Happy Holidays!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate that holiday) and here’s to a fantastic new year!
It’s been an amazing year for me and I can’t express how grateful I am to all of you, especially my students. I have never cried in front of a class but this past semester my fashion styling students brought me to tears. Your kind words were too much for my little heart to bear ♥!
This class was such a hit, the department chair has asked me to teach it again in the spring (it is usually only offered once a year), and it is already filling up fast. I’m allowed to take 59 students and last time I checked I was already at 52 (FASH 54A – Beginning Fashion Styling).
I will also be teaching visual merchandising again this spring. This class is also filling up fast, with a class cap at 59, my current enrollment is 47 (FASH 49 – Visual Merchandising). If you are new to this blog, these classes are offered in the Fashion Department at City College of San Francisco, as part of the Fashion Merchandising degree of Fashion Styling certificate.
I know I don’t post as often as I should around here, work does take a huge amount of my time…I do post on my tumblr daily. It’s called the Fashion Teacher. I’m fairly new to tumblr and had no idea I would become so addicted to it, even more so than my Pinterest. I guess it makes sense, we are after all very visual people and tumblr allows us to express that quite easily.
Wishing you the VERY BEST in 2013!
A mannequin Christmas tree!
FASH 54A: A fashion editorial from an advanced student
Here’s a final class project from one of my former students in the advanced fashion styling class (FASH 54B).
The title of this editorial is called “Fallen Angels”. Her concept/mood board is based on the movie SEVEN, thus this editorial features the seven deadly sins. Her target market is Rolling Stone Magazine. She wanted this fashion spread to be dark and edgy. She did all the location scouting, model casting, fashion styling and pre/post production herself. She did hire a team for hair/MUA and photography, and she had friend write poems to go along with each sin.
Angela I am so proud of you and I think you did a wonderful job on this!
Fallen Angels
Wrath
Greed
Sloth
Pride
Lust
Envy
Gluttony
Special Thanks to her team:
- Freelance Photographer: Carlos Chavarria
- Graphic designer: Carla San Roman
- Poet: Melissa Owen
- Makeup artist and hairstylist: Megan Landry
- Models: Sarah Baraka and Malcolm Moore
- Location: Kozy Kar (1548 Polk St, San Francisco CA)
- Special thanks go to Matty Knuth (Kozy Kar’s GM)
[FASH 54A] – A Little History of Fashion Styling
History was my concentration in college for my degree which is why I love to read and research. Fashion styling is a somewhat new career title which made me very curious to research the history of it and find out how it all began. Here’s the synopsis of my Powerpoint lecture from class:
The History of Fashion Styling:
The first stylists were editors who worked exclusively for fashion magazines. They “edit” the clothing and fashion pages, and they chose the designers to be featured in the magazine. Under the direction of the editor, there was the photographer and model. It was not uncommon in the 60s for models to do their own hair and make-up, as well as provide their own accessories for photo shoots.
It was during the 80s the first freelance stylists appeared. New magazines appeared which did not have a permanent fashion staff, which gave freelance stylists the chance to showcase their talents without being tied to one magazine.
Ray Petri:
Ray Petri is thought by MANY to be the first stylist. He was well known in the 80s for his Buffalo style, an eclectic mix of urban, ethnic, sportswear, and high fashion. He used real people in photos instead of models and people of mixed race. He oversaw and did everything on the creation of a photo, except take the actual picture!
“Petri was a fashion stylist long before this was a coveted job description. Indeed, in the early 80s, selecting and arranging clothes on models was still known, if it was known at all, as ‘fashion editing’, but he was an instinctive stylist, using his visual flair and magpie intelligence to produce elegant, unfussy and invariably sensual images of timeless modernity.”
The Observer, September 2000
Unlike stylists of today Petri did not live long enough to become rich, or even celebrated, the way we idolize those today. But his influence is still felt and he even 20 years after his death he is STILL regarded as the king! There was a time when stylists were all but invisible to the world beyond fashion’s inner circle. But a growing shift in the fashion industry has given license to a special breed of visionaries, who are not only the interpreters of fashion but oftentimes the originators.
