#2 How to dress without stress over 50 with Lisa Pretto

Dressing is super stressful and Lisa breaks down how it's important for all women and for women over 50 to build a better relationship with clothing. Connect with Lisa here: lisa.pretto@houseofcolour.com and her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/houseofcolourmadison_lisa?igsh=eGMyamJmajNlZjdr

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Transcript

Miriam Bulcher (00:01.164)
Welcome to today's episode of Empowered Over 50. So one thing that is always a common issue, especially that I hear from my own photography clients is, you clothing. my gosh, there is so much anxiety around picking clothes, what clothes to wear for work, clothes that don't make you want to rip them off due to sensory overload, whatever it might be. And so the guest that I have today with me is like the total expert.

on clothing as well as color. And I know that that is also another pain point a lot of women go through are what kind of colors look good on me? How do I figure it out? You know, there's just a lot of overwhelm when it comes to, you know, that area and all women want to know what looks good on them. So Lisa Preto here is a color stylist. I am going to let her introduce herself. Thank you, Lisa.

Lisa Pretto (00:50.286)
All right, thanks for having me today. How fun. So yes, so my name is Lisa Preto. I own House of Color Madison and also have a branch near Dela Field, near Dela Field in Milwaukee. And it's a franchise. House of Color has been around for about 40 years. They came to the US just as the pandemic was winding down. And what they found is that we were sick of our clothing.

We were sick of looking at ourselves on Zoom and so the company itself has really taken off in the US and so wherever you're listening from, you will likely find a House of Color consultant not too far from you. We specialize in color analysis. It's done in person and we also offer style analysis which is based on your body architecture and personality. Combining all of those things together, we do wardrobe edits and personal shopping and all of the fun things to make sure that you

have a closet that you love that works for you and that getting dressed is really one of the best parts of your day.

Miriam Bulcher (01:48.874)
my gosh, I love it so much because I'm sure a lot of women are like, what's that? Getting dressed is the best part of the day? What a foreign concept.

Lisa Pretto (01:56.974)
I mean, we've all gone through that point where we've had the pile of clothing on the chair or on the floor as we tried on all our outfits and we get to the car for date night or whatever, and we're already completely frustrated and not in the mood at all. And the evening hasn't started.

Miriam Bulcher (02:13.503)
Yeah, absolutely. I totally 100 % relate to all of those things. my gosh. Okay, let's talk about what the experience has been like for you kind of going through it. You know what I mean? Like when you had, yeah, like how was your, like how did you get into the color analysis? How did you find it? Did you have yours done? Did you do your own? Like I want to know everything in terms of like the backstory and like your initial experience.

Lisa Pretto (02:38.552)
So color analysis is actually something that's been around for quite a long time. And if you have listeners who are around my age, they might remember it back from the eighties. That was a point when women were really becoming coming into their own in the workforce. And so there was this thing called a power suit. And so color analysis really came about of what color should you be wearing in these power suits? Well, times changed very quickly, right? And the power suit is such a foreign concept to us now that that whole color system kind of just

fell apart because it was focused on just that one area. But being a woman of a certain age, I did have my colors done at that time and it wasn't a really complete process. It was more like a quickie little thing and they looked at me and they said, you have brown hair, brown eyes and you tan easily. You're an autumn. And I thought, fabulous. I was living my very best autumn life. And at the same time I was like, huh, I always look washed out in photos. I always look all one color. What's going on here?

Did I think it was my hair, my color, my hair, my makeup and my clothing? No, I didn't. I there was something wrong with me and that's why it wasn't looking good. And so post pandemic, I started seeing on Instagram that people were having their colors done and I was like, you know, I'm just going to go, go do that. And so the closest one to me was in Wausau. So I drove up to Wausau. I had to spend the night. I had my colors done and lo and behold, I am a winter, which means that those autumn colors that I

thought were doing me such a favor were just completely washing me out. I need really clear, bright, sharp, intense colors that are cool colors, blue based. so I did the obvious thing. I went all in and I brought my daughter up to get her colors done. And we were just both just blown away, fascinated. Everything made sense. It was so amazing. And like I said, they were having this really big growth period. And I thought,

Madison, surely needs a house of color franchise and so just over just probably just shy of four years ago I Dipped my toe in and have been up and running pretty much since so it was such a game changer for me That I just felt like it was something that everybody needed I had a closet full of clothes that I hated I could never put an outfit together that I felt confident in

Lisa Pretto (05:00.334)
I kept buying because nothing was really working for me, which just created more closet chaos. And this was just like, whoop. And it just simplified shopping. It simplified putting outfits together. It made me feel so good. mean, I did the math. I had spent $70,000 over the course of my lifetime making myself a warm blonde, which is not a good color for me. So it's just such a...

powerful, powerful tool that saves time and money and energy and frustration. And to see the change in clients is just so incredibly heartwarming. It's just the best part of my day.

