'The Reinvention Chronicles'

A few months ago, I received an email from the associate marketing editor of San Francisco Magazine. The e-mail was short, simply asking if I was interested in possibly being interviewed for a 'reinvention' story they were writing up for an upcoming issue. With SF Magazine winning the nation's highest magazine honor, I easily obliged and held in the excitement as best as I could trying not to tell everyone I knew that I was considered in being featured in a highly respected magazine. Well, the secret didn't stay a secret very long {typically if I can't talk about something it's probably the first thing out of my mouth} and once they had set up a photo shoot with Jeff Singer and myself for the story I thought I was 100% in and I could finally spill the beans {Shown here}. The story I am featured in, 'The Reinvention Chronicles' {found on page 24 & 64 of the June issue out now} highlights a group of individuals {myself being the youngest} with the headline, "Everyone's doing it, and all the rules have changed. How a vanguard of the adventuresome and the desperate is forging a smarter, leaner, Zen-er model of reinvention for the post-meltdown Bay Area." In the last year I have started up a Personal Styling company under my name Gigi Ouf as well as this fashion/lifestyle blog. I have always had a “go out and do it” personality and I really wanted to carve my own path. That is why it was so important for me to quit my great job to start a company from the ground up. Even if it was going to take me a while to start getting clients, I was determined to make a living doing what I love. I took my angle into the fashion world with personal styling because at the end of the day it has always been what I was good at and from a young age, it came naturally to me. I have an appreciation for all different styles and I think my traveling experiences to London, Egypt, Paris, Milan, New York and beyond have really helped me gain that appreciation. Style can be interpreted in so many directions; therefore the opportunities to grow my business are endless. I am just lucky that I can make a living doing what I love. To me that is really all that matters. At 23 I am proud of my accomplishments, although sometimes it takes even the smallest of feature's in a mainstream magazine to finally feel like your hard work has paid off and that you've 'made it.' :) 

You can check out the entire story on the San Francisco Magazine Website, and always remember...

 "No dream is too big, don't let small minds convince you otherwise" -unknown

Big thanks to Jeff Singer for the photographs, Robin Wilkey, and everyone else at San Francisco Magazine!