Introducing Lucinda Chambers’ Fashion Styling and Image Making Course for BoF

To view the full online Fashion Styling and Image Making course, click here.

LONDON, United Kingdom — Today, styling is one of fashion's most sought-after professions. As traditional media and commerce is shifting, however, the role of the stylist is evolving. Luscious magazine editorials, catwalk shows and billboard advertising campaigns still remain the most visible elements of a stylist's work, but other opportunities have emerged in today's fashion world for a new generation. The vocation is no longer as elusive and exclusive as it once was.

That's why BoF has partnered with legendary stylist Lucinda Chambers to create an online course that explains the craft, process and opportunities around styling in today's fashion industry. Chambers has spent 36 years at the forefront of magazine publishing as fashion director of British Elle and British Vogue, where she established long-lasting relationships with some of the world's leading photographers, including Patrick Demarchelier, Nick Knight and Paolo Roversi. Throughout her career, she has also worked closely with fashion houses such as Marni, Prada, Jil Sander and Chanel. As recently as this month, she styled Pharrell Williams and Imaan Hammam for the December 2017 cover of US Vogue.

Fashion Styling and Image Making is Chambers' online guide for aspiring stylists, advising how to develop concepts and research; organise shoots; work between editorial and commercial clients; and develop a dynamic portfolio that will help getting that elusive foot in the door.

“Today, the opportunities are endless,” says Chambers. “When I started out, it was a very different thing. We actually weren’t called stylists — we were called fashion editors — and you were always really affiliated to a publication. These days it’s quite rare that you only work for one publication, and in that respect the net has been thrown incredibly wide.”

Online courses and classes — now embraced by leading institutions like Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge — have broken down major financial and geographical barriers to knowledge-sharing and can do the same in fashion education. Fashion styling is a notoriously un-academic vocation that is often learned on the job, by assisting fashion editors and freelance stylists. This course aims to bridge the gap for those who are interested in pursuing a career in image-making, available to anyone with good access to the Internet, far from traditional fashion hubs and top institutions.

"I would love to say that I came out of the womb with an incredible sense of fashion or style or passion or sense of what I wanted to be doing in life and that would just be lying," says Chambers, who has also enlisted some of her long-term collaborators, such as hair stylist Sam McKnight, makeup artist Val Garland, set designer Shona Heath and agent Beverley Streeter for advice from industry leaders. "When you're thinking about the sort of stylist you want to be, creating your own identity, what your vision is, what your worldview is, I don't think you have to decide that too quickly."

Whereas once, styling would be limited to magazine editorials, advertising and catwalk, today there are plenty of opportunities within e-commerce, celebrity styling, video content, social media, books and independent zines. “It is a craft and a skill that you can learn,” Chambers affirms. “You don’t have to have been the most extraordinary, radical, amazing-looking, highly-intelligent, beautifully-dressed fashionista to do this job. What I would hope for and wish for is that you can start off with a tiny jag of interest in something, a slight curiosity or feeling that maybe this is for you.”

Chambers is the ideal guide for aspiring stylists, and the self-directed course is available to anyone around the world. "I hope people take away a feeling and a sense that it's completely doable, that styling isn't something that's remote and beyond your reach," Chambers adds. "It's something that is a craft that can be learnt and if you have passion, it's completely achievable."

To view the full online Fashion Styling and Image Making course, click here. 

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