WHY ARE STYLISTS STILL TAKING JANUARY AND AUGUST OFF?

There are certain things personal stylists seem to have collectively agreed upon, January is quiet, August is quiet. January and August are for holidays, admin, planning, waiting for the new season and, apparently, disappearing from your clients’ lives - I’ve always found this slightly strange.

Not the holiday part, I love a holiday, take the holiday, enjoy your downtime.
The strange part is the assumption that an entire styling business needs to go into hibernation simply because the industry has historically decided these are its quieter months, because that logic belongs to a very particular version of personal styling. The analogue one.

LET’S START WITH THE ‘SALES’ ARGUMENT
One of the usual explanations for taking January and August off is that there’s nothing to sell, everything is in the sale (apparently). ‘The good stuff has gone, the new season hasn’t arrived yet.’ - I have heard so many stylists declare this on social media.

Except… when was the last time you looked at the fashion calendar? The January sale doesn’t actually begin on January 1st anymore. It begins in the middle of December, sometimes earlier. By the time January arrives, the sale has already been running for weeks. Many of the best pieces have already gone, and retailers are already moving towards spring.

The same thing happens in July. Summer sales begin well before August (more like end of June in fact) and by the time we’re properly into August, the retail world is already looking forward. Autumn/winter product is arriving, pre-season collections are landing - it’s game on. I know this to be true because I produce a weekly wish list for my clients every Monday of the year without fail. Have I ever missed a Monday because there was nothing in stores - no I most definatley have not.

Long and short of it the fashion cycle has shifted! So why are we still behaving as though August is a retail vacuum? Your client hasn’t stopped needing a stylist, you’re client doesn’t stop getting dressed in January or travelling for work. She doesn’t stop being invited to dinner and she definatley doesn’t stop buying clothes.

In fact, January and August can be incredibly useful styling months. A side note my busiest revenue month hits between mid Jan and mid Feb every year, without fail. January is when people return to work, reassess what they own and start thinking about the year ahead. August is when people are travelling, packing, planning autumn wardrobes and beginning to think about the next season. The demand doesn’t disappear…

The real reason may be that styling has historically been analogue. If your entire business depends on physically meeting your client, physically shopping with them and physically editing their wardrobe - then taking these months off makes a certain amount of sense. Let’s face it when you business is analogue there are logistics involved, you need to be somewhere, your client needs to be somewhere, the shops need to be open, diaries need coordinating. A lot goes into that kind of business model.

Digital styling changes the entire equation, like actually flips it entirely on it’s head.
Your client can add their new items onto the platform wherever they are. You can work from their ‘digital’ wardrobe - anywhere you can get internet access which means you can create an edit remotely. You can recommend pieces without physically taking them shopping, you can create outfits and pack for a holiday they’re leaving for next week. You can even give them ideas for the new season while you’re sitting on a sun lounger in your summer hotspot of choice. You don’t necessarily need to be physically available to remain usefully available - that distinction is important.

I’m not suggesting stylists shouldn’t take holidays. Quite the opposite, please take your holiday and enjoy it. The question is whether your business needs to disappear just because you have.

There is a big difference between“I’m on holiday.” and “My business is closed.” A digital business gives you the possibility of separating the two. You might not answer a client immediately, you might not be creating daily edits, you might even go so far as an out-of-office and of course you might deliberately reduce your workload. That’s completely reasonable. What seems less reasonable is assuming that the entire client relationship needs to stop because the calendar says August.

IMAGINE FOR A MINUTE, DOING AUGUST DIFFERENTLY
Instead of shutting down completely, imagine using the month differently, even go so far as offering different services like, a holiday packing edit, perhaps a “what to buy now for autumn” edit, a wardrobe reset, a digital clear-out (with the help of a built in reseller on the platform), or simply a few outfit combinations using things your client already owns.

None of these require a shopping trip, none require a three-hour wardrobe appointment, none require you to be sitting in a department store (that probably isn’t paying you any commission for the privilege anyway - but that’s another article). All of these services require something much more valuable: your expertise.

This is where digital styling becomes interesting. The point of digitising your styling business isn’t to make you work more, it’s to make your business less dependent on the traditional mechanics of work.

Your client can have their wardrobe digitally, you can create edits remotely. You can continue the relationship between appointments and work with clients who aren’t local ( and critically without schlepping across half the country). The main thing is that you can be useful to your client when you’re not physically standing in front of their wardrobe. That is what makes a digital studio interesting, not because everyone suddenly needs an app (we are probably all a bit app’d out), but because the business model itself becomes more flexible.

Perhaps we need to stop confusing quiet retail months with potentially quiet client months. This is the bit I’d really like to challenge. The fashion industry may have traditionally treated January and August as transitional periods but our lives and the lives of our clients, aren’t transitional. She still needs to get dressed, still has places to go, still has a wardrobe to maintain and decisions to make - you could argue she needs you more.

The opportunity for the modern stylist is to stop building the business around the moments when retail wants to sell and start building it around the moments when clients need the help, the two things aren’t always the same thing. Perhaps that’s the bigger shift, the future-proof stylist doesn’t necessarily need to be available 365 days a year. She simply needs a business that doesn’t have to shut down just because the shops have or are about to change seasons.

Take January off if you want to, take August off if you want to, take both, it really is none of my business, just make sure what you are doing is a business decision, rather than an industry tradition.

Think of it this way, if your client can access Netflix, order dinner, book a flight, buy a dress and speak to her bank from a sun lounger in August, there’s probably no reason her personal stylist has to disappear until September.

I’ll leave you with this thought, the analogue fashion calendar is changing - perhaps the stylist’s calendar should too.

Want to see how FASHPACK can help your business in these traditionally quieter months? Here’s your answer!