A fashion stylist on e-commerce: meet Viviana

(5 min reading)

I met Viviana in the 2010 at Farfetch, when I was an image retoucher. We were both born in the north of Portugal and Viviana for me is a live representation of the native northern Portuguese women: very practical, used to get the job done and well done.

Viviana has a background in costume design, but fashion was always her big passion! So it all started a few years ago (in 2004) with a friend that was in a photography course! She asked Viviana if she could produce her editorials. Four years later, she started working with some more photographers and did a lot of editorials for national and international magazines. The big boom in her professional life was in 2010 when she started working at Farfetch as a stylist assistant and in a few months, she became a stylist. Presently she is a trainer of e-commerce stylists in Farfetch and after all these years she has become a master in her field.

In 2016, I left Farfetch and kept many contacts and friends. One of these is Vi, as she likes to be called. Today working at Pixelz I deal with many more diverse customers and many of them also have stylists. So I decided to ask Vi a few questions!

• Labels or designers you personally like most: Jil Sander, Bottega Veneta, Rick Owens, Margiela
• Labels or designers more challenging or laborious for a stylist on e-commerce studios: Y-project, Ann Demeulemeester
• Labels or designers that surprised you the most in the last 2 years: Jacquemus, Balenciaga, Ganni
• Labels or designers that make you sad they don't exist anymore: Not a brand in particular, but the designer: Karl Lagerfeld for houses like Fendi and Chanel
• Individual designers that got famous in the last 5 years and now they are really selling online well: Cecilie Bahnsen, Ganni, The Attico

Pedro: Who was Viviana in 2010, in 2019, and now after the pandemic?

Viviana: In 2010 Viviana was a woman trying to connect herself in several aspects of her life, mainly the professional one, mainly because at the age of 30 I was doing freelance jobs.

In 2019 and after already working at Farfetch for 9 years, doing what I love, the start of a pandemic brought new challenges at all levels. I felt that I grew as a person, mother, professional and human being.

I discovered a new me and started developing new skills and improving soft skills that are quite important in my role as a trainer, mainly because I deal every day with different people and it’s important to know how to adapt myself to them. So, today, I'm the same Vi (name that everyone calls me) with fringe and red lips, even with the mask ????, but with improvements.

Pedro: Nowadays, more and more we need to reinvent the way we work. Which characteristics do people from the north of Portugal ???? have that might cope with this?

Viviana: People from the north of Portugal are quite authentic, generous, true to themselves, and genuine. We are also hard workers and we tend to help everyone even when no one asks us for our help ????. We are also good at adapting to new things because we love a good challenge and also we love to prove that we are good at anything.

Pedro: As a professional, what have you learned from being a fashion stylist working for e-commerce? What did you access on e-commerce that you didn’t access working as a freelance stylist, posting a personal portfolio, and doing short editorial jobs?

? E-commerce is the new age of buying, so regarding learning skills and developing my knowledge was a whole new level. ?

Viviana: E-commerce is the new age of buying, so learning skills and developing my knowledge allowed me to enter a whole new level. I also learned about product manipulation and how to inspire the final customer to buy not just the uploaded piece that I'm selling, but the whole outfit. And a lot of new things that worked just in editorials, I wasn't capable of knowing.?

Pedro: You are used to dealing with high-fashion brand products and access also high fashion basics to match an entire set of garments. A question I've always had is to know where the balance between honoring the genuine idea of the creator (fashion designer) or the “cold” line rules from the label. Is this even more complex and do you need to count on other factors to deliver good e-commerce images?

? The perfect relationship to deliver good content to the consumer is to have the perfect balance between the brand DNA and the company DNA ?

Viviana: Nice point! The perfect relationship to deliver good content to the consumer is to have the perfect balance between the brand DNA and the company DNA. That means that I need to respect the brand aesthetic regarding details or colors used in that specific season, but at the same time I need to have in mind who is the customer that will buy that brand or that item, what brands can I mix, among other details that are crucial to honor both sides of the coin.

Pedro: What do you think is a good photo collection of a fashion product on e-commerce?

Viviana: The one that caught my eyes and made me want to buy it or see it more in detail, that inspired me.

Pedro: When you interview a stylist applying for a position in e-commerce high-fashion styling, can you share what specific questions you ask?

Viviana:

• Brand knowledge is important to understand if they know the market and they’re updated about the creative directors, etc;
• Which magazines or digital content do they use to search for trends, street style,s or other relevant news regarding fashion;
• If they follow people of interest like celebrities, fashion icons or influencers, and/or specific Instagram accounts about fashion;
• I also do a quick assessment where they need to comment on some photos regarding proportions, color combinations, fitting, brand pairings, etc. In that way, I have an idea of their vocabulary, taste, and knowledge.

Pedro: Today you are the mentor and trainer of many young stylists. How did it start? There is a lack of specialized training on education in general?

Viviana: It started after I came back from my maternity leave where I spoke about the desire that I had of changing my course of life, without leaving the styling team, but working directly with people, as a voice, as?an experienced person in fashion and my knowledge about the company. Then I took a CCP (Certificado de Competências Pedagógicas - Pedagogical Skills Certificate) so I could teach and also be able to do classes outside Farfetch and started my new journey.?

When we speak in e-commerce particularly, we have just very little specialized training that I think isn’t enough, especially now that a lot of people are searching for this area. But, the overall perception I have is that, depending on the areas, we are on a good path.

Pedro: In Pixelz we have some big fashion brands, but also we have some smaller ones that don’t use stylists or use them once in a while. If a small fashion brand is struggling in today's world, considering they need a stylist or to get their stylists to be updated and trained, what advice would you give to the small brand? And to the individual stylists as professionals?

? Everyone wants to be big, so go for workshops, be ?digitally speaking? hungry for newness and knowledge, use social media to show your product and create a team that is truthful and lives the values of the brand. ?

Viviana: Having people with different backgrounds could bring something fresh to a brand as a stylist, which could be super interesting and valuable for a small brand. It’s important when they already have a team, they keep them updated, they learn all together as a team and everyone has a space to share their viewpoints. Everyone wants to be big, so go for workshops, be ?digitally speaking? hungry for newness and knowledge, use social media to show your product, and create a team that is truthful and lives the values of the brand.

Regarding individual stylists, never give up! Show how capable you are!

Pedro: Now the future. A kind of provocative question, Vi. How do you see e-commerce styling in 10 or 20 years' time? Do you think you will be advised by new tools using artificial intelligence to help you be more productive or even more … “creative”??

Viviana: ?????? every time I think about it, I imagine myself half-human, half-robot (just kidding…).

The Digital era is changing, growing, and developing new things (Portuguese phrase: "Mudam-se os tempos, mudam-se as vontades", meaning "times change, will change"). Human beings adapt themselves so quickly that I believe in 20 years artificial intelligence will be a big tool, hopefully not as a replacement, but as a helper ??.

But, creatively speaking, that is something that belongs to us people and not to machines. And that’s why it is so valuable ??.

………………………………………

? About the interviewer: I am Pedro Marques and I work at Pixelz. I'm focused on nurturing, and inspiring smart teams to best deliver creative image content for e-commerce. From the in-studio photography best practices to the best image retouching techniques, I help to implement the late tendencies on image retouch at scale and listen at the same time to the real people. The stylists, the photographers, studios managers, quality controllers, image data science, and artificial intelligence experts on image editing flow.

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