What Does a Stylist Do? Karla Welch’s Styling Process

Karla Welch is a Los Angeles–based celebrity stylist and entrepreneur who made her mark on the fashion world in 2011 when she began working with famed singer Justin Bieber. Since then, her client roster has expanded to include celebrities such as Olivia Wilde, Sarah Paulson, Amy Poehler, Zooey Deschanel, and Cindy Crawford and major brands like Nike, Adidas, and Louis Vuitton. She founded and created her clothing brand xKarla with collaborators Hanes and Levi’s and has worked with prominent designers on celebrity gowns for the Met Gala and the Academy Awards.

A stylist is an expert in fashion trends who provides advice on clothing and style. Different types of stylists work in various areas of the fashion industry, for example, as a personal stylist for an individual, as a consultant for fashion brands or fashion shows, or as a wardrobe stylist for photoshoots, commercials, or music videos. Fashion stylists often work as image consultants for celebrity clients, advising them on current trends, what looks best for their personal style and body type, and helping them look their best for awards shows or public events.

Many stylists earn degrees in fashion design, fashion merchandising, or visual merchandising, and take internships or part-time work while they build their portfolios. As they gain experience through stylist jobs, they forge relationships in the fashion industry that help expand their full-time fashion styling careers.

A fashion stylist’s duties depend on their client’s needs. There are several tasks included in a stylist job description. In this role, they:

• Compile outfits. Stylists assist and advise individuals, fashion industry clients, and film and television professionals with clothing choices, outfits, and accessories. They may assist with a particular event or their entire wardrobe, and may provide tailoring and personal shopping.
• Stay on top of the latest trends. Fashion stylists work to keep up with current trends and styles, including, in some cases, forecasting future trends.
• Provide consultation for fashion designers. Some stylists assist fashion designers with outfits worn at runway shows, showrooms, or photoshoots.
• Collaborate with other stylists. Fashion stylists working on photoshoots or fashion shows often require excellent time management and communication skills to work with other professionals (such as art directors, hair stylists, and makeup artists) to accomplish a singular creative vision.

Karla’s many years of experience helping some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities look their best makes her an expert in the world of styling. Below she walks you through her creative process, “from meeting a client for the first time to sending them out the door to a huge event.”

