School of Style

Yesterday during our Day 1 class, we learned a very valuable lesson for assistant stylists regarding on set etiquette. Keep your sexy back! In fact, keep your sexy as far back as possible. Let me explain …

A common misconception when it come to working as a wardrobe stylist, is that since you work in fashion you have to look unbelievably fashionable 24 hour a day. Not true. Everyone already knows/assumes that you are into fashion. I mean, duh you work in the industry. So it’s really not necessary to come to work decked out in heels, mini skirts, furs, excessive amounts of jewelry, etc. There are two reasons for this:

Reason #1- Chances are you will be working 10-18 hour days. Let me tell you something, those hours won’t be spent sitting around. You will be WORKING. You will be running around, picking things up, putting things down, schlepping things around … you will be gross by the end of the day. This is a very physical job.

Reason #2- Dressing like a fashionable little tart will piss people off. Even if you can handle carrying around 50lb loads in 6inch heels, chances are people won’t really like you for it. No they won’t be jealous of your brute strength, they will be jealous because you look freaking hot – sexy hot, not sweaty hot. Point is, a lot of the time you will be working with a female key stylist and she doesn’t want her piddly little assistant looking like a walking sex machine. It’s unprofessional and it will bring you the wrong kind of attention, which will ultimately result in you never getting hired again.

With that being said, you are probably wondering “Well, what the heck do I wear to work?” I will put it how my key stylist put it “dress chill”. I translated that into this: take off your six inch heels and put on your patent leather Converse or your Marc Jacobs ballet flats. The outfit I typically wear on set is a pair of flats, skinny jeans, a tee shirt, and a cardigan or leather jacket (if the shoot is outside). I try not to wear too much jewelry. I also avoid excessive makeup- no want wants to stare in the eyes of prostitute-in-training all day.

Over and out …

SOS Assistant

Awe yes, sometimes we stylists need a gentle nudge to remind us of our humble beginnings. I well remember the days of assisting evil stylists who made me tape up the shoes we had borrowed for shoots. I would tape them poorly, and as a result whatever surface the model was walking on would eventually burn through, thus ruining the shoes. Back in the day this was fairly common, and I would always dread having to go report to the the key stylist that my tape up job had failed. I would usually get a good round of verbal abuse, then i would  follow that with an earnest ” sow-wee, it will never happen again”. The good thing about assisting is that when you waste money by mistake, it doesn’t  come out of your pocket (unless you happen to work for a satanic bitch of a stylist). Anyway last week my crew and I had a shoot with a the lovely actress Jayma Mays, and these fine shoes by Report didn’t survive the tape job. Oh well, at least I got to spend my money at Diavolina, one of my favorite stores. Too bad I’m not a size 8 drag queen:)

the damages

the damage