Fashion Stylists

History, Meaning and Practice

Ane Lynge-Jorlen, Ane Lynge-Jorlén

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781350115071
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

Stylists have become increasingly influential in shaping fashion imagery. They have moved from the backstage, as unrecognised players, to the frontstage of fashion, becoming celebrated for their creative work as image makers for magazines, advertising and fashion designers. Yet little is known about the profession, its diverse incarnations and its aesthetic economy. Featuring contributions from leading experts and stylists, this collection is the first to explore the history, meaning and practice of fashion styling through interviews and historic and present-day case studies. Featuring in-depth contributions from prominent fashion scholars, chapters span historical periods, cultural contexts and theoretical frameworks, employing a range of methodologies in the international case studies upon which they're based. Interspersed with interviews with innovative fashion stylists working today, and drawing on examples from advertising, the catwalk and magazines, this book explores the challenges faced by stylists in a fashion system increasingly shaped by commercial pressures and by growing numbers of collections and seasons. Fashion Stylists is an invaluable resource for students and professionals interested in image-making, the representation of style and fashion, entrepreneurship and the history of fashion professionals.

Part One

History and Profession of the Stylist within and beyond Magazines

1

Stylist: Etymology and History of a Role

Philip Clarke

Introduction

The fashion stylist, an occupation primarily based on that of the magazine fashion editor, achieved recognition as a distinct freelance role in the 1980s. Although similar roles had existed previously, the legitimation of styling as an occupation is said to have coincided with the advent of British, independent ‘style press’ publications and, in broader terms, with a heightened awareness of the currency of stylistic difference in postmodern culture. The Oxford English Dictionary 2017 definition of a ‘stylist’ is:

A person hired to advise on clothing, accessories, hairstyle, etc., either in a specific context (such as a photo shoot, film, etc.) or for a particular person (usually a celebrity).

The remit of the contemporary stylist extends beyond the fields of fashion, clothing or body adornment. Stylists now work within, or across, a variety of disciplines; for example, there are those that specialize in interior decoration or the photography of food. On a practical level, a stylist is responsible for sourcing, collecting and selecting the items that will be presented in a photographic image, performance or event. In more abstract terms, a stylist could be framed as a cultural intermediary; they operate at the interstice of fashion, commerce and communication and act as gatekeepers in the production of taste (Bourdieu 2010; Kawamura 2006; Lynge-Jorlén 2016).

This chapter offers an etymology of the term ‘stylist’ and examines its adoption within the context of fashion editorial and advertising photography. Etymological research is supported with analysis of British fashion editorial content and data from oral history interviews with stylists and fashion editors and their peers, collated as part of a doctoral research project (carried out at Middlesex University). In total, sixteen interviews were conducted; with people who had largely worked as freelance stylists in the 1980s, such as Mitzi Lorenz, Paul Frecker, Simon Foxton and Zee Shore, and those who had also fulfilled roles as fashion editors – Caroline Baker, Caryn Franklin, Debbi Mason, Sarah Miller and Iain R. Webb (see figure 1). The photographers Mark Lebon and Roger Charity, art director Robin Derrick and agent Ziggi Golding, provided the perspective of collaborator or co-worker. In addition, those who lived and socialized with stylists, such as the milliner Stephen Jones and DJ Jeffrey Hinton, described the social context and creative scene of London at that time.

Figure 1 ‘Old Favourites’. Photography: Robert Ogilvie. Fashion editor: Iain R. Webb. Blitz, January 1987. Courtesy of Iain R. Webb/Robert Ogilvie.

An etymology of ‘style’

All style-related words are ultimately descended from terms that describe objects used for pointing and for etching or engraving; Partridge (1958) lists the derivatives of style (‘stylish’, ‘stylist’, ‘stylistic’, ‘stylize’) under the noun ‘stick’. Onions’ Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966) includes the first known uses of each term or adopted meaning of those terms; he recognizes that style is a derivative of ‘stylus’ and states that its first use in a transferred sense (i.e. closer to the version of style we commonly use in current English) is in eighth-century Latin: ‘stilum vertere’, meaning to change the subject.