1. 1. Determine if the client is a good match for you. The initial step Karla recommends is deciding whether or not you’re excited to work with the prospective client. “The first thing that happens when I get a call to style a client is I decide if I’m the right fit for this person,” says Karla. “Do I think I can do something amazing together? I really want to be excited about the people I work with.”
2. 2. Make sure you’re the right stylist to help them. It also goes the other way. Karla believes excitement to work with someone doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the right person to help them. “Then I think, ‘Oh, can I do the job that they need?’ Because ultimately we give 110 percent to anybody who comes into our door,” she says. “Doesn’t matter what the rate is, or the budget, or what they’re promoting. I want people who come to me to be so taken care of.”
3. 3. Discuss the client’s likes and dislikes. After you’ve agreed to help the client, make contact and get a sense of who they are. “We usually arrange a meeting or a phone call,” Karla says. “And I talk about, you know, past looks they’ve done. What they’ve loved. What they haven’t loved. What kind of story we want to tell with each other.”
4. 4. Discuss the occasion. Many clients hire stylists for important events. Karla often works with celebrities required to look their best for awards shows or publicity. “Generally, it’s centered in whatever film they are promoting,” Karla says. Whether your client needs help dressing for a movie premiere or a boardroom meeting, learn as much as you can about the occasion and expected dress code.
5. 5. Brainstorm with the client and daydream. Once she understands the client’s needs and the events on their calendar, Karla opens an ongoing line of communication to exchange ideas. “After the phone call we generally also will exchange Instagram or texts to [say], ‘Oh, I love this. I love how this looks.’ A creative conversation begins,” Karla says. At the same time, she starts to imagine on her own what would look good on the client. “This is where my daydreaming comes into play,” she adds. “I daydream about this person. And what I want to see them do in the world. And then I generally land on some sort of direction. And then I go from there.”
6. 6. Start looking at options. “Once I’ve landed on a client and a direction, and we know what we’re styling for, that’s when the fun starts,” Karla says. “We start calling in clothes from all sorts of designers. We start hitting all these showrooms. Showrooms are a place where designers have samples that they lend to celebrity clients.”
7. 7. Make a deal with the designer. Karla then discusses loaning the client clothing with the fashion designer. “A ‘call in’ means we’re gonna ask to borrow their clothes,” Karla says. “We’re gonna ask a designer to dress this client. And there’s a bit of negotiation that takes place there.” If it’s a new, up-and-coming public figure, Karla relies on her reputation to persuade the designer. She adds, “I use my relationships that I’ve built for twenty years to assure them I’m gonna do a great job with your clothes on this client.”
8. 8. First fitting. At this point, the client begins trying on clothes from Karla’s selections. “From there what happens is we get a ton of clothes into the studio,” Karla says. “I always line up a certain kind of flow of how I’m gonna try the clothes on when they come in. From there, I begin an editing process where I look at every piece. The client arrives. And we just start trying on clothes.”
9. 9. Try everything on. Karla advises having the client try on everything so you can get a sense of their body shape. “I have a rule when you come into my studio that we try everything on,” she says. “This is crucial for first-time fittings. I’ve never worked with this person before. So I don’t know how they wear clothes. So that is a really important step.”
10. 10. Reassure your client. Karla knows it’s crucial for the client to feel good about their body and the clothes they’ll be wearing. “So at my studio, we have a guideline. And it is, ‘Your issues are not an issue.’ We know how to dress every body,” Karla says. “It’s just my job to know how to work correctly with whatever body type my client has.”
11. 11. Find your hero pieces. “So then we land on what we call heroes,” Karla says. “And these are the looks that we are gonna line up with all the events that the client is gonna do.” As a stylist, your job is to organize and prepare the clothing for each event. “We get the tailoring done. We add the accessories, which are the shoes, the jewelry. We essentially get packed for a person,” Karla says. “It’s a really systematic way of organizing that is very effective.”
12. 12. Collaborate with the glam squad. Looking fabulous at an event involves many people, not just the stylist in charge of clothing. “So this is the next stage of my process, which is the collaboration with the glam squads,” she says. “The hair and makeup teams.” Everyone needs to be on the same page about the overall look they want to achieve. “I’m gonna help make sure it’s a cohesive image,” Karla adds. “Everybody is in step with each other.”
13. 13. Leave room for magic. Karla likes to allow space in the styling process for discovery. “I always want to leave room at the end for a little bit of magic,” she says. “At this last Oscars, [a client] was wearing a beautiful archival diamond necklace. And I was, like, ‘No, I don’t want the earrings.’ And then at the last minute, I put them on. And with the beautiful hair and the beautiful makeup, all of a sudden they made sense. And you didn’t see that in the fitting. So it’s super important to leave that space for the magic and a little extra creativity.”
14. 14. Enjoy the Cinderella moment. The next step in Karla’s styling process is finalizing the look and the client leaving to attend the event. “It is a big moment. And we’ve created this community,” she says. “And making sure [the client] looks great before they go out the door. And also giving them the confidence to say, ‘You look amazing. Go kill it.’”
15. 15. Use your styling kit if needed. Karla recommends having a styling kit with you at all times in case of a wardrobe issue. “In the kit is all the things we need for any sort of disaster,” Karla says. “So, for example, I look at what the person’s wearing, and I make sure I have a thread that matches. A steamer. My most important tool and a tool everybody at home should have is a lint roller. You have to have a lint roller.”
16. 16. Return the clothing. After the event, Karla collects the clothing and returns it to the designer. “In true Cinderella fashion, everything that the talent has worn comes back to me,” Karla says. “My team checks it all in, folds it up nicely, and sends it back to where it came from.”

Developing your fashion taste can go a long way toward building your confidence and helping you feel comfortable in your own skin. Discover Karla Welch’s approach to becoming a fashion stylist, building wardrobe essentials, and finding your personal style when you sign up for a MasterClass Annual Membership.