Episode 30: What Type of Background Do You Need to be a Personal Stylist?
What type of background do you need to be a personal stylist?
Any you want! End of podcast.
Jk ….
But seriously. Almost every successful stylist I know started out their professional career as something BESIDES a stylist: a journalist, social worker, grant writer, marketer, copywriter, etc.
My undergraduate degree is in liberal arts, with a concentration in Black Studies. I have two master's degrees, one in social work, one from seminary. Never in a million years did I think I would become a personal stylist.
My story, which I’ll share in a future episode, and so many other stylists’ stories, are proof that you don’t need a particular background to be a stylist. Just like you don’t need to be “full time” to call yourself a stylist.
There are however, 2 things that I will recommend you have if you want to be a personal stylist and run your own business:
Undying curiosity for business. If you don’t care as much about the business side, then I’d suggest being a stylist for a retail, boutique, or online company. If you want to work for yourself, you’re gonna need a lot of curiosity to figure out how to run a business.
Innate talent for translating personalities into clothes. Personal styling is about way more than just shopping all day. You need to be able to understand a person’s challenges, where they are now with their style, where they want to go, and craft a plan to get them there. The stylists I know that are successful, learn a lot as they go, but they also have an innate talent for this - for putting together outfits, and it comes easily.
That’s it.
These two things will get you in the door long enough to get experience, get better, and craft a background that now includes personal stylist.