(research sources – Styling by McAssey and Buckley, Stylists by Katie Barron)
JCrew installed at Lane Crawford
I recently started a Tumblr blog- nothing fancy, just a place to post random images I like (as if pinterest wasn’t enough!). It’s called The Fashion Teacher – Tumblr makes you sign up for an account when you want to follow others – hence why I have one. I follow a bunch of fashion blogs on various sites, and can spend the greater part of a morning browsing through all of them. JCrew is one of the sites I follow, which is how I came across this cool story on the displays they did for their new store within the Lane Crawford Department store in Beijing and Hong Kong:
—APPLIED ARTS—
For the visual displays that appear inside specialty shop Lane Crawford, our head of creative services, Ruth, was inspired by a toile-style wallpaper she’d first seen inside the historic building at 50 Hudson Street (now the J.Crew Ludlow Shop) in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood. From there, the design team riffed on the idea and decided to create a life-size cityscape inspired by J.Crew flagships throughout Manhattan to serve as a fanciful backdrop for the clothing on display.
—DIFFERENT STROKES—
The store design team, which includes Brandon and his assistant, Ellie, created the initial miniature renderings (which remind us of the dioramas we created in grade school) using reference images of the storefronts and architectural blueprints. Brandon and Ellie then turned their workspace into an artist’s studio, spending several weeks filling in the illustrations—which were anywhere from 6 to 9½ feet tall—by hand, using watercolor paint.
—FLORA AND FAUNA—
As part of the display, Ellie collaborated with artist Rebekah Maysles to create spot illustrations of various plants and animals one may encounter in Manhattan, including mice. (“But cute ones!” Ellie insisted.)
—PICTURE-PERFECT—
Ruth, Brandon and Ellie traveled to Hong Kong in advance of the opening of J.Crew at Lane Crawford to install the larger-than-life displays, which were shipped over in gigantic crates, to outfit the 2,700-square-foot retail space. The team worked through the night to ensure the display was properly placed to create a playful cityscape effect reminiscent of the Manhattan skyline.
[FASH 54A]: Top Fashion Stylists
When asked to name a fashion stylist they admire a large majority of us say Rachel Zoe, and it’s not necessarily because they admire her only because they have heard of her. She has in fact popularized the profession with her TV show and styling of red carpet celebs, but did you know there are many others out there whose work you’ve seen over and over again and just never really paid attention to who styled that look?
My students were assigned a paper on a fashion stylist they truly admire and why. This was to get them to open their eyes to the fact that Rachel Zoe isn’t the only name in the game, and once you compare her to others you begin to recognize what a one trick pony she is. She has one aesthetic and sticks to hit – constantly! I guess if it aint’ broke don’t fix it, but as a stylist whose job description is to inspire individuals on what they CAN do; sticking to one look can get very boring, very fast.
Here are the top stylists my students wrote about in order of popularity:
Grace Coddington – no surprise here, she’s amazing!
Creative Director for American Vogue. Top Model in the 60s. Became a British Vogue editor in 1969, came to NYC in 1987 to become a Design Director with Calvin Klein, followed by joining American Vogue in 1988, the same day that Anna Wintour, who gave her the job started.
Anna Dello Russo – a fashion maverick!
Studied art history in Milan, completed an MA in fashion before becoming an Accessories Editor at Vogue. In 2000 she became EIC of L’Uomo Vogue for six years before venturing off to where she is today, Editor-at-Large of Vogue Nippon, and a fashion consultant.
(I decided it was more fun to post photos of ADR, than her work!)
Giovanna Battaglia – my FAVORITE!!!!
Former model with Dolce and Gabbana, now an Editor at L’Uomo Vogue, a Contributing Editor at W, and freelance stylist. She can do no wrong in my eyes and her personal style is off the charts!
Nicola Formichetti – where would Lady Gaga be without him!
