worn clothing marked for the purge pile is donated to a local charity and your client gets a tax deduction. So Urban Darling is an eco-friendly company with a heart.

CP: We are eco-friendly! We try not to annihilate a wardrobe, which will cause anxiety. Although some women love it, I have to admit. We love giving back, in fact it is one of the philosophies we adhere to.

ec: One trend I have seen more of and just love is shopping for vintage clothing and updating one’s wardrobe with the help of a consignment shop. Do you encourage your clients to rethink where their clothing comes from and finally what is so great about going off the beaten path when adding one of a kind gems to ones wardrobe?

CP: We do. We take the accessory route for vintage and antique pieces. I am not a vintage expert – we’d love to have someone who is!

ec: What do you see as becoming fashion forward statements in 2010? Will we still be mixing plaid with stripes, toppling over in heels that go up to there (but they do make our legs the center of the universe) or is fashion going to be making a quieter, more gentler statement (hope not)?

CP: Honestly, I have no idea. I mean that the designers are a bit of a loss with where their direction is. Florals? Ewww. Shoulder pads?? WTH?? I mean I know we recycle style, but what we are seeing now is not that different than 1987. I wish they were more bold. I do like Zack Lo Shoes though…he’s got talent and gumption. We need someone to get creative.

ec: With all the success that Urban Darling has bought you still make time to give back to up and coming entrepreneurs. What are some of the pros and cons you tell them to consider before they start own business?

CP: I tell them they won’t make the big bucks the first couple of years! I am beginning my 4th year in August and 2009 was 50% down from 2008. You have to have an iron stomach, not take things personal “It’s just business” and have a passion that makes you want to turn naked cart wheels in the street.

ec: What are your future plans for Urban Darling?

CP: Oh we are going big. I am licensing to women who want to break into wardrobe styling or join their own styling company with a brand that is about to knock the socks off the world. I want 30 chapters of Urban Darling by end of 2011!

ec: If people are interested in channeling their inner wardrobe stylist and becoming part of the Urban Darling Dynasty, how can they connect with you?

CP: Two ways: email me at Corinne@urbandarling.com or pick up the phone and call me at 408 332 3655

ec: I thank you for taking the time to talk to us about Urban Darling and its philosophy for bringing out the best in our wardrobe and ourselves.. And finally, do these shoes go with this outfit?

CP: Oh thank you Elizabeth, this is awesome to get to talk about the company!

Corinne Phipps: Trendsetter, Entrepreneur, Fashion Correspondent for NBC Bay Area and Founder of Urban Darling®.

        

elizabeth: Some voices come with the sugary, succulent juice of kindness slipping off the chin. And some voices look at the seeds of a fried jalapeño pepper as their daily multiple vitamin.

We all have a voice that the world needs to hear. Some of us bellow from the rooftops while others talk right into their chests allowing only their heart to hear. Those are the people who drive me to distraction and back. To deny one his/her voice takes away from what the rest of us have been hammering home about.

A wonderful Italian proverb makes its case against silence: Silence was never written down. I say don’t leave this planet without the benefit of your voice being heard. If you are willing to see how your voice sounds, your words could change the world.  Can you imagine a world without Sylvia Plath, Tennessee Williams, Lennon/McCartney or myself?  I always wanted to be in the same sentence as with John Lennon. See what having a voice does? It gives you permission.

Annie: We need to be proud and speak without fear.  Our biggest fear is of not being liked or accepted.  Isn’t that silly because not everyone can like us.  When we stay small and don’t dare to rock the boat with our words we live in a wizened little world.  Like a crazen (a dried cranberry raisen), we feel a little more trapped every day.

We gotta take risks to speak what isn’t spoken. I like to call it speaking raw and real.  Do you want people to get the fake you or the real deal?  It’s up to you.

elizabeth: Fear is one of those roadblocks that prevents a pile up of thoughts from going

anywhere. Blogging has allowed me the freedom to say whatever I want. Okay, I am one of these people who will never hurt or put down (except for a few politicians and then I can’t help myself) others but I will tackle an idea that rubs me the wrong or right way.