A direct link to the word’s relation to etching or writing tools is later used in the fields of literature; it is likely that these applications of the term have led to its wider association with other creative or artistic pursuits. Style has since been employed to mean the ‘manner’ or ‘fashion’ of a range of things, being applied to actions or behaviour, to art, design, dress, hair, architecture or typography. Definitions in the Collins English Dictionary (2017) include this sense of the noun but also ‘elegance, taste, chic, flair’; to have ‘style’ is to express good taste in the way that one dresses or comports oneself. The use of style interchangeably with the word fashion dates from the fifteenth century. Kawamura defines the difference between the two interrelated terms:

As synonyms of the word ‘fashion’, words such as mode, style, vogue, trend, look, taste, fad, rage and craze are mentioned, although there are slight differences in their meanings. ‘Style’ is sometimes the equivalent of fashion but also denotes conformity to a prevalent standard while ‘vogue’ suggests the temporary popularity of a certain fashion. Therefore, it seems agreed that fashion is never fixed and ever-changing.

2006: 3

The word ‘stylist’, as a derivative of ‘style’, has been employed in many contexts and across a range of fields, some linked to fashion and clothing and others, such as sport, not linked to artistic practices or modes of cultural production.

The stylist through history

The first use of the term ‘stylist’ is noted by the Oxford English Dictionary historical thesaurus as being used by W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. (1795). The first definitions relate to literature, a stylist being ‘a writer who is skilled in or cultivates the art of literary style’. Consequently, the analytical field of ‘stylistics’ is a study of style in language and literature.

‘Stylist’ was first used in a context beyond that of literary style in the fields of sport and music; someone who ‘plays with style’ is classed as a stylist. This is supported by definitions in the Collins English Dictionary online; its first use in connection with musical flair is credited as 1969 in Listener magazine, relating to a clarinettist. The British Library catalogue includes series of musical recordings, featuring popular American and British musicians, who are collectively labelled as ‘song stylists’.

Collins currently lists a stylist as someone who pays ‘a lot of attention to the way that they write, say, or do, something so that it is attractive and elegant’; or, in a specifically British context, as ‘a person who performs, writes, or acts with attention to style’. The use of the term to refer to someone who maintains an interest in current cultural trends can be traced as far back as the beginning of the last century: as early as 1905, an early version of a lifestyle publication entitled The Stylist presented editorial features on ‘new designs and styles’ to a readership of consumers of fashionable clothing and home decor. In a different context but similarly describing a person who ‘has style’ or ‘is stylish’, the term was adopted within the Modernist (or Mod) subculture from the mid 1960s onwards. Richard Barnes claims that the terms ‘Stylist’ and ‘Individualist’ were adopted by the original Mods who wanted to ‘differentiate themselves’ from the more generic, popular forms of Mod that they had seen emerging in the suburbs and provinces (1979: 122).

A further use of stylist in the context of tailoring, linked more closely with design and construction of items of clothing, is consistent with uses of the terms ‘styliste’, in French, and ‘stilista’ in Italian (Volonté 2008) where the terms translate as ‘fashion designer’. The first example of the term being used to describe a similar role to that of the contemporary fashion stylist is that of Taubé Coller. A magazine article printed in the US publication Delineator claims that in 1917 Coller was the first person within the fashion industry to label herself as a stylist; her expertise is defined in the article as ‘someone who knows from experience, better than anyone else, what styles you are going to like best and what will be most useful to you’ (Anon 1937: 24). It would appear that she operated predominantly as a brand consultant, acting as a cultural intermediary or style influencer, in way that is consistent with the current definition of the role.

The value of style as a marker of cultural capital, and its role in differentiating the quality and desirability of a product, has been referenced as a postmodern phenomenon during the latter part of the twentieth century (Adamson and Pavitt 2011; Bauman 1992; Bourdieu 2010). However, the importance of a distinct aesthetic in the marketing of products was also clearly acknowledged by certain manufacturers in the first part of the century, as industrialization contributed to increased production of commodities. The term ‘styling’ was primarily used in this context in the field of car design. General Motors and Ford were competitors and ‘stylists’ were employed by the former to gain the upper hand over Ford, who continued to favour function over the shape and decoration of the car. GM’s Art and Colour team, founded in the 1920s, later changed its name to the Styling Staff (Gartman 1994). The stylist’s job was to adapt the design of otherwise mechanically identical, mass-produced cars to create individualized products, generating successions of new and varied designs that appealed to an increasingly style-conscious consumer.

Promotional material produced by General Motors in Britain in the 1950s pinpoints 1927 as the ‘beginning of modern automotive styling as we know it’ (1955: 37). It describes the occupation as analogous to that of the industrial designer. The debate around style in the early part of the last century was linked to advances in manufacturing processes, such as the pressing of steel in vehicle production (Hebdige 1988). The General Motors promotional material makes a point of highlighting the commercial awareness of the stylist and also their knowl...