How do you become a fashion consultant?
First, you should have an undeniable love for fashion and all types of fashion – in other words, be fluent in fashion to become a fashion consultant.
Individuals hire people as their fashion consultant because they are looking for someone to advise them on fashion and their style. Becoming a fashion consultant is different than a fashion blogger because fashion bloggers only post what they like. They may not have the same taste as you or have any interest in what you like. That’s why they are bloggers. However, fashion consultants, that are trained, are educated on how to accommodate the taste, needs, or desires of their clients.
So how do you become a fashion consultant?
Before embarking on any career, it’s best to get formal training on how to become a fashion consultant. Training should teach you:
- what services to offer
- how much to charge
- how to structure your services and how long it will take
- how to conduct a color and style consultation
- how to properly conduct a closet edit
- how to go personal shopping for a client
- what are the steps to be a good fashion consultant rather than try to become a fashion consultant by trial and error
Because think about it, would you hire someone/ pay someone to be your fashion consultant if it was just their hobby and they really didn’t have any systems or procedures on how to conduct a consultation? You might as well go shopping with your sister or best friend and save your money.
Therefore, when people hire a fashion consultant, they are looking for a credible expert. Ideally, they know how to work with men and women. How to create outfits that mix and match for them according to their lifestyle. Plus, a trained fashion consultant will not take you to 15 – 20 stores in one session. This is someone who doesn’t know what they are doing because you are getting paid by the hour to shop for the client. Therefore, all this time you have to spend going to 15 and 20 stores is time not well spent for your client.
How do we know this actually happens? We read a yelp review about a male New York Personal Stylist. It doesn’t matter if you already have everything on hold in 15 – 20 stores. That’s still 15 – 20 stores! Maybe it was a fake review as it’s not possible to go to these many stores in four hours unless you’re buying only one item per store and that’s still wasting your client’s time each time they have to stand in line to pay for the items.
If you approach how to become a fashion consultant as a profession and want to do it professionally, then it’s best to get certified as a fashion consultant and stylist. We’ll teach you the best methods of how to work with clients effectively and efficiently.
Professionally trained fashion consultant salary?
Well, if you look at generic sites that discuss fashion consultant’s salaries and they are not fashion consultants themselves, they will tell you the national average is US$55,000 per year.
However, you can make 6 figures in this business if you’re professionally trained as a fashion consultant and you know how to market yourself. Because $55K is just that, the average, and you might as well be a retail salesperson and make this salary.
At the Sterling Style Academy our fashion consultant courses position you to become experts. People who will pay top dollar or just pay for your services hire experts, not your average stay-at-home mom who declared herself to be a fashion consultant.
Once you’ve received training, you then need to start your own business or you can work for another company as a stylist making $16 an hour, like Stitch Fix. However, once you’ve taken a fashion consultant training course, most people want to charge at least $100 an hour, if not $150 an hour, so they start their own business.
Does the thought of starting your own business as a fashion consultant scare you?
We also have a program called the Business of Style, which teaches you how to run your own business.
So just to recap, if you want to become a fashion consultant with some credibility, it’s best to get certified by experts who can teach you the ins and outs of how to become a fashion consultant as well as learn how to start your own business. Many fashion consultants only last in the business for 3 – 5 years because they did not get the proper training and had no clients.
