A few weeks back we held our first ever School of Style ‘Portfolio Class’ with SOS students Jennifer, Myranda, and Pei.

Our Portfolio Class is a brand new School of Style class and will be available to everyone in early 2010 (right now the registration is by invitation only). This class allows aspiring stylists to start building their stylists portfolios. School of Style provides the clothes, the location, the models, and the photographer. The students provide the styling. By the end of the ‘Portfolio Class’ students will learn what it’s like to work a job and will leave with 3-4 images for their portfolio.

Here are some photos from our first class, which in our opinion went really well! We had a ton of fun and we were blown away at how talented our SOS students were when it came to styling outfits.

Be sure to check our website often for updates on ‘Portfolio Class’ registration.

Last Saturday we had an excellent Day 3 class in Venice with SOS student Samantha and photographer Sinisha. The shoot involved being outside in the cold for hours and hours but it was totally worth it. Check out the photos …

Last Sunday we had a really fun Day 3 class with SOS student Jewell and photographer Eric LaCour. Check it …

SOS student Jewell posing with an amazing fur coat

As a special holiday promotion, School of Style is giving everyone who signs up for classes in December, 20% off. All you have to do is head to www.theschoolofstyle.com, sign up for the class package of your choice, and enter the promo code “HOLIDAY” at checkout.

Hope to see you in class! The next Day 1 class is December 20th at Smashbox Studios from 11am-8pm

Luke showing SOS Assistant how it’s done!

When your job involves working with clothing, you are going to run into wrinkles every now and again. What’s a stylist/ assistant stylist/ intern to do? Well you certainly aren’t going to break out the ironing board (do people still use those?) you are going to break out your steamer, that’s what!

Using a steamer isn’t brain surgery or anything but there are a few little tips that SOS Assistant can hook you up with to make your life behind the steamer a little bit easier:

Tip #1- Make sure the steamer is the first thing you unpack and set up when you get on set. Fill that thing up with water, plug it in, and get it heated up. Your key stylist will give you the stink eye if he or she needs something steamed and the steamer isn’t ready.

Tip #2- Be mindful of what you are steaming. If you are steaming a garment that is made of silk or satin and a water mark would show and f things up, then you are going to need to do one of two things: steam very carefully (that never works) or put a sock over the steamer to catch any excess water.

Tip #3- Make sure you pack up the steamer properly. When you are through with the steamer, pour out the water in the bottle (duh) and turn the whole thing upside down and shake it until its dry. No one wants a leaky steamer in their car.

That’s all for now. Three simple steamer related tips that will help keep your key stylist nice and happy!

Time for some more lessons in assistant styling from SOS Assistant!! Remember yesterday how we discussed taking photos of the jewelry you use on set? Well today we are going to school you on taking photos for credits.

Credits are the small print found on the top or bottom corner of an editorial that describes that the model is wearing. It’s the assistant stylists job (usually) to keep notes on what is used in each outfit. It’s a pretty important task and it’s key that you do it on set because after everything wraps the chances of you remembering what you used decreases.

So here is how it’s done …

1.) Take a photo of the model in the outfit. Make sure the model is standing like a normal human being. No America’s Next Top Model poses are necessary — they are actually quite distracting.

2.) Number the look. This depends on what type of camera you use. If you use a Polaroid camera, you can just write the look number right on the photo. If you are using a digital camera, you can have the model hold up a card with the look number written on it.

3.) Write the look number and the garments used in a notebook. When recording the garments used, SOS Assistant likes to describe the piece, jot down the clothing label, and where the garment came from (store, showroom, etc)

4.) Get all the info together in one place. Post shoot, SOS Assistant runs home to her MacBook, types up the credits, and inserts the images right there next to the credits. After everything is typed up, she files it away until its ready to be used.

And that’s all folks! Hope those two lessons were enough to hammer into your heads the importance of carrying a camera with you on the job.

Until next time …

- SOS Assistant

On Sunday, December 13th Cynthia Vincent will be selling one of a kind pieces, that can only be found at her sweet little pop-up shop on Sunset. I know its the dead of winter and all but there will also be a Coolhaus ice cream truck on site. Oh and the ice cream is totally free if you help out a child in need by bringing in an unwrapped toy. Pretty sweet.

Chic Little Devil is having a sample sale this Thurs-Sunday, all details are below! Apparently their last one was insane (we missed it), so be sure to come early for the best stuff.