Emily discovered her affection for apparel at an early age as she watched her grandmother sew custom wedding gowns for her aunts and cousins. Working closely beside her, Emily was soon redesigning patterns and creating her own clothes in her grandmother's sewing room. With one ivory knit skirt suit and only nine years under her pint-sized belt, Emily was hooked. As a teenager, her strategic wardrobe building skills began to emerge. By using only a condensed version of her core closet staples, Emily created unique looks in order to reach her goal of wearing a different outfit every day of her sophomore year in high school. Emily's creativity balanced with her methodical approach to fashion is at the root of her success in the industry.
In 2004, while pursuing her degree at The University of Wisconsin, Emily continued on the apparel path at shopbop, the Madison-based apparel e-commerce pioneer. At shopbop, Emily was responsible for communicating the fit intent of all pants and denim sold in the company. In this role, she personally fit-tested every pant and jean, and as a result developed a keen eye for construction and proportion. Within the most technical category in apparel, this hands-on experience enabled her to clearly articulate the specifics of each style's fit, as well as identify which styles would fit and flatter a variety of body shapes.
After earning a BA in History and eager to hit the ground running, Emily moved to Chicago and signed on at the internationally recognized Chicago-based boutique Jake to facilitate the launch of the company's e-commerce site. She spent the next four years as director of operations for shopjake.com. Working with shopjake.com customers from the U.S. and abroad offered Emily valuable insight to a varied range of personal style goals and individual needs. Her analysis of sales trends combined with this consumer insight filtered in to her work with designers to deliver commercially viable product to shopjake. Under her management, with her keen focus on delivering high-demand merchandise with high-quality, personalized customer service, the business grossed more than $1 million in annual sales in less than two years of its launch.
Drawing on her customer service and business development background as well as her industrious nature, in 2008 Emily went on to launch her own concierge and personal assistance business. A year into life as an entrepreneur, she found herself focusing on the demand of her clients' personal shopping needs. Encouraged by the positive personal responses and success of these developments, she decided to transfer her personal assistance clients to a respected partner. In 2009 she revisited her passion for apparel and fashion by consulting for luxury apparel and home boutiques.
In her role as a retail consultant, Emily studied the habits of her clients' consumers, and used her findings as the foundation for the strategies that resulted in quadrupling one client's e-commerce revenue within a few months. Emily's 'behind-the-scenes' knowledge of the fashion and retail industries became the backbone of teaching her retail clients the 'science of shopping' in order to drive revenue growth. Consulting retailers to look at the nuances of their customers' purchase patterns along with identifying emerging trends, instead of solely focusing the bottom line, further urged her to return to one-on-one client interaction. Emily realized that it was time to incorporate the hands-on creativity she developed in her grandmother's sewing room.
Emily joined juliewatsonstyle in the spring of 2011 to lead the redesign of the company's blog, style.simplified, as well as the launch of the Outfit Look Book service. With her 'less is more' determination to turn limited closets into versatile wardrobes, her innate sense of style and ethic of practicality in fashion, it was only fitting that Emily join the juliewatsonstyle team to lead these initiatives. In addition to her work as a wardrobe consultant and personal shopper and as the head Outfit Look Book stylist, Emily also runs all social media efforts for the business. While her shopping willpower is tested on a daily basis as she scours the style blogosphere and social media realm, she wholeheartedly stands behind juliewatsonstyle's philosophy of strategic wardrobe building. Emily would take apparel therapy over retail therapy any day - there is little satisfaction like that of discovering a whole new look in your wardrobe without spending a dime. You say you have a closet full of clothes, but nothing to wear? Let her prove otherwise and help take the stress out of getting dressed!
When she's not helping individual clients, Emily is training for marathons and half-marathons in support of PAWS Chicago, or traveling between Chicago and L.A. Always on the go, this self-acclaimed expert packer never checks a bag, having developed what she calls her 'outfit itinerary'. You can call her Type-A, but her travel bag practically paid for itself with all the baggage fees she saved in just one year {not to mention the time saved not having to wait for checked bags or lost luggage}.
If you'd like to bring Emily Lytle's insight and expertise to your clothing concerns, email emily@juliewatsonstyle.com
