If you love fashion and would like to work in the fashion field, the easiest way to get into this world is to become a stylist-image maker. A stylist-image maker creates a closet, helps do personal shopping and develops style for ordinary people, celebrities and VIPs.
Today we asked Italian teachers of our Fashion and Style School to tell about pros and cons of image-maker stylist profession, about what this profession can suit you and whether you should study to become a stylist at all.
Who is a stylist-image maker, personal shopper, image consultant, and what is the difference?
To begin with, you should know the difference between these different names. In fact, they all mean the same person. It just shows those specialties, those areas in which he can work.
In Europe the image-maker refers to another sphere – it is a person who works with politicians, with business companies and helps them to create a certain image, but rather not connected with the fashion world, but connected with how they perform, how they talk, how they dress, how they behave with other people and how they position themselves.
If we are talking about an image consultant or a personal shopper, he is more connected with the fashion world. His task is to come up with a closet that will reflect the inner state of a person and will be as relevant and appropriate to his type of appearance as possible.
An image consultant can specialize only in shopping, i.e. he helps to choose a closet on the necessary budget, based on the client’s style.
Pros of the profession:
- creative and interesting work
In fact, this is one of the biggest pluses of the profession. You will not sit at the computer at all, writing tables, doing something boring.
The job of an image maker every day is very unusual and interesting. You come up with a style, you come up with an image, every day you look at websites about fashion, fashion shows, look at beautiful clothes, go shopping with stylish things – all this very much develops your aesthetic taste and just makes the job a pleasure. - Today you can work from home in any country
A lifestyle stylist is the kind of profession that allows you to work when it’s convenient for you. You don’t have to go to an office, you can work from home. You can work 1 hour or 5 hours a day, it’s up to you.
If you are babysitting, you can work when the child is asleep, or at night. An area like online image consulting is very common today.
You can work without leaving home at all, which is very relevant for those who, for example, live abroad and cannot yet work in an office in another country. You work with clients from all over the world. You can work with clients in absolutely any language: in Russian and, if you know English, with English-speaking clients.
- well-paid, the profession is increasingly in demand
Whereas previously the profession of image consultant and stylist was only for VIPs and celebrities, today more and more often ordinary people of the middle class are turning to stylists. They can ask the stylists to compose a closet for going to work, pick an image for a party or other event like a wedding, or just to update the closet.
And this work pays very well. The cost of one image consultation varies from 150 to 650 euros.
Personal shopping is paid on the basis of:
As you can calculate, if you are a stylist, you can work several days a week and earn good money.
- You can work in different fields
The profession of a stylist-image-maker is good because you can work in completely different areas.
If you like working with people, you can do offline image consultations. If you want to work online, you’ll have online image consultations and online shopping.
If you enjoy shopping, you can work as a personal shopper.
If you prefer to work on fashion shoots and want to get into the real fashion world and work with professionals, you can work as a fashion stylist and help style, pick out stylish images for models and regular people for photo shoots.
You can work with celebrities (actors, singers), as for advertising designer brands or just ordinary companies, as well as with ordinary people, or, for example, for TV presenters, for whom a closet is also selected.
Cons of the profession:
- Non-permanent, out-of-office work
If you are used to working constantly in the office, when you have a certain schedule, a fixed salary, vacation pay, the work of the image consultant is not for you. Here you are your own boss. And you yourself determine the schedule.
Therefore, the work of an image consultant is more likely not suitable for people who like some kind of schedule and are used to going somewhere. An image consultant does not go to the office, he works from home. He can rent a studio or rent an image agency where he will meet with clients, but he will still work more alone than in an office.
- Working with people
If you are an introvert, if you don’t like working with people, then this is not the profession for you. An image consultant works with people, he is constantly communicating, constantly communicating.
It is very important for him to be flexible, because a stylist and image consultant is not somebody who, as on TV, comes and makes a person wear certain things, but somebody who can understand a person and can pick up what is close to that person.
So if you don’t like to communicate, this profession will not suit you.
If you do not like to communicate, then you should choose another profession in the field of fashion, such as a job as a blogger, journalist or fashion-illustrator. In this case, you will work alone from home and you won’t have to communicate with other people.
- It’s hard to get started and find your first clients
For stylists, the most difficult step is when they have finished their courses at the fashion school and next try to start working with clients.
On the one hand, they are still shy to call themselves a stylist, they are shy to tell their acquaintances, relatives, that they can pick up a closet.
On the other hand, they haven’t yet built up a name for themselves or become fashion experts.
So as soon as some people meet with difficulties, with the fact that very many clients do not appear at once, some people give up this job and think that it is very difficult to be a stylist.
But that’s how it is in any job: in order for you to have regular clients, in order for you to become famous in the field of style, it’s important for you to start working, to do your first image consultations, to build a portfolio and to get feedback from clients.
According to the experience of our fashion school students, who have already been trained as image consultants and started working, it takes about six months for you to have a permanent client base and to receive job offers as a stylist in different companies or, for example, as a stylist for some famous people, TV presenters, etc.