A Week in the Life of a Personal Shopper

As you may or may not know, I recently began offering my personal styling services to the public, under the auspices of a well-known department store... So just how jammy is being paid to shop for a living? (Answer: not as much as you might think, funnily enough.)
Monday, 10am
Arrive at work, following my tortuous 15 minute commute - on foot - for my 4 hour shift (OK, maybe I'm underselling the benefits of the job slightly). A couple of sales assistants haven't turned up, so I'm tasked with manning the fitting rooms - re-hanging clothes, handing out and collecting tags, and even doing up the odd zip - oh, the glamour!
11.30am
On my release from "Fits" duty, I collect the  key to my open plan office-come-changing-room "suite" and survey my territory. So far, I've been kept busy reading (multiple) tomes of "Best Practice" and covering sales assistant duties in lieu of actually doing any personal shopping, but I still live in hope that somebody, someday, will place a slightly greater demand on my skills than that exacted by ensuring all new stock is "finger-spaced". So, cloth and cleaning fluid in hand, I spend the next two hours cleaning my suite from top-to-toe - polishing my mirrors and removing all traces of various unidentifiable sticky substances from my furniture - whilst the same six tracks play on a loop over the in-store PA system, and I reflect that I am actually being paid less than the average London cleaner for doing the same job.
1.40pm
But my efforts are not in vain - on my way back from returning my now-unappetisingly-soiled cloth to the cleaning cupboard, I am almost knocked off my feet by a freak indoor tornado frantic middle-aged lady who ambushes me in "despair" (her words) of ever being able to find the right accessories to complement her wedding guest outfit. "No problem, madam - let me show you into my suite and book you an appointment" - score! The words "Personal Shopper" are as a magic balm to her frayed nerves. Coolly, calmly and reassuringly (and metaphorically jumping for joy), I note down her sizes and preferences, ready to make some sneaky shopfloor selects ahead of her Wednesday afternoon appointment.


Tuesday
An earlier start today, and a train to catch to Head Office for an exclusive personal shopper preview of the AW15 campaign going live later on in the month, and the collections set to touch down over the next few weeks (all advance blabbing about of which is, for the time being, officially embargoed and punishable by firing squad - or at least firing, I presume). Super-stylist Mark Heyes (him off Lorraine) acts as Master of Ceremonies, maintaining the speed and energy with which he presents a 3-minute ITV slot for over 5 hours - truly a feat to behold!


Wednesday, 11am
The day of my first appointment has arrived! My little human tornado isn't due in until 2.30pm, but I decide to get an early start on her selects, wheeling my little basket around the shop floor for a good hour and a half whilst scavenging shoe and bag options with which to complete her shift dress/fascinator combo.
1pm
Today I'm officially allowed to eat, since I'm working for more than 5 hours - whoop! So the M&S mozzarella and tomato sandwich I manage to scoff during my 30 minute break before hurrying back to make a couple of last minute additions to my rail is suitably savoured.
2.10pm
She's early! And she's only got an hour left on her parking ticket! Can I do it? Of course I can!
3pm
50 minutes later, leaving a trail of devastation in her wake (well, OK, just a couple of carefully re-hung jackets), my little tornado has left the building - £84.50 lighter, but a beaded clutch and pair of satin peep-toes heavier. Time to tidy up.
4pm
Contemplate doing a "floor walk" to update my mental stock database, but the exhilaration of my first appointment (and 50 minutes spent caught in the eye of a tornado) has drained, leaving me feeling too depleted to face it. Brainwave: I decide to do a virtual floor walk instead (i.e. browse the store's website until home time).


Thursday, 11am
I don't even make it into my suite today. Instead, I'm asked to spend an entire 4 hour shift on the tills - internet refunds, exchanges - it's all happening. But time does pass a little faster here than it does whilst stain-removing.


Friday, 11am
Arrive to find a Personal Shopper appointment already in progress - errmm... but I'm the Personal Shopper? Due to "technical issues", I'm still not able to access my online appointments diary, and no other record of the booking (made before I even started the job!) had been made, so the client turning up - 30 minutes before I was due in - was a complete and utter surprise to all concerned, including the senior sales assistant who ended up covering the appointment. Meanwhile, I'm left with no more productive option than to help out with "recovery" - and, believe me, 3.5 hours of "cubing" (i.e. ensuring the right size marker is on each hanger) is enough to make me want to lie down on the floor and cry. But then...
2.30pm
... I get... (pause for effect) ... a "walk-in". It's another desperate soon-to-be wedding guest (there's a definite theme emerging here) and she needs an entire outfit - fascinator and all - for tomorrow. I'm due to leave in half an hour - it's all a bit Challenge Anneka, but bring it on!
2.52pm
Despite my client's insistence on trying almost every dress in the store for size, she's decided to go with my initial pick - a beautiful vintage-style lace midi-shift. But she's still in dire need of accessorising. With 8 minutes of my shift remaining, I race out to grab a multi-strand pearl choker from the floor below, only to be waylaid by an unassuming young woman - "Excuse me - are you the Personal Shopper?". "Yes, I am, but..." (Seriously, you wait 3.5 hours for a client and then two turn up at once?!). "I know you're with someone at the moment, but I have an appointment booked for half-past two". Ohhhhhh.... dear.


