Qualities of a successful personal stylist

Recently, our Italian E-Learning Fashion School has received a letter from one of the subscribers. He asked: “Can anyone become an image stylist? Or should a person have some special qualities to work in this area?”

We asked the Italian teachers of our school to tell us about the two most important qualities that should be in someone who wants to become a stylist.

Let’s start with a little story:

Once a woman called us at the Italian E-Leaning Fashion School. She was 65 years old and retired. She said that she really liked the world of fashion, but she did not have the courage to start learning as a stylist, because she is ashamed. After all, how much is it generally allowed for older people to engage in fashion?

“It’s time for her to be ready to die, but she suddenly remembered about fashion!” that’s what people would say about her.

Don’t listen to such people, you can be a stylist at absolutely any age. Actually, fashion today is created by designers and fashion stylists who are well over 50. A stylist can be a man or a woman from 18 to 80 years old from any city or country.

But there are 2 essential qualities that are necessary for a person who has decided to become an image consultant. And if there are no such qualities, it is better not to go into this profession at all.

What are these qualities?

First quality: good taste and love of fashion.

Answer these questions:

• Do you like looking at stylish people?
• Do you like shopping for clothes?
• Do you like to watch on the Internet what fashion bloggers and famous people wear for special events?

If the answer is yes, then you are interested in fashion and style.

There are people who do not have this love. There are men who hate shopping and all these clothes, and that’s okay, they will just never be stylists.

And the second thing: how to assess whether you have a fashion taste or not?

It is clear that it is difficult to evaluate yourself: it seems that there is a taste, but there are doubts, what if there is none?

Then the easiest way is to understand:

• Do you get compliments on how you dress?
• Do they tell you something about your clothes? Do you get attention? (It is not even compliments that are important here, but simply that you are somehow unusual, original, maybe even strangely dressed. It is not necessary that people like the way you are dressed. The main thing is that your unique style and unusual approach to your image are noticed.)

If you have such experience, it means that everything is fine with your fashion taste.

The second quality is flexibility and creativity.

Surprisingly, some people say that the most important quality for aspiring image consultants is sociability and communication. This is a big mistake.

The stylists have to come up with something new. They are constantly experimenting with wardrobe and creating styles. And it is not necessary at all if they are not very sociable.

Where is fashion born today?

It is born in Europe: this is Milan, Paris, London, partly New York (it is still commercial, mass fashion).

We see all these trends on the catwalks, in fashion magazines. But how then do these strange tendencies get into the wardrobe of a person who lives, for example, in a distant village thousands of kilometers from Milan? – Thanks to the stylists.

Stylists are the first to try new items, include them in their wardrobe, offer new ways to wear clothes, create a renewed wardrobe for clients.
And that is why it is so important that the stylist is very flexible and easily accepts and catches new ideas.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the flexibility.
The Italian Fashion School operates all over the world. In the process of training, we noticed that some of our graduates have perfect taste and create very beautiful, fashionable, bright and trendy looks, but they have some limits in their head and the desire to follow only according to the established rules.
However, this profession is very creative, and you should not put too much limits for yourself.

How do you know if you are flexible and creative?

• Do you like to change something around you? (you adore new clothes, you like changing your lifestyle, you like trying new food, you like traveling, etc.)
• Do you like to do any kind of creativity and make something new?

If the answer is yes, then you possess this quality.