Practice English Listening B1 Exercises – A day with a personal stylist

B

Sam liked outfit 2 best because it was quite bold, he felt very smart, and he wouldn’t normally wear clothes like that.

C

1   Sam fills in a questionnaire.

2   Sam meets Elin at the Fashion Lounge.

3   Elin asks Sam questions about his lifestyle.

4   Sam goes shopping with Elin.

5   Sam tries on four outfits.

D

1   Look at your own wardrobe before you go shopping.

2   Stay true to yourself when you go shopping.

3   It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got – you can look good.

4   Everyone should have a good pair of jeans in their wardrobe.

A day with a personal stylist

Part 1

N = narrator, S = Sam, E = Elin

N   Sam Alexander is an actor. He lives in London. Today he’s going to visit a personal stylist, Elin Mai, at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush.

S   I thought my wardrobe was getting quite boring and I dress up a lot for my job as an actor. Sometimes I don’t give any thought to my own wardrobe, so I was keen to sort of refresh things a bit and get a new opinion. Hi, Elin.

E   Hello, Sam! Welcome!

S   Thank you very much. Nice to meet you.

E   Nice to meet you too. Welcome to the Fashion Lounge. I think having your unique personal style is something that’s incredibly important to each and every individual. And everyone should ideally try and find their own personal style as well.

N   Before this session Sam has filled in a questionnaire with everything from his sizes to his dress sense.

E   OK, tell me how today came about… With every session, we sit down at the beginning and we have a chat about their questionnaire, so we go into a bit more depth. And then we would ask them more questions about their lifestyle as well. When you’re actually working, how many days a week work are you actually at work?

S   Well, the thing about being an actor is that you don’t have any routine, so sometimes I’m in a play, in which case I work six days a week and I’d have a routine. But then that stops suddenly and then I might be between jobs, in which case I’m at home a lot or I might be doing filming, which means fewer days, but very long hours.

E   Now the consultation usually lasts, you know, fifteen to twenty minutes, but the consultation actually continues throughout the session as well. So those little questions about their lifestyle – and I find out things about what they like and what they dislike and about the shops that they’ve gone to in the past and about their relationship with clothes.

N   After Sam and Elin have visited a few shops, they return to the Fashion Lounge and Elin divides the clothes into four outfits.

E   Ready, Sam? Wow!

S   Here we are.

E   OK! This looks fantastic. How do you feel?

S   I really like it. It is quite bold – the shirt – but yeah.

E   How do the jeans fit?

S   Great. These are jeans that stretch. They feel very comfy.

E   What I wanted to show you now as well is actually how useful this outfit’s going to be, so I want you to put this smart blazer on just to show you that you can elevate this outfit and make it look smart by putting a blue blazer on top. Yeah, really, really nice. Have a look at yourself here then as well. What do you think?

S   That’s very nice. Yeah, I really like it – very smart.

N   Sam likes the second outfit, too.

E   Let’s see this next one. Wow! Oh my goodness! Give me a twirl in this one as well. Fabulous. How do you feel?

S   Really good. This is not something I would dare to go for normally, but I really, I really like it. I love it.

E   OK, fantastic, so what I really like about it as well is the fact that none of the colours are actually matching, but they all work in harmony with each other really nicely.

N   Sam then tries on outfit three.

E   Oh wow, another completely different outfit.

S   I really like this one.

E   You like this one?

S   Absolutely. It’s a very good idea, putting trainers with smarter trousers. I wouldn’t think to do that.

N   And finally, he tries on outfit four.

E   Wow! What another entrance!

S   So this is a staple – everyone should have one of these.

E   Everyone should have a denim shirt.

S   See, I haven’t. Brilliant.

N   But which outfit does Sam like best? Outfit one…Outfit two… Outfit three…Outfit four…

***

S   I think outfit two really, because it was quite bold. I felt very smart in it and I wouldn’t have worn those kind of things.

Part 2

N   So what are Elin’s golden rules?

E   I would say my golden rules would be to look at you own wardrobe to begin with before even going shopping because without knowing what you’ve got, you can’t go out and buy the right things. OK, fantastic!

I    think a lot of the mistakes that people make are, they’re not staying true to themselves when they actually go out shopping. So perhaps they’ve seen kind of a lot of different things in magazines and online. And sometimes that can be really confusing. I truly believe that it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got you can look good. It’s about where you shop and how you put things together.

N   Is there one item that Elin thinks everyone should have?

E   I do think that everyone should have a good pair of jeans in their wardrobe that fits them perfectly, that makes them feel good about themselves. Did you enjoy today?

S   I did. It was absolutely brilliant. It exceeded my expectations. It was really great fun.

N   Although not everyone needs Elin’s help, for Sam the day with a personal stylist has clearly changed his wardrobe and his attitude to it.

E   No problem.

S   Bye.

E   Bye!