Are you wondering what it’s like to work with me, Carine Landau, your image consultant? Take a look behind the scenes of a report produced by the prestigious magazine FAZ Metropol.
The FAZ paid us a visit. A nice surprise… prepared! As you know, nothing happens by chance. You create your opportunities. So this is the story of one meeting, and then several. Let me tell you about our session, which was closely observed by the FAZ team.
An Unexpected Encounter
FAZ, or Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, is a leading German newspaper. It is distributed in 148 countries. Their team came to see me for a report. Here’s how it went.
It all starts with a chance meeting and a simple interaction that leads to an incredible opportunity: a story with FAZ. Sometimes a simple meeting can trigger extraordinary events.
A young man is sitting a few chairs away from me. I’m congratulating him on his dexterity when it comes to writing on a computer. He’s a journalist at FAZ. He contacted me again to ask me to write about my job, which he had “never heard of before”, on the page dedicated to the economy of Frankfurt and the surrounding region. The subject would be, in his own words: “the outward appearance of a manager who, as is customary in Germany, has never attached much importance to the way he presents himself”. His gallantry led him to recommend his colleague Kim.
Kim is a chief organiser. We’re planning the meeting. She’ll be coming along for the experience during a meeting with one of my clients.
Behind the scenes on D-Day
On D-Day, Kim took her place a few metres away from my Client and me. She observed. Taking notes. She’s there, coming up from time to time to look at my screen and follow the thread. She’s discreet. Then I don’t see her any more. I’m with my Client.
Kim discovers the parameters for choosing a garment: style, morphology and colours. Style is a person’s history, personality and culture. Body shape is a gift from Nature, a fact that cannot be changed and yet feels very personal. Colours have their own messages, reflecting an individual’s personality and based on the colours of their hair, skin and eyes. Finally, the codes, i.e. the work environment, are of course essential. These parameters are clear.
My customer has her fabric colour palette in hand, ready to be used in a shopping session. Here we go. We’re getting ready for our shopping session. It will take place… in Paris. It will be guided so that we don’t have to buy anything that already exists in my client’s huge wardrobe.
For today, we’re also working on the video, with my Client experiencing the interview exercise face-to-face with the camera in real time. Then we’ll do a testimonial interview with my customer. After this interview, Kim will call me to ask me a few more questions. The article is now being written and I recommend you read it here
My customer's needs
My client is an extraordinary woman, a member of the board of directors of a major international bank. With my support, she not only discovers her style, but also gains in confidence and efficiency. Imagine saving time every morning, while feeling more confident. Ever wondered how style experts work? Here’s how it’s done.
An expert, a lover, a mother and a loyal friend, my client is an example to many and a committed woman. She wants to save time and meet her professional responsibilities. She wants to assert her role while being fully herself. Over the course of the sessions, she puts this need into words: she wants to strengthen her femininity.
She has an incredible wardrobe, with designer pieces that perfectly match her strong personality. The only problem is that her body has changed and her personality has become sharper: “No more compromises! She’s working on herself and wants to be in tune with the woman she’s – finally – embracing. My client has already worked on her image with a very competent consultant in London, a very good friend of hers. Oops! For me, the challenge is even greater.
Nevertheless, I offered her a step-by-step approach, ready to speed things up if the tools were already in place. My client enjoys challenging what she has been told. She learns her morphology, obtains her colour palette and rediscovers her style. Outfits, each more incredible than the last, are given a new lease of life. Some will be offered to the world and will free up space.
Our sessions flow naturally. Our Parisian shopping session opens the doors for her to create endless looks, based on a wardrobe she knows well and has carefully created over so many years. We’ll round things off with a targeted purchase of a few key pieces. The rest is all about working on her body language and getting to know her marvellous assets.
The work we did together was a journey. To start with, even before discovering the pieces in my client’s wardrobe and taking inspiration from them, I drew up the broad outlines of the looks I wanted her to wear on my blank page, like writing a new page. Just ask her. The result is exactly what I had in mind.
The results of the coaching for my Client
Without imposing anything, step by step, we determined my client’s assets, the demands of her environment, the assets of a wardrobe with enormous potential and here we are, with these looks as if they had always been part of her routine.
So she wears blouses and palazzo trousers, letting her breathe and expressing her creativity. Without sweat, but with effort, my client has practised. She had homework. Between each session, we added challenges to be taken up each day as a challenge and a promise that “yes, you can do it!” I’m the little mouse guiding her captain through a rough sea.
My client’s diary remains overloaded. The demands are still there. Now, my customer is able to meet them with greater serenity, feeling good in her trainers and heels, saving time every morning, targeting her purchases and saving her nerves. She can count on my support 24 hours a day via messages or phone calls.
That day, during the interview, our complicity in front of the screen made this session under observation feel like an additional experience we had together. I’m grateful to her for taking the time, welcoming us into her home and patiently answering our questions.
Today, she receives many compliments, both privately and professionally. She optimises her time. She’s confident from the first minute of her day right through to her key appointments.
My Message and My Authenticity
I enjoyed this meeting with the FAZ team and saw it as an opportunity to answer this recurring question: “How does it work? What’s in store for me? My greatest reward is to see you shine. You are living proof of the results you aspire to see even before you start. And yet, without effort and patience, nothing happens. The magic is undoubtedly all the more beautiful when, after a few hours’ work together, you discover the superpowers you have over yourself.
My message during the FAZ report? My customer needs to feel good, to know where she stands and to move forward. For the telephone interview, I jotted down a few ideas and spoke spontaneously. The more I thought about it, the more anxious I became. So, for a natural result, I showed my job, my daily life, I chose to show myself as I am, without much preparation.
Style coaching isn’t just about clothes. It’s about a transformation that helps you become more confident and effective.
My best advice? Be yourself. Be inspired, be prepared, but above all be yourself! You are incredible.
