*warning this is a long post , pour yourself a glass of wine or embrace the British and make yourself a cup of tea (I will have drank 2 cups whilst writing this post) and enjoy...
If someone was to tell me the first month of TWENTY-ELEVEN would be hectic-manic-crazybusy-beyond-belief , that would be an understatement! It all started in the last week of TWENTY-TEN when I thought I needed to start organising a very fashionable new year. Now, for those of you who don't know , many high calibre stylists work with agencies, so like where a model will be signed to an agent to organise them work a Freelance stylist will work with an agency that does the same. One of the leading agencies in Europe is LGA , they represent Cheryl Cole's stylist (Victoria Adcock) and the fashion director of Elle among others. I emailed the agency a week after Christmas applying for any assisting opportunities that were available in the New Year. Assisting an LGA stylist is the equivalent of a aspiring race car driver assisting Michael Schumacher. With such a reputation and its elite recognition in the industry it was my first port of call. 3 week's later I received an email that would turn my January into MAYHEM. Sarah Cobb , former Contributing Editor to Dazed & Confused and AnOther magazine , is an incredible Stylist who's styles for many high-end edgy international fashion publications. Her style is truly inspiring and whilst on the LGA site her work stood out to me among the rest.
So when I was told by her 1st Assistant that LGA sent over my CV and whether i'd be interested in assisting Sarah , I sprung out of bed and called her immediately and with the question "Can you start tomorrow..." my life turned into Fashion overdrive! My first day with Camp Cobb involved running around London visiting various Fashion PR's , 'pulling' clothes for a shoot for Italian Fashion Magazine FLAIR , I had 2 days and a brief of 'Long , Fluid , Layering' to work off and suddenly I was brainstorming which labels we should pull from. After 2 long days of running around we finally had enough clothes , shoes & accessories to send Sarah off to shoot on location in South Africa and a sense of accomplishment overcame me - until of course it was time to prep for the next shoot. In the mean time , the 1st Assistant (Faye) flat mate was the Fashion Co-Ordinator at uber-cool mens style magazine SEVENTH MAN and when she called Faye asking for an assistant on a trend story they were working on , I was put forward and before I knew it I went from the world of women's straight over to menswear.
As I arrived to 7TH MAN HQ I was given the brief - Sports Luxe - and was told that I would be doing all the press appointments on my own as the team was busy co-ordinating the shoot. To be given that sort of trust on the first day was daunting to say the least but made me want to prove myself even more. With my first appointment at The Communication Store one of London's leading Fashion PR Agency's I pulled some great Versace, Missoni & Christopher Kane and as I made my way to the next appointment it suddenly hit me that I was running around this amazing city they call London, surrounded by my favorite thing in the world - Fashion and again I reminded myself how lucky I was to be apart of this - slowly making my dream come true. At day's end I returned to HQ to show the team some of the looks I pulled. The Fashion Editor was thrilled and the team really impressed with my choices and I left feeling slightly elevated on the cloud 9 I call Fashion! While prepping for the Sports Luxe shoot the team told me they were shooting a trend story on the weekend and asked if I'd like to assist - I jumped at the offer and was ready to work on my first mens-fashion shoot. When Sunday morning rolled around , after a night out on the dance-floor's of Soho , with only 3 hours sleep I stepped into my cab (I decided to treat myself the luxury) and arrived *Marc Jacobs shades to cover last night's hangover* at the studio's for 9am...eek! Determined, however, to make a good impression & work my ass off - the minute I was organising the rails the clothes spoke to me and my hangover was cured!
The story of the shoot was Floral Print , a typically feminine aspect of fashion however the challenge was to make it cool and masculine yet embracing a softer vibe. Styling women is fun , its almost too fun at times because you can simply go to town and play dress ups - the difference with menswear is you need to keep it 'male-appropriate' however it needs to be fashion forward and inspiring and spending the day on shoot made me realise how interesting a challenge it is and I really enjoyed it. Working with the fashion director was a dream , an incredible stylist he was really open to my opinion and ideas and it felt more collaborative then simply assisting. The looks came together beautifully and pushed some boundaries in a cool edgy way. That feeling when you nail a look , is one of the greatest feelings and when the whole room feels it, its electric!
Working with boys who are easy on the eye and really fun to work with doesn't hurt either , but in all seriousness I really found myself loving being on a menswear shoot and some of the looks we put together were really inspiring which ultimately is what fashion should be all about. Before you could say 'I need to rest' the Sports-Luxe shoot came around 36 hours later. As I arrived to the North London studio's (this time by public transport) I was transported from 'Floral & Soft' to 'Sports, Street & Edge' - the theme of the day was an exaggeration of sports-wear in a futuristic super human type way. I had in front of me nylon, leather, futuristic prints & colour
As the Fashion Editor & I styled the looks together I really started to get a feel for menswear and really trying to push myself. The result was brilliant & the looks came together so well. Slightly more high-fashion than Sunday's shoot , the Sports-Luxe story was not for the faint-hearted. The styling was edgy, super cool and I was in my element as the model worked it...
As I got on the train home I felt so inspired to view mens fashion in a completely different light! I really look forward to continue working with the SEVENTH MAN team but no rest for the wicked as they say and before I could gasp for air I was prepping for the biggest womenswear shoot I've ever worked on...all the details coming soon in Part Two xoxo Deni
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