The Resonate Podcast with Aideen

Dress To Impress: The Hidden Language of Style With Nina Fountain

• Aideen Ni Riada • Season 1 • Episode 70

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Unleash your personal style with insights from executive stylist Nina Fountain in this vibrant episode. 

With an unexpected career transition from management consultant to styling expert, Nina delves into how mastering your style can transform not only your outward appearance but also your self-image and presence in the professional sphere.

Nina emphasizes that personal style is a unique form of communication—one that speaks volumes about who we are and how we wish to be perceived. She explains how every individual can identify their distinct style through a thoughtful keyword process that unveils their authentic self. 

Tune in to discover how dressing with intention can elevate your confidence and help you radiate your true essence. Join us and dare to explore the fearless expression of your unique style! 

Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and let us know your style journey!

Connect with Nina:

Facebook: @sytelgorgeous

Website: www.stylegorgeous.com

LinkedIn: @nina-fountain

YouTube: @style.gorgeous

Book a session with Nina

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Thanks for listening! To book a free consultation with Aideen visit https://www.confidenceinsinging.com/contact/

Aideen Ni Riada:

Welcome to the Resonate podcast with Aideen. I'm Aideen Ni Riada, and my guest today is coming to us from New Zealand. Her name is Nina Fountain and she is an executive stylist. Welcome, Nina, thank you. It's great to be here. Well, I just have to tell people a little bit about you before we get into talking, because it was back in 2016. Nina was working as a management consultant when, out of the blue, she was asked to give a workshop on style. Now she works as an executive stylist and she helps her clients enhance their presence and be respected on stage, on screen and in the boardroom by helping them to look their best. So this is an amazing journey. So somehow you got asked to do this workshop and it completely changes the trajectory of your career. How much of a surprise was this to you?

Nina Fountain:

It was a total surprise. It was not expected at all. I really wasn't thinking about style in that way. I knew I had had my own style journey and it wasn't until I was asked to give this workshop that I realized how much I had been thinking about it. And when I thought back I realized when I was traveling in London, when I was around Europe, in the streets of Italy, paris, I was always looking at outfits and thinking what makes that work? But it wasn't until I was asked to give this workshop that I realized just how much I had had worked it out for myself and in my own, I guess in my own thinking.

Nina Fountain:

You know, when you think about what entertains you, what are you doing outside of work, what? Where are you, where are your thoughts? Drifting to. Fashion was often there for me and I still will fall asleep at night and just see designs. I just so. I thought one day I would bring those designs to life. Maybe I would do something in fashion, maybe I would, you know, have a line I'd be successful in business, be able to afford. You know, have a line I'd be successful in business, be able to afford to do a line of clothing that would be in my future at some point, but I hadn't seen this possibility of being a stylist at all, so it was a complete surprise.

Aideen Ni Riada:

When you were working as a management consultant, did you feel unsatisfied in your job in some way? Was there something missing?

Nina Fountain:

There was something missing. I was actually self-employed, so it was my own business, and I still have that business on the side. Now the styling is more prominent in my own time, in what I'm doing, but I do both and there was something missing. I loved the complexity. I loved the strategy, the engagement with a workplace you know a lot of people and a lot of moving parts, but I was finding actually that it was too long and too slow to the point where you actually got that contract and you got to do the work and I really liked the idea of something quick, fun solves a problem, it's creative, it's visual and you know, for myself and my clients, we've just got a smile on our face the whole time. It's just pure joy. Just love the idea of that.

Nina Fountain:

It was I was ready for for something different. And I thought just loved the idea of that. It was I was ready for for something different and I thought I'm in business. Why can't I have two businesses, seeing as they both sound great? They both sound great in different ways. They're kind of you know different things that they're doing in my life, but why couldn't I do both? And so I did. Yeah, just try.

Aideen Ni Riada:

well, it worked and it's working and that's fantastic. But when you were asked to do the workshop, obviously someone saw that in you, that you knew something about style. Yes, was it someone who knew you really well? Or, like, were you surprised that you got asked to do?

