What Fashion Taught Me About Real Estate
I spent over 20 years in the fashion world. Neiman Marcus, private clients, trunk shows, styling women for galas, luncheons, and charity boards before they even knew what was trending. At the time, it didn’t feel like training for anything else. It felt like my forever.
But when I made the leap into real estate at 42, I realized something:
Everything I learned in fashion made me dangerous in real estate.
Let me explain.
1. Luxury isn’t loud. It’s layered.
In fashion, you learn quickly who gets it and who’s just chasing the label. Same in real estate. True luxury isn’t about what’s flashy - it’s about taste, timing, and trust.
“Fashion taught me how to walk into a room and read it. Real estate sharpened that into instinct.”
I used to sell five-figure handbags. Now I sell eight-figure estates. But the client? The psychology? The expectation? It’s the same.
These are high-net-worth individuals who value discretion, attention to detail, and efficiency. They don’t want the hard sell. They want the right guide.
Fashion taught me how to walk into a room and read it. Real estate sharpened that into instinct.
2. Style is communication. So is space.
When you style someone, you’re helping them project confidence before they say a word. When you sell someone a home, you’re helping them picture the life they haven’t lived yet.
It’s storytelling. It’s seduction. It’s visualization.
I call it romancing the house - helping someone see themselves in a space before they even know why they love it.
That’s not a skill you learn in a real estate manual. That’s fashion training.
3. Taste is teachable. But instinct isn’t.
In fashion, you learn how to pivot fast. Your client's mood changes? Your original pull doesn’t fit? You problem-solve on the spot.
That same pressure, that same pace, exists in real estate - especially at the luxury level.
You’re not just moving money. You’re moving emotions, legacies, decisions that come with decades of weight behind them. And they expect you to get it on the first try.
Fashion taught me how to trust my gut - and how to earn my clients’ trust without saying much at all.
4. Luxury clients don’t want more. They want better.
More options? No thanks. They’re busy. They want curated, clean, dialed-in, and done right the first time.
That’s what I learned styling busy executives and boardroom wives. Show up prepared, show up polished, and don’t waste their time.
Now, when I walk a luxury buyer through a $15M estate, I already know what not to show them. And that’s power.
5. Service is personal. Always.
People think real estate is about houses. It’s not. It’s about people.
“You don’t get referrals, repeat clients, and long-term loyalty unless you treat each interaction like it matters. Because it does.”
Same with fashion.
You don’t get referrals, repeat clients, and long-term loyalty unless you treat each interaction like it matters. Because it does.
Every client I had in fashion felt seen, styled, and taken care of. Every client I have in real estate gets the same energy - just with a different price tag.
Final word?
Fashion didn’t just teach me style.
It taught me strategy, taste, survival, and service.
It taught me how to be in the room - and own it.
It taught me how to read people without flinching and close deals with polish.
It taught me that luxury isn’t about what you wear or where you live - it’s about how you operate.
So no, I didn’t come into real estate with a formal background.
I came in with instincts, experience, and a chip on my shoulder.
And in this industry? That’s more valuable than any certification.
If you’re building something new out of a life you thought was permanent - keep going.
Everything you’ve done has prepared you more than you think.
Use it. Own it. Walk into the room like you belong there.
Because you do.
– G
