One of the things I look forward to over Spring Break is pretty shallow.  I love to go clothes shopping.  Much like the rest of my life, I get bored with the same thing all the time and I have to go out of town next week, so of course I needed to get something new, right?  But the best part of my shopping experience is that I have my own personal visual designer who guides me to buy just the right things to wear.

Not to be confused with a personal shopper, a personal visual designer is just there to look at what I put on and I can tell just by looking at him if the visual design works or not.  He is a professional, having been a visual designer for almost 40 years and he is an expert at shape, color, design and movement.  And what is clothing after all, but how fabric works visually on the body?

Not that I don’t get a say, but I’ll be honest – I need help when it comes to clothes shopping.  My go to is to find a mannequin that is wearing something I like and buy THAT outfit.  I have three stores that I go to regularly because I know things fit most of the time and last a long time.  My job is to try things on and decide if they feel good or not, but then I need input from someone who has a clue to tell me if it really works.  I know colors I like, but despite that I tend to stick with basic black with the excuse that it goes with everything, so encouragement about color is helpful.  I’m trying to challenge myself to buy more patterns but even then I need to be careful because there are visual problems with patterns that are too big or too small depending on a person’s size.  Again, the reason I need a personal visual designer.

I’m not sure how much my visual designer likes doing this with me, but he is usually able to find a comfy “man” chair as he calls it and he will use my changing time to check his email, put smart aleck remarks on Twitter and Facebook and read articles on line.  His only job is to look up when I walk out and let me see his face which tells me everything.  The smallest raise of eyebrows or crinkling of his nose tells me everything I need to know and he will actually take the time to tell me what he thinks works or doesn’t work.  I appreciate that he doesn’t just tell me what he thinks I want to hear but is honest with me if something works or doesn’t work. Again, I want it to look and feel good for me, but his opinion matters as well.

So, the shopping excursion was a success today, thanks to this special guy, and we had fun just spending time having lunch together and walking around doing a little shopping on a beautiful spring-like day.  Life is good when you’re married to your best friend, but even better when he cares enough to be your personal visual designer.