In April’s issue, we hear about Fashion Stylist & Image Consultant Alarna Hope from Sydney, Australia. Navigating the uncertainty of lockdown and an ever changing social climate, interest in consumerist fashion might appear to be at an all time low. But in this article- we learn about how important it is to hustle and to maintain one’s drive to succeed despite the obstacles. Starting a business as a personal stylist in such a competitive environment, Alarna shows what it means to be a 21st Century entrepreneur.

Hi Alarna, it’s so exciting to be able to interview you today for our April Issue 6! We are always intrigued about what drives people, their experiences and unique stories. Could you tell us briefly about yourself?

I’m a Fashion Stylist and Image Consultant based in Sydney, Australia. I’ve been running my business for around eight years and I love my job. I am a huge fashion nerd, so you’ll often find me gushing around clothing racks wherever I’m working!

I would love to know more about your job! I saw your segment for The Today Show! What was that experience like for you? When did you decide being a (personal) fashion stylist was the career path?

Thank you! The Today Show segment was fun and nerve wrecking, I know I make YouTube videos each week and I have been since COVID – but being on national news is a little more intense! It was an early morning and Gabrielle, the reporter who arranged my segment made me feel totally at ease. I’m happy with how it came out!

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to work with clothing. Around age seven I started to put on fashion parades for my family that I would advertise in my house the week leading up to it. There would be drawings and fabric samples from my Mum’s sewing box and even lucky draw prizes! When I was a pre-teen I was obsessed with Project Runway, What Not To Wear, anything involving Anna Wintour and Queer Eye. I love a good makeover movie, seeing people’s internal transformations because of an external change was inspiring. I was very lucky to find a passion early and I credit my parents for encouraging me to pursue it as a job.

What would you say your passion is?

Definitely my job, I love fashion and I love my clients. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t absolutely love it.

Can  you share a little bit your journey of passion, relationship with your passion? Has it been entirely positive and fiery like we may presume?

I always wanted to work in fashion growing up, it just excites me. Whether I’m looking at a stitching details or a complete wardrobe, I love everything about fashion and styling. It’s always been positive and fiery, even when it’s been hard. The industry is a tough one to get ahead in and takes a lot of dedication, there will always be highs and lows in any business, but that’s just part of running a business.

How do you run your business? Perhaps you can share with the reader the experiences which enabled you to get to where you are now. Were there any challenges?

Up until COVID nearly everything I did in my business was face-to-face, then I had to shift my business to suit my clients during a time where so many of us only really needed to be dressed for Zoom meetings! So, I’m a mixture of face-to-face services and online services now.

Running a business is a challenge in itself, it’s exciting and scary at the same time. When you add the fashion industry to it, how competitive it is and how quickly it changes, it can be hard but it’s an exciting industry to be in. I’ve got to where I am through a lot of interning, steaming and sorting through racks. I’m not afraid of hard work or paying my dues, it’s an industry that can be hard to move up in. I’ve got to stay on top of things, I take new courses every year and constantly upskill, the moment you get comfortable – everything changes!

During Covid, the way people shop has changed a lot. You must have had to change your mindset and approach when it comes to adapting. What can you foresee to be a major issue once business resumes after the pandemic?

I had to adapt, like everyone else. It was a tough transitional period, but I think it’s been good for the industry. I think the pandemic has made us all appreciate human interaction more and supporting local businesses. I’ve had so many clients wanting to buy Australian made clothing, shop vintage, thrift, etc, it’s been inspiring and proved we can shift our industry to more ethical practices. The fashion industry is particularly bad for the use of sweat shops and slave labour and when COVID started, we saw which stores relied so heavily on fast-fashion production because they had no stock. I think it’s been an eye-opener for everyone.

We’re lucky in Australia that most businesses have reopened and I’m able to do my job in an almost normal capacity. The issues we’ve seen so far have been the lack of staff in stores and the lack of events that usually provides lots of work for the creative industry. Australia’s fashion and creative industry will take a long time to recover, we all just have to try and hang on until then.

No doubt it’s important to be innovative, determined and adaptable, not just in our career but in life too! Do you find it easy to come up with creative new ideas? Do you have any go-tos?

Absolutely, we’ve got to stay fresh with concepts and keep learning new skills. I find lots of inspiration in film, books, history, music, current events. Fashion is heavily influenced by cultural movements, current events, film and story-telling, I try to keep up with it all when I can. I’m lucky that the teams I work with on creative projects are all super creative people, we all bounce ideas off each other and even co-ordinate Pinterest boards – thank god for Pinterest!

I love the way in which you have fully utilised social media- through IG, your blog and website, to create something cohesive to the audience. How do you make your brand stand out? And how are you using social media to optimise this passion?

