MUSIC VIDEO STYLIST, how to get started-I lived in San Francisco for a year and developed a love for vintage and particularly scouring the thrift stores for one-off, unique garment, whilst Zoe was studying Fashion and Design at Edinburgh College of Art and subsequently used vintage styles as her inspiration behind her final year collection. Also both of us worked in fashion retail during university and after graduating and often talked about going into business together. Styling was something that both of us had dappled in throughout uni through helping friends out at photoshoots etc. So bringing our skills together from retail, fashion, design and styling seemed like an obvious choice. Getting older! We knew that we would need a start-up fund to get us off the ground and to buy things like a camera lighting equipment and a laptop and found out that the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT) could offer a very low interest loan if we submitted a sound business plan and did our research. The catch being that you have to be 26 and under, so it was now or never! Having worked in retail management for two long not very inspiring years, we knew we would have regretted not trying out our own business venture. It made sense to put all the hard work into our own creation, not somebody else’s. Also it was a chance to do something that you love each day and plus, making all the hard work seem a hundred times more worthwhile. Education and talent is of course very important but experience is essential – you just won’t get anywhere fast without it! We started off styling purely for the experience and not the money even if it meant just being able to watch people at work – if you get that under your belt, you’re ten steps ahead of your competitors (of which there’s many in this industry)! You don’t have to have weeks and weeks of work experience (it’s not feasible for the majority of us to work for free) but even if it’s just a day here or there with a variety of different people and organisations then it sets you apart. A huge variety of different jobs-some lots of fun and some not so exciting!! Buying stock and styling essentials and props, customising stock, photographing in the studio, designing, researching current trends, updating our website and uploading stock to our on-line store, planning, resourcing and styling for shoots and events and of course the essential but dull book-keeping and tax returns…. Generally the good far out ways the bad! To start VN? There’s a lovely, talented girl called Shae Acopian Detar who used to run a fabulous vintage on-line shop in the States, and is now is a photographer and stylist, with a brilliant blog. Her work embodies so much of what we want to achieve at Vi Nouveau that we couldn’t help but mention her. Also Vintage clothing is of course a huge inspiration – covering so many eras and styles in fashion and design. Designers? Peter Jensen for that cookie girlie look, Miu Miu’s playful, yet wearable fashion lines, Vivienne Westwood and for her incredible cut and shape of clothing, John Galliano for theatrical collections, Prada for the rich, lavish colours and textures of fabrics-each designer contributes to a wonderful world of fashion happiness!! Get into styling? Working in retail, one of the main focuses was to merchandise the shop floor and install window displays. This puts you in really good stead for styling successfully – you learn what goes with what, what looks suit different people and how far you can push and be creative with things. Obviously having a passion for clothing is a must and using your creative energies to really experiment and try new things…. We work well together as I tend to be slightly more reserved and Zoe goes all out – so the balance we strike somewhere in the middle seems to work well for us. Our first styling job was for Charlie Miller Hair. We worked with them on their awards night and were asked to style the models from a vogue inspired shoot, which involved an abundance of lace, tulle layered skirts in a variety of candy colours – complimenting the hair beautifully. Since then we have been asked back to style the models for their L’Oreal show-case. We have worked for a lovely pair of young directors Lucy Ball and Lee Archer who run a music film and video production company called BSFilms(brazilliantsneeks.co.uk). We have worked with them on several music videos and hope to work with them again in the future. We love the styling for Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs-a very daring and flamboyant mix where fashion meets art. The same can be said of The Kills ‘Cheap and Cheerful’ is a personal favourite. The styling behind Lisa Mitchell videos are very strong too. ‘Oh! Hark!’ in particular which has a touch of magical wistfulness about it. Bat for Lashes music videos are also very inspirational. Creativity (and getting the balance between this and fashion spot on), organisation, predicting trends, resourcefulness, imagination, multi-tasking and listening effectively to the client’s needs. The fact it’s so varied and interesting.Each job is completely unique and different so there’s no time for boredom and each job is a challenge. We get to meet amazing people from all walks of life-photographers, models, creative’s, directors, actors, hairdressers and make-up artists. Vogue’s front page will tell you that modern craft is in- anything with crochet, or that’s been knitted or appliquéd, with tassels or feathers is a big spring 2011 trend. At Vi nouveau we like to incorporate trend to our lines to ensure that we keep up with customer demand. Gone are the days when vintage was dated and frumpy!! So expect that our lines will be looking as fresh as those from the catwalk! One of our main challenges is trying to do too much at once! We’ve learned that you are much better to do one or two projects well than doing ten things not so well, cutting corners and trying to please everyone. We have so many ideas about projects we would like to take on in the future (a vintage-inspired dress line, customised vintage jewellery etc etc) and hopefully as we develop our styling service and vintage store to the standard we want to achieve we can expand but at the moment it’s one step at a time!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 16:18:59 +0000
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