Running a business is hard. Being a freelancer is hard. Trying to be a freelancer in an industry that has long been exclusionary, feels like you’re rolling a boulder up a hill. While that Greek myth teaches perseverance in the face of adversity, one must face the reality that under the systems in which we live money is required to survive. Making money that can sustain you, your loved ones, and your future is harder to come by in the fashion industry than many may think.
Being Black women freelancers in the fashion industry, Harlem Hottie and style savant Brandii Stuart and I sat down to talk about the business and were glad to truly be seen by one another.
This interview from January 2023 has been edited for brevity and clarity. We were kiki’ing too much to fit it all in one post.
Chanise: First, I want to start with how you got into styling, and how you started your own business as a freelancer.
Brandii: This story is so long. I’m going to try to chop it up for you. I have a degree in counseling psychology. I graduated in 2020 during the pandemic. [At that time] I was a preschool teacher in a fast-track program to help me become a therapist. My original goal was to become a therapist but you know during that pandemic, we had time to sit down and reflect and think about what we want to do. To be honest, therapy just wasn’t clicking for me as much as it used to.
My partner runs a production company and she was like, ‘You know, you’re always on your phone looking at fashion and style. Why don’t you become a stylist?’ I think [for] Black women that come from underserved communities, creativity is not something that’s like expressed to us or given to us.
I never even understood that fashion was a job because of how I was raised. You become a teacher, a social worker, a police officer, like black women unfortunately are typically stuck in service [jobs] still. So I didn’t even understand that fashion was an opportunity for me until my girlfriend, who is honestly not Black, [put it] into perspective for me.
Then I discovered Lauren Messiah.
She’s the biggest Black personal stylist on the planet, most personal stylists come from her. I discovered her on YouTube and then [that] she had a school called School of Style where she trained stylists. That was her last year [teaching] at that school, and I took the course. She taught us how to become business owners, and then if you knew how to style you knew how to style.
In 2020 I was stalking TikTok on a burner account because I was like, ‘Let me see what’s going on in this app.’ I was like, ‘I’m just going to start talking about what I believe in.’ I have a very nuanced perspective when it comes to personal style, I infuse it with psychology. I started talking about style and to be honest, the emails started rolling in and people were asking me to style them. Of course, I was scared. I’d never done it before so I was like, ‘Let me just try.’
I took my first client, a Black woman who works at Harvard University. She’s my first client beautiful, beautiful queen and she was like, ‘I need help.’ I styled her and it went well. Then I put it on TikTok and it went viral. I was the only stylist doing that at that time, really showing my work, showing my process, and then the rest is history two years later.
I just took a leap of faith and started running my mouth on TikTok and people trusted me. And I’ve just been styling ever since
I would love to hear anything that comes to mind, your stream of consciousness — What do people need to know to build and sustain freelance clientele?
Okay, first if you’re going to be an entrepreneur and you decide to take that leap of faith it’s important that you share your story. [When I] share my story about my journey, that connects me to other women. The people that you serve will have a connection to you and your journey.
We all have a story. Even if you come from the most privileged background, something has happened to you that has shaped you to make you the person that you are today. People want to hear that. We’re humans. We are designed to connect and you have to be vulnerable enough to tell that story and you have to believe in that story. You have to go and tell that story over and over and over again.
Now when you tell that story, the key piece is to bring it back to your business. You have to talk about how your story led to your business and what you’re doing in your business to help people who were like you.
For example, I’ll use myself. I was always very thin and then I got into a relationship and you know, mama put on some pounds — like a hundred-something pounds. I got bigger and I did not understand how to dress this new body of mine. You know what I mean? So I had to step back and learn how to dress myself. I realized other people could use that help.
