Savvy Stylist

Local wardrobe stylist DANIELLE HARRIS, owner of The Modified Style in Wilmington, is on a mission to make an impact through the expression of personal style.

Fashion has always been important to Harris: Even as a toddler, she loved to play dress up. “I was obsessed with dresses and patent leather shoes. When my mom asked me to play soccer, I said no. I didn’t want to wear a uniform and socks,” she laughs. “Mom and I watched ‘What Not to Wear’ on TV. That had a lot to do with my love of fashion.”

Now Harris plays dress-up every day with her clients through her wardrobe consultation service and hands-on personal styling. The Modified Style offers consulting, closet audits, and closet detoxes to eliminate anything worn, dated, or no longer aligning with a client’s objective, as well as personal shopping, styling, and grooming.

“I discuss wardrobe objectives with my clients and determine which of my services works best through a complimentary consultation,” Harris says. Her full wardrobe modification package is what she loves to do the most. “In three sessions, we do a closet audit and detox, go shopping together, and talk about how to add fresh wardrobe stables. We pull it all together with photos and a color analysis,” she says.

The Modified Style offers minor alterations to a client’s style. “I never want to change you, but meet you where you are,” Harris says. “I never make you become who you are not, but help you become who you are.”

Harris says everything in her life led her down the path to owning her own business. “I grew up watching my parents work hard to make ends meet and give us everything we needed,” she says. “So from a young age, I knew I wanted to make something of myself.”

Harris loved Wilmington, a city that felt big compared to the small town outside of Wilmington where she grew up. Often visiting her brother at University of North Carolina Wilmington in the summers, she ultimately attended college there, earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s in analytics from the Cameron School of Business. “I envisioned a bigger life, and I worked hard to open doors and make connections,” she says.

Harris worked at a large corporate women’s retailer for eight years, where she discovered the impact of helping women with attire. “The way women walked out, feeling totally different about themselves… I needed that in my life to be fulfilled,” she says. After working for the next nine months at a local boutique while becoming an accredited personal stylist through The New York Institute of Art and Design, she opened The Modified Style.

She works with a plethora of clients, both men and women — real estate agents who need to level up, educators, people who want their style to reflect new life changes, and individuals who have relocated, lost loved ones, changed weight, or are beginning new careers.

Harris passionately prides herself in making intentional choices for her clients and creating classic, versatile looks. While she is aware of current fashion fads, she says it’s more important to make trends look timeless. “I sprinkle them in rather than use them as a definitive choice,” she says. “If there is something trendy that you are obsessed with, buy it, and figure out how to make it work timelessly.” Harris also advises considering the cost per wear of items before buying them.

There is deeper significance to Harris’ passion for leaving people better than when she met them. Her father passed from cancer while she was in college. “It was a turning point in my life,” she says. “I felt that I needed to pour into other people and make my dad proud.”

In addition to running The Modified Style, Harris styles for White House Black Market, will speak at UNCW’s Business Week in March on the power of the way we dress, and for a second year, is styling for the Love is Bald fashion show that benefits cancer patients. “The event is an amazing opportunity to build community and to connect with women who have gone through something that is so connected to me,” she says.

To view more of photographer Daria Amato’s work, go to dariaphoto.com

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