A Day in My Life as a Stylist

Stylists certainly lead a busy life, we are constantly sending emails, or calling people to organise our next project - whether it be a shoot, event or personal consultation. Despite this, it is great to see our hard work come to life and work with groups of talented people to make a vision possible. Every little step counts to accumulate into a final result and it is often all the little details that determine the quality of the final result. A day in my life as a stylist is a busy one, but one that is worth the effort to bring my visions to life.

A project begins with an idea or concept, whether this is an aesthetic or a message you want to convey. The best thing to do when you have a vision in mind is to compile your ideas and create a moodboard, by doing so you give yourself a clear idea of the direction that your shoot is going for. You can easily find images of outfits, hair, makeup, props and backgrounds all over the net to build your moodboard. For my lookbook shoot, Rawhide, I compiled black and white portraits of men shot in studio and a picture of black eyeshadow for makeup.

After creating the moodboard, I had a clear idea of the aesthetic I was looking for, solidifying the tone for the lookbook. I then had to organise the perfect crew for the job. I immediately contacted a photographer to book the studio as soon as possible, then contacted a model. Fortunately, my model was extremely talented and could do hair and makeup to my exact specifications, eliminating the need for a hair and makeup artist.

After organising the perfect crew for the job, my model and I organised a day we could go shopping for the styles I wanted for the lookbook - in my case it was denim and leather. We had to ensure the day we went shopping was not too long prior to the day of the shoot, so we could return the clothes to the stores we purchased them from for a full refund - essentially using them free of charge.

After shopping, it was shoot day. I went to my model’s place to help him pack all the clothes and ensure everything we needed was with us. We headed over to the studio and met up with the photographer and his assistant, while my model was putting on his makeup I told the photographer how I wanted the lights set up and organised the clothes. While shooting, it is important to make sure you take a second to fix up the clothes and style them to your desire. To see how the clothes look from the perspective of the camera, stand behind the photographer to get a rough idea on what angle the image will capture if there is no screen setup displaying the images as they are shot. By doing this, the shoot proceeded smoothly and we had plenty of time to experiment with poses and angles to really capture the tone of the images. As a result, the organisation and my vision came to life and we produced some absolutely amazing shots.