Nina Fountain:

it. I was. I was totally surprised and I think that the time I said why me? And they said because you're the most stylish person we know. And it was actually, um, the. So two people close to me, my sister and her friend, and they had a group that they were running. They'd been running this group for a long time. Um, but they, but the two of them together, thought Nina's the most person, most stylish person we knew, we know is was was a surprise.

Nina Fountain:

Um, that's what got me thinking this hasn't just been about me. This, you know, this styling journey has been very personal to me, but, um, often it's a, it's a subtle visual language that we don't talk about that much. But then when something like that happens, I realise, you know my style has been, someone's noticed my style and I actually knew that it had been noticed because it had helped me to get a job, it had helped me to be successful in my career prior to being in business. So I knew that I had. I was conscious myself of that, of my own journey, but it wasn't something I had talked about with many other people. So it was, it was fun to have that, yeah, to have that pleasant surprise of being asked to do it.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, it's interesting that I know you're calling it a subtle visual language, which.

Nina Fountain:

I really love.

Aideen Ni Riada:

And what was the like? Your, the people around you, were seeing that and they? That was communicating something to them, perhaps inspiring them to be more stylish and certainly, as you said, for people hiring you, maybe adding to your credibility as a management consultant too yes, yes, definitely, definitely it does all of that.

Nina Fountain:

It's so interesting how images, the power of images, is almost instant, the way it communicates to us, and it communicates an emotional connection, an emotional experience that bypasses a lot of that logic and reason that we, that we immediately apply to situations when we're looking to understand them. So that's that's why our style and our image, you know, that first impression that we always talk about, is so powerful in that it's, it's almost communicating straight to the heart without engaging the brain that much.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Well, I'm fascinated by all of this, and I might have mentioned to you before that I did work as an image consultant for a number of years.

Nina Fountain:

I love that connection and then how you've gone from that into voice and into all of the things around voice with confidence, and presence. It's just such a cool journey.

Aideen Ni Riada:

It is a cool journey and it's amazing when you trust yourself to follow what you're curious about, follow what you said, like that you're. Where do your thoughts go? What is it you're thinking about? I think maybe people who are listening might have a completely different you know set of thoughts about something completely different from style, but maybe they'd be interested to know that when you identify what it is you love, what you identify what is important to you, that you can have something grow from that if you nurture it a little yeah, you're right, it's.

Nina Fountain:

It's interesting how we're, in some ways, um and I think this is part of your message is is listening, is when you take that time to listen to, to sit and to pause with with yourself and think what is it that floats my boat, what is it that is exciting to me? Or, um, what am I tuning into that's coming my way. That can be just so, so empowering, because it's unique to you, it's your own story and I think that's the difference. Is that, yeah, for me, styling had been a personal journey and then it became, oh, here's something I've actually got that I can, that I can make a difference for other people with.

Nina Fountain:

And I have no idea, but it took someone to to raise that for me to see. There's so much more potential in that, in that thing, that I was interested in.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, because we go on this journey, we kind of have some awareness of what it is we like, but it can often take someone else to spot it or encourage it. So I'm sure with your clients, you have a process of helping them to identify what's important to you. What is it you like, what is it you don't like? Tell us a little bit about how you work with people in that way, and what kind of crazy discoveries have you had with clients that have helped them to find their own style?

Nina Fountain:

Yeah, oh, I love that. So you remind me. A client just recently said to me I was so blown away when you showed me a bunch of pictures and then you came up with three words that describe my style and I feel so fantastic in that style. She was just flabbergasted that that experience could happen for her and that was the keywords process. So that's where I take people through understanding, we get to a point where we understand the main direction of her unique style and we describe that in three keywords and that will be unique to each woman. So I don't think I've had a single crossover of clients where they've had the same three words, because it's the combination of the words, it's the word order, it's the unique way that she says it that's important to her. So, yeah, there's been some really cool, I guess, insights.

