Meet Stephanie Davies: Wardrobe stylist and owner of Polished

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Davies and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was an actress in LA for years (1998-2014) I did TV, movies and commercials… I got divorced at 35 years (2014) old and moved back to Denver to go through my divorce with my family. I had NO CLUE what I was going to do with my life or how I was going to make money. I have no college degree and I was a 35 -year-old actress. I have always loved fashion and dressing up. I used to help dress my family and celebrity friends for the red carpet, but for free and just for fun. I had an old agent of mine in LA tell me that I should be a wardrobe stylist in Denver. I laughed and said “No one in Colorado cares about fashion… I will go broke!” Which was partly correct. The first year went like this…. I was super poor and had to save up to buy business cards. I traded a closet overhaul for my website to get built and then I just went about my life. Wearing cute outfits that got questions and attention but NOW with business cards and a website, I felt more comfortable saying I was “a stylist”. I worked as a personal asst during the week to pay my bills and I would style anyone who would let me FOR FREE on the weekends. I would do closet overhauls, shop for them, and make outfits. I wanted to see if I was any good at it and if I even liked it. Turns out I’m VERY good at it and it’s fun for me! Dressing people of all shapes and sizes is not easy (and very different then dressing yourself) and it requires lots of confidence, and an eye for proportion and color.. So as soon as a I had 5 Google reviews I started to look for my first paying client! It started slow but has grown to be much bigger than I ever would have thought. I currently have close to 100 clients, a resume of CEOs, athletes, Denver professionals, commercials, magazine articles about me and Polished has over 90 five-star Google reviews.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m different then any other stylist because I truly care that my client looks and feels amazing! I’m super detailed and dress you based on your body type, your coloring, your aesthetic, and your lifestyle. I’m very successful because other options for a personal stylist (i.e. Stitch Fix, Trunk Club or a Department Store stylist) don’t even get close to what I do. I AM the best friend that you never knew you needed, to tell you the truth and knows what will look best on you, and who ONLY cares about you looking incredible, not what you are spending, I got where I am today by working hard and truly caring about my company. I come early and stay late. I work weekends when needed and travel anywhere I need to. I go above and beyond for my clients to make sure they had a great experience. The job itself is easy for me because it comes naturally to me. But I’m a creative… not a business owner. So doing all the administrative work that comes along with this is not easy for me. The biggest struggle I have is finding the next client. I try not to stress about it, knowing that when you own a company like mine, that the work comes in waves. Sometimes I’m very busy and sometimes I’m super slow. I’ve learned to enjoy the downtime. However Covid-19 has nearly killed my business. My company is a luxury and I’m definitely the first to cut when people are concerned about money. I still have not solved this problem yet… I’ve learned that he majority of people are good and honest, but not everyone, and it’s smart to have contracts to protect yourself and getting paid. I want people to know that I started from ZERO. I had an idea and worked hard at it. Did trades for my services because I had no money and was scrappy as hell. I just stayed creative on how I was going to make it work. I’m sure there’s luck in there but I’m truly self-made. I figured everything out on my own and made tweaks along to way. All my success is because I’m not satisfied until I know I did everything I could, so the client felt that their money well spent!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, it depends on the season… If winter I would say they need to ski and or snow board. I would recommend: Aspen- Cloud 9- for the best party on a mountain. Matsuhisa- for celebrity sighting and great Sushi Erik’s Room- for dancing Any or the four mountains for skiing If visiting in summer I would recommend: Denver- Golfing- Beardance Golf course or Arrowhead Golf Course Rino District- Barcelona Restaurant and many other great restaurants over there Boulder- Hiking in Boulder Vail – Hiking in Vail Telluride- Hiking rock climbing etc, Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Me, Me and Me. LOL I didn’t have help in the process of building, but I will give a BIG thank you to Annie Mayo, the agent who convinced me to try it!!

Website: Polishedbystephie.com
Instagram: @polishedbystephie
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephie-davies-989289104/
Other: Google Reviews https://www.google.com/search?q=Polished+by+Stephie&oq=Polished+by+Stephie+&aqs=chrome..69i57.6271j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x876c78c512eb2edd:0xf29889c88f877efb,1,,,

Image Credits
Image with clothes- Just a friend Other images- Kendrick M Howard – Blue Talon Photography