Mel Johnson

Founder & Personal Stylist, Style-bird

For more than a decade, I’ve been helping women and men get dressed and somewhere along the way, my understanding of style has changed just as much as I have.

Now in my 40s and raising two teenage daughters, I know firsthand that the way we dress doesn’t stay still. Bodies change. Priorities shift. Careers evolve. Life changes. And sometimes our wardrobes simply haven’t caught up with the women we’ve become.

I’ve always loved clothes, colour and the creativity of getting dressed, but these days I’m far less interested in fashion for fashion’s sake. I’m interested in people.

After ten years of working closely with women, I know there’s no formula for personal style. The best wardrobes come from listening, instinct, experience and understanding the woman and men standing in front of me not following a set of rules about what she should wear.

Being over 40 has changed the way I get dressed too. My focus is different. The way I move through the world is different. I know myself better, I’m more considered about what earns a place in my wardrobe, and I’m much more interested in dressing for the woman I am now than trying to recreate a version of myself from ten years ago.

I’m equal parts creative and organised. I’ll research, pre-shop, plan, source and problem-solve, finding pieces you may never have chosen for yourself always with the aim of finding the hard yeses. Not clothes that are simply fine. Not things you’ll maybe wear one day. Pieces that feel like you, work for your real life and genuinely earn their place in your wardrobe.

I’m also a self-confessed style chameleon with a love of colour and the unexpected. I’ll gently push you when I see something you might not see in yourself yet, but I’ll never try to turn you into somebody you’re not.

My clients often have bigger things to think about than what they’re going to wear and that’s the part I love taking off their plate.

Whether I’m rebuilding a wardrobe, dressing someone for an important work trip, planning every day and night of an incredible holiday, or helping a woman and men dress for whatever is coming next, my aim is always the same:

To make getting dressed feel easier and to make you feel more like yourself when you do.

Mel x