A fashion collaborator for Lady Gaga, the Creative Director for Thierry Mugler, and Contributing Fashion Editor for V Magazine, Dazed & Confused, and Vogue Homme Japan.
Edward Enninful – brought new life into W’s editorials!
Became the youngest ever Fashion Director at 18 with i-D Magazine. Former Editor to Italian Vogue, spearheaded the “all black” Italian issue. Currently the Fashion and Style Director at W.
Katie Grand – a true stylist in every sense of the word!
Studied at Central St. Martins, and began styling for Dazed & Confused in the 90s when the magazine was still new. Became the Fashion Director of The Face magazine and later the Editor-in-Chief of POP magazine. She has styled numerous photo shoots and shows.
I’m quite proud of my students and this list they came up with, grant it there were many more stylists listed such as Judy Blame, Melanie Ward, Camille Bidault-Waddington, even Brad Goreski, but these were the top six amongst a class of 60 students. This list is a recognition of those who inspire us in fashion with what we can do and not what we should do.
(images via various sites)
[FASH 54A] Book Review: Style Yourself
Two weeks ago in class I lectured on fashion research and documenting your ideas with mood boards. The main point of the lecture was getting you to recognize how important it is for you to be able to speak with a fashion vocabulary. Being a stylist comes with a lot of assumptions, the big one being, you know your stuff about fashion!!! Most of us do, as we have been obsessing over fashion magazines since we first learned to read, for me it was getting my dad to get me a subscription to the magazine Young Miss (YM) when I was only nine years old!
I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to learn the names and meanings of the parts of a garment. If your boss tells you to pull blouses with portrait necklines or look for shirts with french cuffs, do you know what she’s talking about? If not, you need to learn. Which is why I’m recommending the book Style Yourself.
This book is really not that new, it was published over a year ago, and I thought it was a how-to book for teenage girls on dressing. The models and stories are all on fashion bloggers. I didn’t pay this book any attention when it was first released. A few weeks ago it ended up in my mailbox as a gift. I finally sat down this weekend and read it. I use the word “read” loosely, as their isn’t much reading because there are so many pictures. Having lots of pictures isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually a plus for a book like this, especially since we fashion folk are very visual.
This book pleasantly surprised me. It is, as I first thought, a how-to for the digital generation, BUT the break down of various parts of a garment make this book a great reference for those who don’t have a merchandising or fashion design background. There are loads of pictures showing you the name and illustration of everything from tops to bottoms, to accessories. The bloggers in the book provide inspiration for how they style these various items.
When I finally put this book down I knew I had to recommend it to my students in class who wish to be stylists or work in fashion, but have told me they don’t know much about it. This is a good jump-start, as I’m sure you’ll realize you know more than you think once you start reading it.
Who I’ve been following…
Since I’m always crunched for time I like having a one stop shop for visual inspiration and I’ve been hooked on Pinterest ever since I joined. It’s perfect for us visual people, and it’s actually a homework assignment for my styling students, for creating mood boards. I follow mostly fashion folk, DIY, and a few foodie boards, but the one visual merchandising board I follow is by Alex Leyva. She never fails to pin great photos of windows or in-store displays that are inspiring and different. Her fashion editorial board is very unique too.
If you have a Pinterest account I would look her up and send me links to your boards too!
A fashion editorial pin:
Do you think they filled an entire room with water to get this shot?
A window display pin:
Urban Outfitters in San Francisco
Class Syllabus – FASH 54A Beginning Fashion Styling
[A more detailed syllabus with the class calendar is handed out in class, this is just a reference for those who lose that!]
Objective: The objective of this course is to give you an introduction to the world of fashion styling – The Fashion Industry’s Unsung Heros. This course will utilize a hands-on approach through lecture, guest speakers, and group projects.
Supplies: During week 3 each student will be given a list of items that every stylist carries in their kit. You will be expected to assemble your kit and bring it to class for grading.
Required Textbook: Photo Stylist by Susan Linnet Cox (written by a really experienced stylist!)