I will be sassy, sarcastic and over the top but then there are those moments (and they are rare) where I will be loving and selfless to the point where my family and friends won’t recognize me. But if it calls for it, then I can allow that writing side of me out of the trapdoor. And then I am only too happy to lock it up again.

So I am a blogger who lives to find the right phrase or word that can turn someone’s life around by making them stop and think. And making them laugh out loud. So if that makes me a lover of five alarm hot sauce, then please pass me the bottle. 

Annie: I will pass you the bottle as soon as I’m finished with it.  Ok here it comes, I just

poured it all over my computer to make sure that I don’t skimp on the spice in my blog.  I

dare to say it raw and real because that’s what the world needs . Even though it is scary, hey I like to be liked too, I’d rather risk than die unlived. And that’s what happens when we don’t speak truth.  We die with bundles of words tied up inside of us.

There is a story about an Italian mailman who felt his mail bundle was too heavy.  Every day he would stop by his house and drop off a few letters so his load was lighter.  Years later they found a mountain of undelivered letters at his house!  Don’t let your words go undelivered. Take courage, team up and go for it.  Spicy, hot, sweet, straight and juicy.  That’s our style and we hope it makes a difference in your world.

Yours in speaking loud and proud,

Annie and elizabeth!

Annie Hart, NLP Trainer, Ericksonian Hypnotherapist and Storyteller Extraordinaire, helps individuals and businesses to harness the power of change through story. She is fun, funny, fiery and out of the box. Annie believes that Stories Change the World and she can be found wildly and passionately blogging at: www.anniehart.com.

elizabeth cassidy, certified life and career coach for women who are looking to reach and surpass their dreams, is the founder of Branching Out Life Coaching. She is the Co-Creator/Founder of Coaches on the Edge – a blog that mixes wit and wisdom with life coaching. Visit us at Coaches on the Edge. Along with her blogging partner, Laurie Lawson, they are national bloggers for Skirt! and their blogs have been featured on USA Today.com, Daylife.com, NPR.com, NBC.com, Treehugger.com and The India Times. You can read elizabeth’s own thought provoking and amusing blogs at Branchingoutlifecoaching

        

So Step One found you moving on up to the place where we all belong – the top of our list!

And Step Two found you scribbling little love notes to yourself. Keep them coming. And maybe write one for your partner, spouse, child, friend, co-worker, neighbor, etc. You get the idea. Expand the love out to the universe. Write it down and let the love continue to flow. Who knows the Nobel Prize for Love could be yours one day! Right after I receive mine.

Step Three will get you off the furniture and exercising your right to be fit and trim.  

Step Three: Shake it. Move it. Walk it off. Work up a sweat. Get your body moving and grooving.  The reports just came out we as a nation are becoming heavier and less fit. Colorado was the only state to have the least number of obese people but it is an alarming 18.9%.  In 1991 not one state had an obsess rate higher than 20 %.( Trust for America’s Health Report). Yikes!

I have a confession to make. I have been a bit of a slacker in the area of Step Three. But I promise to do better.  I do. I promise.

Start slow, but get off that sofa and put the Ding Dong down.  It all comes down to loving yourself enough to gift yourself with some extra years to be with your loved ones. So join a gym, get a buddy to go walking and lift some weights. Put the fork down after one serving and drink your water. If it doesn’t make a difference in your life, don’t eat it. If you would kill for it then I would say have two spoonfuls and then put it away. A little more savoring means a little less laboring at the gym.

I got a pedometer strapped to me and from the looks of it, my yellow lab and I have a date to walk another 2,000 steps right after dinner. Of course, we will have to stop every two feet. I have no idea what she is sniffing at (yes, I do) and I really don’t ask too many questions. I’m just gonna walk.  My butt off.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

        

Click here to view the embedded video.