Lessons Learned:

1. Mark Heyes is (in all likelihood) a machine.
2. Personal shopping clients are like buses, or, indeed, pretty much anything longed for and/or meticulously planned around.
3. Although you will wake up in the middle of the night with them playing in your head - in the same order - the same 6 tracks can be listened to on repeat over a period of up to 5 hours a day whilst (relative) sanity is retained.
4. Whether the same can be said for the effects of "cubing" over a prolonged period of time is as yet uncertain - further data required.

P.S. If you live in the Greater London area and would like to avail yourself of my services on a non-store specific basis (with my personal guarantee of NO double bookings!), take a looksie at my new website, or just drop me a line.

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Redheads Shouldn't Wear Pink? How to Evade the Colour Police

I'll admit, I thought one of the unavoidable costs of going red would be a rack of unwearable pastels... until, in a "what the hell, I don't have to leave the house today" moment, I decided to pull on last year's candy pink playsuit... hmm, clash-a-rama alert... but what would happen if I added a red belt, tying my new hair colour into a nice little tonally-colour-blocked package? Eureka! No more fear of eyestrain for innocent onlookers, and way more of a statement than I could ever have made as a blonde. And orange shoes... well, why the hell not?

If you're struggling with a colour clash quandary of your own, check out a few of my tried-and-tested tricks, illustrated with a little help from my fellow redheaded rebels - which, with a few tweaks, you can apply to your own colour concerns, whatever your hair shade.

1. Choose the right shade for your colouring. For example, rich, berry-toned pinks (as seen on Ms Hendricks, below), along with lighter, nude-type hues, à la Nicola Roberts, tend to suit redheads' warm colouring better than acid brights, candy tones and dusky lilac shades. 

In the Pink: Redheads Rebel...

But, if you really want to wear a shade which jars with your natural (or not so natural) colouring, you still have a few options available...

1. Block with another colour which does work for you - echoing your hair colour (with a belt like mine, a sweater like Emma's, or even just a bold lip) "brackets" the deviant shade and draws attention back up to your gorgeous face (whatever you may have been told about redheads in red!). Blonde? Try rocking a sunny yellow scarf, like my lovely male model... 
2. Pair with patterns in shades which complement your colouring and pick out the tones of the scary shade, like Florence's fabulous florals.
3. Put your hair up. Simple, painless, effective.

Playsuit: LOVE (Past Season), Shoes: New Look, Belt: Afraid I can't remember for the life of me!

Do you follow colour "rules", or flout them?

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Personal Styling: Behind the (Fitting Room) Curtain

During my time at the London College of Style, I've had plenty of opportunities to get to grips with the fundamentals of personal styling - from wardrobe edits to shopathon challenges - and, as a result, had my eyes opened to a myriad of opportunities for stylistic satisfaction beyond the pages of those crazy-cool concept editorial shoots. And, whilst I'm not about to turn down a commission from i-D, seeing the smile which results from tweaking and expanding someone's conception of their personal style and, by extension, self-image - often without them spending a penny, but simply from mixing and matching items which may have lain untouched in their wardrobes for months or years in new ways - really is priceless.

Styled by Sam: Introducing Mummy Muses to pattern clashing, and helping the lovely Anna find a way to rock her neglected split-front midi

But this week, the tables were turned, as I took a turn playing client. Now, I'm rather protective of my own personal style, so, perhaps ironically, being styled is my idea of a nightmare... But, rather as trainee counsellors are required to submit to personal therapy, perhaps stylists can learn something from spending some time on the other side of the fitting room curtain?

Lesson One: Be Brand-Body Shape Aware

Or: Don't take curvy girls to Zara. Now, I'm not exactly Kim Kardashian, and I can shimmy into size 8 Miss Selfridge culottes or an extra-small H&M crop top with relative ease - but could I yank a pair of size small Zara palazzos over my hips, or get the zip done up over my E-cups on a dress which, notwithstanding its lack of room up top, sagged sadly around my waist? Not a chance. In hell. Which, despite my relatively (ahem) extensive wardrobe, didn't exactly make me feel awesome. Which leads me to...

