Roy - Design your life: creating success through personal style

CONTENTS

Throughout the course of my life, I have learned some valuable lessons through both trial and error, as well as by surrounding myself with positive, strong people whom I admire. I am always excited by the opportunity to share what I have learned that has helped me grow, to share my story, and to pass along the tools that I use to design the life I want to live. I believe the tools have been presented to me so that I may pass them on to others to find the same peace or contentment.

I believe that in order to achieve the life you ultimately want, you have to embody the person living that life now.

There is so much we wish to accomplish, so much we place on ourselves to achieve, and what I know to be true is that every circumstance, every situation that has been put in front of us, is there to teach us something about the person we are meant to become. What I also know to be true is that we are in control of how we respond to each situation, therefore we create our lives based on our choices. The driving force of your life is younot your parents, not your partner, not your friends. When we are young it is difficult to not blame our environment, so we settle into thinking things are happening to us instead of for us. But the complete opposite is actually true. Our experiences are uniquely ours, presented to guide us to become the people we are meant to be, to live our truest versions of ourselves. And our choices matter. So, the minute you make a choice, really make a choice, own it and commit to it, you are on a whole new level of existence. This applies to every aspect of your life, from professional to personal. Your choices are yours to make. What career you pursue, where you choose to spend your time, what you choose to spend your time doing, and who you choose to spend your time with. What you choose to wear, how you choose to speak to people, how you choose to carry yourself, how you choose to react. All your choice.

Which brings us to designing the life you want. To do so, first you need more than a vague idea or a distant dream. It starts with dreaming, yes, but it also takes planning, creating, and above all, harnessing the universe to turn your dreams into reality. In this book, I will share my own journey from young woman to mother of two and successful entrepreneur. I hope that my story will encourage you to identify your dream in life and help you recognize your own personal path to success through what brings you joy. I will share how my experiences working in the fashion industry taught me to choose to dress in a manner that helped me to achieve my dreams, and how you can do the same with whatever it is you wish to pursue.

Clothing and personal style can affect how you feel about yourself and therefore how you treat yourself, so for me, fashion plays a major role in self-esteem and the type of energy I give out.

Self-respect, self-love, self-rule. Its all in how we take control of choices in our lives from simple to immense. What we can accomplish when we feel happy and whole is astonishing. The universe plans more for us than we can even dream up. But to live up to our potential, to be able to see it through, we must show up aware, confident, and joy-filled; thats the catch.

Throughout the course of my journey, fashion and style have made a vital contribution each step along the way. I hope that my personal stories will help inspire you to make imaginative and effective fashion choices that can help your own aspirations become a reality. My goal and intent is to advocate focusing on the person you want to be and making choices based on where you want to go, in order to get the job you aspire to have. This book is written for the person who knows she has a destiny but may need a little help creating the life shes always imagined having. I will illustrate how the daughter of a carpenter, who only owned a single pair of sneakers growing up, became the leader of a fashion company.

I wholeheartedly believe that you get back what you put into the universe, and that the law of attraction plays an essential role in your life path. But I also believe in what I call the law of intention. How do you intend to be received? How do you set your intention for the day?

I believe it starts in the morning when youre brushing your teeth, saying your sun salutations, or in my case preparing hot water with lemon. Before I check my calendar and go over the details of my day, I send a prayer of thankfulness for at least five things I am grateful for. Positive thoughts beget positive outcomes, and for me this involves thinking of ways to activate myself to be as productive as I can be on any given day. I also do something as simple as choose one person a morning to send a positive e-mail to. It may surprise you the peace it passes as well as the peace that comes back to you when you do.

Beyond that, what is my greater intention? I want to be a guiding light to my daughters. I want to continue to work hard and be passionate about what I do. I want to create designs that make women feel strong and beautiful. I want to help women find their voice. All of these internal intentions can be reflected on my exterior. Part of the beauty of being a woman is being able to express our feelings through fashion so easily; with shape, color, texture, and style. We do better when we look better because we feel better.

I keep a small sign in my kitchen and another in my office that reads: What Good Shall I Do This Day? I want my actions to improve daily in terms of business, household, and health, sure, but I also want to put goodness back into the world, even if that merely means smiling at a stranger or setting my unread e-mails aside to take time to organize health and spirit into my day.

In the following chapters I will introduce you to my favorite signature pieces and my invaluable uniform staples that help me quickly feel the way I need to in order to be a productive soul; items from my collections over the years as well as those that Ive admired from others. Ill explain the inspiration behind specific creations, the effectiveness of certain garments, and the personal and aesthetic philosophies they embody.

When I was first starting out in the fashion industry I worked in the mailroom of a major clothing company. Even though it would be tough to gain any notice in that position, I made the conscious decision not to show up in casual or poorly made clothes in which to sort mail all day. Instead, I dressed like I was about to self-promote to CEO. Why? Not because I set out to take anyones job, but rather, it was twofold. First, I felt better when I looked better, and for me looking better meant feeling polished and put together. Second, although I knew that I was fit for a higher position, I needed others to realize this as well. So I dressed the part. I also paid attention to my surroundings; I knew the company I was working for needed leadership, as all companies do. I also knew my strengths and my weaknesses. (That awareness is key. Knowing what you are not good at is just as important as knowing where you excel.) I excelled at design and I excelled at staying focused and finishing a project and organizing a story into a collection of clothing. Staying focused on what type of career I wanted and had a passion for gave me the confidence to say what was needed to create a successful womens and childrens brand extension at a company that made only mens clothing at the time. I had always observed that those who dont speak up miss out. But I would add to that: when you do speak up, make sure you have something of value to offer. Dont just ask questions; offer solutions. And most important, make yourself needed in the areas in which you excel. Offer to help in situations where you see help is needed rather than waiting to be asked. Years later, when I was promoted to creative director of womens within that company, I continued to set the bar higher for myself; I created designs that I wanted to wear myself and offered them to the partners as a brand extension. When the owners turned me down, I was slightly disappointed at first, but I just took my designs elsewhere and created my own brand with the once rejected samples. A buyer at Bergdorf Goodman saw me wearing my designs in a lifestyle photograph in