Miriam Bulcher (05:40.7)
my gosh, I love everything that you've said is like I'm obsessing over because to have such a powerful, I mean, I think we as women for the most part, we're like, yeah, clothing is important. But then it's like this double edged sword, right? It's like, my gosh, I love it. But then also it just like it's just so frustrating. And I just want to like burn everything like, you know, and it's this like abusive relationship that we have with clothing. And it's so essential.

Lisa Pretto (06:02.638)
100%.

Miriam Bulcher (06:09.921)
to how we feel, how we show up.

Lisa Pretto (06:11.564)
Right? Yeah, I mean, we get dressed every single day, right? We, you know, maybe don't put makeup on every single day, but we have to put clothes on every single day. And it's, and I think particularly now at this time where we are in this influencer time of time of life, know, where they're like, everyone's online selling you all the things. And so you're like, my gosh, I love that outfit. That's so cute. And you get it you put it on and you're like, Hmm, why does this not look good on me?

And what we do as women is we think there's something wrong with us. It's my body. It's my age. It's how I'm put together. And the fact of the matter is that it's just clothing is so unique to people and to you as a person. It has to fit you properly. It has to feel right on you. And this whole idea of like buying based on what someone else is wearing on Instagram is just, it really can undermine our self-confidence and make things so, so much harder. So.

We always think that instead of like being influenced by other people or being styled by other people, we want to give you the tools where you can style yourself. You can look at something and be like, I don't look good in a high rise pant. I'm really short from my need in my, to the floor. So those cropped wide leg jeans are not going to work for me so that you can look at something and have some level of discernment to it and make those decisions for yourself and really feel empowered in what you're seeing rather than so influenced by what you're seeing.

Miriam Bulcher (07:36.872)
my gosh. And I feel like that probably not only reduces stress, but it reduces frustration. And I'm sure, well, it's definitely probably going to have an impact on the wallet, too, because then you're not just buying like random things or having to deal with a lot of returns, you know, unless it's a sizing issue. But I mean, it really is just overall like it checks all the boxes, which is so powerful. my gosh. Let's talk about, you know, being for the clients that you've seen.

Lisa Pretto (07:58.702)
100%.

Miriam Bulcher (08:05.345)
who are, you know, women who are over 50, what are some of the biggest kind of pain points that these women are running into that are, you know, fixable?

Lisa Pretto (08:07.438)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa Pretto (08:15.374)
Yeah, so I think one of the big things that we have to know is that our body is going to change over time, right? Your body, you are not going to look like 27 year old you. And I always tease my clients. I'm like, yeah, 27 year old you didn't have any money. Now it's 57 year old you and you've got some disposable income. You've got some things. So you're smarter, you're wiser, you're more financially savvy, but your body doesn't look the same. And so when we try to dress ourselves based on what 24 year old women are wearing in the marketplace,

we're always gonna be a little bit frustrated, right? We're always gonna be a little bit frustrated. So I think body image is something that's really important. And when we put people in the right cut of clothing, all of those body image issues fall by the wayside because they look amazing. I think that's a huge, huge thing. I think another thing that can be really tricky is trends, right? So my rule of thumb is if you were alive when it was trendy the first time, let it...

pass you by the second time, right? Because that can make us look like we're trying a little too hard and we become very dated. And so we want to make sure that we're not falling into that trap. The other thing that we find is that as we get a little bit older, we probably need a little bit more structure to our clothing. Okay, so structure is the thing that helps give your body the shape that it needs. And so if you are curvier on the top or on the bottom or you've lost your waistline, certain

cuts of clothing are gonna work really, really well for you, much better than other things that are on the market. And so some of those places where clothing is a little less expensive, Target, Walmart, Amazon, which we see a lot of that online, those pieces of clothing simply don't have the structure that we need as we get a little bit older. And so investing in fewer pieces that are higher quality will actually make getting dressed a lot easier and we're gonna feel a lot better in those pieces. I think that's a really big part of it.

