Lindsey Foley of Marblehead spends her days doing what many wish they could, shopping for new clothes. But she’s not shopping for herself, she is shopping for her clients.
Foley is a personal stylist and has been for the past 17 years.
Fashion is something that has always been part of her life, she said.
“I come from a long line of retail, my dad was in the clothing business for his entire career,” Foley said. “My grandfather was in the shoe business so it’s kind of like in my blood.”
After originally working in advertising, she decided to make a change once she had her first son 17 years ago. Being pregnant and having just moved back to Marblehead after being in Boston for a few years she was working in a boutique. This was where she realized how much she liked finding pieces that go together.
“I wanted my own thing because I wanted to be able to work and be a mom and it was a perfect fit,” Foley said.
That is how LF Style was born.
Now after years of being a personal stylist she has a set routine when working with her clients.
Before starting on a new client, she has them fill out a questionnaire in order to get a feel of the person’s personality and style. She will ask questions like: do you have any style icons or influencers you follow? What are you hoping to get out of this service? What’s your career?
After the questionnaire, it’s time to clean out the closet.
“I go piece by piece,” Foley said. “I pull every piece out.”
Foley and her clients will separate the pieces into two piles, one for the items being kept and one for the items being donated. The clothes being donated go to a charity most of the time since philanthropy is something that’s very important to her, she said.
With the closet clean-out completed, it’s time for her to start shopping.
“I just love to shop local when I can and support local businesses of course, but a lot of the time I’m in Boston because bigger retailers I can return,” Foley said.
The stores she shops at ranges from Target to more high-end boutiques, depending on how much the client is willing to spend. She has worked with all walks of life from politicians to lawyers to working moms.
“My clients are all over the area,” Foley said. “I’ve worked with literally every kind of person you could imagine, teenagers, a woman that was 92 years old, but I would say the bulk of my business is moms who work, you know, working moms, people who are kind of going back into the workforce.”
Last spring she saw significant growth in clients with everyone going back into the office after restrictions around COVID-19 settled. Her busiest time of year is springtime and then fall up until the holidays.
“it’s all word of mouth and Instagram helps now that there’s social stuff that does help the business but it’s really been something that I kind of built myself, you know, and I can work as much as I want or as little as I want,” Foley said.
Since building up her clientele after 17 years, sometimes she will have clients that she has worked with in the past reach out and ask for an outfit for a specific event. Or she will have past clients reach out to do another closet clean out and round of shopping.
“It’s a lot of fun because the main part of my job is just I want people to walk away feeling good about themselves, feeling organized, feeling like they know where to find things, how to put things together,” Foley said.