“People will stare. Make it worth their while,” Harry Winston perfectly sums up the relevance of a stylist. You might not realize but styling is one of the most important aspects for any fashion brand. The way their clothes are styled (on mannequins, in showrooms, on models) makes them stand out from their competitors, giving the customers an idea about how the clothes might look on them. Even celebrities take a stylist’s help to put together the perfect outfit for an occasion. Their job is to keep up with trends – combine clothes, accessories, hair and makeup to create a look that makes Fashion Editors nod in approval!
If you’re an aspiring fashion stylist or simply curious about what goes on behind the scenes, here are 10 toolkit essentials every stylist swears by. So let’s quickly take you through these and how they’re used.
1. Quintessential Pins
Safety pins and pearl pins are at the top of every stylist’s ‘toolkit essentials’ list. Used primarily to ensure a better fit of the garment, they come to a stylist’s rescue when they’re shooting Indian wear with sarees and dupattas. Pearl pins are used for mannequins whereas safety pins are used for model shoots. The former is useful when you want to take pictures of your clothes from different angles.
POPxo Recommends: Pearl Pins (Rs 225), Safety Pins (Rs 199)
2. Clamps For A Better Fit!
When pins fail, clamps work wonders! Clamps are used when styling materials such as sheer and net, that could tear easily with the use of pins. Regardless of their size, clamps serve the same purpose as pins but are used to hold different fabrics firmly and give the outfit a more structured fit. While shooting, clamps are a stylist’s best friend!
POPxo Recommends: Clamps (Rs 275)
3. Tape
There are a variety of tapes you can include in your styling kit. Two of the most important ones are double-sided tape and masking tape. Double-sided tape does the magic of helping stick clothes to a mannequin – giving a more fitted look. Masking tape is applied on the sole of the shoes, to keep them from getting dirty. Since sourced items always need to be returned to the brand, dirtying them is not an option.
POPxo Recommends: Double Sided Tape (Rs 70), Masking Tape (Rs 70)
4. Silicon Cups And Inner Wear
A stylist usually never relies on models to carry fashion basics. Manytimes models fail to bring appropriate inner wear which hampers the look and feel of a particular garment. Stylists always carry silicon cups as well as a nude and white spaghetti tops to be on the safe side!
POPxo Recommends: Silicon Cups (Rs 309), Inner wear (Rs 299)
5. Blu And White Tacks
Life without tacks at a product shoot can be miserable. Tacks are used when the product needs to be placed in a particular angle while shooting. With the help of tacks you can ensure that the way you’ve angled a product doesn’t get changed. Tacks are used on handbag straps while shooting especially when a certain element needs to be highlighted. For flat lay shoots, using tacks is a great way to make sure the product doesn’t move.
POPxo Recommends: Tack (Rs 100)
6. A Steam Iron
Steam ironing clothes prior to the shoot is essential. A garment with creaseline is as tacky as it gets! A steam iron is easy to use and suitable for fabrics sensitive to heat – including chiffon. As you can imagine, a stylist needs the power to be able to remove crinkles without burning a garment!
POPxo Recommends: Steam iron (Rs 6,249)
7. Lint Roller
Lint rollers are crucial to remove dust particles from fabrics. Post steam ironing, it is essential to give the garment a run through with a lint roller. This is especially needed for darker fabrics as the focus needs to show the detail – not the dust particles! *Wink*
POPxo Recommends: Lint Roller (Rs 253)
8. Hangers
This one seems like an obvious one but hangers are a must have to keep the creases away. Once ironed, a garment needs to be perfectly hung on one. Folding a garment will always lead to creasing. So, hangers save the hassle of ironing clothes (again!) before the shot.
POPxo Recommends: Steel Hangers (Rs 167)
9. Clothes Rack
After putting in so much effort into making the clothes look good, they need to be handled with care. To ensure dust doesn’t get collected on them and the creases don’t reappear – a clothes rack comes to the rescue! It also helps the stylist see all the clothes and pick out the exact garment required for the look.
POPxo Recommends: Clothes Rack (Rs 2,050)
10. A Pair Of Scissors
Having loose threads or labels showing in product shoots is never appealing. So a pair of scissor is all you need in such situations. They’re easy to carry and extremely useful for doing away with such blunders!
POPxo Recommends: Scissors (Rs 40)
Do you have all these essentials to ensure your styling looks picture perfect?
