La Closette: The Power And Passion Of Style
La Closette’s MT Meikle says that, for many reasons, now is the ideal time to focus on fashion, your wardrobe and personal style.
We may be challenged to find any positives about 2020, but “awareness” may be one of them. A greater awareness of our priorities, our family and friends, our essentials, our homes and our personal selves. While our personal physical interactions may be limited, through video calls, we may actually be seeing and speaking to more people this year than ever before — and reconnecting with family, friends and associates for the first time in years.
And through these interactions, we are subtly communicating not only our personalities, but also our personal styles, which we all possess. No one understands this more than MT Meikle, founder and co-owner of La Closette, a premier fashion consultancy specializing in personal styling and online style consulting for work and play.
“Style encompasses everything: how you talk, mannerisms, posture and first impressions, and the first thing people judge is what the other person is wearing, and details can make or break it, so it’s important to take the time to focus on the details,” says Meikle. “Even while at home during these days. If you want to feel better at home, you present yourself better and you are then more productive. Even on a screen, people are analyzing what you’re wearing and how you’re put together, even before you speak, as it’s the same as seeing someone in person.”
Meikle has a degree in science from McMaster University and was introduced to fashion by making extra money as a model. And, after going to school at the Academy of Fashion Design and having two daughters, she started her own business to allow her some additional freedom. She met her business partner, Irene Kim, while making a presentation at a law firm, and their sympatico and mutually supportive partnership has flourished these past nine years.
Style encompasses everything: how you talk, mannerisms, posture and first impressions, and the first thing people judge is what the other person is wearing, and details can make or break it, so it’s important to take the time to focus on the details.
“La Closette helps our clients uncover their own style and gives them confidence,” says Meikle, on their business success. “If you have confidence in what you’re wearing, you end up looking great and feeling great, and it impacts everything in your life. You need to own your style. Don’t let a label own you. You create your own style and need to be the owner of it, to be feeling good about what you are wearing and feeling confident about yourself.”
La Closette believes that everyone has their own style, even if they don’t realize it. And there is a huge difference between shopping for clothes and shopping for “style.” “Shopping for clothes is just throwing it into your closet by accumulating clothes,” observes Meikle. “Shopping for style means you are buying pieces which are meant to be versatile for your wardrobe and your body. [It’s] your vision for the pieces for who you are and who you want to be, and you don’t have to spend a lot. Here, we can be of real value, as clients come to us to create a wardrobe, and we do a style audit first on what they might need before they buy.”
La Closette has recently become part of a partnership in a new initiative called Operation 03, which puts on specially curated fashion events once per month with different themes to benefit both the retailers that are providing the fashions, with additional exposure, and the shoppers, with special discounts. With strict safety protocols in place, it keeps alive the retailing experience with new thinking during the pandemic.
“We wanted to do luxury sample sales in luxury venues,” says Meikle. “We are providing retailers and designers an opportunity to showcase their products as art pieces in distinctive venues. These are all highly curated events and will provide the shoppers with exclusive retail and multi-sensory experiences like no other to make them feel special and indulgent.”
It is another example of how well La Closette understands its customers. “They trust us with their personal lives, as we look into their homes, closets and budgets, and we do it with kindness,” says Meikle.
“We may have felt we’ve lost some control this year, so little wins can mean so much to us and put a smile on our faces, like a reimagining of our personal style and an investment now for the brighter days that may hopefully lie ahead.”
