Jim Avila's biggest moment as an image consultant was discovering
the essence of make-up brilliance: highlight the positive and uplift the negative.
"It creates youth, it creates an upward look," says Avila, who works in
the San Francisco area and was once named top Bay Area make-up artist by Town
and Country magazine.
Avila loves his work. He loves making women look their best. He's
lectured and trained for the Bank of America, Wells-Fargo, and even brought
the make-up application skills of Estee Lauder counter people out of the 1970s.
"It's about classic, basic, clean good looks," he says.
In a private half-hour session -- at a cost of $250 -- Avila transforms
his clients into the beauties they long to be. His view is that his clients
should look their best for the work they perform, and that means putting on
a role when they arrive at work, even if they shed it when they return home.
"I walk around full of satisfaction, but it's also my passion," says
Avila, who was inspired to work in the image field after watching his mother
dress impeccably -- despite being a Stockton rancher. "I'm a great make-up
artist and fabulous hairstylist, but what people say to me more often than
not is that I impart a sense of peace and tranquillity."
Avila is in the minority. Only five percent of image consultants are men,
even though corporate America has embraced the importance of image making.
"It may still be considered women's work to some degree, but when
I speak people listen," he says. "The field of fashion and beauty is still
young for men. It is a woman's place, but women listen more to men than
they do to other women."
Image consultant Karen Brunger recalls high school and college classmates
hounding her for beauty tips.
"All through high school and university, people would ask me what styles
would suit them, how to do their hair, their make-up. I thought, hey, I could
get paid for this," says Brunger, who now runs her own business.
She's a self-described ugly duckling who transformed herself into
a beautiful woman who projects self-confidence at every turn. And Brunger
says the image consultant business offers constant challenges and fascinations.
"When I was very young, about six or seven years old, I had this fantasy
that I could transform other people -- like myself," says Brunger. "I had
thick glasses, a bad self-image, bad body language. Almost like the nerds
-- that's where I was. But I had this fantasy of turning the ordinary
into the extraordinary and that's what I'm doing. I feel like a
fairy godmother sometimes."
Brunger says her biggest challenge is locating clients. The market hasn't
accepted image consultants as a necessary part of doing good business. A large
part of her time is taken up promoting herself, and through the Association
of Image Consultants International, coming up with guidelines to standardize
the profession and raise the level of awareness.
Brunger thrives on the unpredictability of the job. "There's no way
I'd want a 9-to-5 job [or to] become part of the corporate situation,"
she says. But she knows her way around the corporate scene -- enough to convince
a high-flying lawyer to hire her.
"He looked like any other lawyer, and he didn't want to look as if
he came out of a cookie cutter."
Brunger set about educating her client as to the differences.
The two ended up checking out expensive suits at one exclusive store. He tried
one on and it was perfect.
"We didn't see the suit -- we saw a powerful, dynamic, charismatic
man," she says. "He looked as if he could do anything he wanted and make any
amount of money he wanted."
The suit fit the man, and Brunger watched as this lawyer's self-confidence
soared. One week later the two spoke on the phone. The lawyer admitted he
couldn't bring himself to wear his former clothes -- the new look gave
him so much more confidence.
"If you wear clothes all the time that inspire you, then that self-image
becomes permanent," she says. "Eventually it doesn't matter what you
wear, that feeling will be part of you."