Career of an Image Consultant

Image consultants are professionals who help and advice their clients to project the image that they want in their personal and professional lives.

They, therefore, study and try to understand their clients’ personalities, lifestyle preferences, personal styles and goals and design a detailed plan covering wardrobe, grooming and styling and in some instances, even behaviour and body language.

As an image consultant, you, therefore, need to have the knowledge and skills to handle fashion styling, hair, grooming, make-up etc which you can learn through a course. You should also have excellent communication and interpersonal skills to be able to handle a variety of people, speak effectively and confidently with your clients and build a network of contacts.

You must yourself be able to project the kind of image your clients would like you to develop for them. If you feel you have these qualities and are interested in this line of work, you could take up a course in fashion styling, which will give you a knowledge base to work with.

There are now some training options in image consulting, too, but most of these are short diploma and certificate courses being offered at private institutes. You could go abroad to study image consulting but it is unlikely that you will be able to get a scholarship for this field of study.

While this is a new field of work, presenting the right professional image is required not just for celebrities and models, but even the average job seeker, corporate executive, doctor, lawyer, politician, and even organizations. So, there are good career prospects in this field.

-- Usha Albuquerque

Source: HT Education