OF ALL THE THINGS YOU CAN DO with your mum – shopping, lunch, a trip to the theatre – going to a style consultation is certainly novel.
As I sit in the taxi on the way to meet my rather chic 63-year-old mother, Peggy, and then style advisors Catherine Sinclair and Karen Finlayson, the women behind Edinburgh-based style consultancy Renideo, I'm feeling a little nervous. I've seen the
brutal tactics of Trinny and Susannah and the out-and-proud Gok Wan and, to be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to respond so well to being pushed, prodded, cupped and cajoled, even with my mum to hold my hand.
Sensing my anxiety in his rear view mirror, the driver asks me where I'm going. When I explain, instead of a hearty dose of taxi driver banter, he instantly reveals the contents of his wardrobe and his sartorial dilemmas. The fact is, he owns six white shirts and one blue, but he always wears the white ones. "That means I'm always ready to go to a wedding or a funeral because I look smart," he says.
Mr Taxi's wardrobe woe is all too common. Most of us get into the habit of wearing the same or similar clothes almost without meaning to. Habit, convenience, cowardice, call it what you will.
"A style consultant hasn't been living with your ruts and routines and so can hold the vision of your new, reinvented self while you make the changes," says Sinclair by way of an explanation that Renideo is all about change, but change that clients want to make.
Sitting in a small room in an annex at the back of a Marchmont church, Sinclair and Finlayson have welcomed us with a glass of Buck's fizz and are outlining the plan for the three-hour session. First we'll reveal what we like and dislike to give them a sense of our tastes and lifestyle. Then we'll have a colour consultation in which they'll work through a range of colours to ascertain what works for us.
After a coffee break, we'll finish with a session in front of a full-length mirror, being advised on what's best for our body types.
Sound nerve-wracking? It's not actually. The Renideo style is gentle and encouraging. "Our job isn't to change what people want to wear, just to advise how they can wear what they like in the best way," says Sinclair.
Despite admitting to "a few nerves" about the session, my mum is up for the day. The idea of Two to Tango not only allows Renideo to work with two age groups, 20s and 50s (or in our case 30s and 60s) who often struggle with their wardrobes, it also gives clients a source of moral support as well as fun.
In the days leading up to our session, my mum and I call each other to compare notes on our homework and, of course, to discuss what we might wear to the session.
As our consultation begins, we flip through the cuttings we've brought along and it's amazingly revealing to see what my mum's chosen. There's a page of distinctive jewellery, a family portrait, an interiors shot picked for the gorgeous bunch of flowers – pink tulips and gerbera daisies – exploding from a vase. And finally, a photograph of a delicious-looking berry crumble, drizzled with cream.
Sinclair and Finlayson are utterly attentive throughout the session. They look through our pictures, prompting us for further explanation. "You've given us lots of food for thought," says Sinclair as she leafs through the pages.
"There are some similarities in what you like – simple lines and shapes and tailoring," she says. There are others too – neither of us wears heels, we both choose silver over gold and we both have a fondness for black.
Alas, if we were feeling cocky from our show and tell, a colour session soon reveals that we have a lot to learn. Finlayson describes this part of the day as a "teaching session" and encourages us to chat and ask questions as they work through different palettes – warm and cool colours, soft and light textures.
Sitting side by side opposite a mirror, we're wrapped in white aprons with Sinclair and Finlayson standing behind us. They work through myriad swatches of colour, placing the fabric beneath our chins so that we can see the effect that colour has on our skin tone and hair colour.
I'm no fashionista but I would like to think I have a sense of what colours work for me, but it was fascinating to see the difference that colour can make. When Finlayson drapes a dark blue swatch beneath my face, my eyes look blue and my skin tone even. Same with yellow and pink. But they are not colours I usually wear.
Swapping the colours to my mum, her selection is completely different. For her it's an autumn palette – chocolate brown, deep red and moss green – but black is a no-no. I can see her eyes light up as she thinks of the shopping that will have to be done to update her mainly black wardrobe.
The colour advice was also the most interesting part of the day for Yasmin Lutton, 41, who took her mum, Zora, 62, along to Renideo for a post-Christmas treat. "It's amazing how a particular colour can wash you out and another warms your face up," she says.
"Looking through my colour swatches, I could see that it matched the colours that I'd go for, but it was great to get confirmation. I'm definitely more conscious of colour when I shop now."
Lutton explains that not only was it fun to be there with her mum, it gave them both some insight into how their wardrobes need to develop and change.
"Anything Catherine and Karen said to my mum kind of rang true for me too," she says. "My mum had my colouring – dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin – 20-odd years ago but her hair is now silvery and her skin is lighter, as happens when you get older.
"It means that the strong colours that worked for me didn't work for her. Black looked fine against my face, but when they put it against her it really washed her out. The paler versions of the colours that worked for me suited her."
"I love seeing the difference that colour can make to a person," says Finlayson. "It's such an Eighties thing to talk about colour, but it's a great moment when clients find out what colours make them look healthy and energised."
Towards the end of the session I stand in front of a full-length mirror to let Sinclair and Finlayson explain which styles will work best for me.
"That is criminal," Sinclair says and for a second before a huge laugh sets me right, I think the spirit of Trinny and Susannah has entered the building.
What she's referring to is my much-loved, although I now realise slightly sagging, black trousers. As she pulls at the fabric, tightening them around my thigh and backside, it's obvious and not annoying at all that she's absolutely right.
Renideo, tel: 07970 624722, or visit www.renideo.co.uk An extended Two to Tango session covering both colour and style costs £300 (£150 each). Individual consultations can also be arranged.