In Fashion Part 13

FIRST BIG PROMOTION: "YOU CAN DO THIS"

"I was really young. I think they were downsizing the staff. Anne was like, 'I need you to call in all the trench coats for the story,' definitely not the work of an a.s.sistant. 'You can do this. You definitely can do it. Now do it.' And I just got it done. That's where it is about instinct and style and good taste.

"In fas.h.i.+on, you operate in a world of people. It's not about acing your SATs or getting accepted at Harvard. You are being measured by something intangible."

VOILa!.

"My editor would come in and I would say 'It's done.' I was always one step ahead of her. I don't know where I learned that, but that's where I wanted to be. When she said 'trench coat,' I knew what she liked, what the editor in chief liked. I knew how to call in the trench coats they would love and expect to see, but also how to mix it up with some surprises and take things one step further."

FAs.h.i.+ON STEP-BY-STEP.

Amanda's career followed the cla.s.sic fas.h.i.+on editor track: Editorial a.s.sistant (Mademoiselle, Self) a.s.sistant editor (Self) a.s.sociate editor (Self) a.s.sociate market editor (Marie Claire) Market editor (Marie Claire) Senior editor (Bazaar) Market director (Bazaar) Freelance fas.h.i.+on stylist and consultant THE TRADITIONAL TRAINING SYSTEM.

"At that time, you were molded by the editors who trained you-whether it was Polly Mellen, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, Grace Coddington, or, in my case, Anne Kampmann. You moved up if and when the senior editor you worked for said it was time for you to move up. That's the way it worked. Thank G.o.d I had that training. Thank G.o.d I was an a.s.sistant for that amount of time. That training is so important. Today it doesn't exist anymore."

THE NEW TRAINING SYSTEM.

"The mode and speed with which information comes at us today has changed everything. It has created a generation of young people with out-of-proportion expectations seeking instant gratification. People starting out today don't seek out nor understand this training. They think that after one year they should have your job."

REQUIRED READING.

"I tell some of the young people who come to work with me in TV and who are interested in the 'other world' of fas.h.i.+on journalism to read these books to get an overview of the fas.h.i.+on system: No Time to Die by Liz Tilberis In and Out of Vogue by Grace Mirabella D.V. by Diana Vreeland"

THE FAs.h.i.+ON CLUB.

"Today Conde Nast is much more accessible, but twenty years ago you really had to know someone to get in the door. When I started there, senior editors were in their forties and had serious experience. There is a lot to be said for that. It was a club that you felt honored to be part of. You felt honored to be working at Conde Nast."

THE TIPPING POINT.

"Working as an a.s.sistant under a great editor leads to a wisdom that guides your instincts. You come to trust your good instincts. You become a good problem solver. You begin to understand the bigger picture of a shoot, the story, the magazine, the fas.h.i.+on business."

NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, LONDON.

Amanda married her college boyfriend and decided to move with him to Spain. After three years abroad, she realized she needed to get back to New York. "I'd moved four times with this guy. One day, I just woke up and said, 'I need to go back to New York.' He understood why. He knew what I'd given up. I was missing that high of finis.h.i.+ng what I had started."

THE TRAINING, THE TRAINING, THE TRAINING.

Amanda had left the New York fas.h.i.+on scene for four and a half years, and then, there she was, single again and back where she'd started her career.

Amanda spent a total of seven years in New York. She began working as the market editor for Glenda Bailey, first at Marie Claire and then at Harper's Bazaar.

"I just picked up again, as if I'd never left. It was my fas.h.i.+on experience that got me to this point and then took me to the next level. I was able to handle responsibility and to understand the bigger picture."

WORKING FOR A FAs.h.i.+ON DIVA.

"Glenda always respected me because I was always honest with her and she knew I worked very hard. She knew that I tried everything humanly possible to get what she wanted. At the beginning, it was necessary to prove myself. That is a necessary element to working for her. I give 110 percent to everything I do.

"Creative talent is necessary to be successful as is this understanding of the broader business you are in. But, in the end, you also need to be able to deal with strong personalities."

JET PACK WEST.

"Yes! I do move for love!"

Eight years after returning to New York, Amanda got engaged and moved to Los Angeles, where she was named editor at large for C magazine, consulted for fas.h.i.+on brands, and styled stories for Domino magazine, among others. "But I soon felt paralyzed in Los Angeles. I'd gone to a place and found there was no other place to go. I had just arrived and I was already interested in moving."

BACK TO NYC: FORTY, SINGLE, AND FREAKING OUT.

"I moved back to New York because I'd kept my apartment, not because I necessarily thought that's where I would stay. Six months later, I visited London with the idea of moving there."

BIG BREAK.

