Is the Stylist Dead?
It was only a matter of time before celebrities entered recession mode, but according to an article in the New York Observer, even the stars are making cutbacks.
“It used to be that none of the designers even knew the celebrities. The only real designers that had a presence in Hollywood were Versace and Armani,” said celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch, who began working in the early ’90s. “We became the liaisons. Then as time progressed and everyone got greedier, they want to cut out the middle person,” he told the Observer. It’s been known that some celebrities—e.g. Chloe Sevigny and Sarah Jessica Parker—have their own flair for style. However, increasingly more—such as Natalie Portman, Tilda Swinton and Kirsten Dunst—are going direct to designers vs. hiring a middleman—aka a stylist—to do the job.
After a relationship has been built with a designer, is it really necessary to hire someone to tell you what to wear? And then there’s the fame-seeking world of Hollywood. Stylists such as Rachel Zoe have become stars in their own right, thereby changing the name of the stylist game. Reportedly, Debra Messing parted ways with Zoe due to her busy schedule and self-involved career pursuits. How can you be a star and dress the stars at the same time?
In addition, designers have now hired in-house liaisons to reach out to celebrities, and bottom line–focused studios are cutting their budgets for celebrity “glam squads.” But the end result can be less than desirable—such as a bad hair day or a “hot mess” red-carpet debut. Or a designer may have their own interests in mind, pushing an ill-fitting or recycled look on the celeb—think Parker’s
Nina Ricci incident last year. And with the red carpet touted as the greatest runway in the world, the stakes are high for everyone involved to make the most of the occasion. No doubt, it’s why the stylist rose to notoriety in the first place!
It will be interesting to see if the celebrity stylist survives the recessionista trend and even more interesting to see how couture designers will handle red-carpet affairs considering their own financial woes. Was that really Lacroix’s last show in Paris yesterday?? Hopefully not, but one thing is certain—change is inevitable in fashion—even in Hollywood.
Sarah Jessica Parker (Photo courtesy Softpedia via Daily Mail)
Blake Lively self-styled in Roberto Cavalli at the Swarovski Crystallized store (Photo courtesy The New York Observer)
