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host the American Music Awards twice in a row and has
covered magazines from InStyle to Vanity Fair to ELLE
Canada. (And the frame-filling pink Valentino gown
Ellis Ross wore to the 2018 Emmys will be remembered
forever.) Welch also steered Bieber’s transition from
kiddie crush to full-grown star with meaningful-career
longevity when she orchestrated a style makeover in
2018 that ushered him out of hoodies and into oddly
appealing and influential Hawaiian shirts and Dockers,
birthing the look that’s now lovingly referred to by the
media as “scumbro.”
Despite A-listers like Blake Lively being publicly
lauded in recent years for eschewing style advisers and
despite social movements like #AskHerMore encour-
aging the media to push their focus beyond fashion
during red-carpet interviews, Roach and his cohorts re-
main a mic-drop reminder that, today, possessing “good
style”—shorthand for a look worthy of photograph-
ing—is a vital part of being a bankable star. “Image is
more important now than it’s ever been,” says Roach.
“Before society sees your talent, before we hear you
speak, we are looking at your images.” As such, stylists
have evolved into creative branding experts, becoming
enmeshed in the career arcs of their clients, like beautiful
managers who wield tailoring advice instead of audition
tips and assemble outfits jaw-dropping enough to sum-
mon swarms of paparazzi.
While stylists may now be household names (just
look for Welch’s moniker on Levi’s jeans and Fruit of the
Loom shirts), the entire juggernaut of red-carpet fashion
can be credited to Wanda McDaniel, a Hollywood deal
maker whose name probably wouldn’t ring a bell for
even the most ardent Fashion Police viewer. Working
with her pal Giorgio Armani, who was enamoured with
the glitz of the film world, McDaniel courted stars in the
early ’90s, offering to dress them in Armani’s designs for
prestigious occasions like the Oscars. Before then, actors
generally outfitted themselves for big events or relied on
studio costume designers like Paramount’s Edith Head
to create character-specific looks to carry them through
red-carpet season. McDaniel’s guidance came as a re-
assurance to then young and talented creatives like Jodie
Foster, who was brutally panned by critics in 1989 after
accepting her award for The Accused wearing a sagging
blue-taffeta dress adorned with a giant frowning bow,
which she later admitted she’d bought off the rack with
her mom in tow. (Foster wore a sleek Armani suit in
1992 to accept her next trophy, ushering in a new era of
pared-down elegance, and, to this day, remains largely
faithful to McDaniel and to Armani himself.)
Red carpets quickly became a pantheon for design-
ers, each jostling to outfit the most beautiful stars and
score a piece of the publicity. While established fash-
ion editors and designers were feted at fashion weeks
and on the red carpet, Hollywood stylists worked in
the shadows of their clients’ trailing gowns. Then came
Rachel Zoe. “She broke the industry open and let people
know that there was someone behind the women on the
best-dressed lists,” says Roach. “Zoe is the Svengali of
everything—she deserves the credit for moving us into
the forefront.” Zoe dressed the then new guard of ce-
lebrity—Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan—
who didn’t wait to be photographed at step-and-repeats
but, rather, transformed their daily lives into rotating
fashion feasts to be consumed by ravenous paparazzi.
(Zoe’s fame was cemented through five seasons of her
reality show, The Rachel Zoe Project, on Bravo.) Her
trademark look—boho maxiskirts that nearly swallowed
wispy women whole—redefined L.A. style and the career
trajectories of her roster of young and beautiful clients,
like Richie, who went from wearing bandanas on reality
TV to wearing Saint Laurent and helming an award-
winning accessories brand, House of Harlowe 1960.
Then, in 2010, the first photo was posted on
Instagram. All of a sudden, “you saw these celeb stylists,
like Kate Young and Karla Welch, developing their own h2000
Before Andrea
Lieberman founded
A.L.C., the then stylist
put Jennifer Lopez in that
tropical green Versace
look at the Grammys.
2001
Of course Björk hand-
picked the Marjan
Pejoski-designed
swan dress she wore
to the Oscars.2002
Halle Berry has worked
with Lindsay Flores
for over 15 years and
says her fave collab of
theirs is the strategically
embroidered sheer Elie
Saab gown she wore
when she won her Oscar
for Monster’s Ball.