 almost like being in love. Now it's a busy time for a stylist who is from out near Manor Cunningham. Her name is Emma Murray if you're not familiar with her and she is going to be on TV, well she's been on TV before, but she now has a regular slot on a TV from this weekend because she's got a monthly slot on Ireland AM as a fashion broadcaster. She has her own fashion blog and she actually has combined her love for fashion with a degree in English and she's also, as I understand it, finishing off a master's in marketing. Well I'm going to ask her now because she's in the studio. Emma Murray. Yes hi John, how are you? Yeah good, good, good to see you. Yes thank you for having me. And yeah well congratulations on getting the slot on Ireland AM, it's great. Thank you yes really really excited and it's a huge opportunity that I'm I suppose both nervous and looking forward to, I'll be looking forward to I suppose having the first one over me this weekend just to get the nerves and just to kind of see sort of how everything works. But you've been on before, you've been on on TV three before. I have yeah so I had a slot they were in Lettuce Kenny in September time for a slot on Tweet and the the producer they had phoned around lots of different retailers in Lettuce Kenny looking for a stylist that that could present the slot so I have to say a massive thank you to the retailers who put me forward for that slot because if it hadn't been for them I wouldn't have got this opportunity so I've a lot to say thank you to them for as well. And when you say retailers to be thankful for you you work with a lot of boutiques here in Donegal and and it's great you have a good relationship with them but it's great because this is a time when it's you know it's it's a popular thing to do to support local and to support Irish designers. Yeah absolutely and that's what I always try to do no matter what segment I'm working in if I'm doing try-ons with boutiques or for example working on TV or even in my I have a guest fashion editor slot in an RSVP magazine and I always try and support Irish and local as much as I can because we have so much variety add options on our doorstep and the massive retailers as such don't really need the advertising obviously as much as the smaller independent boutiques and it's lovely to be able to work in so many different avenues to be able to support them as well. You've worked you've worked for something like ten years is it in retail various big retail names and got a lot of experience you've also worked in in London so I mean you've experienced of the the big names in fashion and and it's great to be able to then work with local designers or Irish designers and local boutiques. Yeah exactly it's good to have a mixture of everything because at the end of the day everybody has different tastes as well some people love the bigger retailers but a lot of people will prefer to shop from the more independent smaller boutiques and for me that's where you find the hidden gems that's where you find the really unique pieces that you're not necessarily going to find in the bigger retailers. That's for people who know their fashion that's for people who might have an idea of what they want or they're quite happy to be guided. Yeah a lot of people just go with the big high street names and they walk in by something. Yeah absolutely but for me I suppose the reason I love the boutique side of things as well is you can really tell with every business owner that you work with there's so much passion that is put into picking every single piece and that really shows in their business then and it's pieces with boutiques and smaller retailers that you're not going to find in other places and if you want to have that a little bit more unique with your style it's the perfect place to shop. So how did it all come about how did you have how did you develop a love for fashion. Oh that was from a very young age. Very young age I would say oh maybe as a little girl. Toddler. Definitely my earliest memory is whenever mum and myself would go into the courtyards shopping centre on a Thursday evening and she would put me in the buggy and once I had a little packet of jelly tots and a ribena I was just happy looking looking at the clothes but it was I suppose I started out in retail around 10 years ago and as you said I had a variation of lots of different roles I started off as sales advisor and then moved up between supervisor supervisor, visual merchandiser, personal shopper, store trainer and debonyms for 140 staff so between all of that then I decided to set up my fashion blog and that's but it's good grounding you've you know yeah it's a good overview of the business I suppose. Absolutely yeah 100% because I had so I've so much experience in so many different areas and I think everything one thing always lays on to another and it's you need to start at the bottom and work your way up especially in this industry because it's it's so competitive and there's so many people doing the same thing that you really need to have a drive and a passion for it if you do you want to move forward. At college you studied English and you you're also a social media tutor with Donegal ATB is that correct? Yes so I my original degree is in English and Spanish and I suppose at the time I I didn't really know what it was that I wanted to do I knew that I wanted to work in fashion but I I didn't know what direction I didn't know what route I didn't know I suppose I was only 20 so that's oh god 11 years ago now at this stage and I wanted to always carve a career for myself where I could hopefully combine the social media end of it but then the fashion and the English as well and thankfully it has all come full circle well so far so good anyway and yeah and then I'm doing my master's then in marketing yes because fashion fashion lecturing is is a big part of my career to you and what I do and you do master classes style master classes yes so I had style master classes I'd nationwide style master classes last year so which were thankfully all sold out all over Ireland I was from