The Role of Wardrobe in Personal Branding

By Staff Writer Atlanta Trend

• Aug 30, 2023

Eileen Nebhut, the Founder of Venus Rising, has made it her business to deliver personalized wardrobe consulting to the executive woman. 

“I help women elevate their professional brand,” says Eileen. “These are women who are successful in their careers but aren’t necessarily investing in maximizing their personal image. Venus Rising offers a customized way for women to get the help they need to deploy their brand as an instrument that can improve their advancement opportunities.”

While the 30+ year-old woman knows the importance of personal branding, she doesn’t necessarily have the resources or the strategy to identify and address her own brand development. “Brand development represents an investment in ourselves and our careers. And we (women) are more accustomed to investing in our children, our homes, our husbands.  It’s a mind-shift – to invest in ourselves.”   To complicate things, “...Most style trends in stores and online are directed towards the younger woman. I can’t tell you the number of clients I have who are frustrated because they want to be stylish and age-appropriate - and they don’t have a clue where to shop.  Part of what I do is to help these clients identify what they want their brand to be – and then source the clothes that align with that brand.”

Eileen has always had an eye for how to make women look their best. “I was 6 foot tall by the time I was in 8th grade, so I learned early on how to use the scale of clothes to mitigate the unusualness of my height. This skill, I learned, was transferable.  I started dressing my friends in high school and I was able to make them feel good – no matter what they felt was ‘unusual’ about their bodies. From high school, through university and throughout my professional life, friends would always come to me for advice on how to dress,” she says.  About a year after getting her MBA in 2020, Eileen decided to turn her skills into a business and founded Venus Rising.

With clients in both the metro Atlanta and Nashville areas, Venus Rising is geared toward helping women who have corporate advancement goals and who want a partner [Venus Rising] that can help them look & feel confident. 

“My clients frequently say that ‘my body has changed, my job has changed, styles have changed, I’m going to the office more, my age has changed... I don’t think the clothes I own are working for me anymore – and I’m just not sure how I want to look at work,” she says. Part of the problem is that the most frequently seen style cues existing on social media and elsewhere have little to do with the lives of corporate women over 30. Venus Rising is the partner that  women can work with to ensure that they are representing themselves in a way that is authentic to their brand, makes them feel confident and suits their lifestyle.

Venus Rising’s business model is based on trust. “It’s intimate work.” she says. “I’m in the client’s home, I’m asking questions, I’m trying to discover pain points as well as goals.  And I’m asking the client to trust me with this information.  It’s all about honest communication.  Women (I’m sure men as well) have body issues, ‘fear of success/failure’ issues, imposter-syndrome issues.  All of these things can prevent us from looking objectively at ourselves and from ‘adding value’ to our respective brands.”

The results that Eileen has achieved for her clients are gratifying. “When they tell me that I have helped them feel more confident, or that I played a role in helping them get their promotion, I know that I’ve done my job,” she says.

Eileen’s client engagements can extend to a couple of weeks – to several months – depending on the need and the goal.  A typical client engagement right now is about three months. During this time, Eileen will conduct an in-depth interview with the client (discovery), evaluate the client’s existing wardrobe, design a plan (strategy) to address the need(s) and then work with the client to make the necessary purchases to achieve the desired success (implementation).

While available to all women in the corporate world, Eileen is seeing a niche market develop:  executives who have been brought to the US by their companies. “A female executive from another country will often want help assimilating to the US market , while still being true to her own style & culture.” says Eileen. “Mostly, they want to make sure that they aren’t missing advancement opportunities due to not knowing how to pair their brand with the corporate culture in which they work.  Working with these women is really rewarding for me because I’ve lived outside the US and I know what it can mean to be able to ‘fit in’.”

Current clients of Venus Rising include international HR leads, technology CMOs, board chairwomen, CEOs, founders, lawyers, data scientists and entrepreneurs. Venus Rising is partner of Atlanta Trend and Dress for Success Atlanta. The company is featured in the September 2023 issue of Simply Buckhead magazine and also appeared in the May 24th Staff report of Metro Atlanta CEO.

Eileen envisions working jointly with other companies & partners to help spread Venue Rising throughout the southeastern US. Target partners include PR firms, executive search firms, law firms and a myriad of professional women’s associations.

“I’m very excited about Venus Rising’s future.” says Eileen. “It’s a great feeling to know that I am a part of my clients’ successes!”

For More Information see:

eileen@wearingwhatmatters.com
www.wearingwhatmatters.com
FaceBook @VenusRisingWardrobe
Instagram @venusrisingwardrobe