We were lucky to catch up with Jax Smailis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jax, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Ever since I can remember, my favorite thing to play was dress up. I used to have a huge trunk of fun clothes that when I put them on, I transformed into whoever I wanted to be. Keeping that interest in fashion, I kept the love for clothing and style with me not thinking I could make a career out of it.

I moved to Austin after graduating from college and began organizing closets which then quickly turned into helping others what to keep and get rid of in their closet. I did my own research on body types, color psychology and contrast theory. I took courses online with a personal stylist in Chicago.

I was able to learn so much over the course of a few years and booked my own clients through freelance service platforms. I knew this career was for me when I saw the face of a new client so happy with their new style.

Knowing what I know now, I would have loved to explore my passion further at a young age rather than the different trajectory I took to pursue my career. Throughout my life, I have learned a ton of new skills from other jobs and my own styling to succeed. There have been obstacles of difficult clients and learning how to navigate them, but they have allowed me to become the best version of myself and better understand how to work with clients moving forward!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As the youngest of five, I learned from a young age in order to be noticed you should be authentically yourself. I was compared to my siblings a lot in all aspects of life and found that fashion was a big way to differentiate myself. My baba was a seamstress, so I grew up knowing the trade of clothing and how it should drape on your body. You could say from my love of dressing up and being close to a sewing machine I was destined to do something in fashion.

Throughout the years, I was able to learn new skills that allowed me to gain better insights on how to make a better experience for clients. From personal shopping sessions, closet audits and event styling to transforming someone’s whole appearance is what I am able to help clients with.

Fashion trends come and go which can be very daunting and overwhelming for someone who wants to look stylish. Finding balance between being authentically yourself and the fashion cycles that are continually changing is an even harder thing to figure out. That’s where I come in to take the stress out of the equation.

Continually learning and growing is what I’m proud of because I want to always offer my clients the best possible service I can give them. I think personal styling shouldn’t always be someone depending on me and my expertise, it should be sharing the tools and knowledge I’ve learned for that person to walk away feeling capable of styling themselves. I feel the most proud when clients have graduated from working with me and I get texts and calls with photos of their outfits finally feeling like they found their authentic style.

I work with professional athletes, fortune 500 CEOS and up and coming entrepreneurs that are thriving in all aspects of their lives but need help combining an style with success. . When they come to me, they want to fully encapsulate how to marry both their personal and professional lives in one style.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A big lesson I had to unlearn was being able to take advice from others but always listen to yourself. I was always influenced by others thoughts and tried to make them happy over myself. It took a long time but I now listen to myself and try to put myself first. I was constantly risking my happiness or success over how others would feel about it.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’d say the most rewarding aspect of my job is to help others finally see what I see. When they put on something that changes the way they see themselves, and get that glow smile it changes everything. I love to bring out who that person is trying to say to the world on the outside. Outfits and style say so much more about a person when it really does express who they are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.getdressedbyjax.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dressedbyjax/