A gigantic orange Birkin bag stands propped up front row centre at the Spring 2007 Ungaro show in Paris. It brushes against the tanned legs of Rachel Zoe, the skinny stylist who picks clothes for the Keiras and Mischas of the world. The tall, lanky uber-stylist L’Wren Scott rushes in and takes her place a few seats down, also in the front row. Now the show can begin.
Backstage at the Cirque d’Hiver for the ultra-romantic Spring 2007 Alexander McQueen collection, Katy England, stylist and muse to the designer, is a whirling dervish of activity. She scoops a bunch of magenta roses from the ground and starts pinning them carefully to a flowing mauve evening gown. When a TV camera moves close to her face, she turns the other way. Old school stylists who aren’t a la Zoe—especially those who prepare a designer’s runway show—are not always at ease in the spotlight. These stylists are helpmates, not celebrities.
But whether they’re behind-the-scenes stars or front-row headline grabbers, stylists are moving out from under fashion’s shadow and into the spotlight. More than ever before, the public knows their names, and, perhaps more importantly, recognizes their work. (Zoe’s stable of young Hollywood lovelies were even termed “Zoebots” because of their trademark uniforms.) Bottom line? Stylists are increasingly recognized as vitally important characters in the high-stakes drama that is the world of style.
“Their way of seeing the world can be very valuable,” says Candy Pratts Price, executive fashion director of Style.com, which just released the landmark book, Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion . “[They're] behind the scenes, focusing, editing, developing styles for ad campaigns, fashion shows and acting as muses to inspire designers.” Aside from a sense of limitless service, a stylist’s power often flows from their intuitive awareness of the au courant, of having a nose for the next hot trends. Says Pratts Price, “What makes up a stylist’s life…contributes to their desirability for the designer.”
Amanda Harlech, the Shropshire-based aristocrat, is among the most venerated of modern stylists. In 1992, she moved on from a 12-year partnership with John Galliano to work with Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel.
“He’s the most challenging person I know,” Harlech says adoringly of Karl Lagerfeld, as she walks backstage at Chanel’s Fall 2007 show. “He’s always giving books, poems to reference and read…and will bounce off ideas off me. This is a man who doesn’t need to be fed ideas; he’s a man with so many himself. He probably needs an ear. I describe myself as a wall that he can hit a ball against, and I will bounce it back. I think the gift I do have is that I can quickly see, assimilate and understand things.”
Backstage at Viktor & Rolf Fall 2007, British stylist Charlotte Stockdale proudly stacks the stage light structures that will be worn by the models during the show as part of an elaborate mise-en-scène concocted by the Dutch duo. Each metallic cage creates its own sound and light universe, with the model in the middle. “The grand ideas [come] from them,” Stockdale says demurely. “I help execute it.”