And the two other things I always talk to clients about is you need a tailor. You need a good tailor. You need somebody that you can take things to and they can lift this up a little bit or take a little bit off the cuff or bring something in or let something out. Those are the things that really make people look polished and put together is when clothing fits properly. And along with that, undergarments. I mean, I don't love putting on a Spanx, but I will tell you my level of confidence in clothing goes up considerably when I have the right bra.

Lisa Pretto (10:40.566)
and the right undergarments, where things are where they're supposed to be, everything flows a little bit more smoothly, and that can really be a huge difference for clients just in how they feel in their clothing.

Miriam Bulcher (10:54.377)
Yeah, absolutely. I want to revisit the clothing aspect of things having more structure. How does one tell, you know, from like, say we're kind of feeling fabrics and we're looking at, you know, what should we, I guess, be looking at? Like, are we looking at seaming? Are we looking at stitches? Are we looking at the actual, like, cloth that it's made out of, you know, kind of avoiding, you know, I don't know, like polyesters and everything. But, you know, like, is there kind of a distinguishable way to kind of, I don't know.

Lisa Pretto (11:24.094)
Yeah, that's a great. It's a great question. So typically most people need a combination of ease and structure, right? We need to put those two things together. So if you look at this plus it's a satin blouse. It's really it's soft. If I drop it to the ground, it's just going to puddle, right? That's a good piece to have as one piece in your outfit. But if my whole outfit can puddle to the ground, it doesn't have any structure, right? So we think about a really great coat.

Miriam Bulcher (11:24.363)
the difference?

Lisa Pretto (11:51.682)
that are a jacket that comes in at the waist that has a really great shoulder line that holds its shape and it's not just a flimsy little you know, $12 cardigan that we got somewhere that has no structure to it. We need some things to give us a little bit more shape. So I want you to think of having a combination of pieces of clothing in your outfit. And so when you're putting clothing on, this has some nice drape to it, which is also very pleasing, right?

But then if I pair it with a more structured jacket, it gives my body some shape, which is what I need. If someone's curvy and I put them in something that hangs straight down, we've taken away that middle and they look bigger than they actually are. And that's something that a lot of women run into as they age is they're just gonna cover it all up. We're just gonna put something on that just hangs straight, covers us up. But when we give you that waistline and create some of those curves, it makes you look so much more pleasing to the eye because what we talk about is

What we want is proportion. So clothing that has structure is going to create some of those curves and some of those lines on your body, which is just going to make you look a lot better rather than putting you in something that is just hanging straight. And it will always make us look bigger than we actually are, even though we think we're covering ourselves up.

Miriam Bulcher (13:08.799)
Mm-hmm. That explains why I could never really pinpoint, but why I avoid wearing like a stiff colored button-up shirt with a blazer because I'm like, I don't know why, can't tell you. I just don't think it works. So that is kind of really now I'm like, you know, thinking of all the things that I'm like, that's such an interesting perspective to look at clothing from and.

Lisa Pretto (13:26.35)
Yeah.

Miriam Bulcher (13:32.341)
really, really helpful. what you say about the curves is something, you know, a lot of my clients to run into it's like, okay, well, you know, and at least for me during sessions, you know, clips are super handy because I'm like, okay, you know, if we just, especially like underneath, you know, the, the bust area, it's like, my gosh, if we can just like clip that in a little bit, like that would be, you know, my gosh, it really does make a massive world of difference.

Lisa Pretto (13:46.903)
Yep.

Lisa Pretto (13:54.828)
Yeah, it's just one of these things where we if we're just putting baggy over baggy or loose over loose, we lose our complete body architecture and it just makes us look kind of frumpy too, right? We've lost our curves. We've lost that womanliness of us. And it's funny because even for someone, I'm pretty straight. I mean, I'm pretty close to a rectangle. I don't have a lot of curves. But when I put on a piece of clothing that creates some curves for me, it just feels so much better and so much more up level.

than something that just hangs straight on me and gives me, adds nothing to my body shape.

Miriam Bulcher (14:28.349)
Mm-hmm. Let's talk about, you have many women, and maybe you can speak to this even if they haven't been clients, but what do you do when you are very dissatisfied with your body shape or body type and you're kind of addressing like, it almost feels like you're in a catch-22 because you don't really like your body. You don't really like clothing, but you also know, especially if you're a working person, that you still have to, well, wear.

clothes, right? And you still have the desire to feel good in clothes. So how do you navigate, you know, do you have any suggestions or tips for women who are navigating that difficult path?

