Change.

I have a small independent boutique in a small town, I am lucky enough to have an international airport and a main train link station less than a mile away.
I get a fair bit of passing foot-trade, but mainly my customers are local people who know me or my family or who have just had a nice experience in my shop.

I have one customer who comes to see me on a semi-regular basis, she is not the customer I was originally aiming to, but I have altered what and who I was originally aiming to cater to. She is older than me, I think she is professional, she is a very nice person (she enquires about me and the business every time that she comes in) but she has no sense of style what so ever!

She thinks that certain colours, shapes and styles suit her, and they generally do not. She steers away from the basic clean lines that suit her shape. She is extremely lucky to suit strong colours, yet she thinks they make her look “funny”.

I love it when she comes into see me now, because after a few months I have almost bullied her into changing her ways. She has bought six to eight key pieces from me. She always tries them on and we chat about the look on her. She, to me, is so much more confident now and I now that she takes the tips that I give her on to other shops that she visits.

This particular customer is one of the good ones, she accepts the advice, she wants to move with the times and she can take criticism. If only more people had this open outlook to fashion. At the moment the thrown together and layered look are hot.
But, they just do not work for everyone and people need to accept that just because it is fashionable does not always mean its wearable!