At age 50, Louise Crawford Kahle knew it was time to embark on a new adventure. A love for clothes prompted her to begin a career, coaching women of the “baby boomer” generation on how to develop personal style. Louise’s business, “Sassy Boomer Girls”, serves as a beacon to the sartorially weary in our area to this day. She’s also a contributing writer for Mature Living (also owned by Adams Street Publishing) and her first column debuts next month.
The bio on your site mentions a serious career change, from banking to fashion. What prompted this?
Turning 50. At my half-century birthday, I thought it was a good time to evaluate my life. I had a good marriage, good health and a good job, but I didn’t enjoy doing that job anymore. I decided it was time for a change. That was a huge decision because I had been working in banks since I was 17 and had pretty much convinced myself that it was the only thing I knew how to do. However, with age comes confidence, and I decided the rest of my life should be spent doing something interesting. After a lot of soul-searching I came up with style coach because I liked clothes and I thought helping other women find their personal style would be fun and rewarding.
What do you feel is the essence of personal style? Can it be taught?
Personal style is an expression of who you are and how you feel about yourself. It can be as diverse as your mood each day. Sometimes you just want to stay home in sweats, and that’s OK. I feel joyful and excited about what each day might bring and I want the way I look to show that. Certainly part of that is a desire to show others who I am, but mostly it’s for my own benefit. I am absolutely positive that if you look good, you feel good and good things happen. I don’t teach my clients anything. I inspire them. I help them give themselves permission to choose colors and styles they may not have thought of before, I love it when they discover the sassy, confident woman they are. Clothes can do that for you.
Describe your greatest success to date as a style coach.
Once, I took two girlfriends shopping. I worked with each one for an hour, while the other watched and offered her opinion. It was lots of fun for all of us, and even though neither one bought a lot that day, they took pictures of each other in their “new” outfits so they could reference them later. It was a pretty easy shopping experience for me and I didn’t realize the impact it had until about a month later, when I got an email from one that said: “I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me. Last week I went to a retreat with a lot of people I knew and most of them didn’t realize it was me until the morning after we arrived. When one man realized who I was he couldn’t stop looking at me and later, even asked me out! I have changed my hairstyle and my wardrobe and the compliments just keep coming. Thank you again for everything!”
What advice would you give to Baby Boomer-era women who don’t think they could ever be “sassy”?
The advice I would give a woman is to give herself permission. She has experienced heartache and joy and moved on. She has proven she is tough, yet she’s done proving anything to anybody. Now is the time for her to try new things: take classes, volunteer, read interesting books, cook delicious food (even if it’s just for her), meet new women! Go to stores and try on new things just for the fun of it. Try a sassy new haircut or color. Paint your nails a funky color. Remember, the only one you need to please is yourself. Be bold, Sassy Boomer Girls!
