‘Our company offers personal stylist services’ explains Klein. ‘You may request a wardrobe check, personal shopping, a total metamorphosis, a business dress code lesson or styling for special occasions. Irrespective of the nature of the meeting, we discuss the current style of the client, what should be changed. I analyze the person’s figure, the colours and advise on the best cuts for a given type which will emphasize the advantages as well as the colours that will enhance the person’s natural beauty. I also offer interior design and styling services.

Aleksandra Klein is a professional interior designer.  She is a graduate of the Higher School of Applied Arts in Szczecin, but following her graduation she was engaged in design work only occasionally.  After some time, she decided to go back to her true vocation,   and to accomplish that she began wondering how to combine skills and abilities she gained with her current interest.   “Interior design and styling services are in fact, closely related. In both you need to make sure that proportions, aesthetics, and you artistic creation are balanced out.  As far as styling goes, in the past I advised my friends on what to wear on numerous occasions, I often went shopping for clothes with my girlfriends. The truth is that it is my friends who have suggested this career path to me.” – she explains.

To obtain the appropriate qualifications, Aleksandra Klein went to Warsaw to complete a two-stage training course and become a personal stylist and dress code specialist.   Then she filed an application for a grant with the Local Employment Office to start her own business. With the money she thus obtained she bought office equipment, a PC, a camera and a projector which she intends to use in future during dress code training sessions.  The grant money was also spent on creating a website and advertising, mainly in local press.  Aleksandra Klein prepares shows to promote Fabryka Stylu during business events and meetings for women; she organizes her own promotional campaigns as well.  “I must admit that entering the market is not easy.  I feel that people in Szczecin tend to be distrustful of what I am offering them.  I do my best to change their mind-set and I hope that I will be able to accomplish it, especially considering that services like mine are commonly used in other cities” – she says.

She agrees that her profession is not only about making an apt choice of clothing. “You need to be an insightful psychologist besides being a stylist.  Customers let you inside their intimate world, they often disclose their insecurities. On the other hand, you also must make them face up to the fact that their inner conviction about what they look good in is not always right. The relations are complex and often sensitive, and my role is to make my customer believe that she is attractive and possesses many assets that are worth showing off rather than to prove that she looked awful before she met me. I am most satisfied when my customer goes through a metamorphosis, stops being shy and grows to be proud of her looks" – she concludes.   

Aleksandra Klein needs to track latest trends in fashion and be familiar with new collections.  “Surely, I must know what’s new and hot. I often visit shopping malls and I spend even more time browsing the internet. Thanks to that, when I arrange a meeting with a customer to go shopping, I have an idea beforehand which brand to select and what trends to follow” – she adds.    Aleksandra Klein has recently started to expand the range of her competencies – she has enrolled for a makeup training course. “I would like to broaden my offer and add a new area to my skills, namely photo session styling. My plan is to provide comprehensive styling services that could be used by magazines and during fashion shows. However, I have no intention of neglecting my current customers or letting down any woman who wants to use the services of a personal stylist” – she promises.

ŁP