Thursday, August 29, 2019

Image Consultancy

As well as styling, I provide Image Consultancy services 

My take on image consultancy is that someone should know how to represent themselves authentically for the situation, and determine how they want to be perceived - asking them what is their identity?  As people are multi dimensional and have different aspects to their lives I look at image styling as being costume design for every day, depending on what role in your life you're currently being. As costume design describes unspoken aspects of a character, your image makes a statement about you as a person.  This is less tangible, and would take a while to evaluate through conversation.

By being more self aware you become more confident and assertive through understanding and appreciating yourself and acknowledging your self worth.

It's not about if your bum looks big in that skirt or not but with having you represent yourself genuinely and appropriately through displaying your persona accurately.



The image consultancy services I provide include body shape and colour analysis, wardrobe evaluation and outfit planning.  I put outfits together ensuring items suit according to body shape, personal taste etc and explain why.  I aim to understand someone's preferred styles of clothing and make sure of the suitability for the occasion and make sure there's adequate choice, developing style concepts for special events of more adventurous looks, and I keep a strong awareness of developing appropriate looks to suit the event  Being trained in body shape and colour analysis means clients are dressed for their body shape/size and colour season so they look their brightest and feel comfortable, and by defining someone's individual style means I create outfits to their satisfaction.  I have a great network of stores and designers which gives a lot of choice for clients, and i maintain careful budget planning and record keeping.


I charge sensible rates - it's Glasgow after all, not London!  Colour and body shape analysis is £60, wardrobe evaluation is £100, a half day shop is £100 and a full day shop with lunch is £165.  I hope this appeals to people to might want to try working with an image consultant and I can get you off to a great start.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Style


Introducing Jacki Clark - Stylist

I'm a Glasgow based fashion stylist, the resident stylist for Glasgow's Westender magazine.

I previously worked in theatre, film and TV before changing lanes to become a fashion stylist.  The move came after first running cabaret shows, then fashion shows and seeing the independent design talent in Scotland which I wanted to promote.

While starting to develop my portfolio I did an online course with the British College of Professional Styling, then a short summer course at London College of Fashion, followed by a comprehensive course with London School of Styling which was a great experience with some good early portfolio pieces



After networking in Glasgow, Edinburgh and surrounding areas, and a wee bit of interning in London as a styling assistant, I felt my portfolio was ready for the next level and started looking for commercial work, and fortunately landed the job with Westender magazine in summer 2017.  The first shoot I did with the magazine was on a rooftop overlooking George Square, and I felt part of the team from the beginning.  My good amount of experience on set helped hugely to give me the standard of work needed to meet the requirements, so I would definitely recommend a lot of work experience to get used to the protocol and team work needed on set.  I was introduced to the local boutique managers by the magazine's editor Suzanne, and started some great working relationships with local stockists.  Since then, as the stockists have reduced in the West End I've had to look to stores in the city centre and have got great rapports with lots of high street stores.  One of my favourites is TopShop, and I've always loved going into the store in Argyle Street, which I remember loving in my teens.  On the topic, one of my favourite memories is being in TopShop in Oxford Circus in London when I was sixteen on a sunny summer day, and just loving all the bright trends, cool jewellery and shoes.  It was rave era, I was young and I felt this excitement, an energy I loved and that motivated me to keep on being creative when it wasn't easy to make a living in this industry, especially in Glasgow and particularly after the financial crisis.


I've been able to work my ideas into concept shoots to get statement images out there, and working on these images is a favourite part of my work, as it's full of personal meaning and relevance to me.





I enjoy this work hugely, I get to meet a lot of really interesting people and have brilliant conversations, and that's what motivates me, in addition to getting my point across in my personal rather than commercial work.







The accidental Singer sewing machine revolution By Tim Harford

By Tim Harford ( taken from  bbc.co.uk/news/business ) Gillette adverts  stand against toxic masculinity . Budweiser  makes speciall...