Businesses of Banyule’ presents The Personal Stylist, Heidelberg
Working as a personal stylist for more than a decade while raising three healthy children ensures that Emma Doyle gets ‘busy’, something that has helped as she encounters some of Melbourne’s busiest women through her business.
Emma’s career started in the early nineties with a Diploma of Fashion Design and Production, and she quickly worked her way from designer to production manager. By the age of 25, Emma had produced millions of garments being worn by people in Australia and New Zealand.
“It made me proud to see complete strangers walking down the street in garments that I had produced,” Emma said.
“I am even prouder now as I work to help individual women achieve better value out of the clothes they already have. I do this by de-cluttering their wardrobes and taking them shopping to find pieces that suit their personal style and flatter their body.”
Emma called her business The Personal Stylist because she provides a very individual service to clients and prides herself on the confidential relationships she builds with each client. “And all my clients receive the same level of service, whether they are film and television stars, authors, business owners, retirees or stay at home mums.”
As well as individual consultations, Emma offers personal styling workshops and wardrobe de-cluttering sessions. “I love it when I see a lady have a real ‘lightbulb moment’ and I know that she has learned something that she will retain forever.”
Emma’s clients attest to her skills in helping them discover and maintain their own personal style. As Jenny from Croydon said: “I have been working with Emma as my personal stylist for a couple of years now. Emma is wonderful at keeping in touch. When she sees something cute or new or stylish, she will often call and let me know. She is a treasure trove of fashion ideas and shares them willingly. Many of these ideas are quite outside the scope of my limited imagination, but once I try them, I can see how beneficial they are to my overall look. Emma has helped me create a wardrobe that makes the most of my best features. I now shop and dress quite differently to the way I did before.”
And it is happy customers like Jenny that make Emma’s business so rewarding. “A favourite part of my job is when I receive a call, email or text from a client letting me know how they felt when their colleagues at work noticed the changes that they have made, or that their husband has begun looking at them the way he did when they first met.”
While many large businesses develop social corporate responsibility programs where they can give back to communities, small businesses are also giving back to their communities, whether through sponsorships or in-kind support. Emma is no exception, with the success of her business providing her the opportunity to produce and donate care packs to patients unexpectedly admitted to hospital. For the past two years, she has been donating these packs to patients at the Austin Hospital and the Monash Medical Centre. “I’ve been very well cared for by our hospitals,” she said.