Would you be offended if you were gifted a style session from your other half or a good friend? I often have men say they would love to treat their wives to a session with me but fear they would cause offence. I understand their concern as I witnessed an ugly scene about a year ago when I donated a Your Style Makeover to a charity auction. A gentleman won the auction to give to his partner. At the end I went over to introduce myself and congratulate them on the win. I was very excited for the woman and thought how lucky she was that her partner would gift her such a wonderful experience. Sadly I was wrong - oh God was I wrong! I was met with a rage I have rarely, if ever, seen. It would seem she apparently didn’t need me, or anyone else for that matter, to tell her how to dress (screamed at me with little bits of spittle landing on my face), and repeated several times. There was no placating her, so her husband and I offered sincere apologies to each other, and then I retreated to my seat before getting what I was sure was going to be a severe beating. To this day I am shocked at her reaction. Women love being treated to day spas, facials, massages, and hair appointments for birthdays or special occasions and they never feel it means they have awful skin, are uptight or need a new “do”. So why would anyone react that way?
I’ve had a year to soul search over her reaction and I can only put it down to a couple of things. Possibly she has seen those awful reality tv shows where the likes of Trinny & Susannah come along and destroy the little confidence their clients had at the start and then tell them how they believe they should dress; or she doesn’t understand what a trained stylist actually does. You will notice I said “trained”. It seems very trendy these days to add “stylist” or “artist” to the list of skills that people have, when they haven’t actually been trained - think some makeup artists, and in-store stylists for retail of any product these days but especially clothes. I recently had a woman tell me she used to perform wardrobe edits; she would go to the home of her client and rip out what she didn’t like and tell her it was awful and had to go. That horrifies me! I had another client who said her previous stylist used a very similar process. OMG! I wouldn’t want an experience like that “gifted” to me either!
A trained stylist would (or should!) go to great lengths to identify YOUR personal style, the outcomes YOU would like to achieve, and all relevant information so she can help you curate YOUR own personal image/look. When she goes through the Wardrobe Refresh with you, she can then help you understand what works, what doesn’t and WHY. It is not about her stroking her own ego and mentally telling herself how fabulous she is. Who wants clones of themselves anyway? If my clients love my look, I still need to learn exactly what it is that appeals to them so I can help them be their best version of themselves, not me. Oh, and if someone goes through your wardrobe and removes items you haven’t even tried on (unless they’re damaged), how can they possibly know how it fits you, or if it can be paired with something to update it? If that happens, ask them to leave and give me a call...........
