Heavy admin
There’s lots of prep that goes into capitalizing on a celebrity style moment. In the instances where he has an idea of when and where something will be worn, Mitola drafts a press release; ensures products are available for purchase and that high-res and ghost mannequin shots are ready; and prepares hyperlink and affiliate commissions. “Once we have the image of the celebrity, we throw it in and then blast it out,” he says. After that, he’ll post to Instagram, then share with retail consultants for them to share with their VICs.
This is all easier to do when the brand has a heads-up. Without it, it’s a matter of keeping Google notifications on for the brand, but also monitoring the looks of people a brand has loaned looks out to via stylists’s social media and Getty — which, of course, is easier with a team or consultancy on board than without.
Oftentimes, it’s a matter of the latter, because communication tends to be worse in celebrity requests than editorial styling requests, says Rider. Of celebrity requests, he says, “it’s honestly quite elusive and less organized than editorial styling requests.” Whereas, from magazines, a brand will receive blocks of specific dates and addresses, celebrity requests tend to be quite vague, he notes, adding that you don’t always know if you’ll get a garment back. “That’s probably because [the stylists] are at the whim of these really busy people, but it can be a bit annoying considering we’re a small brand with one sample set.”
Brands can — and should — ask to be notified, Mitola says. “You as the designer can say, ‘Hey, I’m sending this to you. Can you please let me know if anything gets slotted so that I can prepare and make the most of that moment?’ Or if you don’t get notified, you can be like, ‘This is so amazing, I wish I had known so I could have maximized this opportunity because now press won’t cover this, and the dress has been worn, so I can’t loan this to another celebrity,’” he offers. “Because that’s the thing: if you don’t tell us, we can’t pitch it to Vogue.com two weeks later, so it’s now not going to get the visibility that it needs for the season.”
