LONDON — Francesca Salih has spent decades working as a personal stylist for high net worth clients, from Silicon Valley to the Middle East, and while she loves the job there was always one element that annoyed her: the clunky technology.
Salih spends her days creating looks for clients, connecting with luxury brands, attending trunk shows and ordering fashion before it lands in-store. She creates mood boards and stylish backdrops and works much like a glossy magazine editor would, putting together shoppable pages for VIP customers.
But to create those pages, she and other stylists have been using cutout photos and scraping images from the internet, which they assemble in a PDF file for clients. The pages aren’t interactive, and the client often has to call the stylist back or screenshot their picks before texting their order.
“Stylists have evolved, but the tools we use are so outdated,” Salih said in an interview, adding, “We’re delivering a luxury service, working with orders that are tens of thousands of pounds,” but the presentation and delivery system are far from luxurious.
“There is also room for miscommunication and missed orders, especially when the stylist is working with multiple clients at a time,” said Salih, who this week will launch a B2B mobile app called Stylegrid.
