I know I’m very lucky…

Just when I was thinking that everyone had heard of “Personal Shoppers”, two people I was chatting with last week asked me what I did and looked at me as though I had two heads when they heard my reply. The first was a man of about 60 and he smirked at me and said, “You do what? You take people shopping; how funny… I didn’t know people did things like that!” The other was a boy in his late teens and his response from the other end of the spectrum was… “OMG that’s the coolest job I’ve ever heard – I’d love to do that!”

I’d just assumed that being a Personal Shopper was quite a normal thing these days. I thought that as it’s offered in many department stores and because there have been so many styling make-over TV shows over the last couple of years pretty much everyone knew that it wasn’t a service only reserved for the rich and famous…

In fact, it actually must be fairly common to most, as I get so many emails from people wanting to know everything about becoming a personal shopper; from what to study, to what to charge, to how did I get started? And many people I meet all know someone with a daughter or niece who wants to “work in fashion”. I probably get 5 students per week asking if I have any work experience or placement opportunities and I feel so mean when I email back saying “no”. Because studying fashion has become so popular I sometimes wonder who is giving them positions and if there are enough decent jobs to go around, at the end of the work experience, especially these days when it’s so hard to get, if at all!

© Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime.com

I was reading the other day about how companies who took on graduates for relatively low-paid jobs previously, are now expecting the equivalent student to work for free, or even pay for their positions – which really seems incredibly unfair. And it’s the whole chicken and the egg thing – how do you get experience if you don’t have any previous experience to prove you’re up to the job?

I didn’t study fashion at university, but “in my day” 12 years ago when I was in the sixth form deciding what to study at uni, “fashion” was not such an obvious choice for students as it is today. When I was at school, you tried for the London College of Fashion if you were hugely talented at art or maybe applied for a graduate training scheme to be a store manager/trainee buyer – but even those kind of careers seemed hugely unknown. However, these days the industry has had much more exposure because of the likes of “Gok” and “Trinny and Susanna” etc. Now everyone wants/thinks they can become a stylist because their mum asks their opinion before heading off to Per Una or because they can reel off some trends from a fashion magazine. Now don’t get me wrong, I totally believe that everyone can work hard and put the time in and (hopefully) achieve their dreams. However, I would like to think that some kind of flair is required for a chosen career!

To be a good personal shopper in my opinion one of the most important attributes is patience, followed closely by being diplomatic and a people person. Although the fashion part is obviously hugely important, being able to make someone feel comfortable and at ease instantly is as crucial. You also need to have up-to-date knowledge of what’s in all the stores from Primark to Prada, because every customer wants something different – someone might want to only shop “top end” and others may want 10 items for £300. You need to know the trends each season but more importantly be able to adapt them to suit the individual customer’s style. Many don’t want to be overly “trendy”; they simply want to know what suits their shape and colouring – and basically they want to look and feel good.

I don’t want to put anyone off trying to be a Personal Shopper but it’s not an easy job – you must be prepared to work hard and be enthusiastic at all times! However, putting all that aside – it is a hugely rewarding career. Seeing the difference in the “style” confidence of a customer at the end of a session compared to the beginning, makes it all worth while… Seeing someone holding themselves differently and feeling less stressed about getting dressed in the morning – makes you feel like you’ve genuinely helped someone! I know I’m very lucky…

P.S. For more information on how I got started have a look at my blog posts from October 09 – The Right Place and the Right Time, Fashion Foundations and London Calling. Also read my below comment…

London calling

In 2003 I moved to London to work for a Danish fashion brand, moving from buying into wholesale. It was great to see how things worked “on the other side” and I knew it would add hugely to my experience. I had contact with all the best independent boutiques in the country, including Tessuti (my old employer) and department stores such as Harrods and House of Fraser.

It was fantastic getting feedback from the buyers and learning what they felt was important and commercial for their customers. I learnt about fit, colour, sizes, styles and trends. It was all great experience. I worked for the brand for 3 years and then in early 2006 I was made redundant when the company decided to move its womenswear wholesale operation back to Denmark. I had a choice whether I should simply get another job in wholesale or revert back to my original idea of starting my own business as a Personal Shopper? I made my decision and couple of months later I launched www.stylestruck.com, a website dedicated to my Personal Shopping and Styling business and I’ve never looked back.

