When it comes to shopping as a personal stylist, there is a strategy behind it in order to do
it correctly, staying inside the budget and shopping for all new looks that your client
hired you to find. Since, I've been a stylist for the past 15 years, and I styled top celebrities,
advertising campaigns, editorial shoots, and many, many more. In this video, I will tell you
what are the main rules you should follow as a personal stylist when it comes to shopping.
Hi, my name is Basia Richard and I help aspiring stylists enter the styling industry. If you
are aspiring stylist or maybe a new stylist, and you want to start a styling career, you should
grab my free cheat sheet guide with tons of free resources that's going to get you started. Also,
if styling career interests you, then you should subscribe and hit the bell to get notified when I
post a new video, which is every Monday. In this video, we'll talk about what are six shopping
rules every new personal stylist should follow. So let's get started.
Rule number one, you are shopping for your client, not for yourself. Now,
when I started to sell at the beginning of my career, shopping for my clients was one of the
most difficult part because as soon as I went inside the store and I would start browsing for
like different clothes and accessories, I would think about myself, not about my client. That's
the number one mistake, a lot of new personal stylists make. So even though you might have,
let's say like a tomboy sort of style and you're wearing skinny jeans, some kind of like a
cool graphic t-shirt and leather jacket. And your client has like, let's say a preppy style,
right? Your job is to put yourself in your client's shoes and really understand
what they love and what they don't like, or what type of style
will suit them. And then introduce them to new and upgraded looks that will suit their personality.
So the most important thing that you want to pay attention is that your client
hired you, because you have a great sense of style and to trust your judgment, so you can
still trust your intuition as well. And so just looks that will fit into your
client's personality in their styles, and I know it's not easy and when you're just starting.
So the best way to go about that is to really put yourself in your client's shoes,
talk to your client as much as possible to really understand their likes, their dislikes,
to understand their life, why they need your help in the first place. And the more you're
going to start working with real clients, the easier it's going to be to shop for them.
Rule number two, get a wardrobe budget. Now, what is a wardrobe budget? Well, the wardrobe budget
is all the money that your client allocated to purchase a new wardrobe. And in reality, you
can't really start shopping without really knowing how much money your client wants to spend on a new
wardrobe. Now, imagine that you went shopping and you really don't know
how much money your client wants to spend. And you took your client to let's say like Neiman Marcus,
and any other like upscale boutiques. The reality is that you won't be able.... Your
client won't be able to purchase anything because it's completely outside of what they were thinking
in terms of the budget. So getting that wardrobe budget from your client is like the number one
goal for you, so you can plan accordingly. Now, knowing how much money your client wants to spend,
you can easily plan all the stores and all the boutiques that you want to visit.
Now, the most important part that you have to keep in mind is that you have to be
realistic when it comes to your clients expectations. Now, a lot of clients might think,
because they'll be shopping with a stylist, suddenly all the prices are going to be
cut on half. And the stylist has some sort of like a secret weapon where you go to the
upscale boutique's sort of thing, there's going to be suddenly 90% off, but in the reality,
that's not true. So you have to be really upfront with your client and explain where
you can shop with their budget and what stores, brands, and boutiques are out of their reach.
So make sure to secure that wardrobe budget. So you are on the same page with your client.
Rule number three, plan the day. Now, if you do not plan your shopping day accordingly,
well your shopping trip will be a disaster and you have to trust me on this. That's the number
one thing, what you want to do? Now, how do you do it? Well, first of all you want to do,
is to plan all the stores that you want to visit. So simply make a list of all the stores that you
want to take your client to. Now, can simply take a piece of paper and a pen and just write it down,
all the boutiques and stores. And I normally use like a spreadsheet. So if you want to
use a spreadsheet, that's fine. Now, then what you want to do is to think about the location,
with all the stores you want to visit are at the mall, that's great. That makes it so
much easier on you now. If the boutiques you want to shop at are spread around your city,
well you have to plan accordingly, because you don't want to spend all day in a car.
Now, again, you have to be realistic. So if you plan to visit, let's say like 15 stores in one
day, well that might be out of your reach, simply because you will run out of time. So plan your
day, to have a successful shopping trip. Rule number four, make a list of items you will be
shopping for. Now, if you don't have that list of all the items that your client wants to shop for,
how can you even go and start shopping, well you're going to be just like running around
the store trying to figure out what your client needs. Now, in order to create that shopping list,
what you want to do is to simply talk to your client, gather as much information as you can,
ask them what they are missing and what they wish to get. Now, if you have conducted a closet detox
for them, then they'll be much easier to create that list because you have already seen their
closet and you know what they have, what they are still missing, what items needs to be upgraded.
Now, if you don't know what is a closet detox and how to conduct it, you can watch this video
and I will link it in the description below. Rule number five, pre-shop. Now,
pre-shopping is my favorite part in order to having a successful shopping trip, and a lot of
stylists don't do it. And this really helps plan better and have a successful shopping day. Now,
pre-shopping simply means that you are going to go a day or maybe like a couple days before to visit
all the stores that you want to visit with your client. And that way simply will help
you understand what those particular stores carry at this moment, exactly what designers
they have. So you can pinpoint any specific looks you would like your client to try on.
And this really helps because on a day of shopping with your client, you can simply navigate all
those stores because you already visited them, you already know what type of brands and looks
they carry. And that shopping day is going to be much more successful.
Rule number six, check return policy. Now, when it comes to the return policy,
this is your responsibility to notify and educate your client if they will be able to return
certain items that they purchased or not. Because the reality is that your client might change their
mind, they might want to return certain items. Things happen, and sometimes clients simply
changes their mind, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's just important to educate your
client and let them know if certain items are returnable or not, so they're not surprised.
So now you know all the shopping rules when it comes to a new personal stylist.
If you want to learn more, grab my free cheat sheet guide with tons of free resources that's
going to get you started. Also, don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell to get notified when
I post a new video, which is every Monday. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you next week.