Lisa Pretto (15:07.052)
Yeah, I think one of the things that we focus a lot on when we think about women's shapes is we focus on hip, waist, bust, right? We think those are the magic numbers. The magic numbers for getting dressed are your vertical numbers. You have vertical measurements that are key to how you will pick out clothing. All right, so we take four measurements and what we do is we look at those four measurements and we determine on your body,

you're short from your armpit to your leg break. We're not going to put a lot of busy things in that area because it's the shortest part on you. Or this is where your hip curves out, right? If your leg is this long, does your hip curve here or here or here? Right, where is that curve? Really easy rule of thumb. Nothing should hit you at the fullest part of your hip. If you know nothing else than that, nothing hits you at the fullest part of your hip. So when you're trying on a blazer,

and we've got that curve, right? This is your hip. If we put you in a blazer that sits here, do you see how I'm defining your whole body by that widest part? If I put you in a blazer that hits here, I'm now defining your body by the smallest part, and we're showing this lovely curve that comes in and out, and you will look 1,000 times better. So your vertical measurements matter so much more than your hip.

your waist and your bust and they give you just these hard and fast rules of can you wear your hair down and wear a large earring? Can you wear a tie, a scarf or something tied at the neck? Should you be doing a V neck or a rounded neck? Where your jacket should hit you? Can you do a mid-rise or a high-rise? Can you do a cropped pant? Those are all based on vertical measurements so even though you may feel like

I really want to lose 10 pounds or 40 pounds yet before I feel really comfortable. If you master those vertical measurements, the other things will fall by the wayside because you will feel so much more confident in how your clothing fits you. So it's, yeah, it's not about what you weigh. And the thing that's really interesting too with that, curvy people will always be curvy. I don't care how thin you get. I don't care how much weight you gain. You're always going to be curvy. Straight people.

Miriam Bulcher (17:12.615)
my goodness.

Lisa Pretto (17:25.046)
Always going to be straight, no matter your size four or your size 24. You're always going to be straight. So there are certain things about your body you cannot change. It's just how your body is designed. So learning how to dress it as it is, is really the key to having that level of confidence. It's not losing 10 or 15 pounds because you can lose 10 or 15 pounds and still if you don't know how to dress your body, you're not going to have that polished and put together look you're going.

Miriam Bulcher (17:51.698)
my goodness. mean, so powerful and like, yeah, I mean, it's so amazing how you're able to simplify. And I feel like that is, and I'm sure you see this all the time with every client, like, my gosh, it's really not rocket science. And I think that's, you know, why, you know, a big reason why I want to do on here, because it's like, okay, you know, you have such great success with all of your clients. And, you know, now we're seeing

as to why, right? Like you're able to break things down in a really simple, easy way. Let's talk about, there's two things I want to, I want to go back to the undergarment conversation first. So let's talk about that conversation because how does that work in the context of what you do? Do you give recommendations? Like I guess, you know, because there's lots of different bra styles, right? Like for example, I realized just the other day that I can't do, you know, like the V neck type that I have to do the,

Lisa Pretto (18:37.006)
I

Miriam Bulcher (18:45.057)
right now the words gonna escape me. It goes like more laterally across what's that you probably.

Lisa Pretto (18:52.184)
So yeah, mean, so when I like, when you work with clients, like some people need something that's gonna support this way. Some people need support that's gonna go this way, right? Some people need, but the key to undergarments, I mean, there is no secret to it at all. Go to a place that specializes in women who have had reconstructive surgery. They will fit you for the perfect bra every single time. It's what they do. It's their specialty, right? It's like,

If I want a brand new headshot and I ask, you know, some whoever's walking by to take a picture of me, am I going to go to you to get a really great headshot? Right. Go to the professionals and women who work in those work with, work with other women who have gone through reconstructive surgery and need a lot of support in that area in terms of how things are sized and, if they've had a mastectomy or maybe they're, you know, however they've had it done, those people, those women are amazing.

Every city has someone who does that. it's not a trick to find them, but get yourself properly sized. That is the number one thing. And that should be done probably every three to four years.

Miriam Bulcher (20:04.405)
Okay, that's really good to know because yeah. Wow.

