You know you are really outsourcing your shopping when you don’t even have to be there. But are you missing out on all the fun?*
copyright lee harris photography 2009
Last week’s article by Natasha Silva-Jelly, Help, I need a Wardrobe Makeover, in the Sydney Morning Herald’s fabulous weekly lift out Essential, got me excited. What a great example of every stylist’s favourite fantasy, shopping with the client’s money but without the client!
Please do not pretend that you are shocked to hear this. There isn’t a person alive who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to do this, although for some of you the fantasy might involve being given a $1000 cash and being let loose in the David Jones Food Hall for the afternoon to buy food and booze for a dinner party.
But it also gives me the perfect opportunity to remind all you sceptics out there that no matter what your shopping or styling needs there is bound to be an alternative that suits you.
Because if you want new clothes or indeed a new look but simply haven’t the time or the inclination to schlep around the shops in the wake of your gung-ho styling expert, do you know what? You don’t actually have to be there at all.
I must admit I am constantly reminding myself that, in actual fact, NOT EVERYBODY LIKES TO GO SHOPPING. I love taking clients along with me on shopping expeditions for so many reasons: to show them firsthand how to pick which stores to go into; how to stick to their list and budget when they get there; having the pleasure of seeing them get excited when they pick something out themselves and then realise when they get it on that they now know how to choose the right thing; the debrief over a cup of coffee or glass of bubbly straight after the session where we get to congratulate ourselves on a successful trip and talk about all the ways the new haul can be worn.
But this is admittedly not everyone’s cup of tea, and as you know now from my earlier revelation, I am not just talking from the client’s perspective.
Kelly Smythe, for example, whose approach was covered in the article I am talking about, has built an incredibly successful styling business whereby she does all the shopping herself and then takes it back to the client at home. No one to coax into trying on something new, no running back and forth from the change room to the shop floor looking for different colours or sizes, no keeping eager-to-check-in-on-your-progress-or-spending husbands at bay; just you and the clothes, focused and free.
So if you are keen for a new style but want to be spared the trauma of finding it, perhaps letting the ones who love doing all the work for you (that’s us) get on and do it is just the approach for you.
And then you can be free to get on with planning that DJ’s dinner party.
Happy (virtual) styling!
Rubi
*Yes, that’s me on the far right, out and about in Barcelona, shopping and styling with a group of gorgeous girls. Trust me, this is a fun way for us to do your shopping!!
