Fashion on the farm
I’m Elaine and I thought I’d start a blog about my new business, ‘Styled by Elaine Watson‘ that I am in the process of getting up and running. It’s a dress hire business with a twist, basically I don’t just stock stunning dresses, I provide the complete package of dress, jewellery, shoes, wraps, gloves; everything to make sure the outfit looks fantastic.
My background is in buying, design, and product development, which I’ve done in a number of forms over the last fifteen years, but when I had kids it got a bit hard to keep this up full time, especially with all the travelling involved. So I went part-time and found myself with a spare bit of time on my hands, which coincided with my dress hire idea.
Basically this started last May when my friend and I went to hire a posh dress for a ball, and had to search really hard to find a shop which then provided a very average service with nondescript dresses, no accessories, no advice and a mirror that was about 4 inches wide! It was just really hard work, and it was then that it occurred to me there was a definite gap in the market for someone who stocked great dresses plus all the accessories, so you were fully prepared for the special event without needing to go and spend money on anything else.
So, I decided I was going to have a go at providing a full styling service for quite a specific target client. I wanted to cater for the rural woman who doesn’t have a massive wardrobe, doesn’t have lots of events to go to to make it worthwhile buying lots of dresses, and who also probably doesn’t have time to go and pick out the right dress and all the accessories – I felt these were the ones who were really going to appreciate the whole styling service. And it’s a fantastic experience, they’ll come over, I’ll select a few different dresses for them to try, then we’ll accessorise it in lots of different ways over a glass of wine, or cup of tea, whatever they fancy. Then all they have to do is put it all on before the event and away they go!
We’ve really pushed this rural theme in a photoshoot I had for the business, we had a local model glammed up in some of the dresses finished off with wellies, shot on a farm nearby with straw and horses and old gates – it looked fantastic! We carried this theme through to a big local agricultural show in Driffield, where we dressed up and wore (posh) wellies, which got us a lot of attention. We’ve used these pictures on the website, which is currently under construction but should be coming soon.
In terms of buying everything, my outfits are from all over, from exclusive British designers to Hong Kong and America. I travel around nice shows and big cities quite a lot for my other buying job, so do get the chance to fit in hunting for dresses and accessories. I also go to lots of fashion exhibitions to buy, and source from the Internet and fashion magazines.
That’s all for now but in my next installment I thought I’d write about some of the events and people I’ve dressed, and any big shows on the horizon, so watch this space…
