Shop with the experts

ENTERPRISING students turned degree work into a full-fledged business after being hounded for fashion advice by family and friends.

As final-year students on MMU’s renowned Fashion Buying for Retail course, twenty-somethings Hannah Williamson, Jenny Shorten and Sophie Gardner know a thing or two about dressing to kill.

But they became so tired of dishing out free dressing tips, they thought they’d set up in business as one of Manchester’s first "shop-with-the-experts" agencies.

Now Manchester’s answer to Trinny and Suzannah are giving the city’s women tours of the fashionable shops and charging them £60 for a half day trip and £100 for a full-day. They will also select clothes for a client based on personal profiles.

People lack confidence

Hannah, 21, from Northwich, Cheshire, said: "Most women that approach me for advice are interested in fashion catwalk trends but have no idea have to translate them into day-to-day wearable looks. They often lack the confidence to try out new ideas and as time has gone by have become comfortable sticking to one style.

"Most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time, however we will develop your wardrobe to give you maximum usage of diverse outfits that can be adapted for any occasion year after year."

Clients approach them through their website www.thestylers.com and their key market they say is professional/mature women and men, aged 35-55. "We all have part-time jobs in fashion outlets so we know exactly what’s out there at any given time," added Hannah. Her co-Stylers are Jenny Shorten, 23, from Ireland and Sophie Gardner, 22, from Manchester.

The girls set up the business as part of a competition on the Fashion Buying for Retail course led by lecturers Liz Barnes and Georges Bouvier. The competition is enabled by the Young Enterprise Graduate Scheme and is supported by FedEx and HSBC.