Would you use/have you used a stylist/wardrobe coach?

[dresseronfire]

I'm thinking of trialling a shop-your-own-wardrobe service for women over 40: identifying gaps and overlaps; organising/decluttering; helping make wardrobe and style changes (due to life transitions, changing roles etc) as well as really nailing an individual look that works for you and makes you happy. I'd offer personal shopping as an optional follow-up service with an emphasis on sustainable, vintage, UK-manufactured and natural-fibre clothing.
Would anyone like to chat about this? :)
Does this sound interesting and/or useful?
If you had access to this service, specifically what issue would you want to tackle?
What if anything would you want to know about me before you'd consider hiring me?
(Btw I've been a regular MN user of several years but have NCd to keep my personal stuff separate.)
TIA!

I did. She charged me £200 for an hour and was quite useful but not life changing. I’d pay more in the future for life changing advice

Inliver that's really interesting and just the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Ideally I'd be more useful than browsing online or reading Marie Kondo, but I suspect the lifechanging line in the sand is different for everyone. Maybe the key would be for me to understand what sort of help I can offer and who would benefit from it.
How did your expectations differ from what was delivered? What would have been lifechanging for you?

Actually I think it would be tricky to be lifechanging in an hour.
Many years ago I had someone help me reorganise my new home (the layout was dramatically different to my previous property and I was flummoxed by it) and each session was a minimum of three hours. It was truly lifechanging (and I booked a second session for something similar we weren't able to address in the first).
Maybe it wasn't enough time? Or maybe your skills are already very good.

I'd want to know how stylish you were yourself and, probably, how you applied your thinking to your own wardrobe. I'd then want to see some wardrobe before-and-afters from some clients.

I'd also want clear and exact information about the "deliverables" and the costs of each.

I wish I’d done a lifestyle questionnaire online first, so she’d had an understanding, just had a baby, returned to work etc before she met me. Then a wardrobe evaluation and then a cull and a go and buy this list. Again if that took 2 hours so be it.
I felt like I was given my colours, fair enough and a little book telling me a lot that I already knew. I’m rather solid so wear stuff that makes you look like a girl 🤷‍♀️

I love the idea of focusing on sustainability but like pinky I'd want to know something about your own style. I had my colours done once and was sent home in some terrifying copper coloured lipstick. I would love someone to come in and photograph everything so i could put it all in a style app. Would take forever though!

Pinky yes, that sounds reasonable. There will be a concise website with a brief bio and testimonials. How important is social media? I like Instagram for this sort of thing but it's full of sponsorship and hard sell and I'd prefer to use it sparingly.

Inliver so someone turned up for an hour with no knowledge of who you are or what you needed? I think HoC takes longer than an hour to do just a colour session - ? I think three hour session with a questionnaire + phone chat in advance would work for most people who are asking for help.

chop I really can't get onboard with the approach of whipping you into shape and shoehorning my own ideas into your life. We're adults, we have opinions; at the very least I'd want to meet someone in the middle, and at best I'd want to be helping to translate vague ideas and desires into real life. I love your style app idea! Those apps are great in principle but yes, it would take forever to get it done.

I would want to see pictures of your work and style and ideally an Instagram account of your suggestions for what's good in the shops now so I can see your taste level. I would get this done though. I know someone who did and raved about her but when I looked at her Instagram I wasn't impressed.

I'm not usually that keen on IG, as I think it shows snapshots of lives that are too highly edited and polished. I'm not sure it's the natural home of a service which, at its heart, boosts self-esteem and confidence for real women. I like kickers suggestion about what she would like to see though.

I don't think it's testimonials that I'd be looking for on your website. I'd want to see that you weren't creating identikit style - it would be very important to me to see that each of the women you work with has her own style. I'd also be interested in seeing some of the response to life transition "in action", so I'd want your site to have a really good gallery of images.

I had a similar experience to chop when I had my colours done. It felt like the "look" was a very corporate one (completely inappropriate to the role I had at the time). The consultant was obsessed with what I should wear for an interview, but I had no interview on the horizon and it seemed such an odd priority.

I hate the expression "shop your wardrobe".

I agree I'd want to see your style first and would definitely want to see an Instagram account. I'd want to be sure you were not going to shoehorn me into a version of your style.

There's a personal shopper local to me and I've thought about booking in with her.

Also ethical and vintage would not sway me to go with you if you were thinking of those as selling points.

kickerss it's a very personal thing and ime what can be lifechanging for one person is meh for another. It depends on what skills you have and what you struggle with.
I'm not planning to do style edits as such, as this is less about acquiring and more about paring back to use what you have and love.
As a follow-up, personal shopping will help fill the gaps you've identified in your wardrobe but what you need is more important than trends and what's in the shops iyswim. IG is full of what's in the shops.

Pinky you're right about IG, for me it would function more like a business card than a tv channel (if that makes sense to anyone but me).
That's crazy about the job interview outfit. Workwear isn't really my strong point and it's so specific, you would surely be more able to tell me what you need to look like at work than I would be able to tell you. There are already consultants who are very good at that sort of thing. A lot of people have an excellent work wardrobe and crave casual clothes they feel amazing in rather than breton/jeans/trainers every weekend.

hope sorry about that, it's just shorthand. What would work better for you?
I'm definitely not about everyone looking like me, it's more about feeling like the best version of yourself (another cliche ).
I'm not really thinking of ethical fashion as a selling point as such, I just have no interest in handling miles of polyester. I find the endless parade of cheap synthetics depressing, it's not for me. I've been collecting vintage clothes since I was at school so it's what I enjoy and what I'm good at, it fits into my own value system and my own visual taste. My IG feed is full of fast fashion so I feel like that is already very accessible.

