YOUR STYLIST
Meet
Hi!
I'm Amanda!
I'm the founder of Amanda Leigh Style, and a Personal Stylist in Hong Kong.
When I was a young teen, I moved to Hong Kong from Australia. Every school I’d attended before had a uniform. Rules. Predictability. So when I showed up to my new school dressed in part of my old school uniform (shirt and skirt), I thought I’d fit right in.
But this school was different, it had no uniform, and I stood out immediately! The judgment wasn’t loud, but I felt it. I didn’t speak the visual language of my peers, and what I wore suddenly made me feel completely exposed.... naked even! That’s when I started planning every outfit like it was my armour.
I wasn’t trying to stand out. I was trying to protect myself from being hurt. Getting dressed every morning suddenly became a huge amount of emotional work.
And I know I’m not the only one who feels that way!
A 2025 study found that six out of ten women say the fit of their clothes directly affects their confidence.* We don’t just put on clothes. We put on identity. Memory. Hope. Sometimes pride. Sometimes shame. Often, a version of ourselves we hope the world will accept.
"For me, style is so much
more than just clothes!"
After understanding the power clothing had, I was hooked and studied fashion (graduating with a Honors Bach Degree in Fashion and Design at the University of Technology Sydney), I realised that I loved to understand how clothes made people feel, rather than in design and garment construction.
After graduating, I worked in the backroom with some Australian fashion brands. The designs were beautiful, but they weren’t made for bodies like mine. I styled collections I couldn’t wear. I sold fantasies I didn’t believe in.
Eventually, I stopped pretending I belonged.
I returned to my bread and butter, fashion retail, thinking it would feel more connected, more human, and it did.
But I was a terrible salesperson. If a piece didn’t suit someone, I said so. If another store had what they needed, I pointed them there. I wasn’t trying to sell, I was trying to help.
Then I met a stylist at an event, and something clicked. I watched how she listened, really listened, to women. How she saw the gap between what they wore and how they felt. I saw myself in her work.
I started to use my fashion background to help people. I formally trained at The Australian Style Institute, and in 2016 I returned to Hong Kong to launch my own business: helping women reconnect with their style and their sense of self.
Because this isn’t just about clothes. It’s about 'enclothed cognition', a term psychologists use to describe how what we wear affects our thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.
I work with women navigating change: motherhood, grief, burnout, reinvention. They don’t come to me because they “need something to wear.” They come because they want to feel like themselves again.
We say “I have nothing to wear” when what we really mean is: “I don’t feel like me in anything I own.”
But then something shifts.
When a woman starts dressing to be seen, not to disappear, the energy around her changes. Not because she’s louder or more polished. But because she’s no longer hiding.
Style isn’t about what’s new. It’s about what’s true!
...And I'd love to help you find yours!
"Style is something each of us already has
all we need to do is find it"
- Diane von Furstenberg
in a nutshell…
Amanda
Mom
Passionate Speaker on Fashion
Cake-baker
Market-trawler
Eco enthusiast
Aussie girl, with American roots, living in HK
Explorer
Style-hunter
Amanda’s 8 Golden Rules of Style:
Embrace your Assets,
don’t focus on your flaws!
1.
Always invest in the best underwear you can. The structure you wear ‘under’ clothes matters! Even if it cant be seen.
2.
Expensive clothes don’t always
equal great style or value!
3.
Clothes should work for YOU
and your lifestyle! Not the other way around.
4.
All clothes should be comfortable….
otherwise it will change the way you feel and behave when wearing them!
5.
When in doubt, take it off!
6.
Clothes don’t have feelings, YOU do!
Priorities you self in the clothes, rather than the clothes themselves.
7.
Everyone has style! It's just a matter of 'IF' it's being expressed authentically or not!
8.
My Mission:
I often find people prioritising clothing over themselves and their own self-worth. With them frequently saying, “I can’t wear that,” or “I’m saving this for....” Their own self-consciousness often prevents them from even entering a boutique, let alone browsing through the racks and trying on items. They gaze at a sweater, dress, or handbag and deem it “too nice” or “too fancy” for themselves.
In fact, approximately 90 percent of women I speak with, share these same feelings and frustrations! Not only is it depressing, it’s just not right!
I am committed to breaking this cycle of self-doubt and promoting the idea that style can and should be embraced by everyone—not just celebrities. Good style is not a luxury; it should be accessible to all!
For the ripple effect of authentic style extends far beyond mere appearances. It encompasses the notion of wearing clothes that empower you to feel good and make an impact each day, in a genuine manner, regardless of life’s demands.
My dream is for everyone to perceive themselves not through the lens of their insecurities reflected in the mirror, but rather through MY eyes—stylish, radiant, and confidently comfortable in their own skin!
-Amanda