        

and here is the poor cat: Some people are not born with a soul.

        

Back in the good and not so old days, I spent my days working in the advertising and fashion world, I saw plays, I listened to music in Central Park while picnicking by candlelight, went bar hopping and bed hopping, worked for peace, performed as a stand up comic, hopped into a few more beds and in general was a city girl who took advantage of life and some of those “I am just not that into you but i will sleep with you” men. Silly men, I was not into them either. Ah, can’t wait to forward this blog to my mother.

So where the hell am I going with this? Nowadays I work in my home office trying to build up my coaching business, writing a best seller(got to be positive), playing with my 5 cats (which generally means tyring to get them off the keyboard and away from the screen), and stuff like that. For about 10- 12 hours a day and sometimes is happens 7 days a week. Where did I go?

At the end of the night I am beat and miss my old life. All of it. So what does this former wild child do? She watches Bravo and some of those absolutely dreadful reality shows.  This funky east village girl is glued to these sucky shows like a small mouse is stuck to sticky glue pad. Both are wrong on so many levels.

The one that horrifies me beyond reason and logic is those housewives shows. You know what I am talking about? If not, then there is still time to get to NYC this summer with a crystal candelabra and a bottle of fine wine in hand and get thee to Central Park!

Last  season a  dumb and spiteful blond  got another dumber blond so drunk at a party and the former blond’s son tried to bed her. Oh, you have got to be so proud of yourself! And this is while the later dumb blond’s rich boyfriend lied dying in the hospital. And you know how the former blond bitch was rewarded for such bad behavior? Her husband bought her a tennis bracelet for 35 grand.  Remind me to run over my neighbor. There’s got to be a choker with my name on it. Diamond encrusted no doubt.

I wish I could say that  I take out War and Peace to lull me to sleep. But I have to go back each week. I pray for major earthquakes to hit those houses in Orange County. I just don’t get why these women are allowed to breathe.

One has a son with a major, major drug problem so she has a wedding that made the stimulus program seem like chump change.

And their breasts! Nobody has breasts like that and most of them look so unappealing – like Stongehege, but not that pretty.

The next generation is so damn scary. No ambition, no drive except for maybe 2 of them and one wanted to join the army so she could get away from her mother. I don’t blame her. I’ll drive her to Afghanistan myself!

Now the west coast is over and next week it is the east coast. This group makes my skin crawl. Most of them slept their way to a penthouse in the sky. And none of them seem to appreciate it – they feel so damn entitled.  I feel they deserve to lose it all. And just because you marry someone with a title does not make you any better than any one else. How dare you? How bloody dare you? You ain’t all that sister!

I am appalled by my lack of common sense and even more appalled by the network’s lack of good taste.

If this is what the future generation is going to look like, then I should have frozen my eggs.

And I will do that right after I get back from Betty Ford. I hear they have a detox program for reality bites shows.

Greetings from Betty Ford. Wish I was there!

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

        

My Zen Man

I remember Walter Anderson. He was one of the advertising production managers that I worked with in Manhattan. Walter had a Zen-like persona and he never became unraveled. Not even with the ridiculous deadlines that we had.He took on the role of being big brother to all of us newbies and taught us much about the advertising field.“Take a deep breath,” Walter would say.But, we were all too busy working on our careers and finding a relationship that would do for now. I think if Walter could have caught me in the middle of the insanity called my life, I might have taken the time to really listen to his life’s philosophies more. He had it right. We had it wrong.

Walter kept his illness to himself. He went for treatments at lunch and was back in the office and none of us were ever the wiser. This was a man who loved the life he was given.Walter died a few years later. I had moved onto another job at another agency, but it took my breath anyway none the less. I used to catch him looking out his window that faced Madison Avenue at the end of a long day and I felt his calmness even if it was only for a nanosecond. Walter’s message was enormous. Keep it simple and slow down enough to enjoy it. And take a deep breath.

