Former international catwalk model Sheree Johnstone has fond memories of her mother Robyn advising boutique customers about body shape and style.
At the time, Sheree was a primary school student sitting at the back of her mum’s store in Mooloolaba, Robyn’s No.8. But it’s an education in fashion she will never forget.
“Mum lived and breathed her work for all those years,” Sheree said of her first “style icon”.
“For 27 or so years, she had Robyn’s No.8, The Lily Room and Abby’s, which was sold to the current owners of Zambezee.
“She had such a following on the Coast and her customers just loved coming to her for her advice, her honesty and the product that she had in her store.
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/scnews2020/
“I learned that, and I just developed a natural talent where I would go along buying with her.
“She would test me: ‘Oh, what would you pick?’. It turns out I had quite an eye for picking out styles that we thought clients might really like and I developed a passion for it.”
Sheree, who signed with coveted agency June Dally-Watkins at the age of 15 and has graced catwalks all over the world – from Germany and Greece to Japan and Hong Kong’s famed Fashion Week – had her own taste of this special relationship with customers when she owned her Unseen boutique in Mooloolaba at the age of 21.
Now she hopes to continue that with her new personal styling business.
Unseen Styling is an idea that began only a few months ago but is already gaining momentum as clients seek to tap into Sheree’s extensive knowledge and unique experience in the fashion industry, which has also included travelling Australia for David Jones and modelling alongside the likes of Miranda Kerr and Megan Gale.
Sheree had launched and closed her popular boutiques including Unseen Bazaar, Sesheke and Burnish to spend more time with husband Jamie and children – Beau, now 15, and Leila, 11. But something seemed to be pulling her back into working with clients.
Like stories about Sunshine Coast people doing great things? Help us deliver more by registering for our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article.
“It was something I just felt I needed to do and having that time away, I soon realised that I was missing having the store and missing serving and styling my customers,” Sheree said.
“Former clients and customers, if I bumped into them, would regularly tell me that they were missing me styling them and my store.
“These sort of things kept happening and I had a lightbulb moment where I thought, ‘Well, maybe I could still style my clients and help them with their confidence, knowing that they had my honest advice, my opinion, my specialist knowledge on fashion, on trends, on their body shape, what suits them, and help in that way without having a bricks-and-mortar store.”
This personalised service, that Sheree first witnessed all those years ago at her mum’s boutique, creates a two-way exchange that can be a very emotional experience.
“It’s just the positive comments and the emotion that I feel from my clients when they find an outfit or a few different styles and they feel great about themselves,” Sheree, 43, said.
“That’s very rewarding for me. That’s why I love it.
“Those comments remind you that you have a place in your clients’ life and they really appreciated your help because they felt great.
“I have clients that bought things from me that I styled on them years ago and they still have those items. They’re still much-loved items.
“You can go and have very little to no service when you’re in the changerooms in some stores or you can have service but you don’t really feel comfortable you’re being given honest advice.
“The person in that store is just focused on selling you products in that store.
“I will be working for my clients. I won’t be aligned with any stores at all.
“And a personal stylist can take the common occurrence of the stress and the hassle away from the shopping experience, working for the client to give them honest advice and tips which in turn can save time and money spent on items not worn and help you dress on trend while still staying true to you and who you are.”
Sheree also offers a wardrobe auditing service for people with items of clothing and accessories they don’t know how to style or mix and match, or pieces they never wear and probably could do without.
“They need help with someone like myself to come in, go through their wardrobe with them and see what should be kindly given away to another loving home and what things can be added if need be or how to mix and match,” Sheree said.
“A lot of people don’t know how to wear a top or what style they should wear that top with.”
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor with your name and suburb at Sunshine Coast News via: news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au
In a world where image is so important in job interviews, important corporate events and social media, Sheree said a personal stylist could make all the difference to an individual’s look.
“People may think ‘Why does that celebrity always look so amazing?’. It doesn’t just happen by chance,” she said.
“There is a personal stylist helping style them – whether it be for an outing in a coffee shop, a meal with a friend or a work meeting, or there might be a corporate situation where there’s a photo shoot and that needs to be styled.”
Sheree, who has styled “literally thousands of people” including Channel 9 weather presenter Hannah McEwan, believes people make three main mistakes in dressing:
- Not dressing for their body shape.
- Not having the confidence to wear something more flattering than their usual outfits or shapes that they wear
- Impulse buying.
Impulse buying is a particular problem because retail therapy feels so satisfying.
“Often when we shop, we don’t have a lot of time, but we really don’t know what we want and that can lead to impulse buying: buying in a hurry, not really having that time or someone there to say ‘I think we can do better’ or ‘that mightn’t suit you’ or ‘that’s not quite right’.
“We’ve all done it because it’s retail therapy and it feels great but what is more rewarding is having that retail experience and really getting something that you really love and you are going to wear and wear and get compliments on from your friends, family or just feel good.”
Local journalists supporting local people. Help keep independent and fair Sunshine Coast news coming by subscribing to our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this article.
Sheree, in a way, acts as that proxy girlfriend as her personal styling service ensures her client’s confidence in their purchases.
And she says any woman or man who has their hair styled at a salon can afford her services – if only seasonally or for special occasions throughout the year.
While based on the Sunshine Coast, Unseen Styling will operate from here to the Gold Coast.
Prospective clients – male and female – can contact Sheree through her website, Facebook and Instagram pages.
The born-and-bred Sunshine Coast woman is very grateful for where a love and passion for fashion has taken her as a daughter of a boutique owner and winner of a Miss Billabong modelling title as a 15-year-old.
“I have had quite an extraordinary life – straight after I left school travelling the world, walking the catwalks alongside the likes of Sarah Murdoch, Kristy Hinz and Ivanka Trump, modelling for very well-known brands (including) Alex Perry and Zimmerman, in Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week in Sydney.
“It’s been a wonderful career.
“And then it just continued when I had the opportunity to open my own store.
“There was nothing like it on the Sunshine Coast – the latest fashion designer labels, mainly Australian brands.
“And soon my store Unseen was quite well known within Australia from the many visitors that would come to Mooloolaba and would come to my store every time they were on holidays, and also my loyal local clientele.
“At one stage, I was modelling on the catwalk for Fashion Week in Sydney and then I was going out on to the floor and doing the buying for my store.”
Now it may be a case of history repeating itself.
Daughter Leila, it seems, is quite the mini fashionista.
“My daughter is 11 and has the same size foot as me and almost the same clothing size so my wardrobe is constantly invaded.
“I used to laugh because I remember doing the same thing to my mum’s wardrobe.
“She came out of the wardrobe the other day with a pair of stilettos on and I said, ‘Sorry, darling, that’s not appropriate for your age. Plus, you’ll break your ankle’.
“She can wait for the stilettos.”
