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"Style your way to a new career! Some people have a natural eye for style, but others may need a little push in the right direction. Anyone from major celebrities, sport stars, politicians, and everyday people enlist the help of a personal stylist to revamp their wardrobe. If you have an eye for style, and love to shop and help others, then this profession may be the perfect fit for you. We interviewed personal stylist Vanessa Valiente to find out what it&amp;#039;s like.  WILL YOU LIKE IT?  PROS: Your daily life as a personal stylist will be anything but boring. You&amp;#039;ll meet with new clients every day, and will rarely be in one place for a long time. In most cases, you&amp;#039;ll work for yourself, so you&amp;#039;ll have the freedom to plan your workdays and weekends. Not to mention that you get to shop and style clothes for a living. CONS: It can be hard to meet clients&amp;#039; demands, and there&amp;#039;s no room for an off day. Your income can be inconsistent, and you have a small window of opportunity to impress you clients face-to-face. Being a stylist isn&amp;#039;t always fun and games. When you&amp;#039;re not working with clients or hitting the mall, you need to finish paperwork, run errands, and return clothing. WHAT WILL YOU DO? Personal stylists work with their clients to define his or her individual style. To start the process, you&amp;#039;ll meet with your clients for a consultation to establish their desired appearance and lifestyle. You&amp;#039;ll go through their closet and remove dated pieces, and shop for clothes that will help create new styles and conquer past insecurities. After you&amp;#039;ve collected all the necessary pieces, you&amp;#039;ll create full outfits from head to toe, and photograph the ensemble so your clients will have a complete look every time they get dressed. Personal styling is not limited to individual clients, however, and you can work in other realms of fashion such as being a costumer for television shows, or styling outfits for photo shoots. HOW DO YOU START? GET EDUCATED While personal styling is all about your natural ability to find flattering styles for your clients, a strong educational background is helpful to get started. Many personal stylists receive degrees in fashion design, merchandising, marketing, or costume design before pursuing their career. KNOW YOUR STUFF To be a successful personal stylist you need to have an eye for style! Research what clothing lines are carried at what department stores, and keep track of items that are available in stores. Visualize how clothing will translate from the hanger to your client&amp;#039;s body type, and learn how to gauge sizes and shapes of different items of clothing. GET TO WORK There are many ways you can get your foot in the door, but a part-time job in a department store or boutique is the perfect place to learn about brands, sizes, and fit. By interacting daily with clients, you can also start to market your services and slowly build your personal styling clientele. WHAT DOES IT PAY? A personal stylist&amp;#039;s pay is determined project by project, and greatly depends on your strength as a stylist, your number of clients, and your marketing techniques. The price you charge per session is up to you, and stylists can charge anywhere from $20 an hour to $2,000 based on their skill and demand. A strong stylist can make anywhere from $2,400 a year to $300,000 a year, so the sky&amp;#039;s the limit as far as salary goes. ON THE JOB We interviewed Vanessa Valiente, a passionate personal stylist for the likes of Tony Hawk, Morgan Fairchild, and Bo Derek. She was born in San Jose, CA, and received a theater and film degree with an emphasis in costume design, and a minor in marketing. In addition to her work as a personal stylist, Vanessa is a successful fashion writer and blogger, and is the key costumer and wardrobe shopper for The Ex List on CBS. When she&amp;#039;s not shopping for clients or pulling pieces for fashion shoots, she&amp;#039;s researching boutiques, attending trunk shows to discover up-and-coming designers, and marketing her valuable skills. Why do you love your job? &amp;quot;I am a very independent person and I love that each week is different. With other jobs you are working for the weekend, and you realize that you&amp;#039;ll be doing the same thing every day until you retire. Every day is an adventure with personal styling. I love working for myself, and I don&amp;#039;t dread Mondays. I happily work every day and get to see the true benefits of my hard work.&amp;quot; Why would you recommend this profession to other girls? &amp;quot;When you&amp;#039;re a personal stylist you&amp;#039;re dealing with clothing, but more than anything you&amp;#039;re dealing with people. If you can handle a freelance lifestyle, enjoy interacting with people, and have a love and understanding for fashion, then this is the job for you.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a8037/dream-job-personal-stylist/>