About Me

It’s June which means a couple of things: My birthday and the anniversary of me becoming a Personal Stylist! So I’m taking this opportunity to finally tell you a little bit more about me and how I got to where I am today 🙂

I was born and raised in London, and lived in Harrow for most of my life with my parents and twin brother.

My brother has never been into fashion but he, like me, loves to draw. We used to sit in front of the TV drawing how we would makeover the unhappy lady Trinny and Suzanna were ‘fixing up’. Project Runway became a show we’d design along to as well. For him he liked the challenge, for me I thought I was going to become a fashion designer and have my own runway collections when I became a grown-up.

Every day I was making stacks of artwork at home and at school in every possible lesson I could get away with it! I still have these drawings and more at home and one day hope to display them all in a big art exhibit.

Both of my parents were very encouraging. Shopping was my mum’s way of making me ‘exercise’ so we went regularly to Harrow (which never had the hugest selection of stores) where I would shop for her, my brother and friends. My mum let me carry out Wardrobe Edits in her Wardrobe and I still regret all those 80’s jumpers and leggings I told her to give away! Any fashion exhibit I wanted to see, my dad would take me to. Occasionally he’d take me shopping somewhere special like a vintage market or I could help choose him clothes in Watford (he had to drive it’s a big deal).

I went on to study fashion design at Northampton University. It was my first time living away from home and one of the best things that came out of my 3 years there are the friends I made (who are still my closest friends today).

Being extremely shy and quiet in school meant I was never very popular. I always let my fashion speak for me, making me the only ’emo’ in my class. When I got to University it was the first time I made friends who accepted and shared my tastes which was extremely exciting. We would dance to Kpop in our kitchen, watch anime together, and go vintage shopping. Even getting matching jumpers (my teachers found this embarrassing when a Karen Millen designer came to visit).

As for the course I found it very hard. It was the same in theory as my BTEC but the teachers were a lot harsher to prepare us for the real world. Many tears were shed over scissors through garments and frustrating pattern cutting. I still value the sewing skills I honed there and I am always editing my clothes to fit better. I can also make a few simple things from scratch which is a lot more fun at home with no rules and grades.

After I graduated, I took on an array of unpaid internships for small fashion brands where I made tea, steamed clothes, bought socks and swept the floor. On a good day I dressed windows or the staff for ‘outfit of the week’ social media posts. Classic ‘Devil Wears’ Prada’ stuff but less glamorous (imagine a warehouse full of dresses and dog poo). I felt pretty disillusioned and started to really think about my place in the fashion industry.

From these experiences, I could see that working my way up to actually designing was going to be hard when I couldn’t afford to pay for Photoshop (and be amazing at technical drawing on there) which many seemed to require. I also still wasn’t very good at pattern cutting, a key part of designing too.

The drawing and designing part wasn’t what I was getting the opportunity to do and made me just want to start my own fashion brand so I could have creative control. However, after spending a lot at University on rent, fabric and interning for free for months, I couldn’t afford any big dreams just yet. I spent years in retail trying to earn back some funds and figure out what I could really do.

As a shy person, working in a shop was extremely scary but greatly helpful in teaching me to talk to people – sometimes you need to be thrown into the deep end! In store I found that one of my favourite jobs was to stand at the fitting room and talk to people when they came out to look in the mirror. It was there where I would offer outfit advice to people and started to think about what I could do with that skill.

I then started taking on a few side projects whilst working in retail. It helped me feel like I was being creative and actually using my fashion skills. Something to look forward to and stop myself going crazy from working on the till which is my least favourite thing to do!

One side project was self-publishing a fashion Colouring book as I noticed that Colouring books were selling really well at the time but there wasn’t a good fashion one out there. Just lots of dream catchers and mendalas……

It cost a bit of my new earnings but I finally let my drawings loose into the world! I was so happy to host drawing events with children in my local book stores when I got the chance as nothing beats a real person (kids don’t lie) saying they like your artwork. I only stopped doing these events when COVID hit.

If you like unwinding with a colouring book full of quirky characters cute outfits, fashion through the ages and style icons, The Whimsical Fashion Colouring book can be purchased here.

I also took on a short course at London College of Fashion studying Commercial Styling for photoshoots which I absolutely loved. My teacher from that course had me assist her on a number of commercial photoshoots which were so much fun. Imagine going around M&S with a company card paid for by BT being told to buy whole wardrobe’s worth of clothes for an entire family. All ages from grandpa to baby with loads of looks each –  it was a dream! It was so fun sitting in a coffee shop with the team and coming up with the stories behind each character in the shot too.

When less of those started coming my way, I tried my hand at editorial styling for magazines which I also really enjoyed. I could be creative and choose everything from the model, theme, location, clothes and makeup. This was being funded out of my own pocket and I was spending a lot of money at ASOS (even though I did refund everything after). Real editorial stylists borrow clothes from brands and designers and give them back after but as a newbie it was hard to get people to want to lend anything to me.

I had moved away from being a Sales assistant and at one point even manager of a little store (a very relaxed one) to Visual Merchandising.

The experience was very different in every store I worked for. At Debenhams I was allowed loads of creative freedom and dressed every type of mannequin available but as an unfit 4.ft 11 person, my arms couldn’t handle all the heavy lifting (garden furniture up an escalator once).

In John Lewis I worked part time which I thought would help my body. It did but but in contrast, I was finding myself with very little opportunities for creative work. My team was large and without a manager, of course they wouldn’t want the part timer taking the fun jobs. I felt my skills were being wasted and it wasn’t worth waking up at 5am to fluff bed cushions – even if it was only for 3 days a week it was making me very unhappy.

Having worked in the industry and trying out all sorts of flavours of fashion jobs, I started to think back on what I liked about every job. I knew for a fact that I like putting outfits together, shopping and being creative and I missed that human interaction and joy I would get from a model at a photoshoot trying on something new and unexpected.

Remembering how much I loved my commercial styling short course, I treated myself for my birthday to a Personal Styling short course at The London College of Style.

Every day was so special and something felt quite magical. Like I was learning to do what I was meant to be doing. The Wardrobe Edits I do with my mum I can do with real people. Browsing the new-ins on ASOS very day and sending links to my brother can be my Online Service. I had no idea what Colour Analysis was but I fell it love with it and immediately rethought my whole wardrobe after. I’ve always felt confident dressing people but it was nice to add something I didn’t know to my skill list.

The class was made up of a small group of ladies that immediately clicked even though we all came from different walks of life. It’s been a year since we started this journey, and the whole way through we’ve supported each other online and in person with the help of our teachers who go out of their way to answer questions when we have them.

So, it’s been a year since I quit everything else I was doing and threw myself into the world of Personal Styling and I can safely say this is the happiest I’ve been in any job. I’ve worked with some lovely clients and it has felt so rewarding to make other people feel good about themselves through something I love doing. It’s win win!

This year I’m turning 29 and I’m so excited to see where this year takes me. I hope to work with even more of you lovely people and make you all feel fantastic about your bodies. Like you know your style and what colours and shapes work for you and that everything in your wardrobe makes you happy. Feeling like your best self and just want to get out there and strut down the fruit and veg isle of Tescos like it’s your own personal catwalk (and send me photos of your outfits please).

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little better in this blog. I’d love to get to know you all too! Get in touch if you fancy to getting started on your style journey with me