WELCOME TO ONE OF A STYLE BLOG
LIFE OF A PERSONAL STYLIST: MY INTERVIEW PUBLISHED IN XEL MAGAZINE
Find out more about me, through this interview with XEL Magazine
XEL Magazine just published my interview and I am very excited to share it here
Stefania Bartolomei and her journey to tailor-made success with One of a Style
At XEL Magazine we are celebrating independent business owners with our very own Independence Week. Issue #3 is all about recognising the success of independent business owners on their journey to entrepreneurial success.
We chatted with Stefania Bartolomei who is the business owner of One of a Style, a company based in London which recognises the customer's needs when tailoring fashion to their own individual style and needs.
How do you plan on taking your company forward? Have you got any exciting plans?
I have many exciting plans, like workshops and events! I prefer to keep the details secret for now, but I can tell you that one of my upcoming project is to write a book, that will be very different from all the styling books written so far!
What inspired the name of your company?
My business name plays with the words “one of a kind” and “style”. I believe that everyone is unique, so their style can be unique as well. I wanted to give a clear message, that I really work for clients and that my consultations are truly based on clients' personality, lifestyle and look, and not on fashion trends or on my own style.
What is your backstory? What inspired you to start your own company?
I have a background in fashion. I studied at University of Fashion in Florence (Italy) to start working straightforward in fashion companies, from textile to apparel. I loved fashion for its creativity, and the infinite combinations that can be created with fabrics, colours and shapes! The fashion world is very complicate, though, and very often you are judge for what you wear, how you look and even what you eat, rather than for your abilities.
So, after a while I started feeling that I wasn't fitting in that world any more, and that I wanted to start working on the customers' side! Besides, I always had a natural attitude to help people with their look and shopping choices, and after some researches I found out that I could make a real profession out of it! So in 2011 I attended a first course in personal fashion styling, at the London college of Fashion, yet it took me 5 years to take the courage to quit my job, move to London and start my own business.
Has it been a long journey to get to where you are today?
Well, not really, if you consider that when I moved to London I didn't know anybody and that, in the meantime, I've also become mom! Running a business is difficult, it requires great determination, original ideas and, of course, knowledge (while many believe with just passion you can go everywhere!), but play the cards well, the results can arrive very soon. This is what happened to me, thankfully!
What advice could you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Well, I see many people giving up at the first difficulties, so my greatest advice for them is: If you really have passion for something, do everything you can to make it happen! It is very important to do what we love, and to love what we do in life! But you need to be prepared and ready for a journey that is not going be easy.
How would you say your business is different compared to other’s in the same sector?
I have a strong background in fashion and a great understanding of fabrics and garments, and with my consultations I offer true valuable advice to my clients, that not everyone has the chance to give. Also, I believe that my Italian origin gives me a natural sense of style and good taste. So combinations that are very easy for me to create, for instance, are absolutely surprising for my clients..
What has been the highlight of your business career so far?
Well I have to say I've had many important and rewarding moments, but one that I remember with great fulfilment is when, as new mom, and still breastfeeding, I accepted a request from a client. I was feeling nervous at first, after months of maternity leave and also because I had to take the baby with me (surprised? This is London and that's possible!) but she insisted on working with me and I thought it could have been the opportunity for me to slowly get back to work.
Not only I've been able to manage the sessions, the whole experience went incredibly well and after just a few weeks the client texted me saying that she was feeling much more confident, she was getting many compliments on her look and also finally was dating someone (what she wanted to achieve with my consultation)! The incredible thing is that, while usually I help clients to feel more confident thanks to my advice, that time I felt more confident myself and, even if challenging, it gave me a great push to get back to do what I love!
Where do you plan on taking your business?
I most certainly will get to train aspiring stylists one day, maybe I'll set up an agency in collaborations with other professionals..who knows? But at the moment I am happy to work with clients myself, I still feel like I want to be in first line.
It's looking to be an exciting time for Stefenia and we look forward to seeing what's next on her fashion journey to tailor-made success.
EVENTS: THE POWER OF COLOUR
"the best colour in the world is the colour that looks good on you" C.Chanel
Yesterday, Thursday the 12th, there have been a workshop organized by Stefania Bartolomei, about the colour as powerful styling tool!
Of all the styling tools, colour is maybe the most underestimated, yet it has the great power to affect not only our look but also our mood.
As the right colour can, in fact, confer us a healthy look, enhancing our features, making our eyes shine bright and our skin looks like porcelain, so the wrong colour can wash us out, highlighting the eye circles and the skin flaws. We perceive the effects that colours have on us, but most of the time we are not aware of it and we think that the causes of our look, whether it is good or not, are entirely of physical and mental status nature.
Being conscious of what our best colours are can really have an effect on our attitude. as I always say : when you look good, you feel good! And when you feel good, you have more self confidence, so you can be successful and get what you are aiming to, that in the social life as well as in business.
Let's go deeper now into the technical side of the workshop and its subject.
As you probably know, one of the services that Stefania offers to her clients is the colour analysis; the seasonal color analysis (to be precise) is a scientific way to determine's people best colours.
As in nature, the seasonal colour analysis is based on the 4 seasons : spring, summer, autumn and winter.
These seasons recall the colours that we can find in nature, from spring, with its bright, powerful and warm colours , that become softer and lighter in summer, to autumn, with everything getting warmer and deeper, to the winter, with its crispy and sharp colours and its high contrasts.
The colour drapes, used for the colour analysis, recall the properties of the seasons in nature, reproducing the same general characteristics.
The same characteristics can then be found in our own features. So, generally speaking, people with light soft coloring would most likely belong to summer, while people with dark colours and high contrasts in their features would most likely belong to winter.
But it is not easy to recognize all this values in ourselves and there can be also exceptions. So it must be clear that this are general rules and that the only way to build up our palette of best colours, in the end, is to have a professional colour analysis.
During the workshop Stefania shown the effect of the colours on our features, whether they are good or wrong, explaining how to recognize our features through 3 values:
temperature (warm vs cold)
brightness (soft vs bright)
light (light vs dark)
giving eventually practical examples on how to make the most of our colours through the use not only of clothes but also of accessories, make-up and hair colour choices.
At the end of She also did a funny "celebrity game", where people were called to guess the properties, and so the season, of some star, among which Lucy-Liu, Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts and so on... this was lot of fun!
The workshop has been a great success! The atmosphere was cozy and nice and seen the great enthusiasm shown by the public Stefania will surely plan another one very soon!
In the meantime, if you want to find out more about the subject and discover what is your season and what are your best colours book your session with Stefania writing at stefania@oneofastyle.com
Special thanks go to : Veronika Damiani for the make-up of the models; Laura & Kim for being my models.