Cetificate in Fashion Styling

About our Certificate in Fashion Styling

A fashion designer is responsible for designing clothes, while a fashion stylist works with clothes, accessories and even background props when necessary, to put together a complete look or style. Just as the conductor of an orchestra carefully controls all the musicians and various instruments to create a beautiful piece of music, the fashion stylist selects each item appropriately so that they compliment and harmonise with all the other components successfully. It is for this reason that fashion stylists have been called "Designers of Style", setting the trends that everyone else follows.

A good fashion stylist can take what looks like an ordinary outfit and turn it into something spectacular by "simply" adding a few details or fitting it in a particular way. Fashion stylists have an ability to transform the mundane into something that looks visually exciting and desirable, and that's why skilled fashion stylists are in high demand, creating a look that will sell for their client.

Most people think that a sense of style and flair is something that you are born with; you either have it or you don't. While it is true that this ability comes more naturally to some people than others, the right training can teach anyone to develop an "eye" for fashion.

This fashion styling course can teach you how to recognise what works and why, so that you can recreate your own looks, and create results that are WOW! Whether you would prefer to work on the high street, the catwalk or the fashion pages of a glossy magazine, fashion styling is a young and exciting business and there are many different avenues and career paths a fashion stylist can follow.

One thing is for certain; the fashion industry is BIG BUSINESS, and fashion styling can be a highly profitable career as well as exciting and dynamic. The following pages provide an overview of what you can expect to learn...

What will you learn?

For a detailed information on what you will learn on this course please download our Image & Fashion Styling Course Prospectus. However for a brief summary of what you will learn please click on one of the following links:

• Communicating your Ideas
• The Elements of Style
• Working with Colour
• Creating a Fashion Story

Communicating your Ideas
The role of the stylist revolves around the ability to create a visually pleasing look - after all, fashion stylists are employed because a client understands the importance of achieving the perfect look for their clothes and accessories, and they want to get it right first time. Successful stylists have an air of confidence, because most of them don't begin to put a style or display together until they can see in their mind's eye exactly how the end result will look once it has been completed. Furthermore, they can also communicate their ideas visually and persuasively by using a number of different tools to help their clients and other team members to envision their ideas as accurately as possible...

Successful communication of your styling ideas is imperative when you are working to a client's brief and when you are working with a team of creative people - all of whom might have their own ideas about what they would like to achieve. The ability to visually communicate your ideas is the only way to determine that everyone understands the creative direction for a project, and it can also help you to sell your ideas to clients in a way that communicates both professionalism and creativity. Some of the topics this course will teach you include the following:

• Tear Sheets & Storyboards - the language of the fashion styling industry
• Mood & Concept Boards - adapting traditional designers' tools for visual communication
• Testing - ways to build practical experience along with your confidence and your portfolio
• Writing Captions - how to record and format necessary details accurately
• Successful Team Productions - working with photographers, make-up & hair stylists
• Planning for Success - simple steps to keep everyone on track, on time and on budget!

The Elements of Style
The majority of people have a natural sense about what looks good and what doesn't. For the most part, individuals may not necessarily be able to put together a winning look themselves, but they can instantly recognise when something looks wrong. The difficulty usually comes about when we are asked to explain our feelings and define exactly why a style works or doesn't as the case may be, and this can be a major stumbling block when you are trying to win a client's confidence! To work successfully as a fashion stylist, you will need to identify and explain to your clients precisely how and why your styling ideas will work for them. The inability to do this effectively can cause doubt in a client's mind, while supporting your styling ideas in a manner that conveys knowledge and professionalism will enable you to make a plausible and convincing case for your suggestions...

On this course you will be introduced to the individual components of style and design, and you will learn to identify them and use them successfully when putting together a look. By understanding the essential components of any style, you will be able to deconstruct and reconstruct different styles effectively, regardless of your own personal preferences - and you should be able to do so with your own unique twist! In addition to "training your eye", this section of the course will give you the vocabulary and industry terminology to communicate effectively with other stylists and designers with confidence. The topics covered include the following:

• Assessing Styles & Trends - training your eye to notice the details & accurately define the features that make a style or look distinctive
• The Elements of Style - the individual components of style and how to use them
• Achieving Visual Balance - symmetry, asymmetry & radial balance
• Making Trends - using accessories & details to recreate a trend or start one of your own!

Working with Colour
Colour is one of the strongest visual elements perceived by the human eye and understanding how to work with colour is not just important, it's vital to success in the fashion styling industry. Whether you are working with inexpensive ranges from high street chain-stores or top designer labels and haute coutre clothing, colours that are clashing and ill-chosen can create an effect that's cheap and garish. On the other hand, choosing the right colour combinations can transform the mundane into something that creates a sensation!

The key to success when working with colour, is in knowing how to achieve a harmonious balance between the colours of the clothes themselves and any accessories and backdrops. In areas such as fashion buying and visual merchandising, you can apply this particular skill in such a way that you focus attention on the clothes and create a mood that makes consumers want to buy. This is a valuable asset, as the results can be measured immediately in terms of sales and revenue. Developing an eye for colour in this way can help you to become highly sought after and this course will show you how to create winning colour combinations every time. Topics covered include...

• Colour Combinations - understanding which colours work together so that you can create great colour combinations time after time
• The Colour Wheel - what it is and how it can work for you
• Colour Characteristics - using colour to disguise, emphasise or achieve special effects
• Simultaneous Contrast - how to make any colour look good
• Light & Colour - how they relate to each together and special considerations
• Working with Colour -choosing the right approach for an individual project

Creating a Fashion Story
If we're totally honest, most jeans look remarkably similar, so what is it that makes us purchase a particular brand of jeans? Sometimes it is genuinely because a particular brand fit us more comfortably, but for the most part we are attracted to a particular range or line of clothing because of the way it's presented to us, through TV advertisements, billboards & posters, magazine editorials and in-store displays. As a fashion stylist, you will need to do more than just put an outfit together; you will need to select the right visual props such as backdrops and accessories to suggest a lifestyle and tell a fashion story, featuring the clothes as the main character. You may think it sounds a little outlandish at first, but it's all about presenting visual displays and images in a way that appeals to an audience causing them to buy. That is essentially what Fashion Styling is all about!

If you are going to create a look that sells, then the best way to begin is by understanding who the consumers are and what will appeal to them most. Once you know that, you can start to select the various elements and details to carefully create a style that looks great and will create desire. Developing a fashion story that is believable and congruent is important, and it is also an opportunity for you to expand your creativity even further and really have some fun in the process. On this course you will be introduced to the following:

• The Target Market - the essential marketing basics you need to know
• Fashion Story - what it is, why it's important and how you can write your own
• Building a Mood - using the right combination of elements to create the mood you want
• Visual Persuasion - achieving congruency by picking the right details for the story you are trying to tell!