Styling a Fashionable Career

Becoming a Fashion Stylist is grabbing the attention of young fashion enthusiasts. Styling as a career has been around for a long time but is just coming into the spotlight. Before opting for the career, you must know what fashion stylist's entitles. A fashion stylist also referred as Wardrobe Stylist, this line of profession is different from a Costume designer or even Image Consultant both is often confused with styling. For a Costume designer films are the main area of work. 

The traditional job description of a stylist includes selecting correct clothes for editorial features, prints, television, advertising campaigns, movies, music videos, award functions, music concerts or any other public appearance by celebrities. Helping a designer put together a fashion show is also included in their job description. Basically the stylist decides what and how to wear a particular outfit. They collaborate with the designers, hair and makeup artist and create the perfect look.

Fashion, is said to be a tough industry to break into, which is true, the industry demands the best. To be an established stylist a lot of hard work and perseverance is required.

An interest in fashion alone would not suffice; you need to be fashion sensitive. The next step is formal fashion education. Even though you may not sketch or draw designs and are not the one making the decision on which fabric to use, knowledge about the subject is an absolutely necessary. ‘Know the fabrics’ should become one of the many mantras. Fashion business is another critical area that a formal education will provide. 

One way to strength your foundations is to get as many internships as possible. Create styling portfolio showing your creativity and skills. Be up to date with the current trends, this is extremely important. Research and read a lot, this will help in predicting future trends. A stylist has to be flexible to the changing trends and versatile to keep up with the ever changing fashion.

Pearl Shah, Tanya Ghavri and Pernia Qureshi are some of the top fashion stylist of our times. They broke through this touch fashion business making fashion a stylist a hot new profession.

Fashion industry has developed immensely in the recent years leading into new streams and the courses at Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of fashion encompassing every aspect of fashion industry which in turn can help you venture into these new budding areas of fashion confidently.  

Fashion Fusion: Where East Meets West

The Indian fashion industry has grown several fold and is all set to ascend still further, and Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of Fashion organized a never before event where renowned fashion experts came together to discuss just how this change would come about. ‘The Future of Fashion Forum’ was held on 25^th January, 2014 and touched upon several themes relevant to the Indian fashion industry.

Amongst the topics that were discussed, the emergence of luxury brands, growth of fashion retail and significance of e-commerce were hot topics. The event ended on a very stylish note with an exchange on the Influence of Western Silhouettes in the Indian Hemisphere and who better than the styling elite to talk about it! Tanya Ghavri (Celebrity Stylist), Pearl Shah (Fashion Stylist) and Ekta Rajani (Fashion Director of Grazia) graced the stage.  

Right until the turn of the millennium in 2000 there was a sense of east emulating the west. The presence of fashion weeks in our country brought about a change in this thinking and Ekta Rajani believes that the future of contemporary Indian fashion is bright. We are appreciating and loving what we do here and adapting to the global lifestyle instead of looking westward. Tanya Ghavri agrees and adds that there is awareness; people want to know about global fashion for which social media, Bollywood and fashion magazines are popular channels of discovery and exploration. What is beautiful to Ekta is to see a lot of Indian designers using Indian fabric in the western context, thus creating space for these contemporary designers. The fusion of east and west by some leading designers is truly stunning.

Ekta continued by defining the role of a stylist, whose main role lies in expanding upon one’s sense of individuality. People are making an effort to dress and look their best, and this is where a stylist comes into play. A designer will work with a person’s look, whereas a stylist plays with separate elements and helps a person define their own personal sense of style. A stylist puts things into context, contextualizing from the hair to the makeup to the shoes to the right kind of accessories, making sure nothing is overdone.

To Pearl Shah, fashion is closely linked to trade. A stylist has to be versatile, like a Chameleon, changing styles from one to another and yet another depending on what they seek. The advice to young aspirants was to take a year off and do an internship, explore your options and see what works best for you. Style and Fashion are such ubiquitous elements of the society that it is always in a state of evolution and one cannot wait to see what tomorrow’s fashionistas have in store for us!