Love this tip from In Style’s “Glam New Closet,” January 2009 — “Illuminate a 60-watt GE Reveal bulb, says Melissa George, senior designer at California Closets. The light is cooler than standard incandescents but not harsh like fluorescents.”  I never thought about the light in my bedroom until I hired my friend Lani Rosenstock (stylist extraordinaire in NYC & DC) to go through my closet one night and she couldn’t tell what color anything was.

And let’s face it, if a stylist isn’t able to tell whether something looks good together in my poorly lit closet or whether the garment is still in good condition, I’m going to make quite a few fashion mistakes over the years thinking something is a “close” match when in fact it’s not. Frankly, I couldn’t even tell if my trusty black suit was showing just how much I trusted it over the years.

Before you say that light is trivial, think about this — it takes between 0.1 to 2.0 seconds to make a first impression (depending on what researcher you ask.) Yes, that’s 1/10th to 2 SECONDS. If you walk into that job interview with your blue suit jacket and black pants … chances are you will not be able to pull it off as intentional. I’ll also scare you with mismatched clothing on a blind date. But since you’d need newborn eyes to notice a wardrobe mistake in today’s dimly lit modern restaurant world, maybe this isn’t an issue. I bet Denny’s or the Sizzler is well lit. But if you’re on a blind date at Denny’s, we’ve got to work on a couple of things before changing your light bulb.

I’m off to check what wattage my light-bulb is …

Good for all