July 20, 2025
Reclaim your Power on the Shop Floor
Michaela Sargeant | Read in 6 minutes
I recently saw a client for a Style Analysis Session. This client had come to see me a few months earlier for her Colour Analysis Session and after realising how game-changing it was, she booked up for style too!
A Style Analysis Session has a lot of different elements to it and part of the day includes a Clothing Review. This is where I ask the client to bring in a selection of clothes from their wardrobe - some they love, some they feel suit them, some they’re maybe not too sure about, and some they bought but not really sure why and have never really worn it (everyone typically has at least 1 item matching that description!). We then go through piece by piece and assess what works, what doesn’t work - all after I have looked at their body and face shape, measurements and personality profile and can call on that information as a reference point to help guide us.
Amongst her choices, this lovely lady had brought in with her a purple dress from Mint Velvet, and a navy jumpsuit from Phase Eight. The tags were still on both items. She had never worn them. She had been told by the shop assistants that they looked amazing on her, and she believed them. But when she got them home, there was a disconnect and she actually wondered why she had even bought them.
Now neither item was in my lovely client’s colours (her seasonal palette is Spring) but I wouldn’t have expected a shop assistant to know that. And the styles to be honest weren’t the most wrong they could be, but they didn’t reflect my client’s personality and rather than working with her body shape, they worked against it and as a result, with the style and fabric combined, looked heavy, flat, and really just a bit boring! Given what the learnings from the session had been so far, we were able to pin down exactly what that disconnect was, and my client had a lightbulb moment.
To date, my client had let her purchases be influenced by what shop assistants said looked good on her. She had entrusted herself to these “higher authorities” because she assumed they must know better than she did about what looked good, after all they work in fashion retail right? Then she got the pieces home, put them on again and things didn’t feel the same as they felt in the shop. The compliments she was hearing from the shop assistants weren’t there anymore, and she was at home actually now needing to make use of the pieces she had in front of her.
Have you ever felt like that? Where you’ve bought something feeling really good about it at the time, but it feels like a different story when you get home? Ultimately my client had wasted her time and money, and now she felt stupid for doing it. During our session she found an understanding as to why they were wrong for her and why she didn’t feel herself in them, but in the shop she hadn’t listened to that instinct because she trusted the people who were saying she looked great.
This is such a common tale. Everyone loves a compliment, right? You need to remember that shop assistants have a vested interest in selling you the thing you have just tried on. Their interests boil down to making the sale. This is not aligned with finding pieces that you love and love you back, pieces that enhance your shape, suit your personality and that you feel like yourself in.
Most shop assistants are doing guess work. They may know what’s trending or what just landed on the rail this week, but they don’t know you. They don’t know that your best neckline is a scoop, not a V. They don’t know what kinds of fabrics complement your personality and how you want to be perceived by the world. They don’t know if structured styles match your frame, if too much detail around your shoulders can feel overwhelming, or if you do better in ruffles and ruches.
We shouldn’t be beholden to the opinion of shop assistants - people who we’ve never met, who don’t know our intricacies and ultimately whose top priority is selling. And why shouldn’t it be?! They work in a shop, and that’s what shops do. By no means am I saying that they need to be any different, but I am saying it should be that you know what works for you better than they do.
Armed with the knowledge from her Style Analysis Session, my client walked away from my studio not just with a clearer understanding of what fits her style profile, but with confidence. That’s the real shift. No longer does she feel the need to rely on the opinion of someone who, while perhaps well-meaning, doesn’t know her unique combination of body shape, colouring, personality, lifestyle or preferences. She’s no longer outsourcing her style choices to someone who’s essentially guessing.
She now has her own inner checklist:
✅ Is this in my colours?
✅ Does it’s shape enhance my shape?
✅ Does it suit my style personality?
And most importantly -
✅ Will I feel like myself in this?
With those questions in her toolkit, she’s no longer swayed by someone else’s enthusiasm in the fitting room or the lighting in the shop mirror. When browsing or trying something on, she is able to tune out those persuasive voices and answer the questions above with clarity.
For me, it’s such a joy to watch this transformation unfold. The moment where someone goes from feeling like they’re playing dress-up in someone else’s clothes, to owning their style, to trusting themselves. That lightbulb moment becomes a lifestyle shift.
Rather than her experience of shopping being confusion and overwhelm, my client can now be free from the pressure of needing validation from others when it comes to her style.
Finding your true style isn’t about following rules or wearing what someone else tells you to. It’s not about seeing something that looks good on someone else and trying to imitate it. It’s about understanding your own visual language so deeply that you don’t have to guess. Being authentically you.
When you know what suits you, you buy less and buy better. You never have to have that feeling ever again that you bowed to the flattery of shop assistants in the moment and it ended up feeling like a waste of time and money. You can reclaim your power on the shop floor, and be the expert of your own style.
