Bo­bie-lee Dixon

Im­age is every­thing! At least that's what some peo­ple say. Im­age con­sul­tant Win­ty Pe­ters-Ali firm­ly be­lieves that the right shoes, ac­ces­sories or even your make-up can sell you to the high­est bid­der. Your en­sem­ble must speak be­fore you do. Hav­ing spent five years in the fi­nan­cial sec­tor, she trad­ed in num­bers for what she records as a ful­fill­ing ca­reer-pro­vid­ing im­age con­sul­tan­cy for women at the cor­po­rate lev­el. De­vot­ing all her time now to en­sur­ing that these women al­ways look and feel their best, she has, with the help of her hus­band, of­fi­cial­ly start­ed her own com­pa­ny called La­dy­Chic Trinidad. In the mak­ing for the past four years, Pe­ters-Ali said La­dy­Chic is a fresh fash­ion for­ward busi­ness that of­fers im­age con­sul­tan­cy ser­vice to to­day's suc­cess­ful woman. The 31-year-old styl­ist said the con­cept of the com­pa­ny is to help cor­po­rate women cre­ate and con­sis­tent­ly project their per­son­al brand. "From the board­room to that gala func­tion, La­dy­Chic will en­sure you ex­ude chic al­ways," she said. Pe­ters-Ali op­er­ates the Cou­va-based busi­ness out of her home at Cen­tral Park, and says La­dy­Chic's core ser­vices in­clude im­age con­sul­tan­cy with the key ob­jec­tive of pro­vid­ing fash­ion ad­vice and out­fit­ting clients in de­sign­er-brand busi­ness suits and ac­ces­sories and com­plete­ly chic lifestyle looks.

She al­so arranges pro­fes­sion­al styling ser­vices in­clud­ing hair and make-up for spe­cial oc­ca­sions. "We al­so of­fer pro­fes­sion­al gar­ment ad­just­ments and laun­dro­mat drop-offs and de­liv­ery," she said. "We help you de­cide what not to wear by pro­vid­ing per­son­al style ad­vice and teach­ing you what works for your body type, weight place, skin tone, fa­cial fea­tures, per­son­al­i­ty and lifestyle," she ex­plained. Pe­ters-Ali said she was in­spired to get in­to the busi­ness of im­age con­sul­tan­cy af­ter recog­nis­ing how dif­fi­cult it was to find qual­i­ty cor­po­rate wear that fit per­fect­ly, even when pur­chased at stores that on­ly sold high-end brands.

"I would al­so walk down the street and find women at the cor­po­rate lev­el dressed in suits that just did not com­ple­ment them in any way," she added. Pe­ters-Ali said it is dif­fi­cult for Caribbean women to find de­sign­er busi­ness suits in T&T that fit per­fect­ly be­cause they are not tai­lored to suit their body type. "These suits are Eu­ro­pean-de­signed, so you will not get a per­fect fit. You may get a well-fit­ting bot­tom piece but the top may not com­ple­ment you and vice ver­sa," she said. Be­cause most stores do not of­fer im­age-con­sul­tan­cy tips and pro­fes­sion­al ad­just­ments, cus­tomers of­ten walk away with a bad buy.

"How many times have you spent a lot of mon­ey on an out fit that just didn't fit you ap­pro­pri­ate­ly and you had to try dart­ing and nip­ping and tuck­ing it here and there for it to fit?" she asked. Pe­ters-Ali has elim­i­nat­ed this stress for her clients. "I do all the shop­ping abroad and when I get back ad­just­ments take place. All you have to do is slip in­to your suit and feel con­fi­dent," said the An­glia Ruskin Uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate. "Our ser­vice is a unique per­son­alised ser­vice. "You do not have to lift a foot to go out and shop. Based on your per­son­al style, and the oc­ca­sion, we bring the look to you. From size ze­ro to 24, La­dy­Chic takes on the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of ad­just­ing gar­ments to suit every fig­ure of woman, says Pe­ters-Ali. Part of the unique ser­vice of­fered to clients is hav­ing the lux­u­ry of La­dy­Chic out­fit them in the pri­va­cy of their homes. "You have shop­ping ac­cess at our of­fice or I can come to you," she said. And as part of La­dy­Chic's ex­clu­siv­i­ty fea­ture, no more than three of the same items are ever or­dered.

Dress­ing T&T

Pe­ters-Ali's clien­tele are main­ly from cor­po­rate T&T. She al­so dress­es a few par­lia­men­tar­i­ans. "Our clien­tele is grow­ing quick­ly and I think that is be­cause peo­ple re­al­ly like and ap­pre­ci­ate the ser­vices of­fered. "When I de­cid­ed to get in­to this busi­ness, I re­al­ly want­ed to fo­cus on giv­ing my cus­tomers an in­com­pa­ra­ble ser­vice and that is what I con­tin­ue to strive to do," ex­plained Pe­ters-Ali. She says her clients get to wear some of the top de­sign­er brands in­clud­ing Tahari, Nine West, Liz Clai­borne, Calvin Klein, Ken­neth Cole, Suit­sStu­dio, Jones New York, Kasper, Anne Klein and Evan Pi­cone to name a few, all at rea­son­able prices.

She said clients al­so have the op­tion of de­ferred month-end pay­ment pack­ages. "You can get to wear the cloth­ing, have it ad­just­ed, dry-cleaned and every­thing and you pay for the ser­vices at the end of the month. This is all part of the unique ser­vice we of­fer," said Pe­ters-Ali.

Keep it rel­e­vant

Whether you are in the of­fice, at a func­tion, or ca­su­al­ly hang­ing out, look­ing your best is al­ways im­por­tant, says Pe­ters-Ali. She said no mat­ter where you are you must al­ways look rel­e­vant. "I have many friends and clients who come up to me and con­fess they got ca­reer of­fers just by the way they were dressed. "Do not un­der­es­ti­mate the pow­er of the right wear. As I said be­fore, your look can ei­ther put you in con­trol or get you left be­hind. "Stick to clean cuts as it al­lows you to re­main rel­e­vant year af­ter year and gives you a classy sense of style on all oc­ca­sions," she ad­vised.