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TIPS FROM STYLIST NICOLE VAN HEERDEN

18 Oct 2012
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Always dreamed of being a fashion stylist? There is a lot more to the job than dressing pretty people and scouring the fashion closet. This industry is made for hard workers who love fashion and know the difference between fashion and style. It’s about work, work and more hard work and thinking big, styling big and having a big passion.

Stylist Nicole van Heerden has been in the styling business for five years and has worked with Hugh Masekela and Pringle of Scotland for its South African campaigns and look books. Here she tells us more.

Describe your own style?

I am quite a minimalist. I like subtle style references and get excited about monotone dressing. I like a sexy silhouette. I like clothes that make me want to move.

How did you get into the industry?

I studied brand communications at Vega and specialised in art direction. I then interned at a Jo’burg wardrobe studio that worked on films and TV adverts. I initially got to understand the styling industry from the moving media side of things, a place where everything in a shot needs to be perfect – so this complemented my shrewd attention to detail.

I then moved to London and worked for a fashion label called 2812 by S. Miller. While there I also did some short courses in fashion styling at London College of Fashion. On my return to South Africa I began working with fashion photographers and designers and got to combine my art direction background and fashion styling pretty easily.

It’s a big dream for many of our readers to get into this industry. Any tips?

1. Be aware of what is going on on a global level in all the creative fields. It doesn’t help to follow only a few fashion-forward people and blogs.

2. Art, architecture and music are part and parcel the visual language of the people you are communicating with.

3. Adding your own take on things will set you aside from other stylists and will make your work consistent so that you become the go-to person for certain things. Explore everything but don’t try be good at everything.

4. Collaboration is a great way of getting started on your own projects and showing clients what is possible. Very rarely will a client come to you with a dream brief but they may be inspired when they see something of yours.

5. You are leading a team. Don’t be late.

Highlight of your career?

Working on the Pringle of Scotland South African campaigns and look. It’s been wonderful to produce work for such an old and esteemed international brand, and seeing it on billboards and in the retail space is exciting. 

Was it very different to working with Hugh Masekela?

Working with ‘Uncle Hugh’ was such a pleasure. His cool and relaxed attitude made choosing clothing and art directing the shoot a very fluid experience. His stories about some of his peers, who happen to be personal idols of mine, such as Miles Davis, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, made it feel as if they were all there with us. It made the moment very special and set the scene for a great photograph.

I am in the process of negotiating some very interesting clothing sponsorships for Hugh and that will hopefully lead to more exciting collaborations and shoots.

Why do you love what you do?

My work allows and encourages big ideas. I like that.

Who would you love to style?

Gwen Stefani and Charles Henri Ford, the American poet, novelist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist best known as the editor of View, a magazine on avant-garde and surrealist art in New York City. He always said that everything is related to the concept of poetry.

What’s on your radar for summer?

I will be visiting Mozambique this holiday and I will be on the lookout for local crafts and artisans’ work to incorporate into my work and wardrobe. I will also be looking for the typical fusion of prints or pattern on interesting textures. I think that there is a huge colour revolution happening and I’m curious to see what happens when you add interesting textures to colour. And then a great flatform will definitely catch my eye this summer.

Images: Supplied and Brett Rubin