It’s that time of year again, the time when Red House West steps back from dressing our homes to talk about dressing ourselves!  You can read last year’s holiday fashion post here, but this year’s post is extra legit thanks to Scarlet Chamberlin of Scarlet Chamberlin Styling Co.!

Photo by Gia Goodrich of VEV Studios

Katie and I became friends with Scarlet 20 years ago during our first year of college.  With her mega-watt smile and model height, she was a head taller than us, and head and shoulders cooler than us.   While Katie and I were accosting people on moonlit pathways with performance poetry, Scarlet was sporting perfectly put together yet relaxed ensembles on the way to and from basketball practice and making her own amazing jewelry.

Katie and I always emulated Scarlet.  The word “emulate” makes me feel better about what we really did, which was straight up copy her.  I still have the engineer boots I bought that year, which look suspiciously exactly like the pair that Scarlet rocked.  She never begrudged our style plagiarism and was always willing to loan us things that we coveted.

From left to right me, Scarlet, and Katie, circa 1996. This photo is evidence of my conflicted youth: visible pit hair, but I also obviously went tanning constantly.  Oh, the nineties.

Scarlet was and is the rare beauty who makes those around her feel more confident just by her presence.  She’s positive and fun, and not even remotely judge-y.  She took an unusual path to becoming a personal stylist and owning her own business: she had her own jewelry line, and then for years she was a doula, helping women to feel positive about their pregnancies and to approach the birth experience with a sense of confidence and strength.  She realized that as a stylist she could combine what she loved about being a doula — helping people feel empowered — with her love of jewelry and fashion.

Photo by Gia Goodrich of VEV Studios

Scarlet lives and works in Portland, Oregon, and places a big emphasis in her work on local designers, makers, and retailers.  She offers a range of services, the most comprehensive being Sort, Shop, and Style.  Over a period of several days she will sort your closet, shop with you for key pieces (clients reap the benefit of her industry discount), and put together twenty complete accessorized outfits.  She’ll also make a personalized style guide and digital outfit key, provide tailored follow-up advice after the session, and many other perks.

For those who are happy with their clothes but want a fresh pair of eyes to create new outfits, Scarlet offers a Capsule Style Session.  She will spend about three hours with you at your home and put together up to thirty fully accessorized outfits for you, plus she’ll help you identify clothes that would give your wardrobe more dimension and tell you where to shop for them.  She’ll also follow up with a digital outfit key to make getting dressed each day a cinch.

Without further ado, here are Scarlet’s picks for holiday ensembles.  If you’re like me when you look at the first outfit you’ll exclaim about the half-shirt.  Click through to Scarlet’s blog for the full explanation of why and how this works, even for midriff-baring phobics!

For sources, check out Scarlet’s blog.

Sources here.

If you’re lucky enough to be in or near Portland, Scarlet has a special offer just for Red House West readers!  From now until January 1st, 2016, you can purchase Scarlet’s Capsule Styling Session ($500) and you’ll receive a wardrobe care kit, and a $50 gift card to shop at a local boutique.  To take advantage of this special offer, contact Scarlet directly at scarlet@scarletchamberlin.com and be sure to mention Red House West!

And for my Alaska peeps, I am seriously considering putting my hard-earned Alaska Airlines miles to good use and flying Scarlet up here for a visit.  Send me a note if you’d be interested in joining in on the fun while she’s here!

Katie and I will be taking a blog break over the holidays, back with new posts starting on Monday, January 4th, but you can still find us on Instagram and Pinterest.  We hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season, and here’s to 2016!