For 14 years, Amy Finegold found her passion and purpose at dresscode, her beloved downtown Andover women’s clothing boutique. There, she created a thriving small business where she used fashion as a tool to help women feel good and discover the best parts of themselves.
“On the floor at dresscode my motto was always, I want every single person to walk out feeling better than when they walked in,” she says.
Now, she’s applying that same passion and ethos to her newest venture, Next Evolution, an online course that’s an extension of her personal coaching business, EVOLUTION self + style. It aims to use an “inside-out approach” to help women feel like their best, healthiest selves.
EVOLUTION self + style is a natural extension of Finegold’s experience, expertise, and personal journey. Finegold is a certified health and life coach, nutritionist coach, Pilates instructor, and personal stylist. EVOLUTION self + style’s one-on-one personal coaching programs combine those skills to offer women guidance and encouragement with nutrition, mindset, movement, and personal style.
“I want to use as many modalities as I can to help you reconnect with that ‘wow’ that you felt when you were younger, had lots of energy, and felt good in your skin,” she says.
The full program includes a two-hour “closet edit” that helps clients create style goals and outfits from their own clothes, plus six weeks of one-on-one weekly coaching in goal setting, nutrition, exercise, and creating new habits, plus resources like recipes, workshops, and ongoing support.
Now, Next Evolution will offer a similar service online. The six-week digital course includes six learning modules focused on nutrition foundations; listening to hunger cues versus emotional eating; habit change; movement; dressing your body; and creating a capsule wardrobe. It will also provide access to an interactive Facebook group.
Although the courses are open to anyone, it’s aimed primarily at women aged 35 and older, many of whom are juggling careers and caregiving while their bodies are changing, stress is building, and they’re continually putting themselves last. Finegold’s “inside out” approach aims to address all of that.
“We can all evolve or change direction at any stage of our life,” she says. “The unknown is really scary, but I think you’re never limited by age.”
Finegold has experienced such ups and downs herself. Although dresscode had always been her passion, running the business as a busy mom and wife was starting to wear her down, leaving her tired and stressed.
After closing dresscode in 2018, Finegold began practicing Pilates with earnest and eventually became an instructor. She realized that helping her students feel good in their bodies gave her the “same thrill that I got when I made somebody feel great in an outfit.”
“It was like such a wow moment,” she says. “Seeing women stand taller the same way they did when they came out of a dressing room but because they felt strong was really just an amazing feeling.”
Finegold has had health challenges as well, including breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and reconstructive surgery, and has come out the other side excited and energized about her new venture. She has additional course offerings in the works, too, in the hopes that women will take time for themselves and discover more about themselves in the process.
“We spend so much time taking care of everybody else that by the time we have a moment to pause, we realize that we are the last ones that are being taken care of and we don’t really know who we are or what to do,” she says. “That’s why I really I love the idea of mixing this whole inside-out approach.”