Since the most important task of a stylist is to arrange a successful composition, and his viewers or clients mainly consider this part, this debate frequently arises among artistic people whether a fashion stylist is also an artist, or only deals with mixing and collage of other people’s products. Whether we consider a stylist an artist or not, we have to somehow accept that for years the activity of stylists has been an important part of the market pulse. Today, stylists are more powerful than ever, working in a variety of positions.
At first, it is worth mentioning that a stylist has even more duties than an artist, because an artist who works in a certain field is only an aristocracy in the same field, but a stylist must be able to combine the general aspects of clothing design with other arts simultaneously. This set of arts includes a combination of clothing design, color, pattern, type of fabric, size of clothing, the environment in which the clothing is presented, the music that is played during the presentation of the clothing, decorative decorations or fabric-making, how to sew, and the cleanliness of connections from a technical point of view, the design of accessories and even the history of art and the history of clothing. A stylist should think about colors like a painter; like a sculptor, he should know the human body and consider it as a platform to create a work of art and imagine the space like architects. Also, like a stage designer and interior decoration designer, he should prepare the environment in which the models walk, choose the music he wants to present the clothes with enough sensitivity and knowledge and find the work style he is interested in by knowing the history of the clothes of the world. The combination, matching, and attractive presentation of all these is an art!
Even today, other fashion stylists, like fashion designers or other artists, have their own narrative of fashion art. They know how to tell this story with the tools they have. The work tools of these fashion stylists are all kinds of clothes and accessories and beauty accessories. The basis of their work is also the body of their customers; just like paper and white canvas are the place for artist’s creation. Just as the sheet music and piano keys are the creative tools of a composer, etudes on paper, fabrics, clothes, and accessories are also the creative tools of a fashion designer and stylist. If a playwright or screenwriter tells his story with characters and dialogues, a stylist sees his narrative of life in a person’s clothes and tells his story by combining colors and forms on people’s bodies. If metal, wood and other types of materials are the raw material of an industrial designer’s work to create a functional tool; instead, fabrics, bags, shoes and hats, accessories and ornaments, the type of makeup and hairstyle, are all the tools of the fashion stylist and the seasoning of his work for a unique mood. He tries to create his best work by taking into account the coordinates of the place where he is going to be in order to shape his artwork and present a special and suitable image for the individual. Like an advertising manager and creative graphic designer, he has to set the best combinations for the companies and clothing brands of his contracting party.
