Making Her Passion a Successful Business in Her Silver Years
By • December 5, 2023 0 2350
Lynne Glassman is the perfect example of a Silver Entrepreneur. They are often well-educated energetic ladies who have been around many proverbial blocks and have worn many different hats, some at the same time. They come to realize that as they age, they can happily replace many of their Been There/Done Thats (like daily child raising) with a focus on things that now involve their passion. They can even make a satisfying and profitable business out of it.
Glassman grew up in Syracuse, New York, where her father was a stockbroker. Her mother had been a high-end fashion model for Calvin Klein. The daughter grew up to be not only one of the best students in the city. “I was also by far the best dressed,” she laughed, telling The Georgetowner about her passion for clothes from an early age as she helped her mom with retailing the fashions she loved.
Arriving in Washington, D.C. as an undergraduate at American University, Glassman stayed on to get a master’s and then a doctorate degree as a fellow in education policy. She worked for the National Association of School Administrators with their top executives. But what became a driver for her outside of the policy work was coming to realize the impact of clothes and image had on the emerging women CEOs.
“My mother had always told me that ‘Your clothes send messages about who you are. How you dress (including your makeup) affects your impact,’ ” said Glassman, who loved helping the executives she worked with to make more of their individual styles. She increasingly was drawn to being an image consultant.
Even while working and raising her two children (she now has four grandchildren), Glassman increasingly educated herself on color analysis and how each person’s face and body shape directly affects the color and style of her clothes, jewelry, accessories (including shape of eye glasses) — and, of course, make up. Eventually, Glassman obtained a national certificate for image consultants.
“Each woman has her own best individual palette of colors and styles that she should know intimately and adhere to when she shops,” said Glassman, adding, “and when she finally faces going through her closets and drawers filled with her old clothes.” She started a business that helps women with all of these elements: color, style, clothes, makeup and jewelry” and includes a popular though sometimes gut-wrenching “closet surgery” session.
In 1995, Glassman moved to Hillandale, where she and her husband are active with social and health-building activities there — especially swimming and exercise. She has offered her image consulting services to resident groups and organizations — from trade association annual conferences to Girl Scout troops as well as individual services. Glassman has served more than 2,000 clients, from 2 year-olds to 82 year-olds, she said. Recently, she has helped a number of transgender men find their new look.
She seems to love every minute of her work. Her office is neatly organized with displays of color palettes, scarves, jewelry, eye glasses and neck line models of all kinds. But she says, the skin tone is the most important to enhance. As she tries samples and holds up color swatches with her clients, she “oohs” and “ahs” over her findings. Sometimes, she frowns as she switches whole color palettes to ones that works better. She emits “hmms” as she comes close to a decision and then claps excitedly and says “aha,” as she finds the perfect match.
With the pandemic came new clients and strategies to try in style in remote online meetings and at those times when one was to meet their team personally for the first time. “Washington D.C. is conservative dress-wise,” Glassman noted. “But the Covid lockdowns presented new opportunities to shine.”
It all seems to be great fun for Glassman. Her enthusiasm carries over to the perhaps at-first skeptical client. “Even in your 80s, one can learn many new things about yourself, your style, your image,” she said. This reporter found it to be perfectly true.
Glassman’s website is www.doctorofdress.com.
