An affection for florals and a colour-coded closet
Amanda Toth starts each morning by opening her closet and gazing at a veritable garden of flowers.
Her wardrobe is packed with them, you see — dresses decorated in a wide swath of botanical floral prints, like the big, bold blooms you’ll find artfully placed on her favourite Ted Baker frocks.
Not to mention that dresses are an easy morning solution for the mom of an almost-six-year-old, who also happens to be a partner in a blossoming design firm situated in downtown Hamilton. With a dress, one step and you’re done. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that she’s also a wiz with colour and pattern.
“Being a designer, I love to organize in colour,” says Toth, 36, co-owner of The Laundry Design Works, a studio that specializes in apparel marketing and design and recently won the 2017 Outstanding Business Achievement Award from the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. “So if you were to look in my closet right now, it would be colour coded.”
But Toth’s affection for florals bleeds into her work, as well. She regularly designs floral textiles to be incorporated into technical, high-end outerwear lines for clients, which is one niche area of focus for her branding and marketing studio. Like that one time she created a photo-realistic floral fabric in deep blues and purples for a client who had originally been considering a camouflage print for their line of women’s outerwear.
“I love all things girlie, so ever since I can remember, I’ve been wearing dresses, even in the winter,” says Toth. “And I like all the feminine details — if there’s a little bit of frilling or lace or even the textures, a little bit of softness, velvet or sheer. I love all those things.”
Toth also says she prefers simple, modern lines like the navy “wallpaper” floral dress she wears here from Joe Fresh, to ’90s-era boho styles covered in tiny “ditzy” flowers. She accessorizes her outfit with Michael Kors wedge sandals in ivory, vintage floral stud earrings and a Kate Spade bow ring.
Most eye-catching piece:
Currently my favourite dress is a maroon-coloured velour dress, and I feel like that’s the most eye-catching piece. Because I do wear a lot of darks and it’s got a punch of colour and it fits me really well and it’s velour and it’s soft and I really like it. So I feel confident in it ...
Quirkiest wardrobe item:
I have a solid collection of all-over print bunny items … I just think they’re so cute. All animals that are babies and fuzzy — that’s my thing. Only PJs or socks … so I have (a pair of ) PJ bottoms and they have an all-over bunny print … it is coral with white bunnies all over print. And I also have grey socks with white bunnies, all over print.
Wardrobe must have:
Two things I can think of: definitely that cute black dress that is multi-versatile. You can wear it professionally, you can wear it out at night and it’s just that really good-fitting black dress. And a really good, supportive undergarment. That’s key. It makes you feel supported and it makes you feel good and it makes your clothes fit really well. For me it’s mostly just a good supportive bra.
Best purchase:
I love a deal, so whenever I get a really good deal on something, like it’s on sale, that makes me feel really good. I always find good deals on Kate Spade earrings and rings. I always get them at 70 per cent off (at the outlet store in Milton) which makes me extremely happy.
Regrets buying:
Most of the time the regrets are things that I see and I love and don’t impulse-buy them and come back for them later and they’re gone. So I think everyone has one of those experiences. I think for me that would be what I didn’t buy.
Loves to shop at:
I do love Kate Spade, I love shopping there. I love going into Ted Baker because I think his designs are the best floral prints. I think they’re exceptionally done, very beautiful and sophisticated ... I see a lot of his style of florals moving into, say, Joe Fresh, or into all of the different brands, all the way from the top to the bottom ...
I find that (Ted Baker) floral prints are usually garden florals, which is something that I really love, or wallpaper florals. And I think the printing on them is really beautiful. He’s really good at doing just the right amount or the placement on the dresses, very feminine, very sophisticated, and the print quality is really nice.
I love Joe Fresh, as well, obviously, because I love a deal and I think they do their prints really well there, as well ... if I’m looking for a special occasion dress, I’ll look in Ricki’s. I think they do a good job there.
Ridding your closet of:
Clothes that don’t fit. Or things that I haven’t worn in a long time and that take up a lot of space.
Splurges on:
I do splurge a lot on good skin care products. My line that I love is an organic line called Eminence ... and I really love the Stone Crop. It has a beautiful spa-like smell and that’s where I buy those products — from the spas.
Beauty item she can’t live without:
(The Eminence skin care line is) one of them, for sure, and eyeliner. I think eyeliner for me is very important and I like the slightly pinup look, although I haven’t mastered it yet — still working on it. I go for a medium grey or black, depending on how intense I want to look. I usually use MAC products.