When times are hard, tightening your belt means making do with what's already in your wardrobe – so there's absolutely no reason why you'd need a personal stylist, right?

Wrong, says Niki Whittle, who is adamant that, if anything, harder times mean it's even more crucial that you make your wardrobe work for you.

Niki, who is based in Henleaze, Bristol, but also covers Somerset, is the city's only Alicia Kite Academy-trained image consultant.

One of the UK's leading image consultants, Alicia Kite set up her academy in the last recession in the early 1990s, and now, as then, demand for image consultants is high, says Niki, not least because people are smartening up their act either to hold on to their job or to get a new one.

That's certainly a trend that's already been reported by posh men's shirt retailer T M Lewin, which says ties, suits and shirts are all seeing a rise in sales as people swap casual wear for a more formal look.

This move towards a more serious style of dress applies to women, too, says 28-year-old Niki, who trained in textile design and spent several years working as a fashion advisor for John Lewis.

Yet while many women have a wardrobe full of clothes, studies show that most of us wear only a small percentage of them and often forget what we have stuffed in the back of our drawers.

"Most people wear only 20 per cent of their clothes 80 per cent of the time," says Niki, "and the average woman spends about £13,000 in her lifetime on clothes she never wears.

"Right now, people can't afford to make such expensive mistakes, especially at the moment when words like 'value' and 'budget' are on every woman's lips."

Rather than buying "throwaway clothes", we should be investing in a few key pieces that will last, says Niki. Instead, we tend to buy on impulse or in a panic, the idea being that if we keep buying new outfits, sooner or later we'll end up with the perfect look. The result is a wardrobe full of rarely or never-worn garments. Indeed, it's not uncommon to find clothes still with their labels attached, says Niki: "Sometimes people haven't even tried them on."

We're chatting over coffee and cakes in the restaurant of that fashion mecca Harvey Nichols in Bristol. It's full of enticing outfits and all the latest fashion trends. But developing your own style is not about slavishly following trends, says Niki, it's about identifying which elements work for you, your personality, body shape and lifestyle.

It's also about shopping carefully. Niki is rigorous about her purchases: "When I buy something, if it doesn't go with other things in my wardrobe, it has to go back on the rail."

Strangely for a personal stylist who loves fashion, she doesn't actually own many clothes, she says: "But I wear all of the ones I have!"

So how can an image consultant help you? As part of her four-hour wardrobe consultation, which ranges in price from £200 to £250, Niki will go through your current season's wardrobe and identify which garments you don't wear or no longer fit.

"Quite often, people feel liberated by getting rid of things they're not wearing anymore," she says.

Then she looks at the gaps in your wardrobe, advises what you should buy and puts together several "looks" using your existing outfits, leaving you with a portfolio of images so that you can remember them.

"People often have this worry about image consultants that we're going to make you spend a lot of money," she says. "But it's about making what you have work for you."

It's also about educating people to care for their clothes well, which means storing, washing and repairing them properly. "Once you've made that investment, you need to look after it," says Niki.

One benefit of having an image consultant is that she can help you recognise your good points. "I love being able to help clients see themselves differently – so often we're very critical of ourselves," says Niki.

And when you know you're looking at your best, you feel so much more confident – which in turn might give you that crucial extra edge at interview in a tough job market.

As well as wardrobe consultations, Niki provides a range of other services including style parties for groups of six to 10 friends for £100. Contact her on 0117 9625565 or visit www.nikiwhittle.com

TOP TIPS

ONLY keep the current season's clothes in your wardrobe so you can easily see what you've got, and pack the rest away.

LOOK after your clothes to make them last longer. Brush knitwear with a clothes brush before and after wearing and buy a de-bobbler (pictured above): "They cost just £6 from John Lewis and make knitwear look like new," says Niki.

PUT things on the right hangers. Buy curved non-slip knitwear hangers and hang trousers from the hem so the weight of the waistband helps take out the creases.

INVEST in key basics: a good coat, pair of trousers, jeans, boots, handbag and a handful of tops.

ACCESSORIES are a great way to create new looks and keep in touch with fashion trends without investing in expensive garments.

DON'T buy an outfit for an occasion, like a wedding, that you'll never wear again. Instead, think of ways you can make an outfit look more special, such as by adding a fancy hat, gloves or jewellery.

INSTEAD of buying shoes to match a certain outfit, buy a pair in a nude shade, as they're leg-lengthening and will go with everything, or opt for metallics, which reflect whatever you're wearing and will slot into your wardrobe.

GET your underwear right – too many women wear the wrong size bra or ill-fitting knickers.