When is a Personal Shopper not a Personal Shopper?

When she's a Sustainable Fashion Consultant (SCF). I do exactly what a Personal Shopper would do, I help women shop better for their lifestyle, but with a more considered approach to how they shop and the planet. It encapsulates more the essence of what I do in a less pretentious and intimidating way. I guess that's one of the glorious things about running your own business, you can literally be whatever you want. But for the sake of SEO and algorithims, i'll be throwing around words like Personal Stylist and Personal Shopper in this blog.

Is working with a personal shopper something you've thought about in the past? Are you currently thinking about working with one or are you intrigued how it works?

I want to introduce you to how I work, how I can help you and my why. Why would you want to work with me.

I've designed 3 Services with a 4th on the way:

The Wardrobe Edit

The Personally Private Experience

The Shopping Experience and COMING SOON

The Virtual Box.

I believe either individually or teamed together, will benefit you greatly when it comes to being introduced to new brands, getting confident and having an understanding of your body shape, slowing down and being more considered and focussed when it comes to shopping. These services are also going to drown out the noise of not only social media, but also, the confusion of online shopping.

Here's an example of where I think we're at with online shopping at the moment:

As consumers, we're shopping online more and more. It's a real shame because being able to touch the material when shopping is really important as is trying on the clothes, but the shops seem to be pushing us that way by having limited collections in store and a total lack of customer care. However, when you're online and you want a 'white shirt' for example, how many white shirts appear in the filter? Do you know what style of white shirt you're after or if it's going to suit you? Does said white shirt fit with what else you have in your wardrobe. After all, a shirt is a shirt right? Or is it? It can be super overwhelming and a total minefield.

Let me help you find your white shirt (knight) in shining armour that will be your hero piece and not only that, we'll create outfits from your current wardrobe to go with it. We'll make sure its a white shirt that works with your lifestyle. It compliments your body shape and you are feeling it!

Whether we shop together or I shop for you, there's a slower, less chaotic way of making the experience of shopping pleasurable. We'll spend some time focussing on your body, the areas you love, the areas you're not so keen on (we'll give these bits a squeeze, but we're going to focus on the loved areas, we're all about those). We'll talk about what shape you are and the styles that are going to compliment you the most.

I'm not a huge believer on focussing too much on colour. There are absolutely colours that

are going to suit you more than others, but if you see something you like, in a colour you feel you should steer clear of, you may have missed out on a really great piece for your wardrobe. There are so many ways to bring colour into your wardrobe, it's just knowing how to do it.

The most important part of the process is how you feel in something and this is my why!

I've suffered with anxiety and mental health challenges for most of my life. I use my clothes as a way of feeling better about myself. More recently i've also been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Cue bloat and how to wear clothes that feel like me yet don't press on my stomach. I'm not the only one who has to deal with these issues on a daily basis and it's really important to me that other women know how to feel good in what they wear. I want to give you the time to feel pampered and special, but also get you feeling confident, so you too can get on with the other aspects of your life that are important to you.

Trends are there to keep you shopping the brands you like, how you wear an item and how you feel in it, is all about your style and that is what we focus on. It's helping you get those pieces in your wardrobe that are going to work for your lifestyle yet get you feeling excited about getting dressed. I'm not going to bang on about having a capsule wardrobe. When you have the confidence to shop properly, your wardrobe can be as big or as small as you want it to, as long as you're not wasting your money having clothes in there that don't work for you. Not good for your pocket and not good for the planet.

What i'm also not going to do is bring fast fashion into your wardrobe. If we're working together, then chances are that's an area you want to move away from anyway. It's definitely an area of the fashion industry i'm not keen on. I understand brands like Primark and BooHoo are atmore affordable price points for a lot of people, but the 'get it because it's cheap' ethic and the mass production just doesn't sit right with me. The process and how I work is about slowing down. I've done the work to find these more sustainable brands and I know how to slow down, enjoy shopping and focus on what you're looking for. These reasons give me the buzz to do what I do.

Now, I would love to work with every woman that needs a little help with their wardrobe dilemmas, but realistically it doesn't work like that and so I'll leave you with this. Working with a personal stylist/personal shopper is a very intimate experience. If you shop with one or you spend time at a styling suite, chances are you are going to be spending a lot of time in and out of clothes and you need to be comfortable with that person being in the changing room with you at times. Your stylist should be championing you, pushing your comfort zone and getting excited with you when you find those pieces you are getting all the feels in. They should be educating you on your shape and ensuring you are investing in the pieces that are going to compliment your lifestyle and your personality. When choosing a personal stylist (SCF), really make sure you connect with them. Contact a few different ones, check out their social media. Do you like their style? Do you like what they say, are you connecting with them? They're the stylists you want to be working with.

If you'd like to know more about working with me, you can contact me here to book your free consultant and thank you for reading till the end.

Big love, Alex x