The wardrobe artist

“There’s a reason you don’t feel great when you are clad head-to-toe in cheap Chinese-made junk, and that’s because the quality is horrible,” says Fatizzi. “Nothing feels better than your body wrapped in natural fibers, or jewelry that won’t turn your skin green.”

Fatizzi. a mother of three, says many women make the mistake of spending too much money on seldom-worn special-occasion items at the expense of investing in a few perfect everyday garments. She believes in dressing with creative flair every day, as though it might be your last day on earth, because eventually you’ll be correct.

As a wardrobe advisor primarily to Ulster County’s middle-aged, middle-income women who want to dress distinctively, Fatizzi’s advice is to try things on and keep everyday clothing relatively simple. She follows the Price-Chopper rule. “Use hats and jewelry to make a screaming fashion statement that doesn’t wait for party invitations, but shows up proudly at Price Chopper,” she says.

Fatizzi points out that it’s practical on a day-to-day basis to factor in that sometime your hair color won’t be perfect, and that as a rule you probably won’t have a professional manicure to display. “So what you do is wear an awesome lime-green hat, or a fabulous antique ring,” she says. “That’s what people will notice and remember.”

Over the years, Rayann has become an expert on helping women dress in a way that helps them overcome perceived insecurities about figure flaws, which everyone has. “It’s easier to dress when you are young and thin, of course,” she says. “But then you don’t have any money.”

Fatizzi outfitted several high-school girls for back-to-school this year. “Because I have a lot of really great clothing that’s in new or like-new condition in smaller sizes, $200 easily buys them a full week’s worth of looks — that’s weekends, too — and it’s mostly stuff they’ll have for years.”

A large portion of her new customer base consists of mothers of teenagers with skin allergies. “Garments that have stood the test of time, worn or not, are made with better-quality ingredients,” says the retailer.

While teenagers typically need basics like solid-color separates, older women frequently do not, says Fatizzi. “Most mature women own way too many separates they can’t even remember buying, stuffed away in their closets unseen. That’s why for them I recommend blouses and dresses, often in fabrics that flow,” she says.

Filling real needs

Fatizzi says that most adult women really do need to keep a navy or black dress that fits them at their current weight at the ready, something they could wear to a funeral, job or other serious occasion. They should also have a flattering, comfortable everyday pair of washable pants made of something like denim or canvas. Seasonal needs may require a serviceable bathing suit, a pair of shorts, and a number of coats and jackets at various lengths and weights. For most women, a selection of dresses and blouses that represent who they are now, not some projection of a younger, slimmer past or a fancier, more formal future, should be the backbone of their wardrobe.

“I like a dress, because you put it on and you’re done. Separates tend to get lost in your closet or stuffed in a drawer, but a dress gets treated with some respect,” says Fatizzi. “They hang right up front in your closet, where you can really see them, standing at attention, ready to be worn.”

Right now the mid-range of women who used to be dependable recreational shoppers seem strangely hesitant about buying anything new that’s really useful. In the current economy, Fatizzi thinks they often make the compulsive error of purchasing something eye-catching on sale at some place like Marshall’s that will once again go stale in their closet.

This drives the wardrobe artist nuts.

“I don’t understand, although I think I can help, this strange desire to acquire something that however bargain-priced for the label it sports, doesn’t really fulfill a truly useful wardrobe niche,” says Fatizzi. Learning how to really dress for your age and situation isn’t as simple as reading a fashion-magazine article on how to mix and match. But she says she can teach people, by appointment.

“I’m not simply some purveyor of chic designer clothes that will say for you what you cannot say for yourself,” says Fatizzi. “I would never let someone walk out of my store with trousers that made them an object of ridicule. As much as I might like to have made a sale, that is a reputational train wreck.”

Most of her bread-and-butter traffic derives from year-round local residents. While she welcomes the summertime influx of tourists, that’s not really her customer base. “I can do the most for people I actually get to know,” says Fatizzi.

For more information, and to make an appointment, call Rayann’s Creative Instinct at 246-4492.