Lisa Pretto (20:06.254)
Yeah, huge. And then when we look at more like, you know, there's skims and there's spanks and there's all of these things that, you know, can do all of that. I think know your price point and buy the best you can, right? Not everyone is going to spend $188 on, you know, something to smooth them. There are perfectly good ones out there for $28 too. So know your budget and then have a selection of things, right? And we might want something that is an all body. We might...

You know, my son got married, I was like, give me the full body, I want everything, nothing's gonna be moving, right? And then I might want something that's just a little pair of boy shorts that has some tummy compression. If I'm gonna be wearing a skirt and I don't want my skirt to fly up and show the world all the things. We need a strapless bra, we need a racerback bra, we need, I mean, all of those just like basic little things that we need.

You can start building those things out there those a lot of those are investment pieces But you're have them for quite some time And they will make such a significant difference So like I said bra fitting go to the professionals when it comes to undergarments I think it's really know your budget and then just stick to that and give yourself some options so that if you need us all of a sudden you need a strapless all of a sudden you need a halter bra all of sudden you need this

know yourself and know what level of support that you can use. A lot of my younger clients, to be honest, I know we're talking women over 50, but a lot of the young girls don't even wear bras, right? They like just the little things that stick on and they're good to go. So I think as we get older, we become a little bit more self-conscious of some of those things. And also we weren't raised in that, in the current era where people are a little bit more comfortable and freer with their bodies.

Miriam Bulcher (21:52.534)
Yeah, absolutely. Would you recommend, like if someone who's listening to this podcast, would you recommend that they go like say they're like, my gosh, I'm bought in, like I want to go see Lisa. Would you recommend that they go and get their undergarment size first or does it matter?

Lisa Pretto (22:10.222)
I always think when you're ready to come see me, do not make a purchase until you've left the studio. Just because we're gonna be talking about so many different things and when you're here and we talk about look what happens when I do this, look what happens when I do that, I like to give clients a list of these are the things that I would really focus on, this is where I would start and I think sometimes people, you know how it's like, I'm gonna read.

redecorate something or I'm going to organize something and they start in before they actually have a plan, right? And so now they're like, I bought all this stuff. I don't even need, right? So I always think come in and get the, get the direction you need before you go out and make any more investments.

Miriam Bulcher (22:53.159)
Mm Yeah. No, that makes a ton of sense. I want to talk a little bit more about because I know when you were in for your photo shoot, you you had these all these great, like amazing tools. And I want to talk a little bit about those because and correct me if I'm mistaken, but, you know, depending on which level someone comes in for an analysis, they do get some things that they get to take with them. Right. In terms of like making their lives easier. So expand on that and tell everyone.

Lisa Pretto (23:14.594)
Okay.

Lisa Pretto (23:18.71)
Yeah, so when someone comes in for a color analysis, our process is very, specific. Natural light is a must. don't do anything virtually. We know when you look at yourself on a computer screen or you've seen something, the color that I'm seeing or you're seeing me wear is not the actual color I'm wearing, right? The computers always change things up. So you can't do these things virtually. clients come in in daylight hours and we have very, very specific color drapes.

and what we do is we compare and contrast. It's a scientific process where we're just collecting that data. And the nice thing is that once we get you to a season where we say, this is your palette, we give you a fan and that fan has 36 color swatches of the drapes that we draped you in that you can now use to clean out your closet, go shopping, compare things when they show up on your doorstep that you ordered online. There's just so many that it is, I use it when I get my nails done.

I mean, I use it for everything. It's amazing. And then you also get a booklet that is very specific to your season that will talk about what is your best hair color? I mean, your hair frames your face. So if you have a cool undertone like I do and you're dying your hair warm blonde, I'm fighting myself day and night. There's nothing that I can't make it right. Right. So hair color, jewelry color, super dependent on what season you sit in because we want your jewelry to harmonize makeup.

watches, shoes, I mean we cover everything. The color of mascara you should wear is based on your season, right? It's just, it's so involved and so we give all of those tools. We have our own makeup line. Most people take it home with them because I've color matched you perfectly while you sat in my chair and so rather than having to try and go out and find these colors, you can take them home with you. So that's another tool that's really great. So we start with color always and then

Some people will do color and style together in one day. Some people will do two separate appointments, but style analysis is really that thing where we talk about this is how you dress your body. Do you need large scale? Do you need small scale? Do you need stripes? Do you need florals? Do we need to accentuate the waist? Are we better off skimming the waist? It covers everything and it's very particular to you because you can be the same season. You could be a winter like I am. You could be a classic clothing style, which is what I am.

