We were lucky to catch up with Alison Lumbatis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alison, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
Yes, I won’t tell you to buy more clothes! Most women think the solution to a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear is to add more. I show women how to shop their closets to create outfits they love. But the Outfit Formulas solution starts with a little bit of work – you have to clean out your closet. You need to know what you have in order to know what you need. Truth is, we only wear about 20% of what’s in our closets, that other 80% is just hanging out in there causing decision fatigue. By getting rid of it, out of sight, out of mind – you’re able to focus on intentionally filling in the gaps in your wardrobe. I encourage women to shop with a purpose by using a list. Once you have your basics in place, then it’s easy to update your wardrobe seasonally!
Alison, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m the founder of Outfit Formulas and a former telecom engineer turned entrepreneur, stylist and best selling author. Since starting my personal styling program in 2014, I’ve helped over 100,000 women in 20 countries get dressed every day with the Outfit Formulas concept.
When I started working from home in 2012, I fell into a yoga pants rut. As I was rebuilding my wardrobe for my new work from home lifestyle, I decided to start blogging as my accountability partner. My blog organically grew a large following within a year and I took a severance package from my job in corporate America.
In 2014, I rolled out the Outfit Formulas personal styling program. I help women rebuild their wardrobes by giving them a shopping list of classic basic items and seasonal trends to keep it all fresh. It’s a capsule wardrobe builder so they get to wear the pieces on the list in multiple ways. We also provide them with a catalog or shopping links and a season’s worth of mix and match outfit ideas or formulas that they receive via email or our app on a daily basis. It honestly makes getting dressed the easiest thing they do all day!
Style is a skill that anyone can learn. You don’t have to be naturally gifted with it. I love seeing the confidence blossom in our members when they feel great in their clothes! Every woman deserves to dress the body she has right now. Our program democratizes personal style so it’s accessible to every woman, no matter her age, body shape or budget.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Get everyone on board with your mission from day one. During the interview process, share the core values of your company. This will naturally attract the right people to your team. Our mission is to help as many women as possible find confidence through easy style. We lead with kindness and our community is a reflection of that. By establishing a mission statement and communicating our core values, our team is better able to serve our customers and community.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
We launched one of our programs during Covid on the day the US literally closed down. Sales were down by 50% so my team and I knew we had to pivot. We changed up tactics to start offering more free resources and downloads to our customers, to serve them in their time of need. By the time our next program launch rolled around, we had grown our list significantly from offering those freebies. Even during the pandemic, we experienced 10% growth and I believe this was due in large part to that pivot to serve in a time of need.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://outfitformulas.com, http://alisonlumbatis.com
- Instagram: @alisonlumbatis, @outfitformulasofficial
Image Credits
Leksi Sterrit Photography