Want to Be A Sustainable Stylist? 3 Stylists Share Their Advice
Conscious Career Chats Series
by Stella Hertantyo
Stylists are powerful storytellers and image-makers in the fashion industry. Through how they present clothing, stylists can shape how we view, engage with, and create aspirations about clothing.
Many stylists have become a part of fast fashion’s marketing machine — creating looks and imagery that convince us to buy into the latest trends. But there is a new wave of sustainable fashion stylists who are reclaiming the role of a stylist and helping us to reimagine our relationship with our clothes.
Each sustainable fashion stylist has their own approach, whether it be sharing creative ways to restyle garments we already own, incorporating preloved garments into shoots, or choosing to source garments from small, sustainable brands.
If you are interested in learning about how to become a sustainable fashion stylist, below you can read through the career journeys of 3 fashion stylists — Alyssa Beltempo, Sam Weir, and Natalie Shehata — who are making meaningful contributions to the world of sustainable style:
Alyssa Beltempo
Alyssa is a slow fashion content creator and sustainable fashion stylist. She believes that everyone can be a conscious fashion consumer by choosing creativity overconsumption, and has changed the way thousands of people see their closets via her YouTube channel and online events.
Her previous role as a commercial wardrobe stylist allows her to break down fashion into intentional elements of style so that everybody can learn how to shop less, and love their closet more.
How did you get your first job in this field?
I created my first job by starting a YouTube Channel! I never expected it to become a paying job or a career. I continued to work as a freelance wardrobe stylist and applied those skills to creating content for YouTube that helped people shop their closets.
But the community grew, and I continue to learn about different topics in styling and sustainable fashion which allows me to offer other services like digital workshops and one-on-one personal styling.
Did you need a specific degree or qualification to get started? Where would you suggest someone interested in a similar position start looking for work?
When I started, sustainable fashion was still a fairly new concept. So I didn’t obtain any specific degrees or qualifications. But my experience as a wardrobe stylist allowed me to be confident and deliver clear messaging around encouraging people to explore creativity instead of consumption and build on that as a platform.
Now there are all kinds of incredible learning tools, books, and resources available, as well as specialized programs from traditional institutions which is amazing! If someone is interested in doing something similar, I would take advantage of educational and community platforms like Slow Factory, GroupChat, and Soapbox.
But when it comes to something like personal styling, I think experience is key. Try to work as an assistant for a stylist and put yourself out there to friends and family, and local businesses, so you can get experience.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
That it’s glamorous! Even when I was working as a wardrobe stylist, most people think that it’s a glamorous day of being around clothes and going to events. It’s usually a lot of schlepping, steaming, testing, changing, running around, and admin.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
That I get to keep learning as I do it. And my community and I have a symbiotic relationship. They are so smart and creative too. We learn from each other!
What are some challenging elements of your job?
I am lucky because my community is incredibly compassionate, supportive, and good at sussing out nuance and the duality of many sustainable fashion concepts. But, this isn’t always the case.
I find it a challenge to communicate over comments alone when faced with black-and-white thinking around a certain topic. Sometimes, real-time, in-person conversations are best and that is difficult with a global community.
What is the one or two pieces of advice that you wish you could have received?
Don’t wait to find a job that makes better use of your skills. It’s so rewarding.
On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with working a job that is not 100% in alignment with your skills and values. I think it is very hard to find, and having a financial cushion while you build, learn, or seek out a job that aligns with your skills and values is truly invaluable because it means you can seek out the right job with intention and mindfulness.
Sam Weir
Sam Weir is a New York City-based stylist with vast industry experience. She has worked in celebrity, editorial, personal, and commercial styling, trained with renowned stylists such as Kate Young, Alex White, and Sarah Richardson, and held a position as junior fashion editor at Document Journal.
In 2022, dreaming of a creative and climate-conscious solution for the styling industry, Sam launched Lotte.V1. Lotte.V1 is a one-on-one online styling service that employs styling as it was originally intended — to provide unique ways to wear our clothing. Not only does this lower consumption levels, but it also inspires a cultural shift in how we value clothing and the people and land that create them.
