ABSTRACT

Many of the best-known names in fashion journalism – Love’s Katie Grand, US Vogue’s Grace Coddington or French Vogue ex-editor Carine Roitfeld – are stylists rather than writers. Styling is the traditional way into magazines, and it’s the main part of the

job for most of the fashion desk, from the interns through to the assistants, the editors and directors. As well as putting together shopping pages, makeovers and get-the-look

pieces, the fashion team are responsible for ‘main fashion’ – the big shoots that go in the well (the middle) of the magazine. Styling for magazines, newspapers and websites is called editorial styling,

which is prestigious but not always brilliantly paid. The money lies in commercial styling – celebrities, catwalk shows, advertising campaigns, lookbooks and catalogues – and many stylists aim to do both. It’s a profession that’s very visible and popular now, but that hasn’t always

been the case. Anna Wintour was one of the first editors to credit stylists on a shoot, along with photographers and models, when she took over at US Vogue in 1988. ‘Until that point, fashion editors were neither seen nor heard of,’ she writes

(in MacSweeney, 2012), though in the UK, style magazines had brought particular stylists (like Ray Petri and his trademark Buffalo look) to the fore in the 1980s. Twenty-five years later, the stylists themselves were public figures, snapped

by photographers and bloggers at the shows, giving interviews and working with brands. ‘Today these fashion editors are no longer simply creating fashion images, they are themselves the living image of fashion,’ writes Purple editor-in-chief Olivier Zahm (in Roitfeld, 2011: 5). But what a stylist’s job actually involves is not so visible. At the most basic

level, they select clothes and accessories for shoots. Depending on where they work, they might also have to organise, cast, produce and direct the shoot. And yet it’s more than that still. By editing a collection of clothes they

think is important that season, and putting them together in a particular way,

in a particular setting, with particular models and a particular mood, they are ‘making the clothes part of a bigger story’, says fashion journalist Sarah Mower. ‘The best of their work has the power to transcend fashion trends, and to

reflect something symbolic, joyful or, on occasion, chilling about the times we live in,’ Mower adds, in a foreword to her book Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion (2007: VII). This chapter will start by looking at this bigger picture – what a fashion

photograph can do beyond documenting the latest trends. It will then go into the practicalities of what a stylist does, from coming up

with ideas for fashion stories, planning them and calling in clothes to ensuring all goes well on the day of the shoot itself. It will explore briefly what’s involved with commercial styling, and ask

how would-be stylists can develop their visual eye and learn practical skills. Finally, it will look at some of the issues surrounding fashion imagery,

including airbrushing, diversity and advertising.