Kelly Millar

Understanding image

For Kelly Millar, spending time shopping in New York or London might soon be work. The Toronto-based image consultant is developing personalized shopping trips for clients in cities that offer diversity.

While studying philosophy in university, Kelly instead found her passion in a photography minor. This eventually led to a contract to move to South Africa as a fashion photographer. "I really loved the styling aspect of the work,” says Kelly, and soon she was styling her own shoots.

Today, she finds herself giving advice, but also doing a lot of listening. “Rather than just creating a set and making someone look beautiful, it's about listening to the client and understanding what they want to change in their life,” says Kelly.

Without a partner, Kelly is both creator and financial backer of her business. She picked up these skills from her late mother, “a strong woman who was always encouraging me, always entrepreneurial, and my main support system too.”

Always working makes having a personal life a challenge, but helping her clients makes it all worth it: “It's so rewarding to hear feedback about how clients are getting the promotion they wanted, or how my services have improved their social lives, or just that overall they are feeling more confident ... My philosophy has always been that when you feel good about how you look, everything else in your life seems to be more fulfilling.”