I think it would be nice to have different stages to the service. Maybe the shop your wardrobe one for a first appointment and a three month follow up to see what worked, what didn’t work and to maybe push comfort zone a bit with a couple of your suggestions

Ad klaxon

Perhaps you could offer an ongoing support system i don't mean that the fee they pay you grants them acces to you forever, butrather a support lite, eg they want to buy a new item and text photo of it to run by you and you say NOOOOO REMEMBER WE TALKED ABOUT THE NO PINK RULE
or whatever

it would def take more than an hour.

I had an appointment after having DC2 and being totally lost style-wise.

I had to fill in a detailled questionnaire a week or so before, send in a photo (in a specific position/clothes colour), give detailled measurements. Say what I did and didn't like. What I wanted to improve etc.

Then on the day she did my colours and talked me through styles that could suit me. I came away with a personalised style recommendation booklet (basically some printed pages, but totally personnalised) - styles to avoid and those to look for.

I could have asked for personal shopping too but didn't.

I found it really useful and still apply her advice 4 years later. I wouldn't want her to come to my house and see my wardrobe because I was quite frankly too embarassed by my tired and run-down clothes.

It's something I might consider, if it was affordable for me. I'm trying to curate my wardrobe and change my look a bit, but I'm not sure I'm doing as well as I could. I still seem to have a uniform, if that makes sense, so I would look for help with that.

I'd be looking for before & after photo example of your work, maybe with descriptions of how the final and on going looks were devised etc. Info on common wardrobe mistakes, advice for women like me who can only wear flats and so on, would be helpful. Some Instagram images, but nothing that feels like an ad rather than advice.

If I was minted I might. For the average person I'd have thought they'd rather spend that money on clothes?

I really like the idea but as someone else said, I’d need to see loads of pictures to be confident that you could do lots of different looks and styles equally successfully. Or at least that you understood what I was aiming for and could do it better than me! I had a colour consultation a few years ago and it didn’t work that well for me because I didn’t think the woman “got” me, so I didn’t trust her advice.
One thing that would be really useful would be a subscription service that sent you email updates with tips on how to make the stuff in the shops now work for your own personal style. Like, if you’re going for a classic preppy look this shop has loads this season, these boots are perfect for you, you might want to skip this particular trend, that kind of thing. But tbh I’d probably need a couple of free sample updates before I paid- I’ve subscribed to so many style services that have turned out to be old rope, so I’m quite cynical now.

Chiara yes, that's just the sort of thing I was thinking of. The follow-up appointment would be an optional extra for after the dust has cleared and you have a clearer view of how to go forward. Some people might need a shopping buddy, others might want help incorporating their new purchases into their own wardrobe, others might need a second go at a declutter.

Kalifornia I could offer that along with the first service, though I would never say NOOOOO or have a rule. grin We're all adults!
I know three hours sounds like a long time but even though there would have been some emails and a questionnaire, I'd be meeting my client for the first time, taking in their personal style and storage system etc. By the time you've had a chat and emptied the wardrobe an hour could have passed. It's surprisingly time-consuming to do it properly and tie up the loose ends so it feels really satisfyingly finished.

Tchoupi was that a colour consultation? That sounds a little different that what I have in mind, though I'm glad it was useful. It can feel embarrassing to show someone your wardrobe, I get it.

Steel a lot of people aspire to have a uniform, others crave variety. I think this is why one system (eg Konmari) doesn't work for everyone.
I'm totally onboard with flats! I'm not sure what sort of advice I could offer about them - ? The finish is often what makes a shoe look more dressy, is that what you mean? I'm confident that you can wear flats for any and every occasion.
I'm not really going with themes like common wardrobe mistakes because that's quite general and I think individual attention is key. Over time we find we want to make adjustments to the way we live, which is normal. It can be hard to know what changes to make, and I can help with that.

banana yes, this is more about how to work with and build on what you already have to solve wardrobe problems in a satisfying way. If you just want new clothes it probably seems pointless.

I'd love something like this as I have a massive wardrobe which has loads of nice stuff, yet I always seem to end up buying new things.

Like others I'd want to see a lot of examples - that would definitely include work for me as my workplace is business casual. I can do interview smart but the level below can be a challenge. Actually, proper interview/business smart can be a challenge too as I'm entirely the wrong shape for most suits/smart dresses (can't do pencil skirts) so truly smart looks require a bit more creative thinking than "buy a black suit". I'd also want to see casual stuff. For me I think it would also be important to show a mix of body types and sizes - it's easy to dress a tall size 8-10 and make them look good. I would want to see that you know how to handle big boobs/hips/mum tum/big thighs/

It would also be useful to be able to give beyond the wardrobe advice - so how might I want to style my hair with this kind of outfit, what makeup would look nice, etc.

You'd need more than 3 hours in my wardrobe though!

I'd also say over 40s might be a tad restrictive. A lot of women go through big changes in their 30s - career step ups, having babies etc - that can mean they're at a bit of a lost stage.

In another life I am/was s qualified colour consultant/stylist/personal shopper (before I realised that although I'm actually really good at it I have too much social anxiety to 'do' anyone but my friend or family). A good consultant should be able to not only do your colours but also check your body type (not as scary as it sounds) and figure out, based on your lifestyle, style type etc what your capsule wardrobe needs.

There is a saying they must women only wear 15-20% of their wardrobe but with the right consultant you can cull the 'wrong' things out and create a small, wearable capsule. Think along the lines of three or four 'bottoms' (trousers or skirts to suit your body type) and then four -five tops to go with each. As they are all the same 'colouring' (bright or muted, warm or cool) you should be able to mix and match. Voila, a much smaller but more wearable wardrobe

Sorry, just to clarify, the four or five tops are in total, not per 'bottom'. Plus jackets, camis, pashminas etc.