Thank you, it’s something that’s taken a long time to build and having downtime over COVID helped to shape the new features of my social media, like my YouTube channel. I’ve made my brand stand out by really knowing my clients and understanding why they want what they do. When I think about my clients ‘why’, I can make content they’ll like and need. I try to be transparent with my clients and readers/audience and I think they appreciate that.

A lot of people are becoming glued to their phones and spend more time online, or on social media, than the people around them. How do you balance screen-time and “real time”, and unplug?

I actually find it really hard to unplug. I work really long hours and my clients sometimes need me outside of standard business hours, which makes it hard to switch off. I have a rule with myself that I don’t take phone calls after six thirty and I get away from my screen at least an hour before bed so I’m not wired.

I know that you are also an author too! Did you always have the desire to write? And what was the publishing/whole creative process like for you?

I love to write, I wanted to write That Effortless B*tch for years because when I was starting out in the industry, I wanted to read a book about the topics my clients needed help with and I found none. My clients need to know how to fit petite or plus-size clothing in a country that barely offers store brought options, or what fabrics are best when they’re in the height of menopause and they’re experiencing hot flushes. I wanted to create a practical guide for women who are over all the fluffy fashion talk. I wasn’t expecting it to be over 500 pages, nor did I expect it to take so long to get finished – but it’s finally out there!

When I was deciding how I wanted to publish the book, I ended up publishing it as an e-book so my readers could open it when they needed it. This means readers can open it in a fitting room or when they’re going through their wardrobe without needing to lug a thick book around!

You seem to be a very efficient person who carries ideas through to actualization. Any advice as to how to set goals and get things done in a timely manner (avoid dreaming, avoid procrastination, avoid self-doubt)?

Yes, I am a huge list maker, I plan everything. I believe that if you can break down your goals into small manageable actions and have that list of actions near you on a daily basis, you’ll do them! If I  don’t do them, I don’t want it enough.

How has being an entrepreneur and, ‘girl boss’ in Australia worked? Do you believe your experience would be any different (if you were) living, and working in another country?

I feel lucky to be in Australia, we have our own sense of style, we can run our own businesses and study with a lot less stress than other countries. While our entertainment industry has been small, since COVID it’s started to grow as Australia is one of the few countries with large scale production ability. I’m super jealous of all the amazing courses the US and UK offer when it comes to fashion and costume. Every time I visit another country, I try to line up a course or job to experience new areas of the industry. I think if I was in the thick of it in Los Angeles, I would be involved in the more commercial side of the industry as there’s enough work and events to keep stylists busy in that area alone, year-round.

Very curious, what is Australia’s sense of style?

We have a much more laid-back style than other countries and are particularly good at summer/spring fashion due to our climate. I also find we have a lot of unique prints here due to Australia being such a multicultural country. Our Indigenous Australian prints are celebrated here and rarely seen elsewhere.

Have the problems you’ve faced affected your visions or opinion of the fashion industry? Honestly this pandemic has made us all re-evaluate our priorities, and what it takes to do what we do. Did you ever consider quitting?

I could never give up my job, I love it. I’m lucky to have great clients who make my job easier and so enjoyable. We’ve all re-evaluated our priorities through COVID, but for me, enjoying my work is a huge one, I wouldn’t want to stop doing it. I think for my clients, especially my new ones, they also took inventory of what made them happy and for them, a big part of it was feeling confident and investing in themselves and I’m glad they chose me to help them do that.

Do you have any plans on branching out in the future? Any new exciting projects on the horizon?

Yes! I’m expanding my online courses and services to reach more people outside of Sydney. I’ve loved helping my clients in The Capsule Plan course, they’ve been working on building capsule wardrobes and finding their style and they’re reporting back with amazing results. It’s my only online course at the moment and I’m looking at adding my next one later this year.

That sounds super interesting! What is the purpose of a capsule wardrobe?

It’s a small selection of clothing, curated to mix and match and fit an area of a person’s lifestyle, for example, workwear. Capsule wardrobes are based off a colour palette, a style and how much a person needs for their lifestyle. It’s designed to make a persons life easier and to allow them to build smarter shopping/styling habits while saving space and money.

We hope it goes very well for you and your students. As we wrap up, here are a couple of Proust questions:

1) What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Being surrounded by people who love and support you.

2) What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but patience (professionally speaking). The world is a different place now, we live in a gig economy, it’s rare to have the opportunity to ‘work your way up’ in the same job for thirty years, the way our parents did. The fashion industry waits for no one which is why I think we shouldn’t fall back on the idea of being patient and moving slow and steady to get ahead in this Industry. Work hard, don’t stop learning and don’t think you need to follow traditional career trajectories to be in the role you want to be in. I didn’t and it worked for me!

Do you have any social media handles where our audience can follow and find you?  

Absolutely!

Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest | Website | Course

feat. Lens of Passion

Thank you Alarna! We wish you the best of luck in your journey ahead.