Beyond Black

About

My name is Amanda Castro - small business owner, personal stylist, and I am in love with fashion.

I wake up to it every morning, daydream about it at lunch, and fall asleep to it every night. It's always on my mind. I graduated from San Francisco State in May 2008 with a degree in Apparel Design & Merchandising burning in my pocket. I found volunteer work as a backstage hand for Macy’s, San Francisco Fashion and Merchant Alliance, and Threadshow, all to further develop my talent as a stylist.

Several years in the retail game leveled out my customer service skills and knowledge on contemporary brands and designers. Today, I marinate myself in fashion everyday, through the blogs I read, magazines I subscribe to, and the websites I visit daily all to ensure that I’m on top of what’s cycling through the industry. Fashion and trends are constantly changing but I thrive in the transformations.

I think my obsession with clothes began early on. I vividly remember an argument with my mother on my Kindergarten’s picture day. I was dressed in the cutest pink sweater and skirt set and I wanted to wear my “clicky” shoes, so named because I loved the clicking sound they made when I walked on the linoleum. My mom on the other hand, wouldn’t have it. They weren’t sensible enough shoes to wear all day on the playground but I was convinced they were the only shoes to complete my outfit. So we had a huge argument that left my mom the victor and me feeling ridiculous in a pair of dirty tennis shoes. Ever since then, my mom stayed out of my style choices to avoid the fights and I was left free to develop my own sense of fashion on my own terms.

You could say that I consider everyday picture day. A I have a very theatrical approach to fashion and thus, who we are in our everyday lives. We all wear many hats so why not think about an outfit that matches the hat? The effect is the same: you at your best. There is a sort of magic that comes from finding a confidence through clothes and it doesn’t matter if you work in a restaurant or in an office, you are your best advertising and the first thing people see is what you’re wearing. How that outfit translates into information about who you are is incredibly important.

I know and see all of the vanity and superficiality that surrounds the fashion industry but the truth is, those around us are all constantly measuring us up. We can pretend that we don’t care and that we’re above it but there’s just no escaping it so why not always put your best foot, or shoe as it were, forward?

My goal is to help you realize the power of clothes. Let's go beyond black and sartorially satisfy who you are inside with who you have to be on the outside. My motto is, try everything.