How did you get your first job in this field?
My first job was in the traditional fashion industry working for the NY-based PR firm, PRC. I was an intern in my freshman year of college for the Vera Wang, Nili Lotan, and Narcisco Rodriguez team.
I obtained the internship by researching any openings and applying, applying, and applying. Finally, I landed at PRC. I had no interest in PR at the time — and still don’t — but it was the only way I could get my foot in the door so I took it.
What led you to your current position?
When I learned about the damage the fashion industry perpetuates against people and the planet, I knew I had to leave. At the time, I was working as a fashion editor in the traditional luxury fashion industry, encouraging behaviors of overconsumption and upholding this fantasy fashion world.
I wanted to be on the side of solutions, not problems. Once I left my position, I took a step back and thought about how I could use my skills in styling for good. I hoped to use styling to promote creativity rather than consumption. That is when Lotte.V1 was born.
Did you need a specific degree or qualification to get started? Where would you suggest someone interested in a similar position start looking for work?
I do not have a degree in fashion or sustainability. If I could go back, I would’ve loved to obtain a degree in environmental policy or a combination of art history and environmental policy.
I think it’s important to note that fashion is still and will always be a deeply creative practice. We must remember that our studies should still focus on the power of an image and story.
If someone is interested in becoming a personal stylist or stylist in general, I would simply start shooting. Take pieces from your wardrobe, ask a friend to model, and shoot it yourself. Start to develop your taste and eye as a stylist by looking online at old editorials and runway shows. Once you feel comfortable, reach out to publications with this work to get featured.
Styling is still quite new, especially the way I do it, so you have to develop your path.
I also recommend getting involved in sustainable fashion groups like Remake, Fashion Act Now, or Fashion Revolution to meet other people in the sustainable fashion world.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
That it’s mostly about clothing. Styling, especially personal styling, is more so about people.
It’s about how I understand someone as a person and interpret that into clothing. Clothing is an expression of self — one of the more obvious and powerful ways to do so. So yes, having deep knowledge about clothing is important, but just as important is understanding your client.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
I feel the utmost gratitude that I get to connect with individuals through the medium of clothing daily. When clients who used to shop every weekend tell me that they haven’t shopped in months I cannot help but smile. It's incredibly fulfilling.
What are some challenging elements of your job?
It's still so new. People don't understand what you're doing or why you're doing it. You're still going against the “norm”, which can pose some internal challenges.
You have to possess an inner knowing and confidence in your work to keep going, even when it feels like no one is understanding you.
If you could give your younger self and those wanting to get into this field some advice, what would it be?
Read, explore, and open up your imagination. We're told that we must follow a specific path in this industry to find success, but that path has led us to the environmental and ecological crisis.
That path must change, and we need you all to help rebuild it.
So read as much as you can. Get outside in nature and explore rather than be on your phone. Open up your imagination and dream the wildest ideas. And finally, run to make them a reality. That’s what I’m doing at Lotte.V1.
Natalie Shehata
Natalie is an ethical and sustainable fashion stylist, educator, and the founder of tommie magazine — an online and real-life community, that provides a platform for critical conversation and connection within the sustainable fashion discourse. Through the various mediums of her work, Natalie is on a mission to change the stigma around preloved fashion and the intersectionalities that that includes.
How did you get your first job in this field?
It’s been a long journey, but my first paid job as an assistant stylist was working on a national (Australia-wide) tour with British celebrity stylists Trinny and Susannah. We were styling in a live environment and selecting people out of the audience, at Westfield Shopping centers. I traveled around the country for a month, visiting shopping centers, with one suitcase that had everything you could think of in it — from undergarments to bulldog clips and lavish dresses.
I landed this role having done many unpaid internships before this. I started as a stylist well before there was an ethical or sustainable fashion space, so unpaid internships were the norm. But they are definitely not something I advocate for and have been working hard to change this in the industry ever since.
