So What Are The Benefits Of Going Shopping With A Personal Stylist?
Last week I took a Mother of the Groom on a Personal Shopping Trip to source a wedding outfit.
The aim of the trip was to find an outfit, within budget, the right colours, style and that an outfit that suits the occasion and venue.
Things to consider before a shopping trip are:
Budget, Styles, Size, Colours, do you want to wear it again, the occasion, the venue, your likes, your dislikes, weather, time of year.
My customer had already put together a Pinterest board so we had an idea of the shape and style she was looking for. This is a perfect place to start if the shopping trip is for a particular occasion. A stylist can put this together for you so that you are clear on what you are looking for in advance. It’s important to do this as you are paying for a stylist’s time so you want to get the best out of that time.
Our starting point was John Lewis and House of Fraser. They have a good range of brands between them and within our budget. This is something to keep in mind as it’s easy to fall in love with a particular hat, that turns out to be twice your outfit budget. A stylist will keep note of the outfit costs and can make alternative suggestions.
We found a beautiful outfit but it needed accessories to bring it alive. We needed to dress and style my client in the whole outfit, the shoes, the hair accessories, and the bag. Finding the whole outfit is important as you don’t want to spend the next 2 months searching frantically for something to match your dress only to find cerise pink is nowhere to be seen anywhere in the shops.
It is easy to feel swamped with so many options and get distracted with a great weekend outfit or a perfect top for walking the dog in. A stylist will stick to the brief. My role was to scan the rails initially looking at colour and disregarding anything that wouldn’t suit the client. My clients was a ‘Summer’ colours palette so we needed to avoid creams, the warm lilacs and golden colours that were about.
A stylist still needs to listen to the client. We found a stunning outfit but we needed to try a particular brand that the customer was looking for. We found out where this was and headed that way. We found a little gem of an outfit. The difference between a shop assistant and having a personal stylist with you is that your stylist has gone through the process of finding out your likes, dislikes, your brief but another thing that I was looking for was how my client felt in the outfit and her body language. You have to feel comfortable in your outfit. If you are attending a wedding, don’t forget that you will be in your outfit from the morning right through to gone midnight.
The final outfit was perfect. It looks amazing and felt amazing in the outfit, which is as important. The smile said it all. We purchased the dress, jacket, shoes and a wrap for the evening. We are still looking for the fascinator but we have plenty of time for that now that everything else is covered.
A personal stylist is perfect for a special occasion such as a wedding or a birthday but you may also need some assistance looking for some key day to day pieces to bring your wardrobe together, outfits for a new career or business.
A personal stylist is a cost that you may not feel you need to spend but a stylist can help you save money. We won’t let you buy 5 outfits, just in case one of them is right. We will help you stick to budget and will only suggest the items that are right for you.
Here are some of my tops tips when shopping for a special occasion:
1 - Start looking early. Don’t leave it until 2 weeks before the event thinking you will get the right outfit, in the right size.
2 - Try to avoid certain times of the year such as December / Christmas. All you will find is Christmas party dresses.
3 - If you need to colour match an item, take it with you. It’s harder than you think to remember what a particular shade is when you are in shops surrounded by colours.
4 - Can you sit down in the outfit? At a wedding you will be sitting part of the day. An interview you will be sitting down. We don’t think of this when we are stood in front of the mirror, breathing in.
5 - If it doesn’t make you feel great, don’t buy it. If you are fiddling with a strap or the length in the 5 minutes of trying it on, think how much that will annoy you when you have it on all day. It will end up sitting in the wardrobe unworn.
For further info on Personal Shopping Trips contact Jo@sparkling-ginger.co.uk
www.sparkling-ginger.co.uk or call on Tel: 07834 1648181
