Patty Fadhouli scaled down her wardrobe and fine-tuned her style
Patty Fadhouli still can’t believe she had more than 6,000 pounds of clothing and personal belongings when she relocated to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 2014.
The moving company that transferred her things from her small Houston townhome couldn’t believe it either. After all, the average weight range of a fourbedroom house is 7,000 to 10,000 pounds — and she far exceeded that.
“I realized then that I needed to downsize,” the 40-year-old Fadhouli said. “I had been putting all my eggs into fashion and shopping and had accumulated lot of stuff.”
Fadhouli moved to Idaho to work as the social media manager for fashion retailer Coldwater Creek, but it went bankrupt nine months after she took the job. While she was there, she donated a large portion of her wardrobe to The Fashion Project, an online marketplace for gently used women’s clothing. She also sold some on consignment.
“If I didn’t love it, I didn’t keep it,” she said.
Fadhouli said moving to Idaho challenged her to try new things. She learned how to ski and got into yoga. She also developed an appreciation for vintage pieces and swapped her 5-inch heels for flats and boots.
She returned to Houston in 2015 wiser, she said, and with a significantly edited wardrobe. She now works as marketing director for Abel Design Group, an architecture and design firm.
Fadhouli was born in Northern California and moved to Houston with her family at age 5. Her Catholic, Iraq-born parents owned a liquor store where she would do her homework in the back stockroom. She learned English from customers and from watching TV after school, she said.
Like many children of immigrants, Fadhouli, an only child, learned to balance two cultures, speaking Arabic at home with her parents and English at school.
She graduated from Westbury High School and went on to earn a degree in advertising from the University of Texas in 1997. She worked at IBM in Austin for a year after graduation, then took a marketing job with BMC Software in Houston.
Fadhouli traveled frequently across the country and to India for work. The exposure helped refine her fashion sensibilities and her eye for texture and color.
In 2009, Fadhouli became the first marketing manager at Charming Charlie. She spent four years at the Houston accessory retailer. It was a dream job, she said, and a chance to be involved in every aspect of building the brand.
“I became an accessory addict,” she said. “I’m petite and curvy, so I can’t do fluffy or big dramatic pieces because I get swallowed up. I can pair simple silhouettes with bold accessories. I love to play with hats, scarves and earrings. It allows me to be really creative.”
She said that though her style has matured, she’s always had a flair for putting looks together.
“I think it’s part of Middle Eastern culture. Dressing well and looking presentable is just something you do,” she said. “There’s no such thing as being over-dressed. Your goal is to look amazing at everything you do.”
Her biggest challenge is her petite stature; Fadhouli stands just 4 feet 8 inches.
“When you are working with such a small canvas, you have to really pay attention to scale and patterns. I understand it now.”