When it comes to fashion, I’m bit of a rogue.

I don’t follow trends and think style has little to do with fashion.

That explains why image consultant Wendy Woods and I get on so fabulously when we meet one June afternoon.

Plain and simple, Wendy’s a stylista, not a fashionista. That means she encourages you to cultivate your inner style gut so you can create a look that’s wholly your own — without being a slave to trends that don’t suit you.

Based in High Park, Wendy offers colour analyses, wardrobe audits, personal shopping services and boutique shopping tours through her business The Refinery.

There are ready-made shopping tours, such as the “Made in Canada” boutique tour highlighting Canadian designers and even custom shop walks. The day we meet we’re trying out a designer studio tour Wendy will be adding to the roster soon.

We begin at Wise Daughters Craft Market, a new Junction shop that’s been on my to-do list. Owner Mary Breen carries handmade pieces by 50 or so artisans and designers many of which live and work in the area.

Clothing isn’t her bag, Breen tells us, though there are some gorgeous slip-inspired dresses that just came in that are made of neckties.

We linger over some stunning glass belt buckles made by Jennifer Aubé of Urban Fusions, $50 each. They’d be a great way to jazz up a plain black outfit, Wendy says.

The long knit summery scarves by Diana Brugos, $20–25 each, also enchant. Not a lot of woman know what to do with a summer scarf, Wendy says. She vows to post a You Tube video on scarf-tying 101 soon.

Necklaces made of recycled glass — large chunky pieces hanging from industrial looking chains — are $20 or so. They’re made by an artist at Toronto organization Sketch, which provides art-making opportunities for homeless or at-risk youth — and 80 percent of the proceeds go back to the artist for this product only.

Wendy notices I’m drawn to jewellery that’s long and thin, and tells me we’re naturally attracted to what we are in terms of our shape (my face is thin and I have a pointy pixie chin and ears).

3079B Dundas St. West, 416-761-1555 www.wisedaughters.com

The shape theme continues in designer Melody Cebula’s Kingsway studio, where Wendy and I ooh and ahh over Cebula’s line of ladies clothing pieces, Precocious Environmental Couture, made with reworked vintage fabrics.

Wendy beelines to a rack of short bolero-style sweaters with bow ties at the front.

They’re darling, but Wendy’s message is to shop thinking about how clothing fits you proportionally. She plops on one of the boleros.
It looks silly on her tall frame and shortens her already short torso, she points out.

The longer bolero style with funnel neck looks more proportionate on her, while the shorter style would look better on a petite person, she says.

Meanwhile Cebula’s long wrap-inspired dresses, made from various recycled tees, would look great on me as they’re long and lean.

Then Wendy hits me with a humdinger observation: my torso is an inverted triangle shape.

Hallelujah. I’ve always thought my shoulders bony and small, but it turns out they’re actually wider than my hips. I have a small waist so that’s where the triangle comes in.

Note: Wendy doesn’t believe in calling people fruit, that’s why she doesn’t call my torso an inverted pear shape — a philosophy I laud ‘cos I’d sure hate to be called a pear or worse, an apple.

The best way to flaunt what you’ve got, she says, is to buy pieces that match your shape. Turns out I’ve done it without even knowing it as I’ve worn a tee with a wide boat neck and nipped-in waist, or a triangle top.

If you dress for your body type and in proportion, Wendy says, people will notice you and how you look in an outfit instead of just the outfit itself.

4160B Dundas St. West (by appointment only) 416-895-8537 www.precociousboutique.com

Next we wing our way to Blair Nadeau’s Bloor West Village home studio. Nadeau, a recent Ryerson fashion design school grad, is the creator of Feathered, a modern vintage millinery.

Nadeau launched her collection of feathered cocktail hats and hair accessories this spring. Her creations are vintage glam all the way, but you can easily rock them up with funky garb and accessories (just visit Nadeau’s website to see how brilliantly she has done it).

Each hat and hair piece is handmade using a combination of felt, chiffon, tulle, Russian veiling — even zippers fashioned into roses — and, of course, just about every type and colour feather you can imagine. Nadeau even handmakes the underpad onto which she fastens the feathers.

Wendy observes that she and I both try on the cocktail hats (held in place by a comb) on the left side of our heads — interesting considering I’m right-handed and even carry my purse over my right shoulder.

The reason, she explains: we look at each other from left to right, so a hat on the left side “stops” onlookers and causes them to refocus on our face. Interesting theory; I like her idea that we instinctively want people to look at our faces.

Nadeau works with ostrich feathers, hackle feathers from roosters, marabou feathers (the soft fluff under a peacock or ostrich) and more.

I have my eye on a hair accessory called “Girl About Town” (isn’t that me to a tee?) featuring a gold and black feather arrangement mounted on a thin headband. With my short hair the look is flapper chic.

The pieces on Nadeau’s website, www.blairnadeau.com, can be customized using different colour combinations.

Wendy Woods, The Refinery: 416-262-4116 www.therefinery.ca