OP-SHOP STYLIST
‘How to look fab on a shoestring’
Crafting Barbie outfits from chocolate wrappers or transforming stockings into dresses might sound like child’s play, but for Bree Thompson such creativity has weaved its way through her entire life. Yet it took an identity crisis, struggles fitting in at boarding school and many daunting mufti days before she fully realised how her love for repurposing items could help her grow confidence and embrace her body.
It then took a pandemic, life coach and journaling for the 28-year-old Kiwi to turn that passion into a dream career.
Bree’s now found her calling, helping women overcome style, wardrobe or body-image challenges through her knack for op-shop styling and reimagining clothing.
It’s a skillset she developed as a child, rummaging around her Warkworth home or art classes for fabrics to tie or staple into outfits she’d later model for her parents and three older brothers.
“I created dolls’ clothes from lolly wrappers and dressed up wooden pegs in outfits made from chocolate wrappers,” she recalls. “And I was always in my mum and nana’s closets, trying on clothes.”
By her teens, savvy Bree was an avid op shopper. She slit armholes into one oversized skirt to wear as a frock. But her confidence was rattled while adjusting to an all-female boarding school, where she self-consciously turned up to mufti days feeling out of place for not wearing designer labels.
“I went through a tough patch of not understanding who I was in my teens,” she tells. “I had an identity crisis at boarding school because I didn’t relate or find my people. That’s when I started expressing myself through fashion. It became validating when someone said they loved what I was wearing. I was like, ‘Wow, I can trust my style’s cool.’”
However, as she entered her twenties, Bree still faced moments of disempowerment.
“I never had a realistic grasp of my size, which is common for women. I thought I was two sizes bigger than I was. And I would pick out flaws when I’d try to dress like everyone else because that just wasn’t for me.
“There’s pressure to look and feel great and that’s where transforming clothes really started coming into play for me. I would go, ‘This is how I want to feel when I step out. What outfit will back that?’
‘I never had a realistic grasp of my size, which is common for women’
“I would find pieces through thrifting, then change their style – shorten them or lower the back – to suit the feeling I wanted to evoke,” adds Bree. “Being able to dress in a way that matches how I’m feeling is everything.”
Still, it wasn’t until after she studied business and psychology, then worked in corporate
wellbeing that Bree started rethinking her path. So, when the pandemic hit, instead of a planned move to London, she moved from Auckland back to Warkworth and consulted a life coach to re-evaluate her career.
Together, they concluded that Bree needed to “step off the corporate mat and do more heart-led work”.
Combining her two greatest passions – fashion and wellness – she launched Second Life Studios to put her op shopping and repurposing skills to use by helping clients feel empowered by their outfits, without breaking the bank.
“It’s not just about what you’re wearing,” Bree explains. “It’s about what’s going on inside and how they can complement each other. Too often, women look at fashion blogs or what others are wearing, then try that and see flaws because it doesn’t look like what they’ve seen.
It’s important to tap into a person’s individuality and what makes them feel good, rather than trends.”
Bree runs online or in-person wardrobe consultations where she helps clients best utilise or repurpose their clothes. She also does individual or group styling jobs, sourcing outfits from op shops, many of which benefit charities like St John or hospices.
With setting up Zoom consultations amid Covid, Bree’s also had clients in New York and London. But there’s one person closer to home she loves to dress – her boyfriend and primary school sweetheart Jayden!
“He was my first boyfriend when I was 10,” she says of the 28-yearold quantity surveyor.
“We reconnected and now we’re together. He’s a fashionable guy – probably because I dress him!” she laughs.
As for her own style journey, today Bree happily struggles to name one body insecurity.
“Serving other women who are in the same space I once was has provided healing.”