One of the internships that led me to this role was assisting a stylist for a weekly lifestyle magazine. I did everything from visiting PR showrooms to sourcing clothes, I built studio sets, I taped shoes, ironed and steamed clothes, dressed models, and did the coffee and lunch run. I was able to be creative. And the stylist I assisted made sure that with every shoot I worked on, I received printed assistant styling credits — which was important back then to gain credibility and exposure in the industry.
Interning for free was not ideal for me as I was at university studying a Commerce Degree full time, living out of home, attending fashion college, as well as working a day and night job — in retail during the day and at a pharmacy at night.
I wasn’t able to put in the same amount of time for free labor as my peers, because I had to pay for rent and my living expenses, without any guarantee of a job.
Many of the young women, who were interning at the different magazines I was at, were able to offer more of their time because they came from privileged backgrounds — unlike me who grew up in public housing. They didn’t have to worry about how to pay rent with their next pay cheque. But I didn’t let this stop me and I hustled hard. I never had a day off during those years.
This is why, today, I’m such a huge advocate for uplifting and being a bridge for Black Indigenous Women of Color (BIWOC) specifically in this space, through my platform tommie magazine that I founded, because elitism and privilege are huge problems in the fashion industry.
After interning with this stylist, she recommended me to a PR agency that was looking for an assistant stylist for the national tour. I went on to work with a PR agency on styling jobs for years to come including seasonal campaign catalogs for shopping centers, designing and styling large-scale visual merchandising displays, as well as personal styling jobs.
What led you to your current position?
Every single experience working in the industry has led me to where I am right now as an ethical and sustainable fashion stylist and founder of tommie magazine — “the destination for creative Women with a conscience”.
There are two areas that I’m super passionate about changing.
Firstly, elevating the voices and work of BIWOC, so that they are front and center and not only have a seat at the table, but are creating their own tables.
Secondly, profiling secondhand style as people’s first choice when buying “new” pieces.
As a young stylist working in the fashion space, I was almost always the only WOC on the set of editorials, at fashion events, at PR showings, and at meetings. There was no such thing as “inclusive” fashion.
I had a job at a shopping center where I created large-scale displays. Once, I requested the marketing team purchase curvy mannequins because I realized the impact I was having on shoppers with items from my visual merchandising displays often selling out. I realized that there was a whole community of people walking through these shopping centers that weren’t represented.
The marketing team rejected my proposal to invest in curvy mannequins, because they didn’t want this body shape to be represented in the middle of shopping centers. This was one experience, amongst many, that saw me exit the mainstream fashion space, and want to go at it on my own.
The experiences range from being yelled at on set by a non-BIWOC in an attempt to assert their power and superiority, to being teased for having brown almond shaped eyes, unlike my peers who were Anglo Saxon and had light eyes, to white women claiming credit for work I did to get ahead in their careers.
I also got constant questions like: Where do you come from? Why do you look so exotic? And judgment and criticism amongst fashion professionals I worked with who ridiculed my secondhand clothing.
Then there is the waste. When you work behind the scenes, not only do you know about the mistreatment of garment workers, stylists to photographers — you are also faced with fashion’s throwaway culture.
Although I tried to make a change within the broken system, change was happening at a snail's pace — if at all — so I decided to work outside of the system and do things my way.
Fast forward to today, and through the tommie platform, as an alternative educator and sustainable fashion stylist, I’ve had the honor of changing the narrative, in Australia specifically, about some of the hard conversations we don’t often want to address.
Like the fact that BIWOC are still not afforded the same rights, opportunities, and access in fashion and beyond, even though we are leaders in sustainability, personal style, ritual, creativity, connection, and community.
With the tommie platform, I wanted to bring people together through community gatherings, so we could all learn side by side, not in the shadows. It’s so much easier to be vulnerable in the face of someone who may not share the same viewpoints as you, than behind the computer screen.
Our events have been turning points for people where they’re learned about racism, and fashion’s colonial roots, and been inspired to experiment with their personal style through secondhand, by shopping at our tommie shop.
The tommie platform has been a platform and intermediary where other BIWOC have had the opportunity to meet each other and collaborate. So many women who have met at our events have gone on to collaborate on ongoing projects together, and I love that our platform is the starting point for so much vision, creativity, and friendship.
