It is really hard for people to shop locally, especially if you're petite, if you have a long inseam, if you're over a size 12.

If you need natural fabrics, if you there's all of these roadblocks to figuring out what your style even is.

Let alone having the right fit on your clothes.

And that's really what I'm passionate about doing, is helping people solve all of those pain points and be able to leave the studio and walk into the world and just feel like they're seeing themselves for the first time.

Hi, my name is Rachel Vallozzi and I'm the founder and stylist at Vallozzi Styling.

I grew up, we were only allowed to shop at yard sales, thrift stores, and the local discount store games.

I saw that as an opportunity for creativity rather than something that was limiting.

The best part of the day was getting dressed in the morning and putting together my outfits.

So it was formed from a very young age, and I think that I learned to hunt and put together looks that felt like it was authentic to my point of view.

The difference between costume design and wardrobe styling is wardrobe styling is what my role is called in commercial world.

So advertising, print, on camera, video and you're looking at brand colors, you're looking at you know, the environment that we're putting people in and more than like backstories and all of this character development, it's just like what's in front of you.

So that is called wardrobe styling.

And we do the same work as far as sourcing the clothes, choosing the looks.

But there's an aspect, we also go to the meeting with the client, with the agency and develop looks that are a part of their brand or that the clients are going to weigh in on.

So it's a little bit more corporate as far as like that development is concerned.

And costume design is more what my role would be called in stage or in film, TV, film.

And so that is more like you're getting into character backstories, you're getting into what is the lifestyle like, do they repeat their clothes, or is there a level of distressing that we need to do?

Oftentimes there is still like a theme as far as an arc or a color story or, you know, something like that involved.

But it's also the very nitty gritty of like, who this character is and what is their story?

Where did they come from?

Where are they going?

One of my challenges personally, though, being in this particular work is it's very physical and there's a lot of movements that you do that, that seem insignificant, theyre these very like micro movements that wear down your shoulders.

When I turn like 36, I started to feel that and had to do a lot of forward thinking in if I want to still use these skill sets that I've developed and my passion and creativity to have a career, how do I solve that with the physicality of the job?

And that was one of the reasons for building out my studio space, was I could control a little bit more of that physical labor that that goes into the job.

Vallozzi styling still does costume design.

My wife, Danita, has been taking over the wardrobe styling, so commercial design aspect of the business.

As I get deeper into building out my relationships with my private clients.

So the way that I work with clients is before we even start, I want to know what somebody already knows about themselves.

So do you know how you like your clothes to fit?

Do you like them more like close to your body?

Do you like a more baggy look?

Do you like a tailored or polished?

Like whatever those words come up for you when we're discussing it.

And then function is really important.

So what what's your day to day look like?

What is your lifestyle?

I don't want to put clothes on somebody that has like nothing to do with the kind of how they move in their life.

There's all these like little nuggets of information that people already know that I like to sort of pull out and, you know, and sometimes people don't have any idea and they're like, I just want you to do it.

And so then we go through more of that, like exploratory process together after asking all those specific questions, getting really into the nitty gritty of what their lives and personalities are like, then I put options in front of them that I'm finding as I'm doing my research, so that it's just a very quick way in like yes, yes, yes or no, you're onto the right maybe palette.

But, you know, I don't like the cut of this dress.

You know, whatever it is.

Just so I know that we're on the same page together and then everything comes into the studio.

I set it up as if it's your own private mini boutique that was designed for you.

The clients come in for the fitting day, and we bring our tailor in at the end of the fitting to pin up any alterations that need.

You know, sometimes it's as simple as a hem, and sometimes it's like we're really changing a garment because we're we're using it as a base and then transforming it into something that is either going to be the best fit for the client or it fits into that, like stylistic personality thing we're going for.

And then we take care of all of the returns, which I know is like, nobody wants to go through that purchasing and returning process.

Whenever you give that to yourself as a gift, like put that attention into how you're presenting the world sees it.