Categories: Fashion|

The Beauty and the Stylist

By |Published On: May 17th, 2016|

Photography German Osorio Jiménez

I get the question about styling and how we translate our stories on Mums in Heels into pictures, almost every week. Why do you dress someone a certain way? or How do you decide what suits a person? and What aligns with her personality and your story?

Oftentimes the people I style will be very apprehensive about wearing what I choose for them. “I would never choose this myself.” Or “I´m not sure this is … ME!”

You see, the thing about styling is that a stylist doesn’t really want to re-create a woman’s every day clothing choices. Our job is to see beyond the person we are dressing. A stylist sees you through your lifestyle and we like to push you beyond your comfort zone (but we also hold you back from wearing something ridiculous). A stylist will dress you in something that shows your true and most magnificent persona, the one you have skilfully been training yourself over the years to hide under layers and layers of ready –to-wear uniformity clothes, which someone else imposed on you – magazines, society, annoying saleswomen, mean friends, culture.

Good stylists are like fairy godmothers who only have your best at heart. Stylists are bold and daring for your sake. You may say that you would never choose such and such an item to wear, but what you really mean is, that for whatever reason, one out of at least a thousand, you cant quite see yourself wearing this or that. A stylist cares about your true, inner most amazing goddess. The one you have trained yourself to forget, or hide.

This takes me to one of the most recent shoots we had at the beautiful lake of Zug. We were photo shooting for our flight attendant story and we decided, since Nicole looked so perfect and her body was so well trained (she used to do ballet and now rides our editor’s horse every time she is on the ground), to take her heels off and walk her barefoot on the green grass, capture her nymph-like spirit and ethereal beauty. As much as we enjoyed this day, Nicole felt just as much liberated and empowered, because through our lens she felt her own special persona come to life. We only hope’ she will remember that feeling and know deep in her heart that this is how she should feel most of the time in her life.

We had another amazing shoot with a guest stylist. Kathy Patellis is a close friend but also a passionate fashionista and the owner of the Style Etc. Boutique. Together with her, we chose to dress our Inspiration Ambassador, Lisa Christen, in Sara Schlumpf couture and dizzyingly high heels. We then made her walk the cobblestones of the old town of Zug and even ride a bike! We chose to re-invent Lisa in a Brigitte Bardot look because what we’ve seen lately from Lisa is a radical change – she would show up on social media without any make up, she would speak to women about vulnerability and finally she even gave up her marketing career to start a new adventure called Happily in Balance. Nobody knows what happened, we´re not sure Lisa does either, but we wanted to find out and we felt it a must to make her look like the icon that she is. She is showing each one of us how to not be afraid of change and live up to your potential and be the best version of yourself possible. She is demonstrating how we should pay more attention to what feels right. She is an icon so we made her look and feel like one. We only hope she is brave enough to wear that kind of outfit again.

I hope you enjoyed this story as part of our behind the fashion scene series. It is our way to show you part of the creative process and what is going on behind closed doors at Mums in Heels.

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About the Author: Tsitaliya Mircheva

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Tsitaliya is a writer and fashion journalist for more than 20 years. She founded Mums in Heels 10 years ago and keeps growing and evolving together with her community or fashionable mums and responsible consumers. Fashion and Wellness are her most favourite topics to write about.