Did you need a specific degree or qualification to get started? Where would you suggest someone interested in a similar position start looking for work?
I started on this journey in 2008, and there were no eco-stylists back then that I knew of, or safe places to come together with those who had a shared passion. But today there is, thanks to the world of social media!
To be honest, the fashion college I went to didn’t equip me with the opportunities in the fashion industry I had hoped for. They had networks and connections that helped place me in unpaid work experience. This is where I met the people I would go on to work for in the future through personal referrals and recommendations.
Most of the work I have been involved in has been opportunities I’ve created from scratch — because they didn’t exist or weren’t as easily accessible to BIWOC.
What is the biggest misconception about what you do?
That fashion is glamorous. It's hard work. The hours are long and the remuneration doesn’t reflect the dynamic level of skill needed.
Also, that styling is just about playing dress-up.
There are so many different ways to be a stylist whether it's a wardrobe stylist, an editorial stylist, a personal stylist, a celebrity stylist, or a brand stylist — it’s a diverse field, there are so many different ways to participate in it.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
I love bringing people together, specifically, BIWOC. I love being able to curate fun, warm, and inviting spaces where Women can connect and truly be themselves. And I love being able to share and pass up the knowledge that I have.
I think my life’s purpose is about supporting others on their journey and making it that little bit easier for them. I wish I’d had that when I was starting out.
A recent role I had which I have now moved on from — as I have recently relocated to Los Angeles, CA from Sydney, Australia — was being the retail trainer and manager of an ethical fashion brand/social enterprise and NFP, The Social Outfit, where I got to work with female youth from the refugee and new migrant community. I trained 26 young women in the two years when I was in this role. Having that responsibility was the greatest joy and lit me up inside in ways that I’ll never be able to fully describe.
Being afforded the chance to be there for these women through the medium of ethical fashion, where I taught them everything about retail, and supported their employment journey, was one of the greatest gifts.
Whether it's styling someone and introducing them to more color and pattern, showing them that they are allowed to be bold and that there are no rules when it comes to style, advocating for BIWOC rights, and working with youth, the common denominators for me are always:
How can I be of service to make your walk a little less wobbly than my own was?
How can I lift you up, so you are seen, heard, understood, and celebrated?
What tools, knowledge, and resources can I offer you?
This is ultimately my favorite part of the many hats I wear as an alternative educator, a sustainable fashion stylist, and social justice advocate.
What are some challenging elements of your job?
One of the most challenging parts is that the masses still don’t see the value in this work, that it is grossly underpaid.
Also, people still see the fashion industry as being frivolous. But we know that it is a $3 trillion industry. The way I always look at it is, if we harnessed this to do good, we could change the industry for the better, as there are so many stakeholders of fashion who are being exploited. It’s a huge industry and we need to continue to shake up the system for true change to happen.
If you could give your younger self and those wanting to get into this field some advice, what would it be?
For anyone getting into this field I would say, try different jobs and roles if you can in the beginning, to see what you like and where you feel you can be of service most. Be uniquely and unapologetically you and don’t look to other people's paths to emulate their journey.
Every bit of experience matters and is a part of the process. Along the way, if you can take someone under your wing with you, to support their journey, then do so. The more people who can share their skills and passion with the world, the better!
Also, I do believe you need to have an unrelenting desire for this work. Or maybe that’s just me?!
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About the Author:
Stella Hertantyo is a slow fashion and slow living enthusiast based in Cape Town, South Africa. Stella finds solace in words as a medium for sharing ideas and encouraging a cultural shift that welcomes systems change and deepens our collective connection to the world around us. She is passionate about encouraging an approach to sustainability, and social and environmental justice, that is inclusive, intersectional, accessible, and fun.
Stella holds a B.A. Multimedia Journalism from the University of Cape Town, and a PGDip in Sustainable Development from the Sustainability Institute. She currently works as a writer, editor, and social media manager. When she is not in front of her laptop, a dip in the ocean, or a walk in the mountains, are the two things that bring her the most peace.
