Tech founder goes to styling school…and learns business lessons
I lead a tech start-up and have an MBA, yet last week I found myself at the London College of Fashion taking a styling course. While I am comfortable negotiating a term sheet, I felt sheepish when I walked into a room of fashionistas.
I run Enty, a platform where women get feedback on their outfits from stylists, but I have never worked in fashion, so decided to learn what stylists learn and see if I could be any good at it. We learnt colour theory, looked at a skeleton to understand body lines, identified figure types and skin tones. I found out some handy styling tips and optical illusions to take the eye to a flattering angle. But mostly, I learnt about stylists themselves and the industry they comprise.
Personal stylists are not the same as celebrity or magazine stylists. They focus on servicing the needs of a specific client based on what that client wants to achieve. Often, the clients are senior management in large corporates, who need a wardrobe for a busy working life and evening work events, or they are people who want the senior position and are overhauling their image to have more executive presence. While the magazine editorial stylist is selling the item in the photo, the personal stylist is selling the client. Making editorial shoots for glossy fashion magazines does sound glamorous, but personal stylists get paid far more — in the UK, a personal stylist gets paid £60 — £100 per hour.
The personal styling industry, which has only existed in its current format for about 30 years, is becoming more competitive. There are ample certified styling and image consultant courses, bringing new talent to market, and social media has meant that promotion has lower barriers to entry. This has made the job harder. Most stylists are freelancers, meaning that marketing, price setting and client relationship management are just as important as knowing which shade of grey suits a pale pink complexion.
The forces of globalization unexpectedly popped up in the course too. As the global economy shifts Eastwards, so does style. Chinese consumers, which have been instrumental to the recent successes of luxury brands, have been keen on Western brands for the aspirational cache. This hasn’t been optimal for the Asiatic consumer though, because the Asiatic female body line is usually more angular than that of her curvier Western sister. This means that clothes simply do not fit as well as they could. However, as China gains pride in home grown talent, Asiatic style is coming to Western shores, and Western consumers are squeezing themselves into styles not designed for them.
Several women in my class were already professional stylists, who came to perfect their skills. As they compared hourly rates and client experiences, I saw that while the hourly rates may be high, the gaps between clients can also be high, meaning that there is lots of spare capacity in the market.
The average British woman spends just over £1,000 per year on clothes, so is not going to spend £100 per hour on a style consultant, meaning that stylists have been a service for the rich. This is an opportunity for the sharing economy and digital connectivity to bring a service to the mass market, when there is spare capacity. The stylists on our platform give feedback to high street shoppers on their outfits via mobile and interact with a community of style lovers. High street shoppers may not have deep pockets, but there are many more of them than the lucky customers of Hermes.
Having learnt the rules and taken home a colour guide, I understood that in reality I am not going to be able to apply them myself. There is simply too much to think about and I have a company to run. I do have a better understanding of what the professionals on our platform know and am so glad that there is someone to help me look better. I’m going to leave it to the professionals.
