Personal Stylist, new frontiers

Human Progress is linked to the access of the masses to products and services that were only at the reach of a few in the past. Only a small number of privileged wealthy members of the society had access to cars before Henry Ford revolutionized its method of production and made them accessible for the general public. Probably, our grandparents started to watch the TV by the local store windows or at the closest neighbor house who decided to 'invest' on that new device. Equally, personal stylism was considered not so long ago, a service who could afford only an minority: movie stars, politicians or celebrities in general. This is not the case anymore...

I asked one of my former colleagues, who had a reputation for spending big money filling his wardrobe, why he was buying most of his clothes in the web MrPorter.com:  'because I don't have much time to create my own outfits, Mr.Porter makes my life easy". It is true, webs like MrPorter (or her 'sister' Net-a-porter.com) among other virtues, they simplify the purchase process by creating combinations of clothes from different brands that are compelling and credible. This is what I call a Stylist phase I service. A global stylist.

Companies like stitchfix.com or trunkclub.com are evolving the online Stylist service by deeping a bit more into personalization. After requesting relevant information of the potential customer (sizes and shape, brands she/he wears, purpose of the purchase...) these companies deliver a curated set of clothes that match customers' style within their budget. Interestingly enough, recently has been published that Thread, a London based startup, has raised $8million to scale their personal styling service with the participation of Hi-Tech capital into a project that tries to blend art (Stylists) and science (Algorithms) to provide the perfect outfits to their customers (Thread). By the way, it is not a surprise that Thread will appoint Terry Betts as Head of their Business Development, a co-founder of MrPorter.com. This evolution is what I call a Stylist phase II service, since we move from generic to personal outfitting.

So, personal stylist is not a niche anymore, it will grow and more companies and brands will tap into this type of services that represent a 1 on 1 conversation opportunity with the consumer, a true personal relationship with your customer. So, what can we anticipate as future business opportunities in this area?

-First of all, I believe that there is a Fashion Stylist phase III opportunity (and even phaseIV). Today, all these services are coming in an 'static' way: they can analyze your sizes and tastes and propose you a set of clothes that match tastefully that information, but we all have history, tones of clothes in our wardrobe that we still can use. Who is going to help us to combine the old and the new to multiply exponentially the number of outfits available for us? What about our jewelry, our glasses, our watches, our make up... can we be offered a more holistic service, more personal and equally affordable?

-A Stylist service is about a 1 on 1 commercial relationship that can be easily transferred to many other areas of our life. For example, Food and Health: today we go to the Nutritionist to know what to eat and separately attend Cooking lessons (on line of physical) to become the Master Chefs, at least in our home... can somebody merge these two and offer us a tailored made Cooking course adapted to our taste and our health situation, a very personal service!

-And finally, will that 'make it personal' trend represent any opportunity for local small business? Last week my wife received the attached 'personalized' ad in her Facebook account. They found out that Monica was born in Barcelona, Spain and it is resident in the USA, so somehow they thought that if she received a design with a map of Spain, our national flag and the words 'Barcelona' and 'Spain', she would be so touched by the offer that, in tears, would order that T-shirt not only for her but also for the rest of the family and friends... The effort was fruitless, since, without entering into any political/cultural details, the proposed design was irrelevant and distasteful. This is an extreme example of a missed online personal connection for lack of local and personal relevance. I believe that there are many opportunities out there for small business, integrated in the communities where they are located, to create premium personal experiences. No make mistakes, though: local and small should not be a reason to operate outside the latest technologies.