Donegal to the bottom of the country the middle of the country I was everywhere and yeah hopefully I'm going to be doing a lot more of those this year now because they were a great success and it's lovely to get a group of women in the room who are all interested in the same thing and they're all there for the same reason and there's afternoon tea and it's a lovely day out so it must be great when you get into a room and you have like-minded people there and they're all eager for ideas and you know and then tips absolutely yeah so it's a combination of as much as I'm giving advice and and guidance on different areas it's a lovely way as well for other women to meet other like-minded women and a lot of the women that came actually on their own left with with new friends which was lovely you know and it's lovely for me to see that as well so and you can't hide passion so there'll be plenty of it in evidence from Sunday Sunday that you're on Saturday Saturday Saturday so they are nearly starting Saturday I think 4 30 a.m. is going to be my my my get-off time and the the first teaser is on at 10 a.m. and then the slot then is on at 10 30 so it's on suits power suits and how to wear them so you've been doing your research on power suits yes I suppose my signature style so I thought I'll go in strong and and hopefully it'll be something that people will enjoy so yes hopefully yeah and then you get the showcase so there's four in total so four in total and we also have locally here we've green shoes who are coming on board for the shoe so it's great to be able to work with them this time around again because they were also on board for my slot in September and so yeah it'll be good well it's great to have an opportunity as well to showcase a local business absolutely yeah maybe others in the future and how often then would you be on how often will the slot be so that's totally up to me I suppose if I lived closer to Dublin I could be on every week I suppose if I wanted to but at the minute I'm going to I'm going to stick with once a month it's it's a lot of traveling and a lot of driving with other work commitments that I have on as well I possibly moved to maybe twice a month as we come into the to the spring and the summer but for now it'll just be once month at the weekends on a Saturday yeah on a Saturday or Sunday because it all looks very glam we just hit the remote control you are in your showcasing so whatever no isn't that great isn't she of some life nobody realizes that you got up at half four to drive to Dublin to be there for it to be on there for ten etc etc and it's it's one of those industries that it looks so glamorous from the outside it really does but it's by far from glamorous of course there's events and there's different things you get to go to and you get to you know dress up and and everything like that but there's a lot of work a lot a lot of work behind the scenes for such a short period of time that that people see for example if I'm doing a try on with a boutique which was basically where I would try on and showcase maybe ten different outfits that might take somebody 30 seconds just to tap through on their phone to look at all the outfits but in reality that is five or six hours of work yeah for me to actually to do it not that it's hard work as such but no but it's work but it's work yeah yeah and it's work to make it easy for everybody else to you know flick on the TV or go on social media or whatever and it's just a couple of flicks exactly like that don't like that whatever it is but there's a lot of work in the background to make that happen it's that the ease I suppose with social media now we have everything at the at the ease of our fingertips to shop online to get in contact with people so it's great and is it true that you also were delivering classes online for a college in London yes so I was lecturing in London from October until March yeah strings to your bow and I if I'm being completely honest that I reached total burnout with that position because I was what we lecturing I was lecturing in digital marketing of fashion communications and luxury brand management so I was getting up at 2 a.m. every Monday to drive to Belfast Airport to obviously get on the flight then it was in person wasn't online it was in person it was in Bayswater College in London so it was international students that that I was teaching and don't get me wrong I it was amazing to get the opportunity and I and I love the experience and hopefully it'll it'll stand to me when I go for future lecturing opportunities but what I was doing was just madness every single week it was just not sustainable you know it really was not sustainable and that's the thing as well with London and what people had seen in my social media that I was leading what appeared to me this lovely glamorous lifeline over London and it all looks so great but nobody seen that the tiredness behind the scenes and getting a quick biting Burger King and trying to stay awake during class because I was about it for that social media for you see what you know we're just supposed to say and that's it and you know and that works by both ways but there's a there's often a different story behind it exactly there there always is and I always say that to people what you see in social media is a little 10 seconds out of somebody's day you haven't seen the full 24 hours or what they had gone through 10 minutes previous to that so yeah it's just it's a snippet of somebody's life okay well for those that will be watching in on Saturday they're not they're not going to be concerned about the drive up the road getting up at silly o'clock and all that they just want to see those power suits and and that would be on Ireland AM and if someone wants to connect with you online social media website as well my websites are actually being done this this year re-branded so yeah I'm Emma Murray stylist on Instagram Facebook LinkedIn and then ELM social media is a social media training side of it as well okay great well listen at the very best of luck on Saturday thank you and beyond Emma Murray