Kat first of all we are delighted you will be joining us at Scoop for your new book signing “Get Changed” on July 18th at 11am.
So tell how did you get started? How did you become a fashion influencer?
Well – the introduction to the book gives you all the juicy details, but to give you just a bit of background, I had no intention of becoming a fashion influencer and even when I started Instagram, there was no such thing! You couldn’t monetize the platform at all. I merely used it as a PR tool for my Personal Styling Business that I had.
Do you have a fashion or interior background?
I started life in marketing and recruitment moving very quickly to Executive Search in the City (ironically specialising in Corporate Interiors) but twelve years ago, I had a change of career and started my own Personal Styling Business called Does my Bum Look 40 In This? Which also had a blog of the same name.
“Get Changed” - is your latest book about finding the new you through fashion – what inspired you to write the book?
It was really that realisation that so so many women out there, at any time in their life, do lose their way both personally and then in fashion. So many of us have loads of clothes but nothing to wear and we ALL deserve to look in the mirror and love the person who we see looking back at us. As a personal stylist, I know the difference that the process I offered can make to someone and to their life, but I wasn’t able to do it for every single person who messaged me, asking for help. It is a long – but cathartic process and impossible to address in a DM! So… I wrote it all down. Et voila! The book.
Do you feel there are women out women out there who are wondering whether they know who they are anymore?
There are more than you would possibly think. Lockdown has been particularly brutal in sending people into a spiral of uncertainty, whether it’s due to change in your homelife, work life or simply any personal circumstances, so many women don’t know who they want to see looking in the mirror and certainly don’t know how to dress to achieve that goal.
Is there a Kat Farmer signature look?
I do have a variety of “uniforms” but they are mostly very much in the 70s/London Cool Style Tribe (if you read the book, you’ll know..!) But I am definitely a lover of a maxi print dress, jacket and boots. That works for me on pretty much every occasion, although you also can’t beat, jeans and a good top combo.
Would you have a fashion or designer icon you admire?
Personally I love Kate Moss and have huge admiration for Helen Mirren. Not that I’d want to dress like them all the time but it’s the fact they wear what they love, they know what suits them and it’s always the style that they follow, not what society says that women of a certain age should wear (NOT all society can I point out, but there is a historical POV that is out of date, antiquated and can do one!).
Do you have any words of positivity to share with our Scoop readers?
You can be whoever you want to be. It’s not about size, budget or lifestyle. There are options that allow you to express your own personal style within all of those categories – it’s just learning some tricks of the trade with regards to getting there and re-owning that confidence you deserve to exude.
Get Changed allows women to control their own narrative and be the person they’ve always wanted to be. It’s not about dressing to make yourself look smaller, it’s about dressing to make yourself be the person that you’ve always wanted to be.
