"Style-List" 3: To a Nurse’s “Aide”

To a Nurse’s “Aide”

Monday Morning:

There was a client who recently had a Nurse’s Commemoration Dinner being orchestrated by her employer to award different professionals within the clinic for their extraordinary and exemplary services. And due to her busy schedule she would not be able to go and leisurely shop for the event. So she requested services of a personal shopper to go shopping for plausible outfits on her herself. I recall the call was on a Monday and the event was to take place that Friday and she only had one day out that week, Thursday, where she could get out of work early enough to catch stores before they closed and decide on my selections. It meant there was very little room for error in order to ensure that the client was ultimately happy with the selection and her overall purchase. The pressure was on and I undoubtedly accepted.  

I then when on to ask what I would usually ask; Is there a dress code? A certain color scheme or look you are going for? Asked for her sizes and price range and the rest would be up to me. Her biggest fear was that there was not going be enough time for her to go out and shop or possibly even view the selections I made. In times like this it is up to the stylist to take control and calm the client with reassurance that they are in good hands. In order to calm the client, I posed the proposition that I would go looking for outfits, shoes and accessories all within the same vicinity so that come Thursday when it was time to decide and buy, all the stores would be within reach in order to optimize her limited shopping time. I let the client know that I would go looking on Tuesday and at the end would email her a synopsis with pictures and web links of all the plausible outfits that I had selected. I slowly began to feel her shift from anxiety to tranquility but knew that my job had just begun.

             

Tuesday Morning:

            I set out to find three outfits with matching shoes, purse and accessories for each along with a fourth safety outfit. Shopping for me is a rush but calming at the same time. It’s a rush because of the pressure, time constraints and all the people that inadvertently getting in your way but you still have to do your job. It is calming because it has to be something that you love to do and it is something that in the end I know will all fall into place in order to make someone confident and happy about the way they look. Knowing the price budget I visited the likes of Zara, H&M, Aldo Shoes, Steve Madden, Nine West and Macys in 34^th st Herald Square NY. However this was the easy part.

Thursday Evening;

            Our main concern was to simply get to Manhattan and get the process started; we were doing great on time. The objective was to get to all the stores in order to view all my outfit selections. During the viewing of the outfits the client showed no signs of discontent. However, when it was time to decide and buy the client seemed indecisive on which outfit to pick if any; and this is where the frustration began. As closing time was closing in is when she contemplated starting from scratch. It was difficult not to take offense at the fact that I had took time out of my week to peruse numerous stores for potential outfits only for someone to decide to take the time to shop for their own outfit but I insisted on staying cool. Any novice shopper might of entertained the thought and beat themselves up trying to decide on a new outfit in less than half an hour. Therefore there were two choices; she could either make a decision from the selections I made or opt to a form a whole new outfit selection. So as she was attempting to select a new outfit, she would ask my opinion with every turn and yet still could not decide on her own selection. As a personal shopper-stylist you come across different types of clients (article for another day) And so at that moment I had already knew the kind of client I was dealing with and so I “decided” and told her that I had been up and down these stores and this was the best that was found given the budget I was given. Eventually she found a pink silk sleeveless shirt that complimented her skin tone very nicely and transparent pink and aqua scarf with accessories to match. We then completed the rest of her outfit with one of my selections.

Although somewhat frustrating it was still a great learning experience for the both of us. As a personal shopper you will come across people who say yes to everything and those that say no to everything and as the personal shopper you have to know how to create some type of sense of it all in helping them to take control of their own style.  She learned that its not so easy to shop under such time constraints and it was important to not over think the outfit and as a personal shopper-stylist I learned it is important to stay calm and be an active listener so that you are aware of your client’s need and so when it is your time to speak a client takes your example; which is ultimately what happen and the end result was a successful session and soiree for her.

Friday Night:

The client called and text me multiple times throughout the night thanking me for my assistance and telling me how she was complimented many times and how surprised her co-workers were by her sense of style since they had never seen her outside of work scrubs. She even got the attention of some upper level management not only because of her outfit but because of the countless awards received. Congratulations!!!

These are the pictures that she sent….

**If you are in the New York City area and are interested in developing a new look/wardrobe (male or female) or simply want to prepare your look for an important upcoming event feel free to email: theesotericfashionista@gmail.com. Thank you for passing by...comments below are welcomed..