The design challenge
Most people don't have access to a personal stylist — someone who can look at you properly and tell you what actually suits your shape and colouring, rather than what's currently on the rails. MyStylist was an independently funded startup trying to solve that problem through a guided ecommerce experience.
I was brought in on a freelance basis in 2020 to build the brand identity and design the website from scratch.
What made it hard
The design challenge had three distinct parts, and getting all three right at the same time was the difficult bit.
Turning expertise into a digital journey
Personal styling is normally a conversation. The challenge was translating expert knowledge about body shape, colour and clothing into a digital journey that felt intuitive rather than instructional. Users needed enough guidance to make informed decisions without feeling overwhelmed by the system behind it.
Balancing guidance and commerce
The platform needed to provide genuine value before asking users to buy anything. The experience was structured around personalised guidance first, with product recommendations appearing as a natural outcome of the advice rather than interrupting the journey with conventional ecommerce behaviour.
Creating a credible fashion experience
The visual design needed to feel credible within fashion while remaining inclusive and approachable. The challenge was creating a system that balanced editorial aspiration with practical usability, supported by photography that reflected the diversity of the intended audience.
The site needed to feel like a knowledgeable friend giving you honest advice — not a fashion brand talking at you.
What I did
I led the project from initial concept through to build-ready design, combining brand development with UX, information architecture and interface design. My role was to translate the business proposition into a coherent customer experience, then create the visual and design systems needed to bring it to life consistently.
Alongside the website experience, I developed the full brand identity, including the logo, typographic system, colour palette, tone of voice and brand guidelines.
- Mapped the end-to-end customer journey around the way people naturally seek styling advice, moving from self-understanding to personalised recommendations.
- Structured the information architecture around progressive disclosure, introducing body shape and colour theory gradually to minimise cognitive load.
- Designed the ecommerce journey so advice and education came before product recommendations, building trust before introducing commercial decisions.
- Created UI patterns and a design system that balanced editorial fashion content with practical ecommerce functionality.
- Designed outfit recommendations around complete looks rather than individual products, helping reduce choice overload and reinforce the logic behind each recommendation.
- Developed the visual identity and art direction to ensure the interface, content and photography worked as a single coherent experience.
- Art directed photography across 15 models, with casting deliberately chosen to reflect a broader range of body shapes, sizes and ages.
