By Francisca Vargas Ramos
Perhaps, like me, you have often fantasized about being an image consultant. However, many of us know that in Chile it is not very easy to study careers that are linked to the world of fashion and that it is a little more complex to find a career path after having specialized. Persistence and patience can be key when starting in this world that - although It's still kind of unknown - it's evolving.
Image consultants are in charge of analyzing all the aspects that define us and say something about us. They are in charge of studying the personal factors that communicate, analyze and come to the conclusion of what image the person wants to project, look for a professional image according to the job or the aspirations of the counselees and, in addition, analyze the clothes and style of dress according to the needs of each client.
According to María de los Ángeles ( @emepetite ), an occupational psychologist and image consultant, points out that “I try to make the advice super comprehensive. For me it is inevitable not to mix it with the field of psychology, to know what you want, what your objectives are because each consultancy is personalized and unique because each person is unique. It is also important to know what image they decide to project and that is where you start the suggestions so that the person leaves with the best tools that will serve them from now on”.
Gradually, image consultancy has managed to position itself as a job, gradually becoming more professional. Little by little, the offer of courses and specializations are becoming more and more varied and these types of professions are gradually reaching more spaces. "Here very recently we are seeing that Falabella is incorporating image consulting or in my case that I am working in an aesthetic clinic that very few have this service and it seems incredible to me that the girls who are going to go out with another body, another figure, who have psychological support and the kinesiologist, also have advice. From then on, I obviously believe that there is still a long way to go in that sense and indeed there are many people who think that this is not important, and if it is, even from the moment you go to a job interview, for example", comments María de los Angels.
Although this service is reaching more and more spaces, it turns out not to be something of "primary necessity", which causes many people to question the associated values or that they still do not know the relevance behind the wardrobe. Many times We do not stop to think about the role that clothes have in our lives and it is probably related to a slightly more frivolous concept.
This distance that we have with clothing or fashion is often a reflection of how a society understands this cultural expression since, according to the expert, "in the case of my advisees, I believe that there is a love-hate relationship, very restriction. I feel that today we have to make a lot of progress in self-knowledge, in acceptance. In general, I have many girls who arrive with self-esteem issues and clothing, which is a way of presenting themselves to the world, often becomes a problem. Because no matter how much you like a style or the clothes that the mannequin wears, many people don't dare. Even I think that very recently we Chileans are daring to use more color, that is, in winter using a green or pink color was rare and not now. There is still guilt, self-restriction such as "no, how beautiful it is to see the fault, but not for me". There is still a lot of that beautiful relationship, but not for me. With the girls in my consultancies we work hard on that, that of daring, but not daring to dress up, but rather so that you feel comfortable within your own style, but incorporating new things that make you feel better. There is a lot of this love-hate relationship and that is a job that has to be done very little by little, the counseling gives you the push, but from then on the person has to do a job that is super personal. They are processes, it is personal, it is unique and there is no recipe, it just may be that sometimes there are much more daring people and others not, that is why you have to look at each one”.
In Chile, the options to study image consulting are limited. However, in Argentina or Spain there are places like Condé Nast or Elle Magazine where you can find courses in image consulting, communication and fashion marketing, editorial productions and more. Specializing is an investment of time and money and that investment does not stop even when one later practices their profession. However, according to @emepetite, the forecast that in the future this area will be well valued, fortunately, is not far from reality.
