Fashion Time Line Part 5

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

I remember going to the interview after I finished work at River Island one evening. I turned up in my River Island clothes (I did forewarn the HR department) and sat down with a group of other potential candidates. The actual job I applied for was a for a sales advisor over christmas, I figured this would be the easiest way in as most stores hire more staff during the festive season. I thought the interview went quite well, I quizzed my sister before hand to give me some info on the current trends, at the time although I was interested in my own style I was never an avid follower of women’s fashion. The interview went fairly well, I remember being quizzed on the current trends but most of the questions involved explaining what I did at River Island.

As much as I enjoyed working at River Island at the time we had just received a new temporary manager at the store who to be honest was an absolute nightmare. Plus I thought it would be pretty impressive to work at Harvey Nichols. I was fortunate to hear back about a week later to say I was successful and I was going to be working on the Ladies department.

I’d probably only stepped foot in Harvey Nichols a handful of times prior to me getting the role there. I actually thought I was going to be working on the more casual department so I was surprised when I realised on my first day I was on the floor with all the high end designers like Lanvin, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana etc. I started off working on the ladies shoe department, which I actually really enjoyed, it was quite busy and the shoes were pretty cool to look at. Getting the job at Harvey Nichols definitely helped me develop my own style as I was constantly around other people that dressed impeccably. I had to dress smart anyway but when you’re around people that each have their own unique styles every day you start to pick up new ideas for outfits and different ways to wear different pieces.

I remember when it was getting close to christmas time on of my co workers decided everyone had to wear something sparkly. As I was new and wanted to fit in, I borrowed my sister’s scarf that had sequins in and wore it the next day. Months later I learnt after that incident everyone thought I was gay!

I learnt a lot while I was working on the ladies department, the training was fairly decent for someone coming from a limited fashion background. I also started taking an interest in ladies fashion, checking out the trends as they hit the catwalks the history of the big fashion houses and who designed for each fashion house. On a personal level I was starting experiment a lot more with different styles, my own knowledge of clothes in general and fashion sky rocketed in comparison to what it used to be like. I ended performing quite well in my role in the shoes department, but I had a curiosity about the personal shopping department.

The personal shopping department was right next to shoes, it was basically a door that lead into a private room away from the hustle of shop floor, it had nice comfy leather sofas and big LCD television. Working on the shop floor you’d rarely go in unless a personal shopping client wanted something taking in there. I always felt it was a bit secretive as you never knew what went on, there was also the glamourous title of being a personal shopper that went along with it. At this point I still had the intention of getting into visual merchandising but the personal shopping department had opened up a new alternative potential avenue as well.

While I was at Harvey Nichols I also met my current girlfriend. She worked on contemporary fashion which was right next to the shoe department and whenever it got quiet we ended up chatting to each other. The irony was that when I first started I actually thought she didn’t like me. After a while the rest of our colleagues noticed we were getting on rather well and starting trying to play matchmaker. This kind of had the opposite effect, even though look back we blatantly did like each other. Eventually we ended up going on a date and although it was quite awkward at first we ended up going on a second date and I guess you could say the rest was history.

At work I was wanting to progress but didn’t really feel I wanted to go into management. One day I remember ringing one of my friends and having a moan at him, he asked me straight up what do you want to do and I replied “ I want to work in personal shopping”. By this time I had kind of gone off the idea of visual merchandising as I liked the idea of actually helping individuals improve themselves rather than making something more appealing in order to sell a product. I had found out that image consultants existed and started reading up on what sorts of things they did. At this point I knew working in the personal shopping department would be as close to being an image consultant as I could get. My friend gave me some valuable, yet simple information, he simply asked “have you asked how you could work in there?”. Sometimes the simplest things are often overlooked when you’re in a hurry or you want something really badly.

I remember asking my sales manager what steps I’d need to take in order to work in the personal shopping department. I expected it to be quite hard but it turned out that simply asking the question was the best thing I ever did. The plan was I was going to work on the fashion department for a bit to see how I performed before trailing in the personal shopping department. In the end I just went straight in, although not with out a little controversy, typical of fashion. There was already a guy working in the department who I later found out I would be replacing. To be honest it did cause a bit of a stir as it was down to politics really but I just kept myself to myself and focused on the job, the managers were making the decisions.

The thing I enjoyed most about working as a personal shopper was the fact that I got to roam around the whole store so my knowledge of other brands improved as well as meeting and getting time to meet people that didn’t work on my floor. I also really enjoyed actually shopping for clients and tuning into them to see what it was that they wanted. The satisfaction you’d get when you had found someone their wedding dress for example was the best. I got to meet a fair few rich and famous people, but I value what I learnt from the experience a lot more. Two of the ladies I worked with had been their quite some time and were a lot older than me and their knowledge of brands and fashion was awesome. Being around people that you could learn from was a huge bonus.

After a while I started writing freelance fashion articles online I also still had my own passion to delve into image consulting. I also had the idea for a blog, it started out as I was going to write an ebook just for guys looking to develop their style. I don’t really know how the idea for a blog came from that but it sorted grew the original ebook. I carried on writing freelance articles and started brainstorming ideas for my blog, I still also wanted to become an image consultant and work for myself. Towards the end of 2009 I handed in my notice at Harvey Nichols, although I enjoyed the job a lot I was working longer and longer hours. We only got one day off at Christmas and whenever there was an event taking place in the city we ended up staying open and working late. This left me with limited time to write my articles and develop my blog. In January 2010 I left Harvey Nichols and started developing and designing my blog before finally getting it up and running around march. This is where I am today, writing articles for both men and women on fashion and style!