Show Styling: Stylists, Welcome To Management by Reemé Idris
SHOW STYLING – STYLISTS, WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT
Have you ever wondered what exactly happens behind the scenes of a buzzing, cameras flashing, wild and hectic catwalk? If you are reading this as an experience-seeking stylist, please let me forewarn you how little styling itself has to do with your potential role as one of the key members of a show team!
As a stylist, there are many points of entry where you may have been asked to be involved in the production of a fashion show. But let’s presume you have total control as head of wardrobe and begin with how you source brands and designers.
If the organizers have left this to your discretion, then you first need to consider your audience, who will benefit from the exposure of this event? You may or may not already have good links with PRs who will be in charge of releasing samples to you; what will help you greatly is to have a short blurb on the show, all the relevant links, information on what you need (number of models, their sizes etc) as well as the details on the confirmed press & media coverage the show will receive, to email over once you’ve spoken with a potential source.
Once this is confirmed, the PR/brand manager/designer themselves will more than likely need from you the logo specifications (usually in Jpeg format) for display on any screens, details of whoever is liable for insurance (usually the head production team or the exhibition organizers, if not yourself) plus the delivery & pick up address for the collection.
If you are having difficulties in getting direct links to sources and are not signed up with Fashion Monitor (www.fashionmonitor.co.uk), then here’s a tip – check out similar shows to yours and see the brand names/designers that featured in them, you could then approach their competitors who may be more likely to say yes to the prospect; you don’t really want to waste your time approaching those who are flooded with offers of sponsorship opportunities or collaborations if you haven’t got something unique to offer.
You will be working closely with the organizers who will most likely have a lot else on their plate and be really appreciative if you know how to manage a backstage. Your first point of call should be fashion colleges/universities that will be able to send out your advertisement via their intranet or blackboard job site for dressers. You should ideally have one student dresser for each model to help them with their changes, ironing/steaming and to keep their rails organized. The students will usually be happy to help out for backstage experience however you need to make it worth their while; you should secure their expenses from whoever is in control of the budget, I’ve always made sure to get images taken behind the scenes that they can then keep to help document their experience. You will be a kinder stylist if you can encourage their involvement with more than just pinning and ironing!
I like to brief my dressers before models arrive on how fittings and the show will run, remember that for some it may be their first experience and you’ll save time by addressing the basics in a group meeting. You may not have had the luxury of a separate fitting so an efficient way to build your running order will be to assign your dressers to a collection each. Get the garment bags tidied away and collections hung on the rails, then your models can come straight to wardrobe and begin fittings all at the same time in different collections, moving to another once they have a look finalized in one. Make sure the dressers keep a note of the models name and what she will be wearing in the show before they send them over to you to have a snapshot taken against a wall, this is a great opportunity for you as head stylist to make sure the model is right for that particular look and whether there will be any adjustments needed to fit the outfit properly.
Once all looks have been allocated, you and your dressers can build a running order together. I’ve found a rather Blue Peter-inspired way of doing this quickly! If you buy A3 white boards (Staples should do the trick) and arm yourself with scissors, white cardboard, coloured pens and drawing pins, you can give a piece of cardboard to the dressers in charge of collections to write and cut out the names of each model appearing in their collection. You then have them pin the model name tags to the A3 board in the order which the collections will appear in the show (you will need to liaise with the choreographer to determine this beforehand). It may seem all a bit arts & craftsy compared to simply writing the order on a piece of paper or on a laptop but what you end up with is an amendable board – because there will be changes believe me – that you can place somewhere for your team (and models) to see. I’ve found this small point of reference makes everyone feel a little bit calmer in the madness!
Its show time. By now you should have your running order and your dressers assigned to a model each. There should ideally be no more than two models to a rail, dressers should have prepped the garments and be aware of the correct accessories and shoes for each look. Make sure that all labels have been removed from the bottoms of shoes. If you do have the luxury of additional prep time, then you can buy re useable plastic dividers/hangers from Morplan (the one stop shop for any stylist’s kit - www.morplan.com) that have a space below the hook for you to attach a sticky label with the model & collection names. If you are styling a larger show with lots of looks then this is again a small difference that will help models and dressers stay organized during changes.
Prior to the show, you will have briefed the heads of both hair & make up teams as to the look for the show. Even for dress rehearsals, hair and make up artists should prepped by you as to where you would like them to do their final touches before the models go out on stage; its much easier to use white tape to mark out (theatre style) where models should line up, then final checks by you and the team can be done in one place to minimize congestion around stage entrance/exit and help prevent accidents. As tempting as it will be to run over to dressers having any problems or to go off chasing lagging models, try not to, because as soon you disappear into the crowd of rails, the odds are more than hems will unravel!
In your own notes, make sure that you know where the extra fast changes are and keep on top of getting those models to and fro their rails. You may have an entirely fast change show, but there may be harder pieces or less time for models at certain points between changes. You should have ideally made the most difficult collection the first to go out (for example, if there’s any corsetry).
Most shows have loud music however be mindful of any shouting from you and your team during quieter moments front of house; it’s awful as an audience member to be jolted into reality whilst enjoying their fashion fantasy.
Having said all of the above, don’t be tricked into thinking a catwalk show can be executed without a certain amount of madness! No matter how organized you are and how much prep you do, last minute changes will happen, people will let you down and tempers will flare. It’s your job to co ordinate models, creatives, dressers and communicate with the production team during prep time, rehearsals and the show itself, but most importantly, keep calm. I’ve been the bearer of bad news to one model that she was pulled from a show, who proceeded to sit in front of me and cry whilst I had only 10 minutes to prepare a revised running order… needless to say, a stylist/head of wardrobe is there to pick up more than stray shoes, but the pieces when others can’t. Happy (non) styling!
