Chat With Personal Stylist

Following the feedback session with Paz, I emailed a few personal stylists to gather their thoughts on the concept and ultimately distinguish what will differ between the services the app can provide over a human. The only stylist yet to reply is Martine Alexander, a stylist based in Manchester with an incredible famous reputation within the North West. Her bio can be found here.

Her responses to my questions are as such:

• What personal styling services do you offer? Private styling is only 30% of my business now, the rest is styling celebrities for red carpet and photo shoots, plus fashion campaign styling.
• Private client services include a Wardrobe Detox and Personal Shopping: http://martinealexander.co.uk/personal-styling
• What do the majority of people need help with? E.g. shopping for their correct body shape, styling the new trends So many different varieties... I think you’d have to ask people that use stylists to answer that
• Do you deal with mainly women? And of what age range? Yes women 90%
• Do you mainly style for events like award shows? If not, what else? If you’re talking private clients its mainly day to day wardrobe
• What can a personal stylist offer that an app can't? And do you think there is anything that an app could offer that a human personal stylist couldn't? In person its so much more personal and confidential. I use a LOT of psychology when I style someone, an app cant compete with that… how would an app deal with someone crying or can it sense someone’s body language?
• Do you think that a personal styling app would work as a concept and be something people would use? I honestly don’t know as an app is based on statistic, rather than emotion, which is what private clients have…

She highlights that psychology is important within her job and that essentially an app can't respond to people's reactions. However, my app won't be as in depth as this and instead of acting as a complete personal stylist it merely offers a selection of suggestions for the user to chose from. I really liked her response about the app being based on statistic, so I think its important to have human input where-ever possible from the staff who run the other Company apps. In addition, a personal stylist app can never live up to a human being in the way in which Martine outlined, nonetheless, the app will be able to provide suggestions and over continuous use of the app be able to understand what the consumer likes and doesn't like, thus becoming more personal.