Lesson Two: Make the Client Feel Good About Themselves (via Ensuring They Look Amazeballs)

Which is only possible if you remember that...

Lesson Three: It's All About Them

Whilst Zara was the perfect one-stop-shop for my stylist's athletic size 6 frame, the straight cuts and paucity of lycra just didn't work for my hourglass figure. As a personal stylist, you need to leave your own personal style, and shopping preferences, at the door, at least to a certain extent. So, whilst I might encourage a client to experiment with print, for example, my aim will always be to give them the tools to re-envision themselves as the best possible version of them - whilst I might wear killer lace-up heels with the shirt-and-skirt ensemble I pulled together from Anna's wardrobe, pictured above, I loved the cute hi/lo look we ended up with thanks to her suggestion to add her favourite white trainers into the mix - combining my fresh take on her wardrobe with her own individual flair to create something totally new, but still totally her.

Whilst I may have already had the theory down, living the client experience myself really brought the fundamentals into focus. Definitely worth taking a trip through the looking glass...

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Colour Me... Confused? Colour Analysis on Trial

"Having your colours done" - something middle-aged women did in the '80s between Tupperware and Ann Summers parties, right? So not the sort of cutting edge technique you'd be taught as a budding stylist at somewhere as on-the-button and industry-centred as the London College of Style, surely? Well, actually...

Colour analysis is apparently going through something of a renaissance (if it ever really went away), and should forever remain, according to our special guest lecturer, stylist and colour expert Tanja Mrnjaus, a key weapon in the modern stylist's armoury, whether "in vogue" or not. So, does it live up to the hype?

In all respects, but perhaps particularly when it comes to matters of style, I will resist, kicking and screaming (metaphorically speaking), being locked into any kind of (metaphorical or literal) box. At the end of the day, personal style is personal, and individual considerations should always supersede blanket dictates based on categoristic pigeonholing, whether you're a pear-shape who happens to look great in printed palazzos, or a redhead who adores (bright) white. Having rejoiced in the freedom of scrapping the "low-neckline + cinched-waist + A-line/pencil hem" and "that shade would wash you out" rules I followed religiously throughout my late teens and early twenties, I'm certainly not going to stop buttoning my shirts up to the collar or floating around in empire lines because they "shouldn't" work for my hourglass shape (finding creative ways to make them work for me is a whole lot more satisfying), or ditch the "Summer"-coloured sundresses which really shouldn't be lurking in the wardrobe of a "Spring".

And there things become really confusing... Because, get me home, scrub my tan off and... ta-dah! Instant Summer. Or it would be, if Schwarzkopf hadn't just spent 7.5 hours dyeing my hair various shades of red and pink... So am I an Autumn now? I really hope not, because shades of leaf are not my bag... But, jokes aside, with some judicious self tan/hair dye/contact lens-based tinkering, I think I could probably inveigle my way into any of the four seasonal groups!

Diary of an Identity Crisis

Which means... you can break free of your box! Even if that means changing half your wardrobe to complement your new hair colour... (And, I must admit, there are colours which work better with my new look: warmer, deeper tones in my wardrobe are "popping" against my red/pink hair as they never did with blonde). As Tanja told us right away, an awareness of colour should actually increase, rather than restrict, the freedom with which you can approach your personal style - virtually everybody can wear virtually every colour, but certain shades of each colour are likely to suit you better than others (and if you really want to wear another shade, popping in some coloured lenses might just help!). And, whilst I would never dream of telling someone with "low contrast" colouring that they should dress exclusively in monochromatic colour palettes, if they were looking for a "wow" ensemble for an extra-special occasion, it would be a really interesting place to start.

As I see it, style "rules" (whether regarding colour, body shape or, indeed, anything else), function in two ways: (1) as super-useful baseline guidance... and (2) as challenges - if something "shouldn't" work, how can I make it work? Which, incidentally, is just how we're encouraged to approach things at LCS - if our flamboyant elderly client insists on wearing brightly coloured mini skirts (which complement her collection of shopping trolleys), then we darn well find a way to make her look great in a brightly coloured mini skirt (which complements her collection of shopping trolleys)... and if we want to wear a "Summer" coloured statement necklace, we wrap our "Winter" hair up in an appropriately-coloured (of course) turban - just like the ever-resourceful Tanja on the day she came in to impart her wisdom! So yes, rules were made to be broken, but knowledge = power.

What do you think? Have you ever considered colour analysis?

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