The Daily recently hosted a virtual panel in partnership with COTERIE featuring celebrity stylists Maeve Reilly (Hailey Bieber, Megan Fox), Dianne Garcia (Kenrick Lamar, Sza), and Cristina Ehrlich (Jane Fonda, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, and Tina Fey.) From what will the red carpet will take away from the pandemic to the type of clothes we’ll wear when we go back to the office—listen to their pearls of wisdom below!
MAEVE REILLY on adapting during COVID: “I definitely spent the beginning perfectly content doing nothing and absorbing the time and sort of refreshing myself. I remember watching people who were starting businesses and I felt like I was not doing enough. I think I needed the time to recharge and, after a couple of months, I started to get into the groove. I’ve come up with a couple of new businesses that I’ve started and I’m currently working on. Simultaneously, a lot of my clients were working as well. So, figuring out how to do that virtually and shooting music videos in quarantine—it was definitely interesting and definitely challenging, but it’s been a great year.
CRISTINA EHRLICH on dressing clients remotely: “It was a little challenging because I had my office in two cities, and I had a full time staff of five people and then myself. So, my biggest concern when the pandemic hit was how to make sure that my team was taken care of. But I really felt like I had to stop and kind of take a moment to look at my business overall and figure out how to navigate and what was going to be the most intelligent way to do it. I will say that it’s been challenging, but I think anybody who does this job for a living knows that this job is challenging and we are always put in the position to make decisions and stick to it and just keep the party moving. So, I’m excited to still be a part of this whole world and see what’s ahead and very aware that what we all used to know is in for a radical change.
DIANNE GARCIA on figuring out shoots: “People were doing FaceTime shoots and I was prepping stuff online. We would do a virtual fitting or we would send the looks together with a lot more options, sending them to the client’s house directly. So, that’s how we started doing things. And then, eventually, things picked up and we would test and be able to do smaller shoots—maybe with 10 people on set—and integrate social distancing.
REILLY on virtual fashion week front rows: ”I’m rooting for in person events to come back soon. But I do think it’s just incredible what our industry has been able to do and how people have navigated and how they’ve figured out how to have these virtual shows or presentations or concerts or premieres. I just think it’s incredible how much creativity came into keeping the show rolling. We did a virtual front row with our YSL family, and we shot a really beautiful look from the collection that Anthony [Vacarello] pulled out of the show so that we could shoot it with just two people; everyone COVID tested and socially distanced at home.
EHRLICH on at-home red carpets: “I found it really fun and exhilarating that the brands that I work with were willing to send clothes to L.A. and allow me to create these sort of faux fashion shoots. I did them in clients’ houses and we did it to mostly connect and be creative. But it is a fine line because when you are a stylist and you’re dealing with clothes and then you turn on the news, there’s this real delicate nature of not being tone deaf and really being aware of what’s going on in the world—no matter how much you love fashion. At the end of the day, I want to always be sensitive to the client, the situation, and if they’re dying to play and share their looks: great. If they’re not feeling it, you’ve got to really be able to hear that and respect it.
ERLICH on red carpet shifts: “I think that when we look back to when Time’s Up and the Me Too movement started, that was one of the really big dominant game changers for red carpet celebrity stylists. And it finally became a conversation where a stylist and her client weren’t talking about how to be sexy or how to dress for what you thought everybody wanted to see. The conversation became oriented from the narrative of dressing for how you want to dress and what makes you feel good. I do this job for my love of women and hearing what they need and to be a tiny part in making their overall thing be the most elevated that they want it. I think that red carpets are going to be very, very different. I think, most importantly, be it that women’s role in Hollywood has changed so strongly, that it’s really about individuality and embracing what you feel best in and leaning on your stylist to sort of direct that ship and help you mix it up.
GARCIA on trend predictions in the music industry: “I think fashion is going to look like the Roaring Twenties. I think it’ll keep getting louder and the heels will get higher. When we create something like a music video, you’re creating a surreal world and space where people can look and it’s almost like the sense of escapism. I think [musicians and stylists] are definitely going to flex their imagination and give people something that they can look forward to that, maybe, is an escape from what’s really happening in our daily lives.”
REILLY on the future of workwear: “I think there are the people who are dying to wear their clothes and are dying to put their heels on, and then I think there are other people who really want to continue to embrace this sort of casual, comfortable element. Fashion is whimsical, it can make you feel good, and it can shift your mood. It’s the fantasy of it all, and I think that people miss it. But again, I think it’ll be both. I think we’re going to see both ways.
REILLY on social media driving the trends: “I’m interested to see what the younger generation is doing. I’m trying to pay attention. I think that these TikTokers are onto something. I feel old, but I’m trying to, you know, be with the time!”
EHRLICH on dressing with purpose: “With this pandemic, a lot of people are asking themselves different questions about everything. And I think, even in terms of what they put on their body and why, that there’s this sort of underlying element of wanting to express joy and happiness and play, and a less constipated way of putting yourself out there. I feel like the questions that women are asking themselves in terms of what they’re buying and why, and what they’re wearing and why—I feel like that’s the interesting part of the conversation because that is what’s different. Clothes are an extension of how we feel and how we look at the world. And I think that color is a really big speaking point. Fit will always be a big speaking point. And then, I also think that there’s something so cool and fun about the way more casual loungewear can be elevated. I feel like we all need to get the book that hasn’t come out yet about how all the old rules are out the door and we’re all looking at something new.
REILLY on her go-tos and ones to watch: “LaQuan Smith is not someone that’s necessarily new but Hailey and I had an opportunity to wear him for a fun shoot that we just did. I love The Frankie Shop. I love Eterne. Our friend Chloe Bartoli started a really great basics line. She’s an amazing stylist, so, obviously, she made amazing pieces that women want to wear! I love to integrate a mix of high-low.
EHRLICH on sustainability: “I feel like something that is a very big responsibility for us as stylists, having this connection to all of these designers, is to have a consciousness and be accountable. Jane Fonda is a perfect example. Last year for the Globes, she said, “I will not wear anything brand new. I want to either wear something that I’ve worn before or something vintage.” Global warming will 100% be the biggest conversation that everybody is having. And I think that it’s going to be, literally, down to the point where people who are public figures and have a lot of impact are going to be looked at head to toe—down to their shoes, their clothing—to see whether they’re awake or not. Your outfit is like a conversation, and you are a spokesperson in your outfit for what you believe in. So, if you care about the planet and the environment, mix it up and have a story.
EHRLICH on wearing vintage on the red carpet: “What happens is there’s only so much vintage out there, and there’s a ton of us stylists now and we’re all kind of going to the same places. You have to be a little bit more clever now. It’s not as easy. You have to have the right client who has the aesthetic and the education of the beauty of vintage and you have to know who to put it on. Fashion is such a bigger conversation than just clothes. It’s culture, it’s connection, it’s conversation. It’s sexual. It’s non sexual. It’s binary. It’s non binary. It’s so many things that, I think, it’s great to find cool vintage pieces.”
GARCIA on fast fashion: “As a stylist, I would really like to see people purchase with more intention and keeping their clothes. Buying things that you can wear for a really long time that are better quality, and maybe buying less of it in order to cut down on all of that waste and the carbon footprint that we’re leaving on the planet. My client recently posted a photo of herself wearing an outfit and I was joking, “Hey, I gave you that three years ago and you wore it for something. I love that you’re still wearing it.” I definitely want to see more of that. I want to see people making it a trend and making it cool to re-wear something again.
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