Nina Fountain:

Often my clients will get to the end of that coaching session. It's kind of a coaching type conversation where really I'm getting into her head a little bit by just asking her the right questions and looking at images together. You know, when we're looking at images, I'm asking questions and then I'm really listening for the way she describes things and for what's important to her and I come back to her. Together we work out these three, these three words, um, and yeah, I found that that people are often really surprised at how powerful that feels and how affirming that feels to understand themselves better and to think. That is so me, and it's like it separates us and it frees us, in a way, from all of this business of fashion that we see around us. You know we see a lot of magazine images that we see around us. You know we see a lot of magazine images. We see famous people looking incredible and and people think, oh, that's not me, what is me? I'm not like that, that's not my life, but what is me. So then, when you can actually come back and think and see and be reflected, have someone reflect back to you this is what I hear you saying and this is what you're saying. Your taste is and your particular style, and it feels so connected to who they are. That is what surprised me is how affirming that is and just how powerful that can be for people to really step into themselves in a deeper way and own. You know that's what feels great.

Nina Fountain:

So, for example, those words might be, um, like relaxed, informal, chic. You know that might be one collection. Mine are pretty street, smart and European, and I fought the pretty for a long time but I realized that really I'm not satisfied with an outfit unless it has an element of pretty. So you know, then, and then I kind of reviewed mine after five years and and the original E was elegant, but then I changed it to European because I realized it's actually a bit more of a, a kind of Scandinavian twist that I'd love to bring in as well. So, yeah, that and that's just. That's just one of the things we do. Another one is the style persona system, which is my world first connection between people's personality and their style, and so they get to to come up with a core foundation, if you like, of which of the 12 style personas they are, or which type of style is going to align best with them out of those 12.

Aideen Ni Riada:

That's fascinating.

Nina Fountain:

As the keywords, but it's a really again, quite powerful for someone who hasn't had words to describe their style and when you think you're turning up in it every day, you're you're turning up in your most powerful moments in this look and if you feel really connected to it, you know it's really you, that's incredibly empowering. And if you don't have that, it's it's kind of disempowering to not really know what your style is.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, so there's a lot to be said for just becoming aware that what you like is okay. Because this is what you're saying is. You know, we're looking at outside of ourselves, we're looking at the celebrities, we're looking at what's in fashion and we're feeling like, well, I can't do that, that's not me. And you're telling them let's find out what is you, and we mold your look around, what you love, how you want to feel and you know what is true for you. Enough, really, because most, most of the time, someone will go oh yeah, you like that. Well, what about this? You know, other people try to impose their style on someone else because that's what they prefer. What you're doing is you're giving people a real chance to define it for themselves yes, you're so right, it's.

Nina Fountain:

It's happened a number of times that I've taken people group shopping and you'll see that the friend doesn't fully acknowledge what someone likes and then they bring in their own idea and it's actually what they like. It's funny how people don't separate that very easily. Don't realize, I'm just putting this on this person because that's what I like. Yeah, you're right, it's exactly exactly that. How, how powerful it is to just have a space created where you can think about what's true to you, what's, what do I like? What's my, what's my taste? And it's. There's a. There's a really interesting connection here.

Nina Fountain:

I had a meeting recently with someone who's a body image coach, and I think the way you phrase that is so powerful and there's a link with what she was saying in that people's concept of their body image can be quite negative when they're paying attention to the voices around them, and so a lot of what she's doing is she's helping people to tune into their own value, their own worth, and to choose not to listen to the voices of society that have caused them to see themselves negatively. So I think this is the powerful switch is to tune into your own value, your own worth, your own message that each of us is unique and is kind of running our own life running our own race, if you like where you know where we can. There's only one of us and I can only do me best, and so and that's how I'm going to live best is when I'm doing me best. That's going to be the best life, not by trying to be someone else so I just love the way you said that.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, but there is a bit of a push pull because it's like we want to belong and we want to feel safe in our surroundings and there is a sense of safety when we are in alignment with what other people want, and it takes a certain sense of self to be different. I mean, it takes a little bit of courage, right.

Nina Fountain:

Yeah, yeah, it does. Yeah, that's true, it does. And and then it's so rewarding. It's so rewarded when you take that step and I think what people can potentially find scary, for example, about connecting with their style or even their voice or their, you know, their, their own way of doing things in in the world around, feeling like that might be different it actually ends up that you can be more in service to other people. You can actually be more of a light. You can be more of a light. You can be more of a, you know, a beacon of hope, and you can't be that when you're, when you're constrained by fears that you're going to be not fitting in or fears that you're not going to find your place. Yeah, I, I really I wrote a post about this last week. Um had a as, just after this body image conversation, I was thinking, gosh, we're so, uh, we can be so, um, influenced by the voices around us. And and when have I made that choice to? To move from fear to to something else?

