Brandy Joy Smith

OK about every week I get someone emailing me to ask how I got started as a stylist. At his point I thought it best to answer some questions and then I could refer questioners back to my tumblr. Here are the answers to 10 questions someone recently asked. Now I’m not claiming that all of my answers are the best approach, these just happen to be what worked for me.  I also have a quote I like to refer to and that is “the game is meant to be sold not told.” With that being said if you would like more info beyond these questions I suggest you contact the School of Style.
  1. How did you first get started styling in Austin?I started by assisting another stylist in town, Kerri Curtis.
2. What is the basic advice you have for anyone just starting out? Align your self with others just starting out in the industry and start doing test shoots. You need images to get noticed.
3. How did you get your name out there to begin styling for Magazines? Really creating my website and getting an agent (the Campbell Agency out of Dallas) has been the biggest help in getting myself noticed. That being said, you need GOOD tears/images to have a website that will get you noticed.
4. How did you begin networking your styling business here in Austin and San Antonio? I made friends with the local boutique owners, designers and kept good relationships with my friends at PR firms. I let everyone know I’m a stylist. I put it out into the universe.
5.What are the most challenging things you have encountered when you started Styling? How to get clothes for shoots that weren’t being published.
6. How did you first start to build your wardrobe? Being a natural lover of clothing, I think I’ve been building my stylist closet since I started shopping. I often pull pieces from my own closet for test shoots. Also Buffalo Exchange, thrift stores and vintage boutiques are an affordable way to build your stylist closet.
7. What was your first BIG Job? That’s a hard question because everything is all relative to timing. When I first started out my first published work was a 10 page spread in Austin Monthly (which are still one of my best clients today) at the time that was huge to me. Recently I just had my work appear in OK magazine and on the cover of Hair Dressers Journal. But honestly I treat every job like a big job because you never know when a small job will get you your next big job.
8. How did you get people to take you seriously as a stylist? By working hard, being on time, creating great relationships with the people I partner with and consistently educating, researching and trying to improve the work I put out into the world.
9. Is there anything  you know now that you wish you would have known when you first started out? KIT rental fee.
10. There are many stylists in the Austin/San Antonio area; what is your advice for getting noticed/booking the job over someone else? How do you set yourself apart from the other stylists in the area? This may sound cheesy but I believe in positive energy and hard work. If you put it out there someone will notice. Then let everyone know about it. No one can sell you like you. Network!
Follow my tumblr and twitter for more tid-bits

www.twitter.com/brandyjoy

www.tumblr.com/brandyjoysmith

Finally, the TV pilot I styled! The pilot is about the behind the scenes work that goes into creating a fashion photo shoot. The fashion campaign was based around a menswear line called “Built for Men” and I was asked to dress the male models in the clothing from the line and provide full wardrobe for the female model. I used 2 gowns from San Antonio designer Angelina Mata and had a custom designed dress made by Austin designer Zimka Olga Lebedeva. I also used some of the arm warmers from the men’s line to accent the female models clothing. All in all I think the pilot came out amazing. What a great experience to be a part of and I hope the pilot gets picked up. Among them were award winning director Marko Slavnic, VH1 the shoot renowned commercial & fashion photographer Dean Zulich, VH1 the shoot winner Maria Carmel, an NFL star, and an amazing creative team; Maris Malone Calderon- Make Up, and Jackson Ruiz Salon- Hair. The pilot was recorded on the million dollar set of the movie The Alamo.

Please check out the following link to view the pilot: http://vimeo.com/16279944

Important things to have in your prop styling kit:

matting

hot glue

straight pins

tacky

super glue

fishing line

wire & wire cutters

and a steady hand.

I have had the great honor of interviewing Laura Del Villaggio, designer of Milli Starr creations. After graduating from UT Austin, Laura continued her studies at F.I.T. where she obtained her Millinery Certificate as well as her graduate degree. Since then, she has been creating the most beautiful hats in Austin, TX. Take a look at our interview below!

When did you begin to have a passion for millinery?

I began collecting and wearing hats about 25 years ago, as a young teen.  I was finding really wonderful vintage hats from the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s.  I loved that each piece was unique and that it could be worn as an expression of my individuality.  The collection and my interest in fashion history grew…  When I enrolled in a graduate program for Museum Studies: Costume & Textiles at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1997, I also inquired about the undergraduate millinery courses.  FIT is the only place in the United States that still offers a millinery certificate program.  Over the next two years, I studied traditional hat-making, as well as textile and costume history, conservation, and exhibition.  It was a fabulous combination of my favorite subjects, and twelve years later, I feel very blessed to be surrounded by beautiful hats and exquisite vintage textiles on a daily basis.

What are some of your inspirations for your hats?

Obviously, I find inspiration in fashion history - references can be paintings or photographs, films, extant garments or accessories.  I enjoy 21st century fashion, too, and keep up with current trends through print and online media.  Very often, I find inspiration in the materials themselves.  Sometimes I just sit down and play - millinery is often like draping fabric on a dress form, only I am pinning crinoline, ribbon, and feathers onto a wig head.

Describe your first hat creation you ever made.

I’m sure I re-trimmed several vintage hats during high school, but the first hat I ever made start-to-finish would have been a gathered beret in the first course of the millinery program at FIT.  Oddly enough, I can’t remember anything about it, but I still have the second hat, an asymmetrical beret in burgundy wool with antique shell buttons around the band.  During the two year program at FIT, I made lots of hats both sewn and blocked.  My favorite was done in the final “Bridal & Couture” class taught by Nora Navarro, an over-sized boater inspired by the millinery of 1910.  It was a buckram frame with a silk velvet crown in midnight blue and a brim covered in petals made of dark blue satin ribbon.

What is the best thing that has happened to you because of millinery?

I get to meet such wonderful people as a milliner: my clients, my students at Stitch Lab, and also other talented designers, photographers, artists, boutique owners, etc.  Millinery has connected me with new friends and new inspirations both locally and globally.  I am excited each and every time I get to collaborate on a project, whether it’s a photo shoot or runway presentation.  Most recently, I traveled to New York during Fashion Week to show hats during the Milliners Guild Spring 2011 Fashion Show.  It was definitely a highlight of the past decade - being backstage with so many creative milliners and their gorgeous hats, showing my work in NYC, and walking the runway, too!

Who are some other milliners who inspire you?

I am always awed by the work of Fiona Bennett, an incredibly talented milliner based in Berlin.  She designs unusual, often surreal hats for film, theater, and a devoted clientele.  I also adore Philip Treacy, who is now more widely known as the London hatter in this season’s Project Runway premiere.  His career was launched by fashion eccentric and muse, Isabella Blow, who was also responsible for “discovering” Alexander McQueen.  Treacy is known for his ingenious feather work and sculptural hats. 

Tell us about your favorite piece that you have made.

 My “favorite” is always changing as I make new hats; currently I have two, both from my Fall 2010 collection.  The first is a small fascinator of brown sinamay straw, gorgeous velvet maple leaves and a bit of vintage silk veiling.  The second is a cloche with a tan parasisal straw crown and a draped sinamay brim in cherry red.  It is also trimmed with velvet foliage in fall colors, along with a found feather and a bakelite button.  Autumn has always been my favorite season and I was thrilled when I came across these vintage trims.  I actually have an image I clipped from Seventeen magazine about twenty years ago in which a red-haired model has fall leaves in her hair.  Still love the look.

Check out the Milli Starr website for more gorgeous creations!