Maud Vanhoutte
Director of Image Consulting Academy
Maud Vanhoutte is a dynamic Parisian passionate about fashion, style and personal development. After studying in the best fashion school in Paris, IDRI – “The International School of Styling”, she started her business Reflet Nouveau at only 21 years old. At first, she focused on personal branding, image consulting and styling for individuals and organisations. While developing her own business, Maud kept close relationships with her school and soon became its coordinator before becoming a trainer and a member of the school’s jury. Through Reflet Nouveau, the International School of Styling, and the French Network of Image Consultants, Maud trained hundreds of future Image Consultants and Stylists over the years.
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With a fascination for personal and professional development, Maud also started to develop additional services and training courses. To better assist her clients, she studied communication skills and body-language before enrolling in NLP training.
Many French companies trusted Maud to design and facilitate personal and professional development solutions for their team members. She worked with prestigious hostels such as Intercontinental or Westin, she was hired by the best fashion brands such as Galeries Lafayettes, Kenzo, Jacqueline Riu, Sephora... She also worked with the French Military School and many governmental services as well as companies from various industries such as construction, marketing & advertising, IT and many more.
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In addition to those prestigious clients, Maud started to develop a passion to assist people with special needs or challenges. She trained herself and adapted her approach to design life skills development and career support programs to assist various communities. She facilitates these programs to people with disabilities, aboriginal people, refugees and asylum seekers, domestic violence victims, cancer patients... With the highest integrity, Maud provides learning solutions and coaching from her heart.
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In 2014, Maud decided to start a new adventure and moved to Sydney in Australia. There, she started New Reflections, a new soft skills training centre focusing on personal and professional development. After running both businesses for 3 years, she decided in late 2017 to close Reflet Nouveau in France and to focus on the Australian adventure. Since then, many clients enjoyed fun and playful workshops to boost their people skills. Some of Maud’s Australian clients are the Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust, China Eastern, UNSW, Franck Provost, Fighting Chance, Resolution Media, NTT, and many more.
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Maud is now a French and an Australian citizen, and she happily embraces both cultures. Thanks to a strong training background and a lot of experience, Maud created the French/Australian Consulting Academy to train future Image Consultants and Stylists. The French/Australian Consulting Academy programs are rich and well developed to equip future professional stylists with the skills needed to succeed both as a stylist, and as an entrepreneur.
A word from Maud
“When I started looking for a school to become an Image Consultant and Stylist nearly 15 years ago, I was shocked to see that, from Paris to New York, all courses were very short and very expensive. How are we supposed to learn a new profession within 3 to 4 days, with half of the training being online? I started to be very concerned about the profession and its future when I found my school, IDRI - The International School of Styling, and its 3 to 9 months programs. Finally, someone was taking our profession seriously! I remember getting a loan to finance my 9 months training, but I knew I was investing in my future, therefore, I never regretted it. This program was the longest and the most detailed program created to train future Image Consultants. After finishing my training, I was lucky enough to be involved in the process of improving the program and its content. It is now even better with a mix of theory and practice, an in-depth approach to styling and image consultancy, a unique look at personal development, and a fair amount of business courses. IDRI is the first French school to have received government recognition for our program; it was such an achievement!
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Since in Australia, when looking at programs for Image Consultants and Stylists, I can’t help noticing that the existing training courses are very short and expensive, just as it was in Europe when I was looking for my training. Because we don’t simply proclaim ourselves Image Consultants and Stylists, a strong and professional training is essential to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to excel as an Image Consultant. More than a profession, being an Image Consultant and Stylist is a passion. You can bring a lot to your clients, but you can also do some serious damages if you’re missing key communication skills, key coaching skills, and emotional intelligence competencies.”