You have to always think about your community and how you can serve your community. Entrepreneurship is very much about like that drive and that momentum and always remembering your why. Your why is so important. Why do you want to be a stylist? Why do you want to do makeup? What drives you? It’s not necessarily what sets you apart. It’s about what wakes you up in the morning because as an entrepreneur you’re by yourself, there’s no one telling you, [what to do.] Every decision that you make will reflect your bag. That’s just that’s the bottom line.
Was there ever a point where you had to pivot or rebrand? Thinking about how you market yourself, was there ever any type of transition that you had to make?
Okay, wait this question is so amazing because I’m going through a rebrand right now. So when I first started I was a lot more green. I was very cookie-cutter. I was watering myself down to try to maximize the amount of clients.
I had a name back then, I was called The Queer Yorker. I was trying to show up as this queer chick in New York City — my business was just all over the place. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. As I’ve learned, grown, and worked with over 40 women at this point, every single project helped me understand where I need to be going and where I want to be.
I realized is, maybe this is not the kind of [client] I want to style, I love wardrobe styling a lot more, to be honest. I realized that I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do.
So I changed my name. Now I go with my real name, Brandii Stuart. That’s who I am right? I’m showing up as myself and I changed everything on my social media. I changed my aesthetic as well! Before it was very cookie-cutter and commercial and now it’s more authentic, real, and pretty.
If you’re going through a rebrand, even if you’re starting a brand, the first thing you want to do is map it out. What is the overall look? Make mood boards, and write words down. Think a lot about the person that you want to be.
People have found a new respect and appreciation for [wardrobe styling] in the past few years. I think it’s happened as people have become more analytical with the media they consume.
It’s amazing because styling is not a new job, but the concept is relatively new to where people recognize styling. Styling is such a gritty fucking job. There’s nothing easy about styling. You’re going to be in the heat, you’re going to be in the snow, picking things up, dropping things off. I’ve busted my feet before! It’s crazy.
It’s a very gritty job and people do deserve their flowers because it’s not that simple. That dress you see on your favorite celebrity? You don’t know the hell that person went through to lugg that fucking gown all the way down to have this person try it on, and you better hope the client likes it because if they don’t then you’re back to square one.
How do your clients know they can come to you with different ideas and corrections? I feel that there is often a breakdown in communication between the client and the stylist.
Let’s do it. Okay, so I’m going to lay it all the way out here. First of all, you have to remember that your client is coming to you to solve a problem. Period. So now you need to really understand and listen to what they’re saying. I have a psychology background. I studied psychology for a very long time. So, I have therapy sessions with my clients.
For example, when you work with a stylist, the first thing you’ll do is fill out a consultation form. The stylist will typically ask [something] like, what’s your favorite color? You know, do you prefer this for that? I’m going to ask you that.
Then I do an exercise with every single client.
I make them close their eyes, straight up. I say, ‘Close your eyes. Sit back. Take a [mental] picture of the person you want to be and I’m listening.’ Then it’s my job to create that picture for this person and it’s all about listening and being transparent.
There have been times where I’ve dropped the ball, like straight up dropped the ball, but I’ve been open with my clients and said, ‘I made this boo-boo. This was my intention, but here’s the result. I’m willing to fix it.’
Be honest with the person that you’re working with. I’ve seen other stylists not be as upfront. And although they’re scared, you have to always have open authentic communication with your clients because then they’ll trust you. The key word is trust because [styling] is an intimate service whether it’s wardrobe styling or personal styling. It’s intimate and your job is to listen and make things happen. You also need to include your clients in the process.
Before I was just like listening to them, making magic, and going ‘Here you go.’ That’s it. But they want to know what you’re doing. So like sending a little email saying, ‘I’ve found this shirt for you today. What do you think about it?’ That makes them so happy because it also empowers them to make decisions. You know what I mean? Although they’re hiring you, you should make this process as collaborative as possible.
I’ve always [said] my clients always come back to me because I truly listen to them and take them along. There’s no secrets here. I’m not saying you have to be friends. But I am saying that you need to build a relationship, and relationships platonic or romantic rely on one thing. What’s that? Communication.