Don’t get me wrong, having your own business is tough, particularly at the moment. But I’m working for myself, I can dictate my own hours, I can take every Monday off if I want to – but most importantly I’m doing something I love and I know I’m very lucky.

Fashion foundations

After I graduated from university I was still unsure how to pursue my dream of working in fashion – I’d continued at Tessuti during holidays but I didn’t necessarily just want to work on the shop floor full time. I decided I would set up my own business as a Personal Shopper and I approached my old boss and asked him if I could work at Tessuti part-time while I set up my business. He agreed. I started the following Monday but by lunchtime I’d been “called into the office”. I began to panic and wonder what I’d done wrong.  My boss’ first question was “So what are you doing at the weekend?” “Going to the pub” was my reply. I couldn’t believe the words that came out of his mouth next! “How would you like to go to Milan? I want you to go with our buyer and train as her assistant”. I was stunned. Obviously I didn’t go to the pub!! My next big break came a couple of months later when the buyer moved on from Tessuti and I continued to do the buying, this time with the store owner. What an experience it was. We went to all of the brands I’d dreamt of …Gucci, Prada, Matthew Williamson… it was amazing!!

I learned a lot when working as a buyer – but to be honest, I gained some of the most important skills from working on the shop floor. I got to know about shape and colour and styles that suited and flattered different figures. I learned how to deal with difficult customers (yes there were a few) and how to give my customers the best experience possible so they would come back time and time again. I built up great relationships with a lot of clients. We had famous people in the store – many footballers and their wives and girlfriends. I didn’t realise it at the time – but I was “personal shopping”… giving my customers my undivided attention and finding them the perfect pair of jeans or LBD – never giving up and going the extra mile to try to make the 10^th pair of jeans as fun to try on as the first.

This would be an important piece of advice I’d give to anyone wanting a career in fashion – some shop floor experience is vital. To learn how to deal with customers, to understand fit and colour, to feel confident when talking about product, I could go on and on. I stayed at Tessuti for just over 3 years – I was very sorry to leave but I decided to move to London to take the next step on my fashion career ladder…

The right place and the right time

Many people ask me how I got into fashion and it’s a rather “annoying” story of me being in “the right place at the right time”. I studied European Politics and Italian at university as I really didn’t know what I wanted to do career-wise and I thought it best to keep my options open. It was only during my 2^nd year at uni that I decided I wanted to pursue a career in fashion and I didn’t know where to begin. My mother suggested that I should get some shop-floor experience and I assumed that I would be able to simply walk into a job… but this wasn’t so. I did fall on my feet eventually and worked during the summer in a fabulous designer store in Chester called Tessuti (www.tessuti.co.uk) but getting the job is actually a story in itself.

I remember the day clearly, it was a Thursday. I put on my favourite outfit and hit the streets of Chester in search of my dream job. Clutching a very short CV I went into Morgan (a trendy brand in 1998!), Kookai, Oasis and all the designer boutiques I could find. Being somewhat naïve I assumed it would be easier to get a job in a High Street shop than in a designer boutique, but it was actually only one of the latter that offered me a position in the end. After I’d had a very brief conversation with the manager of Tessuti, when I was told they did not have any positions available for summer work, something made me go back in and ask if I could possibly just have a weeks un-paid work experience. They agreed and by the time I got home, I’d had a phone call to say that my “week” would start the next day. I was so excited to have the opportunity to “get my foot in the door”!

It was my first Saturday on the shop-floor and within an hour I knew I’d found my “calling” and it was such a wonderful realisation. The school I attended was very academic and I had never really found my niche scholastically. I’d always had an interest in clothes but when I was at school, working in “fashion” meant simply working in a shop – I didn’t really know what avenues or career options there were. This was before the days of Gok and television’s love affair with fashion.

During my week, I actually managed to sell more clothes than anyone else on the floor and as a thank you I was told that I could pick out a couple of pieces from the store for myself – I spotted a D&G satin snake-skin handbag (which was a must-have!), a D&G lace knee length dress and some DKNY sunglasses. I was ecstatic. And of course one more thing… they offered me a job for the rest of the summer! At the time I had no idea that this holiday job would provide a stepping stone into a company that would influence my fashion career so much and give me invaluable experience that is still so relevant  in my job as a stylist today.