Lisa Pretto (25:43.192)
but because we have different bodies, we're gonna dress completely differently. So there is, it's so super personalized in terms of what you get and what you walk away with.

Miriam Bulcher (25:53.44)
Yeah, which is, mean, it's your own personal like little map kind of almost to like, you know, a map out of frustration is kind of how I see that because, you know, you're getting all this incredible information. There's something that we talked about because I think I brought it up again when I did your photo shoot and I want to bring it up again because your answer was so amazing. I talked about, know, like, it almost seems like a little daunting in the sense of like, do I have to get rid of all the clothes in my closet? You know, when you were

Lisa Pretto (26:01.262)
Exactly.

Miriam Bulcher (26:22.237)
responded something along the lines and I don't want to repeat it because I you know I want to hear your answer again but I feel like you know there's definitely might be some women who are like you know I just or if they happen to just spend right like a bunch of money on clothing and yet you know they're really intrigued by this conversation and they want to come see you how do you navigate that conversation of you know okay we have all these really great pieces but even though they're not like your season or your style how do you navigate that?

Lisa Pretto (26:47.054)
Well, I think the most important thing to know is that this is not OK, I'm going to get rid of everything I own and I'm just going to replace it with new things, right? That's that's not. It's not sustainable. It's not good for the environment. It's not good for your wallet. Any of those things. And so when people come in, the first thing I tell them is focus on your cameo area, right? If your hair is right, your makeup is right, your jewelry is right and you're wearing a great color, that is the number one thing. And that's a pretty easy fix, right? That's a pretty easy fix. Then.

As you are needing to replace things, we're going to buy them in the right cut and color, right? So no one has to go home and get rid of anything. We're just going to replace as needed in their best colors. The other thing is if you have, you know, maybe I tell you that, gosh, brown, you know, we see, we really love you in black. We don't really love you so much in brown and you have a beautiful brown leather jacket. We're going to make sure you get a scarf in one of your best colors.

to put between you and that brown jacket so that when you wear it, you still look and feel amazing. And again, in time, those things can be replaced. It takes a long time to turn over a closet. And again, we want to be good stewards of the earth and our finances. So I think it's really important to know that these are tools, rules, right? These are tools, not rules. And so the idea is that some people are going to come in and be gung-ho, ready to go. doing all the things you tell me to do.

Some people are gonna tiptoe in, right? There's no right or wrong answer. There's no right or wrong way to do this. And so I wanna be there for clients to help them, give them the information, and help them navigate moving forward in a way that feels really genuine and true to them, because that's gonna be a little bit different for every client.

Miriam Bulcher (28:32.287)
Yeah, absolutely. my gosh. Obsessed and everything that you mentioned there, especially, you know, the part about being able to match, you know, like if you have a color that's, you know, not within your season or whatnot and being able to kind of pair it with a color that is, I mean, genius. Absolutely. Because, you know, and it really is like you're a plethora of information, which I'm obsessed with. OK, I love all of this. So.

One other thing that I wanted to bring up, say someone, because I chat with these women occasionally, they are very withdrawn even from themselves. How would you talk to or encourage a woman who's maybe really just like, I'm not ready for someone to look at me. I'm not ready to kind of, I don't really.

want to be seen, like they're not ready quite to see themselves, even though it would be beneficial to them, right, to have these tools and information. Have you ever encountered that? What would you say, you know, if you're conversing with someone, you know, at a networking event who's really just kind of in that space and they're not fully ready yet?

Lisa Pretto (29:40.332)
Yeah, I think it's you know, it's interesting. It's a couple of things. I think one is that we are such a youth obsessed society. So as we age and we look in the mirror and we see that we have wrinkles, we have fine lines, we have gray hair, our neck. I mean, who who knew your neck? I mean, I don't remember my mom having a wrinkly neck. How like what is that about? Right? All of these things happen to us. It's natural like it's the there's only one alternative to not aging, right? And I don't think any of us want that. So I think part of it is really seeing

that there's nothing wrong with being older. There's nothing wrong with being older, right? That there's a lot of power in that and to step away from the youth obsessed thing. have clients who, mean, when you come in, I'm not gonna lie, like you are looking at yourself in the mirror with no makeup on for an hour, an hour and a half. For a lot of us, it's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable. And I have had clients who really struggled.