"The day I flew back from London, the producer of Lipstick Jungle called. My friend Pippa Holt, an editor at British Vogue, had turned down the job and had given them my name. This project just came to me, and I was really grateful. Within twenty-four hours, I had this job. I worked nonstop for a month and then went on to do the second season. This was the first time I worked in TV."

TV FAs.h.i.+ON JOURNALISM.

Elsa Klensch, the CNN fas.h.i.+on journalist of ten years ago, captured something that no one else has figured out how to duplicate-not on the red carpet, not on the runways. The shocking thing is that no one has replaced her. The future of TV fas.h.i.+on journalism definitely needs you!!!

PINCH ME.

"It is so rewarding to be in a business for twenty years and to have the opportunity to take what you've learned and apply it to new mediums. Who'd have thought that I'd be styling commercials, TV shows, red carpet?"

FAs.h.i.+ON CREDS.

"If you are attracted to the fas.h.i.+on business, you must understand that there is a certain amount of training necessary. During this training, you begin to realize where your talents lie. You are drawn to people and projects and they are drawn to you. Then one job leads to another."

LIPSTICK JUNGLE GIG.

"I worked with two costume designers, one for each season, who were in charge of the whole show. As I was in charge of the three lead characters, I wasn't required to be on set every day. This allowed me to continue consulting and to build my business. We always styled enough outfits in a fitting so that there were enough looks for that episode. Any extras went into the next episode."

TRY-ONS.

During production, Amanda would do three- to four-hour fittings on days when they were not shooting and one-hour fittings on days they were shooting to finalize head-to-toe looks for the actresses. "I would get as much time as I could get with each actress. It's time-consuming to come up with eighteen to twenty-one outfits a week for each of the three women."

WHAT'S COOL ABOUT TV "TV has a really intimate element that makes it powerful. They are on a screen in your living room. With all the shows connecting to the fas.h.i.+on world in real time (like Lipstick Jungle and s.e.x and the City in which characters wear current season, widely available clothing and accessories), the style impact on our world is potentially huge."

NEXT STEPS.

Besides consulting with fas.h.i.+on companies and TV work, Amanda has just finished working on her first film, the Nancy Meyers film It's Complicated, alongside costume designer Sonia Grande. "What's so exciting is that I now help create an ident.i.ty for fictional characters. I have a voracious appet.i.te for reading. I love to help create a character. It's kind of incredible how different parts of my life have come together in my work."

TV, COMMERCIALS, RED CARPET, EDITORIAL, BRAND CONSULTING WITH MAJOR FAs.h.i.+ON BRANDS.

"I LOVE the variety-I love to do all of it. It makes sense, and I need all of it. It's all part of the fas.h.i.+on paradigm."

SUCCESS = MORE THAN GREAT STYLING.

"I'm just as confident about my management skills and my business ac.u.men. I was able to run my business for the last two years and, so far, able to do this without an agent. I do all the negotiations. I do all the billing. I pay my health care and do my taxes. I feel great-but the real focus, of course, is the creative work."

LUCK VERSUS HARD WORK VERSUS TALENT.

"Luck is a thread through life. We wonder sometimes, 'How does that happen?' But usually I've found if you put your head down, live in the moment, and work hard at whatever it is that you are doing, that good things come to good people. Obviously the talent has to be there too."

PEOPLE SKILLS.

"Sometimes I think this is where I'm lucky, and sometimes I feel it's a gift: I really get people. I understand when to take over and when to let someone else take over."

AMANDA'S ADVICE ON HOW TO BE "Don't be in a hurry. Learn to be in the moment. Be appreciative to those who help you."

MANNERS MATTER.

"I was brought up to be kind and respectful. It serves me well in professional relations.h.i.+ps."

FUTURE OF FAs.h.i.+ON STYLISTS IN TELEVISION.

Amanda is confident this is a growing business. "With major talents like Ariane Phillips and Cristina Ehrlich making their mark and some costume designers crossing over to styling, there is a lot of activity. There is going to be a bigger and bigger demand for stylists."

PROFILE.

CRISTINA EHRLICH Celebrity Stylist Some stylists get Hollywood and others get Seventh Avenue. Cristina Ehrlich is among the rare talents who understand both, further distinguis.h.i.+ng herself with strong ties to Paris fas.h.i.+on houses. As early work with the Olsen sisters attests, Cristina is able to move personalities into higher fas.h.i.+on, bridging the CaliforniaNew YorkParis divide while image making for her clients on the highest order.

BACKGROUND.

Daughter of a Hollywood doctor/photographer father and a showroom model/interior designer mother, Cristina started buying Vogue at eight and counts as her favorite picture book one by Helmut Newton. "On a normal day, my mom would be wearing Yves Saint Laurent or Gucci," says Cristina. "They were very visual and had lots of parties. It was a Less Than Zero childhood."

Cristina's dream was to be a dancer. Boarding at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, after attending Beverly Hills High, proved to be the seminal experience of her youth. "The great part was independent study in my senior year. I created my own program in the city, dancing with Martha Graham and with Alvin Ailey."

