Abby Young, Founder of Abby Young Styling
Abby Young is a Style & Image Strategist and founder of Abby Young Styling (AYS), advising public-facing leaders on how personal style shapes credibility, authority, and influence. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she also serves as Fashion Stylist Director of Troora Magazine. Her work blends image psychology, cultural literacy, and strategic wardrobe planning to support intentional visibility. You can find her on Instagram @abbyyoungstyling or on her website abbyyoungstyling.com
It’s important for your website, brand photos, and wardrobe to be cohesive. Your website, brand photos, and wardrobe should tell the same story because each one contributes to how people understand your business and the person behind it.
As an entrepreneur, you are the face of your brand and often the most visible. When your audience sees your branding, they should know it’s associated with you because each part of your branding from your website, to your photos, and your wardrobe all feels connected.
Is each part of your branding communicating the same message?
In this blog, we’re partnering with Maddie Wiggins, Brand & Web Designer at madelinewiggins.co, to explore how a business owner’s brand identity evolves over time, and why your personal style should evolve with it. We’ll break down how to create a cohesive brand through both your business and your wardrobe.
Your Brand Starts Before the Visuals
Understanding what you want your brand to communicate is the starting point to determining the best visuals for your brand. Each font, logo, and color palettes communicate different things.
Maddie begins by understanding the full story behind a business: how it started, why it exists, who it serves, its core values, and where the founder wants to take it.
She also encourages business owners to think about their ideal client as a real person. What do they do? Where do they live? What brands do they wear? What matters to them?
As Maddie explains, the visuals come much more naturally once there is a strong strategy in place around how you want your brand to be perceived.
Personal style works similarly.
Before thinking about what you should wear for a brand photoshoot, speaking engagement, or client meeting, Abby Young Styling helps you first understand what you want your presence to communicate to your audience.
Every Part of Your Brand Tells a Story
Your logo may create the first impression, your typography sets a tone, your colors create emotion, your website shapes the experience, your brand photography gives the business a face, and your wardrobe communicates who the founder is behind it all.
These elements do not need to look identical, but they should feel connected.
Maddie describes the strongest brands as those where every touchpoint feels like it is coming from the same person. When the visuals, messaging, and experience communicate different things, the brand can begin to feel pieced together rather than intentional.
The same is true when it comes to your style, wardrobe needs to feel connected to each touchpoint as well; afterall, your wardrobe is a part of your first impression whether it’s the headshot people see on your website or when they witness you speaking on stage.
How to Align Your Wardrobe with your Branding
When we work with a new branding client, a new client who is launching a new business, or a client who is updating their existing business’ branding, we take the same approach as Maddie.
We begin by understanding the full story behind the business: how it started, who it’s intended to help, and who the audience is. Just as Maddie determines how they want their brand to be perceived, we determine how the founder wants to be perceived in relation to their brand.
When working with a client on branding, we approach shopping and styling strategically to align their wardrobe with their website by:
- Purposefully choosing clothing silhouettes/styles
- Aligning clothing colors with their branding colors
- Aligning clothing colors with their personality and how they want their audience to perceive them
- Choosing an appropriate level of formality for their clothes that matches their brand
- Making sure each part of their personality that aligns with their brand is represented through their outfits
Your Brand Photos Should Connect Your Website and Wardrobe
When working with a branding photographer, it is essential to build a short list that not only encompasses your website needs but also reflects the needs of your social media content and marketing materials.
A speaker photo may need to communicate something different from an editorial founder headshot.
The wardrobe should support each setting while still feeling unmistakably like you.
Brand photography sits at the intersection of your business identity and your personal presence. Ideally, your branding is communicated to the photographer first. Then, it’s the Wardrobe Stylist’s turn.
When building your outfits for your branding shoot, we consider:
- your personal style
- your brand identity
- your audience
- the purpose of the images
- where the photos will be used
- the message you want to communicate
Authenticity Creates Stronger Alignment
One of Maddie’s biggest pieces of advice for business owners is to focus on how they want someone to feel when they encounter their website.
The site should reflect the experience of actually working with you: your tone, your energy, and your approach.
The same principle applies to personal style.
If your wardrobe feels like something you think an entrepreneur should wear rather than something that genuinely represents you, then there may be a disconnect.
Your visual choices such as your wardrobe should end up feeling natural.
The strongest personal style does not create a new character or personality for the business owner. It creates clarity around the business owner’s identity.
Consistency Builds Trust
As Maddie puts it, people trust what feels familiar.
Someone may first discover you through social media, visit your website, subscribe to your emails, meet you at an event, and eventually work with you.
Each interaction is different, but the identity behind it should feel consistent.
Consistency does not mean wearing the same outfit or repeating the same visual formula everywhere. Just as every page of your website does not need to look identical, every outfit does not need to be the same. It means each touchpoint reinforces the same overall feeling and promise. That consistency is what makes a brand recognizable and recognition builds trust.
When Your Personal Image Becomes Part of the Brand
For founders, entrepreneurs, consultants, creatives, and other public-facing professionals, personal image and brand image often overlap.
Your wardrobe is not separate from your branding.
It appears in your
- headshots
- social content
- website
- speaking engagements
- client meetings
- interviews
- brand campaigns
The more visible you become within your business, the more important it is that your personal style supports the story your brand is already telling.
When someone encounters your brand online and then meets you in person, the experience should make sense; meaning your wardrobe should feel consistent in each experience of your brand.
When Your Brand Has Grown but Your Wardrobe Hasn’t
If you have a new business or your business has grown and your personal style no longer feels aligned with the brand you are building, Abby Young Styling works with entrepreneurs and brands to create wardrobes and brand photoshoot styling that support the message they want to communicate.
Through personal styling and Commercial & Brand Photoshoot Styling, we consider the full picture: your personal style, audience, goals, visual identity, and the environments where you need to show up.
Through strategic branding and website design, Madeline Wiggins helps entrepreneurs create a cohesive visual identity that reflects who they are and the clients they want to attract.
Continue Reading
If this topic resonated, you may also enjoy Why Your Old Clothes Can’t Handle New Duties, which explores what happens when your responsibilities and visibility evolve faster than your wardrobe does.
For more information about branding, be sure to check out Maddie’s article, “Before You Book Your Brand Photos: Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Answer First,” on our website here.
