Today we’d like to introduce you to Lady Maximo.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m Lady Maximo, and that’s actually my real name. People always think it’s an alias or a brand name. I was born and raised in Manila Philippines in 1982. After I got my bachelor’s degree in business in 2005, I worked for a year at a start-up advertising agency. While there, my boss would always tell me that I had an eye for beauty and an ability to add details to a visual and elevate it to something more beautiful, more effective.
Even though I’ve always been interested in fashion, at the time, only Fashion Design was available in the Philippines, and I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to pursue so I continued on my career journey, and a year later, I moved to China to help manage our family business. It all started coming together when I began to dabble with styling while I was living in China. I would style my vocalist friend or do little style-makeovers. It finally dawned on me that styling was what I was meant to do in fashion.
In early 2009, I decided to move to Los Angeles and apply to FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.) I was accepted as an international student, and I flourished in my newest academic endeavor. While in school full-time, I worked a part-time job at the campus museum shop, volunteered as a backstage fashion-dresser at fashion shows, interned for BCBG as well as the top fashion stylist, Sally Lyndley, and also set up my own photoshoots by collaborating with friends who were amateur photographers, models, and makeup artists. I was on a mission, and I was determined.
A year later, I received my fashion degree and graduated with a Magna Cum Laude designation and soon started working as a Visual Specialist for a Banana Republic store in LA. I worked myself up the corporate ladder for the next few years while still working on my styling portfolio. In early 2013, I found a job listing for the Head Stylist position at www.drjays.com, a leading urban/streetwear e-commerce site founded in NYC but with offices in San Diego.
I applied, landed the position, moved to San Diego, and started working all in under four weeks. I’ve been living here in SD and working with the same company since then and have also expanded my freelance clientele to brands like StubHub, The Fresh Yard, Mad Engine (for Marvel, Disney, and Star Wars), Hemptique, Black Sunday, and artist musicians such as Rich Brian/Rich Chigga, etc. My focus now is growing my freelance styling company while still keeping my position at drjays.com.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been filled with a mix of adversity, great timing, sacrifice, and opportunity. As an international student at FIDM, I was only allowed to work inside the campus.
Luckily, I was hired at the campus museum shop and was able to work 25-30 hours a week while being in school fully loaded with 18 units of hands-on, project-filled classes each quarter. Add to this my volunteering and interning for unpaid shoots and projects, all while being a broke, struggling student. This meant many nights of little sleep and trips to the 99-cent store for canned food and instant ramen.
I literally would use my last $40 for gas to able to assist an unpaid photoshoot 2 hours away. I just knew I had to do whatever it took to edge out my mostly much-younger competition and whoever else was gunning for the styling jobs I would be applying for when I graduated. (My classmates were mostly 18-year olds while I was in my late 20s at this point.) But it wasn’t even just starting out older in this industry that I felt like was my crutch; it was also the fact that I wasn’t born in America. I couldn’t always relate to things that everyone talked about.
Even though the Philippines is a very westernized country and I grew up watching a lot of American shows, Hollywood movies, listening to American music and have been fluent in English since I was a child, I still didn’t know everything about growing up in America and I still find myself, to this day, having to Google certain movies or artists that people refer to from time to time. Nevertheless, this never hindered me; it has only motivated me more.
Within two months of moving to L.A., I had printed out business cards that said “Fashion Stylist,” even if I was still far from being one. I understood the power of visualization and manifestation and of faking it ’til you made it.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I am a fashion stylist/wardrobe stylist/personal shopper. I style commercial, lifestyle, and editorial fashion photoshoots for brands to use as ads, lookbooks, website content, etc. I style fashion shows, music videos, commercials, and I also do style-makeovers and personal shopping for personal clients.
What I’m most proud of as a company is that by my determination, hard work, networking, and just the ability to recognize opportunities or create them for myself, I have solely built this company in a span of only a few years. I’m also proud of the fact that an immigrant like me was able to navigate through this very tough industry and through just life itself in a foreign country.
I think what sets me apart are three very significant things in styling:
1. Being able to read a client/brand, empathize with who their identity is, and understand what their needs/goals are and then conceptualize a solution for them through visual storytelling in the form of a photo, a video, or even an outfit.
2. My extreme attention to detail. It’s what separates an okay stylist from an incredible one. Attention to detail takes a photo, a video, or a look, from good to NEXT LEVEL.
3. My international background has given me a broader range of experience and creativity and has proved to be an advantage when it comes to creative direction and styling.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see the fashion industry, including fashion-styling, evolving and expanding a lot more than it already has. Social media has made fashion so much more accessible now, and with a swipe of a thumb or a click of a button, the youth are inspired every day by the fashion they see from their favorite bloggers or celebrities or designers.
More and more younger generations are dreaming of becoming stylists as a result.
I’m a firm believer in teaching and mentoring the next generation instead of looking at them as competition, so I often utilize interns and assistants and teach them everything I know. I think there’s enough space for everyone to thrive and pursue the fulfillment their dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ladymaximo.com
- Phone: 805-712-8534
- Email: holla@ladymaximo.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ladymaximo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ladymaximostyle
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
