Style starts by being honest with yourself
Then make the most of your best feature and don’t overdo it, advises stylist
He’s worked with icons of Canadian music, television and film and styled public figures as diverse as a former prime minister and entertainment TV hosts.
So when Lee Kinoshita Bevington talks about style, people listen.
“The most important thing is to learn to see yourself as you really are. Those preconceptions we have are very powerful,” says the 60-yearold designer and former Edmontonian. He studied fine art at the University of Alberta before moving to Toronto to take interior design at Ryerson, then abandoned it all to work in fashion.
Much of his recent work has been designing costumes for CBC’s Battle of the Blades and before that, for four seasons of So You Think You Can Dance Canada. He also does image consulting and styling for a host of television personalities for CTV and TSN.
Kinoshita Bevington worked for many years with singer Anne Murray, designing outfits for her tours, videos and TV specials, and has styled many other famous Canadians, including former prime minister Kim Campbell, singers Rita McNeil, Amanda Marshall and Corey Hart, and former SCTV comedians Andrea Martin and Rick Moranis.
He also does makeovers for new, on-air personalities at the networks, offering them style and wardrobe advice, and provides regular wardrobe and style updates for onair talent, from news anchors to Olympic sports hosts.
But the same lessons he tries to teach those in the public eye apply to average people too, the most important being to figure out your own best assets and flaws.
“You have to be very honest about your body,” he says. “I find for most people, when you look in the mirror, you don’t really see what’s in the mirror, you see what’s in your head, and learning to see what’s in the mirror is quite difficult.
“You have to be analytical about your body. Do you have a short waist? Do you have a long neck? Are you a pear shape? Do you have a square shape? What are those features that you want to bring out?” he adds.
Everyone has things they’d like to camouflage and features they’d like to highlight. The trick is taking an honest inventory, first and foremost.
Kinoshita Bevington says he’s always excited to see change in a client who had no idea what looked good on them to one who has confidence and a sense of personal style. “The whole point of my work is to make people feel good about how they look,” he says.
“What I find the most interesting about this work is the transformation that happens. You see them grow in their style.”
He’s always careful not to force anything on a client if they’re not comfortable with it. “It’s very hard to push someone into a style; it has to be a growth out of their personality.”
He usually works first on a client’s hair and makeup, finding the styles and colours that work best with skin tone and features. The clothing component comes last.
Learning to use restraint is also important, says KinoshitaBevington.“People tend to think you look better if you put more on, but really, you should put on less,” he adds, citing Coco Chanel’s famous quote about looking in the mirror before you leave the house and taking one thing off.
“You can wear a dress and a pair of beautiful earrings and you’re done,” he says.
People should be sure to update their hair and makeup as they age, recognizing that skin tone changes and colours and styles that used to work may no longer. “A hot pink lipstick that looked great at 22 might not look so great at 52,” he says.
After a certain age, it may be harder to wear strapless dresses or short sleeves, he adds. “You have to know when to let go of that, and be honest.”
He admires the style of celebrities like Charlize Theron, who is not only beautiful, “she also knows how to take that and make it work for her.”
Halle Berry is another great example. “She’s beyond gorgeous, but she really knows how to dress for her body. She knows how to be dramatic, but she always looks appropriate.”