Recommend Reading:
- Stylist – New Fashion Visionaries by Katie Baron – a coffee table book I highly recommend. It’s a compilation of the true who’s who in styling.
- Styling by Jacqueline McAssey and Clare Buckley
- Secrets of Stylists by Sasha Charnin Morrison – for those who aspire to be the next Rachel Zoe or June Ambrose
- Mastering Fashion Styling by Jo Dingemans – written by a teacher with lots of exercises and projects
Attendance: Since some of the assignments for this course are completed in class (group projects), it is important that you attend class! There is no way to make up missed projects. You are allowed two unexcused absences – anymore will affect your grade by a full letter.
Fashion Week – the big 4:
- New York: September 6-13
- London: September 14-18
- Milan: September 19-24
- Paris: September 25-October 3
Assignments: I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE ASSIGNMENTS. You will be given a hand-out explaining each homework assignment and when it is due. I do mark down points for poorly written, and misspelled words. All homework assignments are to be emailed to me on or before the due date. There are five homework assignments.
Group Projects: You will divide into teams of 2-4 (no more than four to a team) for two group assignments.
- The Clothes Off Your Back – be careful what you wear to class this day……. (hint, hint!)
- Advertisement or Fashion Editorial
Exams: There will be no mid-term exam or final exam, but you will be given a mid-term grade based upon your assignments completed to that point, and your final grade is based upon an accumulation of all your work.
Grades: Your grades will be based upon your attendance, class participation (group projects). This class gives a letter grade using the school’s standard grading system.
If you attend class regularly, participate in all discussions and projects you should do very well in this class!
Someday My Prints Will Come
Former student Chelsea W. is doing amazing work at Bloomingdale’s. I now take a special interest and make it a point to pass the mall windows every time I go to the mall, just because I know the young lady who does them!
Thanks for sending this in and please continue to do so!
(love the lips on the faceless mannies and frogs, cute ideas like this are Chelsea’s trademarks)
Welcome Back to School Everybody!
Hello everyone and welcome back. I especially want to say welcome to my FASH 54A students whom I’ve directed to this site for all their class info. FASH 54A is a new class for me this semester – Beginning Fashion Styling. I’m super excited to be teaching this class! I spent practically my whole summer researching and preparing for this program. I hope all 60 (yep I’ve got 60 students!) of you enjoy this class.
This class is not based on your typical textbook theory, but a practical hands-on approach to fashion styling; by the end of the semester you will have a stylist kit assembled, a portfolio with images you created, a directory of the best places to “pull” merchandise, and source props, and the business acumen for working as a freelance stylist. Many of you wrote to me over the summer, telling me you were taking the class because you want to begin working immediately as a stylist; so that’s how I focused the class. You will learn about the different types of photo styling in the various medias, but this class is definitely a “how-to”.
I hope my students from FASH 49 – Visual Merchandising, and other readers interested in visual work will learn something too, in fact I will touch on visual work in this styling class, as you will see styling a mannequin is no different from styling a model. Visual display artists do what stylists do everyday, the only difference is their work isn’t photographed – the skills are very much the same and transferable from one trade to the other. After college my “9-to-5” job was doing display work, but I was repped by an agent for freelance assistant styling work too. Having an agent is great and I recommend it, especially if you live in a small editorial market like me (San Francisco). The freelance work wasn’t as plentiful as New York, LA, or even Chicago.
I hope in the next few weeks to also be making some changes around here. I am hiring another former student who will be upgrading this site and helping me with a new design. I may at that point decide to move FASH 54A to its own blog – the working title I have for that idea is I’m a Stylist. I chose that name because I laugh every time I hear someone say it. I’m not trying to be mean, but now soooo many people say they’re stylists (Thanks Rachel Zoe), it’s become the default career for the fashion industry. Years ago “everyone” was a model, then “everyone” was a designer, nowadays, “everyone” is a stylist :)!
At least at the end of my class you’ll be able to say it and really mean it – welcome back!
I Do Windows 
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