I not too long ago interviewed Caroline Baker (former super-stylist and trend editor) for my subsequent ebook and we talked about her favorite styling ‘instrument’, the protection pin. Coming back from a Nova journal shoot in Japan through Thailand within the Seventies, she spent 24 hours in Bangkok the place she observed a recurring styling element on the locals; their blue jackets fixed with security pins.
“So I did an expansion 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 like security pins, so when John Lydon got here out, that was his image and instantly security pins turned it. It got here to be an out of doors factor and it was OK. As a result of [previously] in the event you security pinned your garments, you’ll disguise them in the event you had been a effectively purchased up lady. And as a stylist, you change 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 common-or-garden bulldog clip and photographer’s clamp (hardcore metallic clamp with sharp tooth 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 ebook, Assistants by French stylist Virginie Benarroch and photographer Lola Raban. The ebook appears to be like at trend assistants’ type and the idiosyncrasies of their particular person kits, tips and elegance codes. Area of interest, however relatable! (Assume, ‘what’s in my bag’ for trend BTS insiders.)
“I feel the assistant stylists are fascinating,” says stylist Virginie Benarroch, “Their work package 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 package. The identical assistant who adjusts a millimetre of material will, ten minutes later, power twelve suitcases in an elevator.”
My very own styling package (now retired) was an previous Hysteric Glamour mini backpack with built-in bumbag, full of lint rollers, fringes of various sized security pins, a unending provide of sheer nude thongs, and a metre of leather-based twine (all the time nice for an impromptu necklace with some random appeal or different strung on it). And naturally, the important industrial power 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 photographs are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate hyperlinks and PR samples. Please learn my privateness and cookies coverage right here.
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