How to Provide Fashion Advice

Source: https://www.kochiesbusinessbuilders.com.au/five-tips-for-marketing-your-small-business-in-2019/

As humans we are bound to engage in people watching, whether it be at a park or the local Walmart. We have an innate human desire to view others and judge. Now this is certainly not productive or positive because it is not good to criticize others. However, there will come a time when you may have to offer fashion advice to a friend. Once I started this blog, I was constantly asked to give advice to different people about fashion. At first, I had no idea how to do this, but over time I learned the best way to go about handing out fashion advice. So, I want to step you through some tips on how to offer fashion recommendations in a positive and engaging manner.

Tip #1: Make Sure Advice is Warranted

The first and most important point to highlight is ensuring advice is warranted. You may have all the fashion knowledge in the world, but there is no reason to go around critiquing people’s outfits. This will only upset people and reflect poorly on you. Nobody wants to be the one person who is constantly pointing out people’s issues or inconsistencies. Therefore, it is imperative to make sure your advice is requested before you provide it. By doing this, people will certainly be more open and have positive reactions to the tips you offer.

Tip #2: Do your Research

Like studying for an exam, make sure you are knowledgeable on the subjects you want to give advice on. It will help no one to provide poor or inaccurate information to people. A lot of fashion is highly subjective, but it is still valuable to do some personal research. Obviously, a friend asking for fashion advice is not expecting you to be an expert, yet I think providing extra facts is amazing. The last thing regarding the research tip I want to cover is to ensure you know how you are going to present your recommendations. Make sure you have a balance of subjective suggestions and facts the person can use to enhance their look, or at least take into consideration when deciding their next look.

Tip #3: Understand who you are Communicating With

Whenever you are having a conversation with someone it is important to understand who you are talking with. This is even more important when you are offering advice to someone. The world of fashion has so much subjectivity in it that it is essential to know what people like or dislike. Therefore, I recommend getting to know the interests, likes, and dislikes of the person who is asking for recommendations. By doing this, you will be able to gear the information towards them making the conversation more impactful. It is also imperative to know the person you are talking with because some people desire advice in different manners. Some people want direct information, the tell me how it is approach, while others are sensitive and require a softer approach. Not only is the information you provide essential, so is the way you present it. Hence, you must understand a little bit about the people asking to harvest some of your fashion knowledge.

Some communication tips from the Center for Creative Leadership

It took me a while to learn how to master these tips. The hardest one to master is tip number two because it is almost impossible to research fashion thoroughly enough to answer every possible question. However, this is less essential than your communication skills with the people looking for advice. So, I would recommend focusing on communication skills and the research will come second. I hope these tips will assist you in the future and be sure to read more of our College Fashio content.