Meet Helen Venables, Managing Director of House of Colour, the UK’s premier personal stylists and colour analysis experts.
Helen began her working life with the John Lewis Partnership selling handbags but quickly moved into training and personnel before taking a break to start a family. After the birth of Helen’s third child she suffered from post-natal depression to the extent that she couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. A friend recommended she ‘got her colours done’ which turned out to be a transformational experience. She threw out the entire contents of her wardrobe, initially replacing them mostly with great finds in charity shops. Her self-confidence returned and she was so inspired she became a stylist herself and then quickly grew from a trainer to Franchisee Director to Managing Director of the business.
We caught up with Helen to find out more about the importance of colour and how colour analysis works.
Helen, why is wearing the right colours so important?
Colour is key to every part of our lives and we see every day how what you wear can affect how you feel. For example, the right colours make us feel positive and full of vitality whilst the wrong ones drain us and can alter our moods negatively. The more we embrace our true colours, the more we can influence how we feel and how others feel about us.
What effect can wearing the right colours have?
We are closely aligned with beauty, wellbeing and psychology sectors. Wearing colours that suit you invariably leads to compliments which lifts your confidence and mood. Wearing the right colours can enable us to be visible for all the right reasons and can increase our earning potential, can help relationships, career development, decrease anxiety and allows us to be who we want to be. Its an investment in your future.
Who is your target market?
Our services and products have recently expanded and we have realigned to reach our growing younger audiences whilst continuing to develop our core market of clients in their 40s-60s. We see more and more professionals and increasing numbers of men which is wonderful.
How do you attract new stylists?
House of Colour comprises nearly 100 expert consultants who offer colour analysis, personal styling and image consultancy across the UK. We have plans to double the number of stylist franchisees by the end of 2018. The stylists go through the most rigorous professional training in the industry and are attracted to us because we are the experts in this field in the UK. We have so much to offer including three main streams of analysis – colour, make up and style. In addition, we offer shopping trips, wardrobe reviews and we have over 250 products. House of Colour has been awarded the Gold Standard by Investors in People which means a great deal to us.
THE POWER OF COLOUR