who really struggle to look at themselves. But I think the thing that's important is that people come for all different reasons. Some people, they love to shop, they have a closet full of clothes, they're making mistakes, they want something better. Some people are like, I'm a minimalist. I don't need a lot of things, I just wanna make sure that it's right. Some people are really conscious of the environment and how clothing has become just a throwaway commodity that you wear it once and you never wear it again and we're just.

going through all these things. So coming in to get your colors and styles done is not a vain thing to do. It serves you. It serves the people who surround you. It serves how you show up in those things that you need to do with your children or your partner or your work or your community. It serves the planet. I mean, there's so much more to this than just, man, I look really great in royal blue. I mean, that's, know, that feels good, but there's a lot more to this. And so I think rather than

thinking of it as something like I'm a, you know, I don't want to invest in myself, all of those things, really think of it as this is a tool that if everyone had it, we could, we would radically change how we deal with clothing in this country. It would make a world of difference for that. And so I just, think that there's lots and lots of reasons to come in and don't think that the only reason to come in is I'm a vain person and I want to make sure that I look my best.

Lisa Pretto (32:07.508)
Looking your best affects every other aspect of your life because it's not really about how you look. It's about how you feel about how you look, right? And when you feel good about yourself, when you take away the frustration of dressing, the overspending of clothing, the time that we spend standing in our closet, staring at the lack of confidence we have showing up in places, those things are affecting how we deal with with everyone that we come in contact with. And so

Miriam Bulcher (32:16.023)
Mm.

Lisa Pretto (32:34.626)
When we can have just that little bit more confidence in ourself and give ourselves something of ease in our day, it impacts everything and the world needs you to show up. The world needs you to show up.

Miriam Bulcher (32:49.641)
Mm-hmm. my gosh. That was really really really powerful because Absolutely, I mean everything that you've said there is like there really is power in how you feel and I think us as women You know, we tend to give give give give give and then be like, Hmm, but I really don't feel comfortable like doing something nice for myself But yet the impact of that feeling goes so beyond that. It's like well

maybe there is something here to this, right? And I'm sure you see that day in and day out with your clients and especially too over time as they, you know, if you see them on social, how it impacts, you know, right? Like how they carry themselves, which I'm sure must be.

Lisa Pretto (33:27.872)
my gosh, I mean the number of you know, texts and emails and pictures I get from clients who are like I went to my class reunion and everyone said I looked so beautiful or it was my son's wedding and I got so many compliments on my dress or you know, I mean all of just these little things that happen or like they felt so proud of themselves because they put on something they thought they couldn't wear and they realized my God, I do look amazing in this right there that that feeling it's so deep and heartfelt and when we.

change the conversation about what it means to age as a woman. You know, used to be like, you're over 50, you're invisible. Well, you're over 50, you get a lot more freedom to do things exactly the way you want to do them. And so I think we have to change that conversation and we do that by investing in ourselves because the other thing is people are watching, right? If our generation can step up and invest in ourselves and know that these things matter, we are.

just lighting the path for the women who come after us, right? So we owe them that, to make things a little bit easier for them, to make things a little bit more open for them, to have conversations that, you know, my mom didn't have conversations with her friends about menopause. You know what I mean? Here we are, it's one of the topics, you know, on social. And so I think we just need to continue that and investing in ourselves and showing up with confidence and creating some ease in our life. Like I said, I think those things are just, they're invaluable.

Miriam Bulcher (34:52.661)
Yeah, absolutely. How would you say you navigated at what point, you know, in your like in the time, because you said it was a few years ago, right? So that you did your own colors. So how do you how do you feel like you navigated that a comfort or maybe it's not comfortable or we'll just use that word for now, the comfort of or the acceptability of your body changing as you age? Do you feel like you had to navigate that conversation with yourself?

and what was that like?

Lisa Pretto (35:22.03)
I mean, absolutely. It's kind of, you know, it's interesting because you reach a certain age and you realize that what used to work for you doesn't work anymore. Right? So it used to be, I'm just going to, you know, drink some water and walk around the block and I'll be fine, you know? And then you realize, it takes some effort. It takes some effort. And so what we know is that I had to switch my thinking a lot. And so for me, I want to be healthy and I want to be strong.