Nina Fountain:

And an instance came back to mind when I was working in the public service and I was trying to fit in. But I was in these meetings. I was new, it was a new career for me, my early I was my late twenties, sorry. And I was in these meetings and thinking there's things being missed, people aren't saying things. I wish my boss had said something, but it's not my place and I felt unsafe to say anything. But then boredom got the better of me and I just got annoyed at all these meetings where things weren't being said and we weren't getting the best outcomes because there were obvious gaps happening and I thought, well, I've been sitting here thinking how can I fit in? But I think it's going to be better for me and better for everyone else if I sit here and think how can I?

Nina Fountain:

help best, and so then that's what I did In each of these meetings. I would sit there and think, how can I help? And I found myself jumping in and saying the things that I felt were being missed previously and that resulted in better outcomes for everyone, and and it was positive it ended up being seen quite positively. I got recognition, promotion. I wasn't expecting that, I was just kind of expecting to create a better outcome and make it better for everyone, and it took courage to do that, you know, to step out of feeling like all the safe places just to fit in. But in the end it reinforced and rewarded me for taking that courage, and I realised that's sometimes the hard thing to do is to think how can, how can I actually be here in service of other people, you know, and and often that's actually fully showing up, you know because there's only one, you and you're. You're the person that people need in that situation to to really be yourself sure and when you're working oh pardon, um, I just wanted to ask you a question.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yes, sorry I, I was just curious, right, because I know that when you're working people around style you're also. You're working with people who are professionals who want to enhance their presence. They want to be respected. Yes, what do you think their mistake is? Like? Like, what are they coming from that they're doing like that? You think they that they shouldn't be doing? Like, is there a big mistake that you see people making with their style before they take the chance and come to you?

Nina Fountain:

I think most of the time they're, um, I wouldn't call it a mistake, as, in, what has held them back has been this very topic that we're talking about that they have wanted. They have not probably valued their own, um, integrity, their own difference from other people enough to want to be visible, and so now, but now they're, you know, for whatever reason, life has got them into that situation where they now are going to be visible. They know that that how they communicate visually is going to be a key part of their communication and it's now important. It's a bit, you know, there's a business reason to get this solved. And so they, yeah, what they find through the process is actually more fun, it's more affirming, it's much more empowering and liberating than they thought it would be. They think they're going to turn up and have an extreme makeover experience where someone's going to tell them you shouldn't be doing this, you shouldn't be doing that, and what's that doing in your wardrobe? And let's throw that out across the room. But, uh, but it's so the opposite of that. It's so much more, um, yeah, empowering and affirming than they, than they ever expected. So I think we just we, it's just kind of an evolution that happens.

Nina Fountain:

I wouldn't say it's that it's right for everyone, but I think for women who are really looking to make an impact, they're they're transforming themselves and they they're bringing transformation for other people. In some kind of a way, they realize that that this is just. This is just key. This is just key to their success. It's key to their ability to make an impact. It's key to how people understand them and and how they see themselves. And what's interesting is that women who have taken that journey, who are successful, will often say to me, almost almost confiding, almost as a confession this is so much more important than people realize, like style is so much more important than people realize and I've heard it just time and time again from from women who are already successful, already have big businesses, already are in the C-suite, that that more people should know. You know is kind of what they're saying is like yeah, why don't? Why don't more people know this?

Aideen Ni Riada:

it's just really important yeah, I think it's really interesting as well that sometimes when you see an expert in a certain area and they see you and they encourage you, it's almost like you're giving them permission to step out in another way and be seen in another way, and it's almost like you're their best pal. That gives them confidence. You know, I've just had my new website done and I'm really excited about it. But the web designer herself was so important because she understood where I was coming from. She understood the kind of work I wanted to be doing in my ideal client and she made it look twice as good as I could have imagined because she was basically giving me, she was giving me the thumbs up.

