Off the Shelf

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I'm starting a new series.

Mario Testino for French Glamour (1993), styled by Carine Roitfeld

We have a living room full of art, design, and photography books, and all other sorts of random titles we've picked up on our travels. I love a beautiful and beautifully designed book, the more weighty and substantial the better, and I don't look at ours enough. So once a week I'm going to select one at random, and spend some quality time with it, and share a few of my favorite spreads and/or images – with commentary, or not.

To kick things off: Stylist: The Interpreters of Fashion (Rizzoli, 2007).


This was one of my last purchases in New York. I remember schlepping it to our friend April's garden party after buying it – now I don't remember where – somewhere along the way. (I think we had our going-away party that next weekend, in the midst of the remnants of Hurricane Hanna.)

Styling by Camilla Nickerson / photography by Juergen Teller (W, 2007)

Styling by Edward Enniful / photography by Craig McDean (i-D, 2002)

Styling by Brana Wolf / photography by Inez van Lamsweerde &
Vinoodh Matadin (Harper's Bazaar, 2000)

Styling by Carine Roitfeld / photography by Mario Testino (French Vogue, 2005)

From Sarah Mower's introduction:

"Since the turn of the millennium, the term 'stylist' has shot from obscurity to everyday pop usage without, so far, being pinned down precisely in any dictionary. It's easy to see why: on the one hand, its meaning has been moving so rapidly, but on the other, it seems to apply to such diffuse, mysterious, behind-the-scenes skills that only the innermost inhabitants of the fashion world can fully understand what they are....Within [the profession] is an elite: individuals whose supercharged sensitivity to the visual – and sometimes their cutting wit – helps formulate the background aesthetics of every decade. They are the coauthors of some of the most powerful imagery that hits us every time we flip open a magazine, glimpse a fashion show, flick on a TV or computer, or drive past a billboard...."

Styling by Alex White / photography by Glen Luchford (Prada ad campaign, 1997)

Styling by Karl Templer / photography by Mikael Jansson (Arena Homme Plus, 2001)

Styling by Carine Roitfeld / photography by Mario Testino

(Gucci advertising campaign, 2005)

Styling by Camilla Nickerson / photography (L) Juergen Teller
(YSL ad campaign, 2005); (R) Marcio Madiera, style.com (YSL Spring 2005 RTW).

Styling by Melanie Ward / photography by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin
(Helmut Lang ad campaign, 2003)

"...At the most basic level, their job can be described as putting the clothes in the picture. That task – of selecting and documenting clothes – can sound humble...but what binds the diverse talents [] together is the ability to make the clothes part of a bigger story."

Styling by Paul Cavaco / photography (L) Peter Lindbergh (Harper's Bazaar, 1992);
(R) David Sims (Harper's Bazaar, 1993)

Styling by Andrea Lieberman ("Cool" music video, Sophie Muller, director, 2004)

Styling by Venetia Scott / photography (L) Juergen Teller (Italian Vogue, 1996);

(R) Juergen Teller (Nova)

Styling by Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele / photography by Peter Lindbergh (Vogue, 1988).
(from left: Estelle Lefebure, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Linda Evangelista,
Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington)

"...Brilliant styling can sell clothes, change the way we want to dress, propose revolutionary ideas about who and what is beautiful, inform fantasies about where and how we'd like to live....In the endless relay race of fashion, great stylists are the ones who pass on the baton for the season to come, reinterpreting what they've seen on the runway to predict what will happen next."

Styling by Lori Goldstein / photography by Yelena Yemchuk (Japanese Vogue, 2003)

Styling by Grace Coddington / photography by Craig McDean (Vogue, 2002)

Styling by Edward Enniful / photography by Craig McDean (i-D, 2002)

Styling by Karl Templer / photography by David Sims (W, 2004)

Styling by Tonne Goodman / photography by Bruce Weber
(Calvin Klein ad campaign, 1988-89)

"...The distinguishing mark of a great stylist's work is the imagination that makes it something that could only come from one person's mind."

Styling by Venetia Scott / photography (L) David Sims (The Face, 1993);
(R) Juergen Teller (The Face, 1996)

Styling by Alex White / photography by Inez van Lamsweerde
& Vinoodh Matadin (W, 2006)

Styling by Carine Roitfeld / photography by Mario Testino (French Glamour, 1994)

Styling by Grace Coddington / photography by Steven Klein (Vogue, 2003)

Styling by Polly Mellen / photography by Richard Avedon (Vogue, 1970)

The photos of the stylists themselves are just as inspiring as their work:

Camilla Nickerson

Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele

Tonne Goodman

Paul Cavaco

Carine Roitfeld

Grace Coddington

...Such a small peek at what's in this amazing book; most highly recommended.

Find Stylist here.