A Week at a Personal Styling Course in London

Here's What I Learned

I remember wondering what could make my life feel a little less routine, and somehow my mind landed on taking a fashion course in Paris. I casually mentioned the idea to my husband and promptly forgot about it. He, however, did not. When my birthday came around, he and my family surprised me with exactly that - a fashion course. (Thank you!!)

After a lot of research, I chose a personal styling course in London. The aesthetic, the curriculum, and the duration all felt right, so I decided to spend my vacation there.

Our instructor, Penny Bennett, walked in wearing a stunning Tibi dress, which I immediately took as a good sign. But I quickly learned that something I had always assumed wasn’t actually true. I had believed it was essential for a stylist and their client to share the same aesthetic and ideally the same body type. Penny explained that she styles clients with completely different tastes - bohemian, classic, minimalist, romantic, and everything in between - and that the variety is what makes her work so interesting.

That was quite eye-opening. I had always imagined that a stylist’s role was to teach clients the “right” way to dress, much like Amy Smilovic teaches style. Instead, Penny emphasized that her goal is the client’s joy, which depends on their taste, lifestyle, personality, and countless other factors - not on updating everyone to the latest fashion trends or promoting one “correct” taste.

There were about ten students, all from very different walks of life and from all over the world, with backgrounds ranging from Zimbabwe to Brazil to Bulgaria, and of course, the UK. What fascinated me most was that every single one of them had a strong personal style, yet no two styles were alike. Watching how everyone put outfits together was incredibly inspiring.

Amazing group of stylists including Soraya, Nina, Anastasia and others!

It was also such a wonderful excuse to dress up myself. What a change from my usual work-from-home routine! Having a reason to think about outfits every morning was genuinely fun, and I loved experimenting with what I wore.

Tibi drapey suiting Liam blazer via Futurereference, Gia Borghini slides, The Curated bag, Zara pants, Tibi skirt and sandals, Uniqlo top, Maxmara blue dress, Uniqlo olive dress.

We started with color analysis: bright versus muted, dark versus light, warm versus cool. Penny has an incredible eye and typed all of us remarkably quickly.

I’ve always struggled with color analysis because most analyses place me in the Autumn category, yet many classic Autumn colors look terrible on me. Penny explained that I’m a blend: I lean slightly warm, but my skin also has cool undertones, which explains why certain warm shades completely wash me out. In general, while the seasons are useful, she usually looks at customers from the dimensions of bright versus muted, dark versus light, warm versus cool, and focus on the two dominant characteristics to define their color palette.

We also did a really fun exercise where everyone had to choose two colors they loved wearing and two they hated. It was fascinating to see how different everyone’s answers were. For some people, black feels elegant; for others, it feels like a funeral.

Another interesting realization was that people generally already know which colors suit them. Even without formally identifying our season, we naturally gravitate toward colors that harmonize with our complexion. If you want to guess someone’s color palette, looking inside their wardrobe is often enough.

I also finally understood the real value of color analysis. In fashion circles and on Substack it sometimes gets dismissed as restrictive, with the argument that “you can wear whatever you want.” And technically, that’s true. But in real life we have limited closet space, limited budgets, and limited bandwidth. A wardrobe built around a cohesive color palette is simply much easier to mix, match, and actually wear.

From there we moved into personality styling, accessories, swimwear, and occasion dressing. I realized that I felt fairly confident making these decisions for myself, but styling someone else - especially someone with a completely different aesthetic - was an entirely different challenge. For example, styling a client with a romantic style was way outside my comfort zone. Add completely different coloring into the mix, budget considerations, and suddenly every decision became much harder.

One thing I hadn’t appreciated before was that you can practice styling without buying anything or trying clothes on. Simply creating a brief and building outfits online is an incredibly useful exercise. It was surprisingly fun to spend hours browsing Net-a-Porter, especially once we were given an actual budget to work within. I could not believe that this is, in fact, a real job. Personally, I browse shopping websites for free whenever I’m stressed or bored and I loved putting together capsules and problem solving.

I also appreciated hearing a much more nuanced discussion about dressing in a flattering way. Rather than dismissing the concept entirely - as has become increasingly popular online - it is acknowledged that different clothes do look different on different bodies, and understanding those differences can be incredibly useful.

Tibi skirt, Gia Borghini sandals, Cos scarf top, Varnelis bag

On Thursday we headed to Brick Lane Market for one of the most exciting assignments: shopping for a classmate. Brick Lane is an experience in itself. Vintage Burberry sits next to colorful faux fur, romantic dresses, record stores, and every kind of eclectic treasure imaginable. It’s chaotic in the best possible way.

My partner was Anastasia, whose style is a fascinating mix of romantic, sporty, girly, tailored, and effortlessly cool.

Our brief was to find one or two vintage pieces, have our partner try them on, and then style a complete look around them. I picked out a few romantic pieces for Anastasia, along with a sheer windbreaker. She loved the trousers, but unfortunately one pair was to small while another I could not find again, and the windbreaker simply wasn’t her style. Frankly, I underestimated just how bold she is willing to be with her wardrobe.

As we continued browsing, she found several incredible leather jackets featuring America, Marlboro, and Home Depot graphics. They were all amazing, and she instantly fell in love. After much deliberation, she chose the Marlboro jacket.

Find Anastasia’s insta here to see her unique style

Because Anastasia loves contrast and often mixes romantic pieces with unexpected elements, I paired the jacket with a very romantic dress. To avoid leather-on-leather, I added a denim bag, and to continue the contrast, I finished the look with pale pink sneakers. She liked the outfit, but the sneakers didn’t feel quite right to her, so we swapped them for pink Tabi ballet flats - and the look immediately clicked. (No budget restrictions at this point!)

Vintage Malboro jacket, Chloe dress, Marge Sherwood denim bag, pink Tabi balerinas.

Then it was Anastasia’s turn to style me.

She pulled out a stunning vintage Christian Dior trench coat. The moment I put it on, I got chills. It suited my coloring perfectly and somehow felt instantly like me. As a very happy client, I bought it on the spot - my first-ever Dior purchase, and honestly my first true vintage luxury fashion purchase. It does require dry cleaning, but I absolutely love it. Anastasia did an incredible job.

Vintage Dior coat, Tibi skirt, Gia Borghini sandals, Cos scarf top

With all of this knowledge under our belts, we were ready for the final challenge of the course: creating a complete capsule wardrobe for our “client” - one of our classmates - which is coming up in my next post!

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