And I am willing to do whatever it takes to be healthy and strong. And so that doesn't mean that I'm going to be a size, I mean, I'm not going to be a size zero. I'm not going to be a size zero. I mean, I have no curves to me. So in my younger days, I stick, stick thin, right? At almost 60, you know, I'm not stick thin anymore, but I know that I'm healthy. I know that I'm strong. I know that I have a lot of respect for my body. I know that I'm doing the right things.

And so for me, had to flip that switch that skinny has no value to me. It has no value to me, particularly as an aging woman, strong and flexible and healthy. Those things have a lot of value to me because the rest of my life is going to be determined by those things, right? If you can be skinny all you want, but if you're not strong, if you can't keep up with things, if if your bones are weak, I mean, it's just the whole

The whole process of taking care of your body completely changes when you realize that for the next 20 years, fingers crossed, my life is going to be dependent on how well I can get up and out of a chair. How well can I take my dog for a walk? Can I reach up on the top shelf? Can I climb up the two stairs to do that? Can I bend down to tie my shoes? I mean, these things that we just take for granted and feel like are such foolish things as we age, that's the whole quality of your life.

quality of your life is dependent on how healthy you are. And so I think for me, that was a big, big switch in what I valued about my body and what I needed my body to be able to do. I don't need to look great in a bikini at 60, but I do need to be able to ride my bike up and down the beach to keep up with my grandkids.

Miriam Bulcher (37:37.504)
Yeah, wow, that is really incredible and such a great perspective. And I love that you just mentioned that because the functionality and like you said, the quality of your life, like when you can flip the conversation from being more of like a vein perspective as you know, us as women, we definitely struggle with, right? It's a constant battle to like, okay, you know, quality of life and functionality. I mean, that is incredibly, incredibly powerful.

and is such great advice to other women who are struggling with the change because it is absolutely. mean, I have clients come in who haven't seen themselves and you know, a professional pitcher in 20 years and it's like, you know, the, the fear of kind of seeing more lines and more wrinkles and that sort of thing. But at the end of the day, like you said, you know, functionality and along with your tools are going to be the perfect combination for, you know, that ease of being able to enjoy your body where it is right now and to have it be less stressful. So.

love that. Let's talk about how people can get your services and connect with you. And if they don't live anywhere in the Madison area where they might be able to find somebody who could offer the service as well.

Lisa Pretto (38:46.092)
Yeah, so if we are House of Color, it's C-O-L-O-U-R because we are a UK based company. So it's House of Color, colour.com. And if you go there, you will see a full directory. I want to say there's when I joined, I think I was the 63rd franchise in the US and now we have over 420. So there is someone just about everywhere.

So you can find somebody there you can also email me and I'm happy to put you in contact with a colleague that will live at closer to you and my email is lisa.pretto at house of color colour.com and so both of those are great ways to either find someone in your area or to reach out to me either to talk about a service for yourself or I can connect you with someone who's close to you and if there isn't somebody close to you

you might really want to give a thought about opening a franchise because business continues to just we it's one of these things, you know, you think like, the economy is a little rockier. People are a little bit nervous, but we have all genders, all ages, all economics, economic status. There's no like one person who comes to us over somebody else. And so it's just one of those things, like I said, for such a variety of reasons, people want to come. So

something to maybe think about.

Miriam Bulcher (40:14.293)
Yeah, absolutely. my gosh. Well, this was so amazing. I'm going to have Lisa's shown like information and socials in the show links in the show notes. Sorry. At the so if you want to click and follow her and get her information from there as well, it'll be easy access. Awesome. Do feel like there's anything that we haven't shared about, you know, kind of dressing or tips or advice for women over 50 that we haven't covered? Or do you feel like

Lisa Pretto (40:35.286)
Well, I think the biggest things that and this is, know, particularly for women over 50, but true for everyone, quality over quantity. You don't need a lot of clothes. You just need the right clothes for you. And edit, edit, edit. Do not have anything in your closet that you cannot wear today. It's too small. It's too big. It needs attention from a tailor. It needs to be steamed, whatever it is. Don't create clutter and chaos in a place of your life that you don't have to.

So those are the two big things that I usually tell clients as a takeaway.

Miriam Bulcher (41:08.703)
Amazing. I love it so much. Well, I'm so grateful for your wealth of information and that you were willing to share it with us today. And yeah, I'm very grateful for you.

Lisa Pretto (41:18.146)
Thank you, my friend. What a pleasure.

Miriam Bulcher (41:20.376)
We can still chat. I'm just gonna stop recording here.