Aideen Ni Riada:

It was like the ready, steady and now the go and her go made me feel confident, and so I think that there is an element of you know we need our sisters in spirit and you know we need encouragers, we need cheerleaders and we need expert help sometimes, and we need the help from people that we like. We need it from people that we can admire. That will give us that little push and so that we can step forward, and the world really needs that right now. There's so many other things going on. There's so much fear and you know so many difficult situations around the world that are each of our individual light is how you said. You said it's like that. You have to show, share your light and looking, you know and stepping into your power and being seen for who you truly are, rather than hiding, is a way of sharing your light and inspiring others to do the same absolutely and it's.

Nina Fountain:

It's amazing how, uh how, that makes a difference. You know it can be on a really, really low level, it could be the people around you, three or four people but when you see that you can make a difference to them, it's meaningful to them and you're the only person that could do that for them in that moment. So, yeah, I just love that. Aideen, you have inspired me with what I'm doing to inspire people. Thank you for the conversation.

Aideen Ni Riada:

It is about being seen. You know, and not everybody who you know, who I know, sees what we do fully Right, and it's lovely to be talking to someone like you that kind of can understand what I'm doing and I understand what you're doing. So it's really important to have relationships and friends that get to get that.

Nina Fountain:

Totally, totally. Yeah, I just I think what you're doing is wonderful. Exactly what you said ditto snap, snap, copy and paste. If I could have said what you just said, I would have said it well, that's really fun.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Um, tell me a little bit about you know working with people internationally, because obviously I have people who are going to be listening in that are in the UK, ireland or in the US and you're based in Australia. How can you help someone with their style if you live very far away?

Nina Fountain:

do you know it's actually a better experience for people online in number of different ways. We can look when, if we're in the shops together, it's very difficult to see the full range of styles and images. But we can do a lot more style development together through the power of the internet and the screen, and it's a visual experience. Right, styling is visual. So there's a lot we can do that I wouldn't have access to otherwise. Physically I need body shape measurements, but there are apps that do that and otherwise I can. You know I show people how to do that. There's three key measurements. It's quite easy to do that over Zoom or a preferred platform.

Nina Fountain:

And then the beauty of internet and online shopping means that I can pull looks together and recommended pieces and people get them to their home essentially so. So some people find that a lot easier. It's just kind of click, click, purchase, purchase. There'll be some returns for sure, um, so we kind of have to factor that in overall but um. But I aim to be much more successful with my hit rate, if you like, for those pieces by doing the clarification of the style essentials and the style direction at the beginning. So some stylists I know will, will buy. You know they'll online shop 50 pieces and expect to get four that they land out of that, and I think I'm not satisfied with that hit rate. I'm aiming for something a lot higher. So, yeah, it ends up being a more fulfilling experience for people, because we've clarified that style direction at the beginning and the idea is really that you you end up with looks that you love, which which is that's. That's what we're going for. That's entirely possible.

Aideen Ni Riada:

People can get how do people feel when they find that? Look that they love.

Nina Fountain:

Occasionally I get people um with tears in their eyes just saying thank you for making style fun again. Thank you for making this, this happen for me and you probably know that experience from being an image consultant as well it's just, it's such a such a joyful transformation. Yeah, it's, it's just pure delight. Like you could, I would just do this so just for fun, you know.

Nina Fountain:

I really would you just? I kind of feel like I stumbled on some amazing career that I had no idea existed. I knew it existed but I had no idea it was for me, and just to be able to bring that smile to people's faces is so rewarding.

Aideen Ni Riada:

I'm so happy for you. Is there anything before we finish up? Is there anything you'd like to say to a listener that's maybe someone who's listening in that may be wondering about? You know if that could be for them or if there's any point in changing their style Like, do you have any? Do you have any words of wisdom that you'd like to pass on to the listeners today?

