The Midas Touch

A stylist has to understand the basics of clothes and fashion, more than just being trend-savvy. It goes beyond just dressing up. A background in fashion is a must. One needs to have great vision, attention to detail and originality. Stylists usually work in conjugation with hair and make-up artists, as well as photographers, but they take a final call on what the celebrity will look like. And they are known to achieve nothing less than the spectacular.

There are many different kinds of stylists:

Magazine stylists are responsible for editorial shoots in fashion magazines. Celebrity stylists usually put together clothes for celebrities, mostly just for special events but for some they do the personal clothes as well. Commercial stylists work on shoots for advertising campaigns and TV commercials. Work usually comes to commercial and celebrity stylists thanks to word of mouth and traditional publicity. Magazine stylists can be employed full-time, have year-long contracts with a specific number of shoots to be completed in that time, or hired on a per-shoot basis. Like other fashion professionals, stylists usually work through agencies.

A stylist can start at Rs.10,000 to Rs.15,000 a month assisting an established stylist. With more experience, one can command hourly rates for campaigns, or join a fashion magazine, where salaries are Rs.25,000 to Rs.1.25 lakh per month. Commercial stylists are sometimes put on retainer by TV channels and celebs.

Skills needed:

• Extraordinary aesthetic sense
• Teamwork
• Time management
• Project management
• Ability to lead
• Curiosity about trends
• Networking
• A strong urge to excel
• Tenacity

Qualifications:

Studying fashion can be most beneficial to gain a sense of basics of what constitutes “style” and how one goes about constructing a look. However, one should work with an established stylist to really get a sense of aesthetics and what the market demands. At this stage, one does all of the grunt work i.e. getting clothes from design warehouse, managing schedules of models and other technicians, etc.

Institutes to look for:

London College of Fashion www.fashion.arts.ac.uk

Istituti Callegari, Mumbai www.istituticallegari.in

National Institute of Fashion Technology, www.nift.ac.in

Pearl Academy of Fashion, Delhi www.pearlacademy.com  

Source: click4college