ELLE (Canada)

JOE ZEE Fashion Guru

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THE GIG This former Torontonia­n, who’s now based in NYC and L.A., shares an excerpt from his new book, That’s What Fashion Is. STYLE SAVANT “I’m so inspired by Rihanna. I love that she can literally wear anything and pull it off. It’s a real skill to be able to turn the worst

look of the season into something great.” n

I remember being 16 and talking to George, a much older friend of mine in Toronto, about wanting to move to New York to do something—what, I wasn’t sure—with clothes and fashion and magazines. George was a hairdresse­r, and so when he told me, “You should be a stylist,” I thought he was talking about cutting hair. “No disrespect,” I told him. “I like what you do. But I don’t think I’d be any good at cutting hair.” When he told me that he meant a wardrobe stylist, I was confused. That’s a job? To pick out clothes? To shop for other people? And they pay you? I didn’t get it.

A few months later, George called to ask if I might be interested in styling a “test shoot” he was doing with a photograph­er, a makeup artist and a model. This is something creative types often do (when they have the time) in order to experiment, help fill out their portfolios, or just have fun. I said yes right away, though I still had plenty of questions, including: What was it, exactly, I’d be doing again? “You can dress the model however you want,” he told me.

Armed with that and little else, I went to all the local department stores, charged armfuls of clothes to my mother’s credit card—looking, I’m sure, like a young drag queen getting ready for the show of his life—and then hauled the bags and bags of pretty dresses and coats and shoes and tights to a dirty warehouse in east Toronto. This would mark the beginning of my penchant for over-pulling and over-prepping for magazine shoots. I might bring ten racks of clothes and some fifty-five pairs of shoes for a one-girl story. The more stuff, the better, because I never know how I’ll feel in the moment and the worst is being on some remote set and wishing I’d just packed that one busted skirt everyone despised. A skirt is never so perfect as when it’s three thousand miles away. I am sure many other stylists will tell you the same thing.

During the daylong shoot in the Toronto warehouse, I kept all the sales tags attached, was super careful when getting the model dressed, and when the photograph­er asked me about pinning and taping things to fit the girl (who knew stylists did that?—because, let’s face it, I had never done this before), I inwardly freaked out. This photograph­er wanted me to pierce these new clothes with a pin? And where exactly was I getting this pin? Yeah, suddenly, in my disorganiz­ation, dressing someone seemed a little less fun. Instead I found a piece of masking tape that had been used to tape a shopping bag shut and I carefully pulled that off and used it masterfull­y to make the shirt look more fitted. Looking back, I realize I MacGyvered my way into this career. When the shoot was done, I returned everything immediatel­y to all the department stores, making absolutely no eye contact with the disapprovi­ng saleswomen but secretly feeling so satisfied. I don’t even remember much of the in-between, including what the photos looked like, but I will never forget the intoxicati­ng feeling of walking through the mall on a mission to make something of my very own. From that day on, I was a stylist.

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