How celebrity stylists became essential in Hollywood — and stars in their own right

It’s awards season once again, which means stylists all around Hollywood and beyond are working overtime to make sure their A-list clients pull off career-defining looks.

But there wasn’t always this fervour around crafting the perfect step-and-repeat moment, and it wasn’t until recently that stylists started to become famous people unto themselves. So how did stylists become such an integral part of the star system — and how powerful are they, exactly?

Today on Commotion, fashion critic Jarrod Jenkins and fashion podcaster Avery Trufelman join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the rise of celebrity stylists, and their uncanny ability to make or break their clients’ careers. 

We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

WATCH | Today’s episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Avery, it kind of feels like everything is polished at the moment, right? You see a lot of these really polished looks. But if you look back at the ’90s, people were showing up to their premieres in jeans and just being like, “Yeah, I have a movie. What do you want from me?” You investigated this whole phenomenon for Decoder Ring. At what point would you say celebrity styling, as we know it right now, gained the momentum that it has? 

Avery: The modern world of celebrity styling really started around the 1980s, and the big innovator of this world was actually Armani. The House of Armani, Mr. Armani himself and a lot of the people who worked for the house were reaching out to stylists because before the ’70s, when we’re talking about the golden age of Hollywood and the studio system, stars never dressed themselves. The studio provided for them, and the costume designers would often design all their clothes, even their wedding dresses. So they kind of had this consistent aura of glamour around them. And they were actors; they weren’t shopping for themselves. And often their styles would kind of change for whatever movie they were promoting.

When the studio system disbanded, suddenly the stars were on their own. And this is where you get celebrities on the red carpet in the ’70s wearing, like, a T-shirt and jeans. They really didn’t know what to do. This is not their job. And so Armani sort of extended a hand and was like, “Look, let us take care of you” — and, most notably, started putting these actors on screen…. They sort of harnessed the power of Hollywood to build their brand, and it created this symbiotic relationship between brands, stylists and celebrities. 

Elamin: What’s interesting, Avery, is that you cut to now and you have stylists who are celebrities in their own right — people get really excited to see them — but also you have celebrities on red carpets talking about their stylist, telling the story of how that look came to be. It’s really not just about, “Oh, who are you wearing?” … Is there a stylist who put celebrity styling on the map in that way?

Avery: Yeah, I would say it’s Rachel Zoe. Rachel Zoe was a stylist who was a prominent figure in her own right. She had her own reality show, and she had a very distinctive style. If you think back to the early aughts, like Lindsay Lohan, and Nicole Richie and Mischa Barton, they all had this kind of boho-chic thing going on. And it was so easy to clock … that’s Rachel Zoe’s look. It was one of these rare moments where you’re like, “Where does this trend come from?” It all goes back to this stylist. And her star really rose. I think that was the first time that people understood … this is what a stylist does. 

Elamin: Jarrod, is there a stylist that you think has kind of changed the game in recent years?

Jarrod: I think Law Roach has definitely changed the game. He is very much a celebrity in his own right, with over a million followers. What he’s done with Zendaya, taking her from a Disney star to … the A-lister of A-listers and a Louis Vuitton House ambassador, has been nothing short of amazing.

Avery talked about costume designers — when he was working with Ariana Grande for the Wicked tour, he styled her in a 1952 dress from Gilbert Adrian, who was the Wizard of Oz costume designer. So that just goes to show his storytelling and connecting different generations — and that is art, right? 

Elamin: And that’s Law Roach after he said he was retiring, you know what I mean? It seems like it’s been a slightly busier retirement there, Law Roach, but that’s an entirely separate conversation.

You can listen to the full discussion from today’s show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Nikky Manfredi.