Diary of an Aspiring Stylist: Expect the Unexpected

Right after crafting all of my looks and creating a lookbook, I received an email from one of the boutiques I had reached out to that was interested in having me pull pieces from their store. That's way more ideal than using my own items, so I visited the store the day before the shoot and spent about 1.5 hours building looks from their items.

The experience was a lot like my experience in the previous days, pulling together looks from my closet. I started by setting aside items that fit the aesthetic or that I absolutely loved. Then I created outfits with just the clothing, after which I scoured the jewelry and accessories to find the right accents.

A 360° view of the boutique

Since this was my first time working with the store and my first time working with any store, I didn't want to ask for too much. I built 9 looks (instead of the 20 I made from my own closet) and left gaps for basics and accessories that I knew I had on hand. For instance, using my own bags made what I pulled at least $500 cheaper than it would have been if I used only their merchandise. Looking forward I'd love to pull the entire look - head to toe - from the shop, but I thought that since this shoot required a lot of clothing I should be mindful of how much I was borrowing.

Because our shoot is mostly to build the portfolios of the people involved, we can't offer the images for advertising for the boutique. However, we will credit them wherever the images are used and they're free to use the photos on their social media. It's good for the stores to work with stylists to not only make connections for future work, but also because it gives them exposure. It costs the store $0 technically to lend out the merchandise, and they get some nice shots of their pieces to share on Facebook.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• Get a method. I learned that I definitely have a process for building looks. Both in my house and in the store I couldn't imagine building the wardrobe any other way. Not that that's the right way, but it's the right way for me and it makes sense to me. Find out what works for you.
• Get comfortable. It took me 2 days in my closet to get the looks I wanted. At the store it took about 2 hours. At first I thought that was an unreasonable amount of time, but I've definitely gotten more used to building outfits and can do it faster and more efficiently than I could a few days ago. Small victories.

I'm looking forward to the shoot and hope everyone there likes and wears my looks and that I'll get to share some awesome shots with you guys!