The demise of most stylists is cockiness. The thing about all creative stylists — they are artists. Styling clothes is an art for us, like how Basquiat painted, it’s the same thing. So if you think your shit’s good you just think your shit’s good. Also, style is subjective. What you may think looks good, another person may not think that. So if you work with someone and you think it’s good, but you don’t see how you could have done better? Then you’re never going to grow for me.
You have to be okay with really being honest with yourself and seeing where you can improve. That’s so important in life. It’s never thinking that you’re great, never thinking that you’re perfect. My mother always had the energy like, ‘You got an 85 [on a test], why didn’t you get a 90?’ I was raised like that. This is just my mentality and I think it’s a healthy one for many entrepreneurs to adapt because then you’re never going to settle.
I understand people have auras, essence, and energy. We have all three, you can look at someone and feel [them.] I can look at somebody and be able to see everything they need to tweak to make them their best selves. [Styling is about] what they like and what looks best on them. We need clothes that move, we need clothes that work with the body, so it’s so important that you dress people’s natural essence and energy. If you ignore that because you want to do what you want to do, then you don’t get the best results.
A very interesting question seeing as you are a creative with a psychology background, how would you recommend a stylist let go of their work? You have to showcase your work when marketing your services, so how do you overcome the anxiety that comes with showcasing your work to not only potential clients but the fashion world at large?
Especially with all these new voices in the fashion space, there’s always someone speaking girl.
I have real bad social anxiety and there are many times when I don’t [post my] work. I’m sitting on so much work that I have not put out because of that inner critic. It is scary but I’ve realized that in any industry, you do have to have tough skin. But if you’re going to be on social media, you need to develop real thick skin because your work will always be critiqued. Also, you can learn from critique and you have to understand how to separate trolls from authentic honest critique. But you can’t let that stop you because if you do have this gift and it is special, people need to see they can learn from you.
My objective is to get my work out there, whether you like it or not. That’s okay if it causes a thought or brings an emotion. And that’s what art is about, sparking that emotion good or bad. But if you do struggle with it, turn your comments off. I have filter words [In my Instagram comments] you can’t say ‘ugly.’ You can’t say certain things.
Put those blockers. Social media is good for that, put those blocked words you don’t want to see or turn the comments off because the work will still be out there. But as you continue your trajectory as a stylist, you will need to learn how to understand and accept critique because you’re only going to go up and the critics will only get louder. You’ll have to learn to separate what’s worth listening to and changing, and what’s worth silence. Learning how to train yourself for higher levels of visibility is also really important.
Is there anything else you feel like you haven’t touched on?
Net 30, Net 45, and Net 60 are something I also want to stress really quickly. When you’re an entrepreneur you need to focus on not impulsive buying and trying to look like an entrepreneur. Focus on saving your coins because I’ll tell you the truth. Christmas was tough this year, [it was] my first entrepreneurial Christmas where I was down bad. I had zero dollars in my account. I was overdrafted, because a company did not pay me on time. They were Net 30 and they were 10 days late.
You know, if you’re a person of color expect some mistreatment on set despite what you may see on the outside. It’s not like that. It’s not giving that on the inside. You will have to fight for yourself. You have to fend for yourself like styling is mad scrappy and that’s why some of the best stylists all have the same story. We come from very gritty backgrounds because you need to be [gritty] to do this successfully.
Remain scrappy because this career is so cutthroat, straight up. And save your coins because Net 30 is not cute at all. All those invoices! Why am I chasing you for my money? Like it’s crazy. So people need to know that you get these big jobs but it takes a while to get paid. So hold on to your money as much as you can.
One thing I’ll tell you too, don’t minimize yourself to make somebody else feel better. The brands that are meant for you, will be meant for you, straight up. The clients that are meant for you will be meant for you. What you definitely need to do is make sure you dress that person for who they are and not who you want them to be and you can quote me on that one.
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