BRUSH WITH GREATNESS.

"Living in New York, I a.s.sisted Irene Albright. She didn't have Imelda's Closet [her store] yet, but she was a regular working stylist."

EARLY STATE OF STYLING.

"When I was twenty-seven, the only celebrity stylist was Phillip Bloch."

FINE ARTIST'S EYE Much of what Cristina brings to her work comes through her own efforts to train her eye: "I would study photographs. I took cla.s.ses at ICP. I went to photo exhibits. I loved looking at the work of people like Avedon, Irving Penn, and Toulouse-Lautrec. It is something I couldn't get enough of."

COASTAL TUG OF WAR.

"I always had a big struggle trying to decide whether to live in Los Angeles or New York."

DOUBLE LIFE.

"At the beginning, I was dancing in videos and commercials at same time I was a.s.sisting Deborah Watney. I watched how Deborah was working with New York and Paris. Then I started getting styling jobs on my own."

GETTING THERE WASN'T EASY "I knew I wanted to do something with celebrity dressing and high fas.h.i.+on. I did anything and everything to get there. I did Playboy videos. Test shoots. Movie posters. I did any job that I could. I would work sixteen or seventeen hours and got paid $75. And I knew that the jobs I was doing were not the kind of jobs I would eventually want. But I learned about the etiquette of being on set, the art of looking at clothes on a hanger versus on a person, how to do returns, how to be organized. If you don't have someone who gives you a break, you have to just plug along."

STYLING PARTNERs.h.i.+P.

"In my thirties, I formed a partners.h.i.+p with Estee Stanley. We were two girls who created a company. Our skills complemented each other's, and it just worked. There was a lot I could learn from her and vice versa. The concept was to take on lots of projects and to take care of our girls [celebrity clients]."

The duo lasted seven years. Cristina and Estee recently split up on happy terms because their lives had taken them in different directions.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT MY JOB.

"Working with great fas.h.i.+on houses like Gaultier, Lanvin, Alaia, Chanel, Lanvin, Versace, Oscar de la Renta, Narciso Rodriguez, Thakoon, and others. My job is to get their stuff on my girls: to make it look beautiful and cla.s.sy."

STAFF.

Two regular a.s.sistants (paid) and two interns (unpaid).

CRISTINA'S AGENCY "Margaret Maldonado [LA and NYC] is the best agency for stylists. My agent handles negotiations and money conversations."

HOW IT WORKS.

"I have a strong relations.h.i.+p with certain publicists. If that publicist likes my style and my vibe, I'll work with her client. It's a personality thing. These people want to be around you. I am very clear: 'X is not my friend. She's my client.'"

FALSE ILLUSIONS.

"A lot of people have this false illusion of what this job is. They think that they will be friends with the girls [celebrity clients]?"

HOW DANCE HELPED STYLING.

A serious dancer until age twenty-eight, Cristina believes that that training prepared her well for a stylist's life: "Styling draws on the same kind of discipline as dance. You need to know how to listen. You need to understand the food chain."

STYLING IS PART FAs.h.i.+ON PUBLICIST.

"I deal with big fas.h.i.+on publicists like Bismark Phillips, Karla Otto, and the fas.h.i.+on houses directly. We have the same mission-to get the best clothes on these girls."

For example, "One client has a premiere on Monday. I'm calling in dresses from fifteen to twenty different designers."

JOB = LIFESTYLE.

"It's a lifestyle. I'm someone who thought for many years that I might get married, but my work is what I do. I was supposed to leave for Paris today to attend the ready-to-wear shows, but, after the awards show season and 120 days of working nonstop, I decided to send my best a.s.sistant. He's twenty-four years old and is going to every show. I can be here going to yoga and doing my acupuncture. That way I don't get burned out."

DRAWING THE LINE.

"I am pretty down to earth. I respect the privacy of my clients [A-list actresses and personalities]. My relations.h.i.+p with them is about the service I provide. I'm almost like a doctor: I am there for a specific purpose."

WHY CRISTINA LOVES STYLING.

"It's something I found a voice in. The whole thing is a theatrical outlet for me. Very visual. It is a pleasure for me to have this relations.h.i.+p with fas.h.i.+on. I am obsessed with photography and with French films. It all comes together in my work. I think it's an artist's craft."

EXPECTATIONS.

"I've paid my dues. You don't just walk into this job and make a ton of money. The truth is I love it so much I would do it for no money."

FAs.h.i.+ON CONNECTION.

"I have an impeccable relations.h.i.+p with the designers and work hard at these relations.h.i.+ps: They go out on a limb for me and I go out on a limb for them. I communicate honestly and directly. There are no games. I return the clothes on time. If I pull two dresses and only one has a chance, the other one goes back."