Style, smile: Becks Mason

Becks Mason shops and styles for a living. It’s the dream life for many, even though very little of the gorgeous clothes she’s surrounded by end up in her own wardrobe. For the early childhood teacher and high school lecturer turned master stylist, it’s the moments along the way in each styling presentation or smiling client that make it great.

She sources clothes and thus smiles for the woman around her, crafting looks that inspire confidence and flair. Working with her regulars is like catching up with a friend, and she spends her days coordinating seasonal outfits, and her taste, she finds new pieces to “keep it current and interesting.”

Becks divulges that some moments throughout her career can’t be shared, yet one story still makes her laugh. “I had a client trying on jeans, and she managed to get her lace underwear completely tangled in the zipper – to the point of complete destruction of her underwear and the jeans,” she smiles. What followed was a fleeting trip to Farmers lingerie department. “We were both hysterical.”

No job is the same when new clients come to her for guidance. “It really is individual to the person. Some ladies come to me not knowing what suits them at all, and others just need new ideas and a few tweaks,” Becks explains. Keeping the “flame burning” for 17 years has been easy with her expertise. Inceptive presentations at school or sport fundraisers became the catalyst to demonstrating the difference she could make in real time to people in the audience – which magnified word-of-mouth.

The new career path was a welcome one as her children grew up. “The beauty of owning my own business is that I am organising wardrobes, doing colour analysis, body shape analysis, personal shopping with clients, or presenting styling sessions.

To an outsider, it would feel like living inside the revolving, enviable closet of Cher in Clueless. For the insider, it’s far deeper than the materialism of it all – Becks explains how the woman are her ‘why’. “I get inspiration and pleasure from seeing woman of all ages embrace their stage of life with confidence and security.” She admits how much it worries her that these ideals might fade away with the rise of social media. “I worry for our younger generation, being fed all sorts of images and pressure to be perfect and forever young. It is a privilege to age and we need to be proud of owning it,” Becks says.

This sentiment echoes the road she walks too. “I’m like every other woman out there. My body is changing and my lifestyle too.” Embrace it, she encourages. Vulnerability is the biggest thing in finding your own style, Becks reflects. “There is a lot of trust and vulnerability that occurs from a client’s perspective.” If updating wardrobes every few years to suit “forever changing exteriors” is what it takes for confidence to flourish, then that is what women should do. “Instead of fighting the ageing process, we need to work with it. It’s inevitable,” she adds.

This causes her personal shopping process to constantly evolve, as well as the advice she offers her clients. She thanks maturity, too, for her “tendency to think things through before I act on anything.” Seasonal changes mean additions or replacements to Becks’ own wardrobe, while blazers or core pieces remain in her capsule. With a focus on timelessness in control of my bookings.” When Becks needed to prioritise her family, she could, although the flexibility she has now with grown children is welcomed, too, as she waves goodbye school drop-offs and pick-ups.

Becks finds escape through exercise. “I love the outdoors so often I’m paving the streets on a run with my friends.” Saturdays call their movement to the hills, otherwise she’s fishing and spending time around the water with family, or in the kitchen baking and preserving chutneys. It comes down to a coping mechanism when life bottlenecks. “I know that if I have a challenge, exercise is my coping mechanism. It clears my head and helps me strategise my approach.”