When you work a job as an assistant stylist (even as a stylist) it’s like you are getting paid to be on an 10+ hour job interview. You’ve gotta work to impress the key stylist if you ever want he/she to hire you again. If you are terror of an assistant, then you can guarantee that you won’t work with that stylist again. Heck, you may even ruin your rep with other stylist too. No BS.

So here are a couple of rules to live by when you are working as an assistant stylist:

Rule #1- Shut the f%&* up! For real. BE QUIET on set. No one really cares about your opinion, unless of course they ask you for it. Stay quiet and do what you are told. Remember, you are the assistant here.

Rule #2- Stay off your phone. Nothing says “lazy ass” like an assistant who is constantly texting and yacking on their phone. Stay off of it. Whatever your boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend or whoever has to say can wait … you are at work, dang-it!

Rule #3- Be professional. Working a stylist job isn’t like working an office job. You don’t have to dress up all dorky, and unlike an office, the environment is often chaotic and noisy. BUT you can’t let that stuff trick you into thinking its cool to be slack. Its not cool. You are at work, so act like it. Be professional at all times. There is no room for silly flirty, horsing around, and all that other crap.

So there are the rules/SOS Assistant’s heavy dose of tough love! There aren’t many rules but they are all super important if you want to work in this town ;) Learn em, live em, and learn em some more.

Peaces,

SOS Assistant

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

When you are on a job, you really need to have a digital camera handy for a number of reasons:

Reason #1- To take photos for credits

Reason #2- To keep track of the items (specifically jewelry) that were pulled for that particular job

Reason #3- To capture the magic of the job itself :)

All three are important reasons but today, SOS Assistant is focusing on reason #2 … keeping track of the jewelry that was pulled for the shoot.

Why take pictures of the jewelry? Well because jewelry is small and can be misplaced/lost if you aren’t careful. Also jewelry can be pretty darn expensive and losing that means losing money. Not good. So here is what you need to do to keep track of your jewelry and to be the perfect assistant stylist that key stylists just love …

TAKE PICTURES!!! Once you unpack the jewelry, take photos of everything. SOS Assistant likes to take a few different types of photos. Type one is from each individual place you pulled from. For example if you pulled from Showroom Seven and they loaned you seven pieces of jewelry, take a picture of all seven images together in one photo. Repeat that process for each place you pulled from. Then, for the second type of photo, SOS Assistant likes to take a photo of all of the jewelry together in one picture.

These photos will come in handy when you are checking items back in after the job wraps. Its a simple little task that goes a long way. Trust.

Here is an example of what SOS Assistant is talking about:

Photo type #1- From one location (showroom, store, etc)

Photo type #2- From all locations (every single piece of jewelry on that job)

** Side note ** DO NOT be a foolio and have a sheet of paper lying over top of the jewelry. Lucky for SOS Assistant she has x-ray vision and knows exactly what is under there ;)

The other day we had some returns to do. We started on Tuesday but ran out of time and they spilled over into Wednesday. Not a big deal … usually. However, this past Wednesday was the day before Thanksgiving and a lot of offices close early on that particular day. This of course taught SOS Assistant a good lesson in doing returns: Call before you come!

Making a quick call before you head over to a PR firm, a showroom, designer’s house, etc is a small task that can save you a lot time. SOS Assistant lost time and gas money AND arm strength after schlepping 50 million garment bags down the streets of LA only to find that her return spots were closed.

Another great phone related lesson (especially for peeps with iPhones) … save all of your return spots to your phone. Save their numbers, names, email address, and psychical addresses. Major time saver. Trust.

All of that time spent in your car is pretty cool, if you are prepared of course. When SOS assistant started she wasn’t fully prepared for all of this car business. We all know about the time she got towed but you probably don’t know about the time she went into full on panic mode because her beloved iPhone dwindled down to 10% battery power.  Or the fact that the 10% battery debacle almost resulted in her losing Google Maps (SOS assistant really should have had a GPS system in her car that day).

The instances above are just a few pieces of drama that could occur in your car if you aren’t prepared. School of Style wants you to be prepared at all times. So here is SOS assistant’s ‘Assistant Stylist Survival Guide: Road Edition’ for you to check out.

1.) GPS- For finding your way around town. You never know where your key stylists is going to send you and chances are you won’t know how to get there (at first). Trust us, you need one of these!

2.) Phone with email- You MUST be available at all times. ALL TIMES. So you’d better have yourself an iPhone or Blackberry or you are pretty much useless (harsh but true).

3.) A car charger for you phone- You will be using your cell phone all throughout the day. The battery will be drained by the middle of the day if you don’t keep it juiced. Get a car charger, it will be money well spent.

4.) Some good tunes- Plug in your iPod or get a hefty stack of CDs because you will want the entertainment while you are cruising the streets.

5.) Sunglasses- The last thing you want is the sun burning your eyes out while you are driving. Its distracting and its not good for you eyes. Keep a pair of shades in your car. Added bonus = you will look cool. Hehe.

6.) Healthy snacks- The worst thing about driving around all day is realizing it’s 4:00 and you haven’t had lunch yet. Don’t let the siren call of the nearest fast food chain woo you. Keep something healthy in your car for when starvation hits.

Those are just a few basic survival techniques for being a stylist on the road. Learn them. Live them. Love them.

It’s time for another exciting installment of Assistant Stylist 101!! A new little section that follows SOS’s assistant stylist through her day to day tasks. Today’s post is all about shopping and shoes. Those two words sound nice together don’t they? As stylists we love both words. However when you are shopping as a stylist those two words get a bit hairy when you put them together. Let us explain …

When you shop as a stylist (an assistant stylist to be exact) you are shopping not “shopping”. “Shopping” is a leisurely activity that you do with your girlfriends — you drink coffee, laugh, and dress all cute. Shopping, as an assistant stylist, is a full on physical activity. With any full on physical activity, some sort of uniform is a necessity. In this case it’s comfortable shoes (see how we bolded that one for emphasis), sunglasses, and clothes that aren’t constricting or overly ridiculous. Some people call that type of uniform “comfortable” attire.

Well our trusty SOS assistant got the memo a while back but clearly refuses to follow it. Today she wore 4 inch heels for 8+ hours of shopping. Lets just say, her feet aren’t exactly pleased with her right now. Our advice to you assistant stylist out there that don’t want to suffer (SOS assistant really does want to suffer in the name of fashion, silly girl) is to …

WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES!! You will be carrying a ton of heavy garment bags and you will be walking a lot. Trust us on this one. We tend to know what we are talking about.

One of the many roles of an assistant stylist is doing pick ups. A pick up happens after the key stylist pulls the looks from the store, showroom, etc.  After the looks are pulled, the assistant stylist waits patiently for everything to be packed up and then loads it all up in his or her car. It’s a simple process really — pull, wait, pack, and drive to the next spot.

Simple, most of the time. Today we had a fun little experience when SOS’s trusty assistant walked out of an LA PR firm with an armload of clothes, only to find that her car had been towed. Yep, towed. Pouf, gone, and moved to another location. Rut roh.

All ended well but let this be a lesson, not only to assistant stylists but to all people who drive and enjoy seeing their cars when they get back: Read the signs and read them carefully!!! LOL!