I not too long ago interviewed Caroline Baker (former super-stylist and vogue editor) for my subsequent e book and we talked about her favorite styling ‘instrument’, the protection pin. Getting back from a Nova journal shoot in Japan through Thailand within the Nineteen Seventies, she spent 24 hours in Bangkok the place she seen a recurring styling element on the locals; their blue jackets fixed with security pins.
“So I did a variety with Harry Peccinotti. Nova liked double web page spreads, so we did a security pin over a double web page unfold, holding collectively this candy little jacket. I really like security pins, so when John Lydon got here out, that was his image and out of the blue security pins turned it. It got here to be an out of doors factor and it was OK. As a result of [previously] for those who security pinned your garments, you’d conceal them for those who had been a nicely purchased up woman. And as a stylist, you turn into conscious of security pins, as a result of it’s important to security pin the clothes to suit the mannequin, so that you simply by no means shot anyone from the again.”
We then laughed on the equally secret weapon of the standard bulldog clip and photographer’s clamp (hardcore metallic clamp with sharp enamel for cinching heavyweight materials like denim – use with tissue paper!); the assistant’s eagle eye must guarantee it was by no means seen within the shot.
All this got here again to me on discovering the e book, Assistants by French stylist Virginie Benarroch and photographer Lola Raban. The e book seems to be at vogue assistants’ model and the idiosyncrasies of their particular person kits, tips and magnificence codes. Area of interest, however relatable! (Assume, ‘what’s in my bag’ for vogue BTS insiders.)
“I feel the assistant stylists are fascinating,” says stylist Virginie Benarroch, “Their work equipment reveals a variety of their persona.” As photographer Lola Raban noticed, “I needed to {photograph} on a number of scales. A face. One hand. A clip in a equipment. The identical assistant who adjusts a millimetre of cloth will, ten minutes later, pressure twelve suitcases in an elevator.”
My very own styling equipment (now retired) was an outdated Hysteric Glamour mini backpack with built-in bumbag, filled with lint rollers, fringes of various sized security pins, a endless provide of sheer nude thongs, and a metre of leather-based wire (at all times nice for an impromptu necklace with some random allure or different strung on it). And naturally, the important industrial energy bulldog clamps.
Assistants is out quickly (with three completely different covers). See extra right here. 
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Assistants by Virginie Benarroch and Lola Raban
NOTE: Most pictures are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate hyperlinks and PR samples. Please learn my privateness and cookies coverage right here.
CLICK HERE to get Disneyrollergirl weblog posts straight to your inbox as soon as every week
CLICK HERE to purchase my e book, The New Garconne: The way to be a Trendy Gentlewoman
CLICK HERE to purchase my magnificence e book, Face Values: The New Magnificence Rituals and Skincare
