Clare Larazo: Fashion Stylist

Fashion Stylist Clare Lazaro of The Times has kindly allowed us to get a glimpse inside her world with an interview focused on life as a stylist and images of her latest shoot in Hong Kong. Read on to see her amazing rise to success from unpaid placement to a top stylist for a leading publication ‘The Times’…

                       Many of our 80,000 users of www.fashioncapital.co.uk would love to know how you made it to the top position of being fashion stylist for The Times Magazine.  How did your career start?  With a healthy dose of unpaid work experience – 6 months in all.  Did you always want to work in the fashion industry?  Yes I trained as a fashion designer and ran my own business for a while, but then made the transition to styling. However I strongly feel that my design background has given me an all round knowledge of the industry.  

Are you a complete avid fashion follower and trend setter yourself – is it important to be fully immersed into fashion?  Not necessarily. I used to be more trend led when I was younger but now my style is more formulaic, so while I will follow trends to a point I tend to stick to what suits me. However I absorb fashion and trends in my head to use creatively in my job. I think I get my fashion kicks from styling shoots and attending the shows so feel less of a need to dress in a very fashiony manor.

 What gives you the greatest buzz about your job? Producing, styling and art directing a shoot. If it all comes together and I'm pleased with it that is. There are so many elements that can go wrong on a shoot – a stiff model, a hissy fit hairdresser, rain on location etc and I am my own worst critic.  What make the job a nightmare?  Any of the above happening but also when too many hierarchy become involved in a shoot it can become diluted as you're trying to please too many people with different viewpoints at once.  What other areas of fashion do you need to understand and work with to make your job as a stylist work?  You need to be aware of what's happening at the shows, in the real world and in other publications. It's also important to take notice of hair and make-up trends from the shows and from my design background I understand the basics of cut and fabric behaviour.  

If you were doing a typical shoot can you outline the steps you have to take before the shoot occurs to make the shoot an outright success – the fashion pages in the Times are some of the best in the business. Could you provide any images here and a short piece of commentary about how the job was achieved?  Firstly you have to have the initial story idea down to how you want the model to look, the location, the clothes, hair and make-up and even lighting. At this point I will usually have a photographer in mind. Once pitched and ok'd by the editor we will source all of the above – optioning models, hair, make-up, location etc and calling in the clothes. You might get a 1st or 2nd option – if it's a 2nd you can lose them at any point until they become a 1st but even then they sometimes drop out. You often don't get the clothes you ideally want if they are being shot by another publication or on a trip. The prep of a shoot is exhausting and can be exasperating. Once on the shoot the fun begins as you can see it coming together but it as also quite nerve wracking as so many things can go wrong. I will send you some examples soon as that's going to take a bit longer.  

 What about your future aims – where can you see yourself going next?  I'm very happy in my job at the moment. I sometimes think I'd quite like to go to a monthly glossy but they get paid quite badly, plus I kind of like to pace of a weekly. Should I move on I'll let you know.  What qualifications should aspiring stylist be considering to help them succeed? Is on the job training more important than formal learning here?  Usually the only way into this industry is to do work experience starting in the fashion cupboard sending back samples. However even to get this far you usually have to have done some kind of fashion related course and to have had some experience already.  For all our aspiring stylists out there what are you 10 top tips to succeed as a fashion stylist today – what are your pearls of wisdom!  

1) Don't get above yourself. I think it's important to value everyone you work with down to the couriers and messengers who are essential when things go missing.

2) Keep your eye on what's going on fashionwise in the shows, on the high-street, in other publications and in general. 3) Aim high. Try and do your best in every shoot you do and aim to make each one better than the last. It might not always work but there's never room to slack off – lots of people would step in your shoes. 4) Make sure you get an on-the-ball assistant. 5) It is essential to have really good relations with the PR’s. They will do there best to get you the clothes you want if you get on well. 6) In this day and age it's important to keep your advertisers happy if possible so shmooze them and get some of their samples into your shoots if you can. Not if it compromises the shoot though – after all it is editorial. 7) Boring though it is you will have to work to a budget (often quite a miserly one) so again it's good to have great relations with photographers etc as they often have to cut down there fee to work within our budgets. If they love the idea they'll want to do it anyway. 8) Know what the upcoming trends are. It's easier to pitch ideas if you know what you're talking about. 9) Use as many visuals as possible to pitch an idea. People can't see what you see in your head. However to achieve an original shoot try to use these visuals as references – not something to be copied exactly. 10) Enjoy it. It's such a fun industry to work in but it's hard work. If you stop enjoying it you should probably get out. Most of us are in it for the love of the job – certainly not the money.   Thanks Clare for letting Fashion Capital get an insight to your life as a stylist and the great tips for those who would like to get a head start in a career as a stylist!