Kathy Byrnes describes her style as conservative. "My son would say, 'Talbots style,' " Kathy said when I called her to tell her she'd been selected for our makeover project.

Actually, 12-year-old Dominic — who answered the phone when I called Kathy last week — described his mother's style with a different word: "frumpish."

Ouch. I know the sting of that word, I've been called it before. But children do have a way of stating the truth quite plainly.

I would describe Kathy's manner of dress as functional. There is nothing offensive about the way she dresses. It's sensible, appropriate and practical. But style doesn't really enter into the equation.

The 50-year-old special-education teacher was nominated by her friend Julie, who wrote that Kathy had admitted falling into a "Talbots rut" — a place that is "safe and tasteful where she knew her size" — but that her closet had become really dull as a result.

Julie admitted she'd had the same problem, only with Ann Taylor, but had discovered "all kinds of fun local places — Bodhi, Cupcake, Surrender Dorothy, Double Take — that sometimes have fabulous sales" when Ann Taylor closed.

I certainly don't want Talbots to close. We need all the options we can get in this town, and Talbots is one of the few places in Santa Fe with a petite section, which is part of the reason it had become one of Kathy's mainstays. "Because of my body size and all, it's not always easy to find pants that fit," Kathy said. "They are too long or they are all the way up to my chin because I'm short waisted."

I can understand Kathy's tendency to shop at a store where she always knows what to expect; Talbots is one of my grandmother's mainstays, too.

But Kathy is not a grandmother yet — she just turned 50 (which is like the new 35 or something) — and she certainly needs to spice things up a bit.

Kathy said she dressed conservatively growing up — even though she listed two of the things that were popular when she was in high school as "platforms and toe socks."

"I grew up in a generation that girls wore dresses to school," she said. "But lately it's a lot more pants."

Kathy said she'd like to dress more femininely and wear more color. "Last time I looked at my wardrobe, it was almost all black and white," she said.

The great thing about Kathy is that she knows what her strong points are — blue eyes, shapely legs, thick curly hair which she decided in her 20s was OK.

She wants a dressy outfit and that is exactly what I would prescribe to refresh her sartorial spirit.

This single mom also could use a little pampering and a chance to be just a teensy bit self-centered.

"I don't always do much for myself," she said when she learned she'd been chosen for the makeover. "So this is like the ultimate."

Tune in next week on the search for a dress that will take Kathy from frumpish to feminine.