Clever as a Fox

Michael J. Fox is the reason I never had children. When his show, “Family Ties” was on the air, he played Alex Keaton, a rather conservative son to a very liberal parents. I did not think I could be as brave as Steven and Elyse Keaton. Something to do with the Karma my mother was sending me.It was a funny show and he was brilliant in playing Alex (maybe a little too convincing for me).He went on to have a great acting career along with a strong marriage and four children. Then it was made public that Michael had been dealing with Parkinson’s Disease.

I believe Michael J. Fox brings a quiet dignity to what life threw his way. And again it is all about how we handle what life deems fit to put on our plate. Sometimes it is the smallest (no pun intended, Mr. Fox) of annoyances that can cause us to have a meltdown on the LIE or in front of our friends and families. And sometimes it is all about stepping forward and becoming a champion for the plight of others. I would say Michael’s greatest role is that of “LuckyMan.” (his first memoir about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s).He got the memo about life and is doing the living…one simple step at a time.

Four Legged Heroes

Not all pillars of simplicity walk on two feet. Doris sleeps most of the day, spends hours looking out the window and eats out of food bowls that are in the basement. And yet she is very happy. Even with being very ill.

Doris’ kidneys started to fail a week after being given a clean bill of health. We were heartbroken and had to make a decision that would affect the rest of her life. Our vet advised that we put her down and yet something told me that Doris was not ready to go to the big litter box in the sky. I followed her lead and we started “kitty dialysis” three times a week. Sixteen months later, I look at my cat and I don’t see sickness. I see her chasing her cat siblings around the house, getting stupid on cat nip and sleeping by my feet.I feel that Doris, my four-legged pillar of simplicity, is simply living off another one of her nine lives.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

        

I hope the parents who shielded their children from seeing this speech are feeling pretty foolish right about now. I hope you will all take the time to think about what is causing this fear you have.  I hope you do some soul searching. Hate and fear can really mess you up.

May we look at this as a way to open the door to better understanding about what our president would like for us and our country.

Click here to view the embedded video.

        

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32538061/ns/today-today_fashion_and_beauty/

        

Marissa Evans, the grief stricken mother, makes a very big decision that could impact and will impact her life and the lives of maybe 3 others. She decides to harvest her dead son’s sperm so that she can have the grandchildren she hoped to have one day. That her son had longed to have since he was a young boy. Hunter, Tod and Van were the names he wanted to name his boys if someone had not taken away his life.

Nikolas Evans sounded like a pretty cool kid. Funny, artistic and an old soul is how he is described. But now he is the late Nikolas Evans whose potential will never be realized. But will his children want to have a life without him? Yes, there are tons of dead beat fathers, but this young man will never have the chance to hold his children and be part of their lives. Because he died too soon.

Like I said, I am not a mother, but I have experienced pain that rips opens up your rib cage and holds your heart hostage. I did lose the father of my child before the child even became a reality, so I do get the feeling of eternity and not ever holding the child in your arms. But, I am not sure how I feel about this.

Ms. Evans was granted the right to harvest her son’s sperm. She will now look for a surrogate to carry her grandbaby or even her grandbabies. But is this right and fair to the unborn children? To come into the world with no father, to be conceived and carried in a stranger’s womb and then you start off life w/o either parent. So a grieving mother can hold unto her son’s spirit in the form of flesh and blood.

I look at Nikolas’ picture and I see compassionate eyes, a strong nose and a ready smile, but I don’t see him as a father. I see him as a life interrupted. Way, way too soon.

I guess Ms. Evans and her dead son’s sperm will be a case study. Sounds cold and clinical. But do we have the rght to bring a child into the world because a mother is grieving for her lost son? Will she be able to step up and love those children or will her grief be so deep that they are daily reminders of a life cut down too soon?

I am asking a lot of questions because I am not 100% sure how I feel about this? It feels wrong, it feels like compensation for a mother’s lost and then it sounds like it is nobody’s business but hers.

What do you think?