🌎 Does a personal stylist's style have to match yours?

Does a personal stylist's style have to match yours?

I'm Vanessa Versiani, a personal stylist who has worked in the fashion industry since 1981, and in this article I'm going to talk about this issue that many people who are looking for a personal stylist have doubts about.

I'll start by explaining that personal style is a non-verbal communication tool and it's impossible to group different people together as if they had the same style, because each person communicates different things through their image. And that's exactly why you need an experienced and qualified personal stylist. If you were just following labels, you wouldn't need anyone, you could just imitate any influencer whose style you like. But by imitating someone, you're going against the grain of developing a personal style.

A serious personal stylist knows how to separate their own style from that of the client. After all, personal style has to be PERSONAL. (This should be obvious!)

If a personal stylist wants to label your new style as “classic”, “modern”, “dramatic”, romantic” or any other label, RUN AWAY! The only label that fits a personal style is the client’s name. Personal style expresses a person's personality and what they are interested in communicating about themselves to certain groups. Using labels is as limiting as wanting to limit your behaviors to stereotypical feminine OR masculine behaviors according to your birth gender. Anyone who has studied a minimum of psychology knows that a healthy person has stereotypical masculine AND feminine behavioral characteristics, to varying degrees, regardless of their birth gender. The education received from parents and the environment where a person grows up and lives influence and may or may not repress certain characteristics.

You are NOT a character to fit a shallow description. What people who use labels for styles do not understand is that these labels serve to make life easier for journalists when commenting on collections, but they do not serve to define a personal style. Someone told them that half a dozen labels are the types of style and they believed it. My experience of over 40 years in the fashion industry guides my work in another direction. The direction of seeing each of my clients as a complex human being, with unique personality traits, and a profile that must also consider their physical appearance (body type, hair color, skin, eyes, teeth, etc.), social status, profession, goals, limitations, among other factors.

Your personal style may be as complex as you are or it may be shallow and limited to any label, but between hiring a personal stylist whose style you like and one who knows how to respect your profile and its many variables, which one would you prefer? Your choice will depend on your self-esteem (whether healthy or low) and your self-knowledge. If you do not see yourself as a complex human being, you will think that my service is far above what you are prepared for.

The choice is yours. To hire me as your personal stylist, read the commitments page and the consulting page (see the links at the top of this page).

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Vanessa Versiani

Personal stylist

vanessaversianimoda@gmail.com