Nina Fountain:

I think, of the women who I talk with, who are, who are considering styling. They know that it's possible. Um, and then having, I think, for themselves, got over a hurdle where they think, okay, this problem person's probably nice enough, that it's not going to be terrible. Um, what I would say is that most of my clients then come out of the experience thinking that was more fun, more affirming, more approachable, more empowering than I ever expected. And I think it may seem like it's shopping, but it's actually life transformation. It's the quickest way to up your image, you know, to change your self-image, the way you see yourself, and then to feel like a different person in those contexts that you are going into, to constantly be affirming for yourself who you are and and and what you bring. So it's yeah, it's one of the quickest ways to level up and to be that transformational person that you know you can be.

Aideen Ni Riada:

That's amazing, because I think that that's really if you can see yourself differently and allow yourself to imagine the person you're becoming as well. It's almost like we get very stuck in who we used to be, or I want to you know, set up my new business, or I want to get that.

Aideen Ni Riada:

You know career, you know job, you know change, or even if it's finding a new, you know partner in life, whatever it might be. Having this type of experience with you and understanding yourself and what you're trying to express and allowing yourself to move into it visually first is it's a I mean you're telling everyone I'm different when you look different, exactly, exactly.

Nina Fountain:

This is how I am, and we know that to be the case, because we respond to people differently based on how they're dressed. We respond to people differently based on how they're dressed and you know whether it's a person that you encounter in passing or a person that you know well, or you know, even when someone changes their haircut, you know that they've probably had some shift in their life that's precipitated that. So, yeah, we know that these things are powerful. We just haven't always used that power to our own advantage, and I think this is what we can do is kind of go wait, I've got, I've got a tool here that could really serve me. Well, let me, you know, let me tap into that kind of like tapping into your voice. It's like there's your power If you choose to use it. There's, there's something very powerful about this, about this, if you, if you, want to tap into it yes and be just change, allow for an evolution, perhaps transformation?

Aideen Ni Riada:

yeah, I love that oh no, I've really enjoyed speaking to you about the work you do, because I can really feel your passion for it, and one of the things I I just love the best is that you really are client led in terms of what you are suggesting for them. You're not working off a formula that this is typically what someone with this body shape would wear. It's like it comes from their, their values and their personality a lot more, and that actually really appeals to me, because that's something that wasn't a huge part of the system that I worked in, which was called Coloring Beautiful, and it's one of the reasons why I moved away from it, because I wanted to work with people at a deeper level than just the surface, and it sounds to me like that's what you do.

Nina Fountain:

Absolutely, absolutely. It's that the internal piece to me is is so much more meaningful, it's so much more interesting and so, and where you know each individual is an individual and then you've got your color and your body, shape considerations. But those are the easiest, you know, those are kind of like the. We can look at shapes and silhouettes, we absolutely look at perfect colors and which of the 12 seasons is right for someone. Those are also part of that alignment and part of that creating using the design principles, which is, you know, the piece that comes after the style persona.

Nina Fountain:

Using the design principles to create looks that are easy on the eye, that look coherent, they're congruent, they're that person in flow, like the second skin of a superhero. I like to think of it as it's like, you know, they just feel so at ease and so powerful in that, in that look. Um, I think it's vera wang who said a woman is never as sexy as when she's comfortable in her clothes and it's like that. You know, comfort looks different to different people, but that sense of ease where you just go, this is so me. So, yeah, so we can, we bring that, we bring the absolutely. The design piece is so key. But if you're not starting with who is she, her personality, her goals, her life, then she will never get to that really, that sense of alignment rather than pretension get to that, really that sense of alignment rather than pretension.

Aideen Ni Riada:

Yeah, it's really a fork, just the self being expressed rather than putting something on, exactly, exactly, so you get it yeah, we could keep talking, but we have to wind things up. Thank you so much, nina, for being my guest on the Resonate podcast today. We are so pleased that you've been listening to the show. Thank you, everyone who's listened. Please do get in touch. Nina. Would love to hear from you. I would love to hear from you. Tell us what your thoughts and you know, if you are ready to make some kind of a change in your life. If you need permission from someone, we will happily give you permission to do whatever it is you think and I think sometimes we, we worry because we think it's an all or nothing thing, but actually we can make changes slowly and we can test our ideas and so be brave everyone out there, because we would. We would applaud that, we'll cheer you on. Absolutely, love to hear about it. Yeah, thank you so much. Take care everyone. Bye.