Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Collarte.
Hi Paula, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been selling retail clothes for 20 years. I was born and raised in Miami, clothing has always been a passion of mine. My mom would take my sister and I to Bal Harbour every Sunday, it was my version of church. I am a Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart Lifer, so relating to girls & having that sorority upbringing has always been instilled in me. When I was 17 I wanted an after school job, Intermix offered me a starting position as a sales assistant. I was hooked. Intermix transferred me to their Georgetown location and promoted me as a Sales Associate as I was entering George Washington University & would be moving to D.C. I worked on the weekends as part time, selling to all my classmates, I grew to be one of the top sales associates in the Georgetown store. When I graduated from GWU, the owners of Intermix offered me a job at their flagship store on Madison Avenue in New York City. Of course I took it & I was one of the top sales performers in the company selling over $2 Million a year (this was 2012, so this number was crazy back then).
At the Madison avenue location, I had clients who would make appointments to see me in store. My days were packed, I could barely help walk ins. I also had a large consignment business within the store, I would send clients who didn’t live in New York packages and they would try on, without paying up front, send back what didn’t work & we would charge them for what they kept. I always made outfits for my clients, my main priority was trying to upsell, I didn’t realize I was styling them from head to toe.
After being away from Miami for 7/8 years, I decided to come back home, leaving all my east coast clients behind. I noticed they would still call me for help, but I had no way of helping them as I left Intermix after working for the company for 10 years. In Miami, I worked at a local magazine called Toys for Boys and here I entered a phase of editorial styling, where I would pull merchandise on consignment for photoshoots. And this is where, what I currently do, started to come into formation – I could pull merchandise from different places, but instead of using the clothes for photoshoots, I could borrow the clothes from different to brands to sell to my clients, we could try on in the comfort of their own home & they could purchase whatever they wanted to keep. Circling back the consignment process I practiced at Intermix & mixing the pulling process from editorial styling.
My first client was in 2016 and she is still my client today. I would run around Bal Harbour, Lincoln Road, Purdy Avenue leaving my credit card on file and pulling clothes from stores where I could or paying for clothes up front and refunding what didnt work. It’s important to remember that online retail, was not as prevalent at this time & mixing and matching high and low brands was not as accessible. It’s also important to remember that at this time, what I was doing didn’t make much sense, because in 2015 you could walk into a store and the person that was helping you had style & was knowledgable about the brands they were selling (where as now you walk into Saks fifth avenue and the last thing you want is styling advice from the sales people on the floor)
I remember asking a very close family friend, who loved to shop, if she would pay for a service like mine and her response was “Why would I pay you if I could just walk into a store and get the same service for free” and she wasn’t wrong. Regardless, I kept doing it as a side hustle while I still worked at Toys for Boys, because I genuinely loved it. Eventually I had good word of mouth, one store lending me led to another store lending led to another, etc. Now I work with Net a Porter, FWRD, MY Theresa, Revolve, every store in Bal Harbor, etc. I am quite confident that very few people in Miami have access to product like I do, especially on consignment. I can bring 200 units to someones home no problem, in all price ranges. I do 0 marketing, my instagram game is weak, my bussiness is only by word of mouth.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has and it hasn’t. I genuinely LOVE what I do, so the bumps on the road have been more growth than struggle.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a personal shopper. I would say on average, I shop for about 2- 5 people a week. Obviously, these numbers go up and down on slow and busy seasons. I pull clothes from a rolodex of retailers that I work with and I bring the clothes to my clients home. Shopping is very personal & it’s very psychological, so no 1 client is the same. Some clients like me to stay with them and try everything on, others I don’t even see. I think the idea of being able to walk into your bedroom and shop from a rack that is curated just for you from different brands that you could not reach locally, is fantastic. Besides being able to touch and feel the items, I have knowledge about the brands, I am great at trend forecasting, I know what brands are going to stick, I know what is good quality, I know where you should spend the $$ and where you should save it. There is so much out there it is overwhelming, I am like a funnel that guides them in how to spend their money on clothes.
I also create lookbooks for my clients, I pride myself on showing my clients how to wear their clothing more than once. If they buy a jacket, I show them how to wear the jacket in multiple ways. The idea is to love the clothes you have, its about quality not quantity. Having style is knowing how to mix and match things over and over, not just wearing the units as the set you bought them as.
When I was young my favorite movie was Clueless and the opening scene of her logging onto her desktop and scrolling through her outfits to help her decide what to wear always stuck with me. The lookbooks I create are that, I leave my clients with at least 25 looks that should last them 3 months, depending on their social lives. But these lookbooks allows them to get up and lookthrough looks to help them decide what they are in the mood to wear.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Beside my husband, kids & family….The face my client makes when they look in the mirror and love what they see. I always say, I’m selling a feeling, not a product.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @paulaco_Style
