Dena the Stylist?

Every since I did my first commercial in March of 2001(10 years ago exactly), I've been intrigued by the job of the "Stylist." They come in with bags of clothes, and their snobby attitudes, and expect you to love everything that they bought. Stylist simply play dress-up for a living, and get paid amazing day rates. Then they give bitchy looks when the client takes away the fly necklace that they designed, which gave the lame nondescript shirt from WalMart some style. CHERISH is the one that stands out in my mind. She was the first stylist I ever worked with, and the only one that I remember by name. Cherish had this bitchy-zen attitude, like she could not be bothered with you if you weren't a vegetarian, didn't have dreads, didn't have stock in Frankinscense & Myrrh, and didn't do yoga, and weren't from New York. She turned me off to stylists. After her, I started to understand the stylist game. Buy a whole bunch of shit in the colors that clients ask for, and come in with an attitude like you are FASHION personified. That's it, done, simple as pie.

So when a friend of mine posted on Facebook the need for a stylist to donate their abilities for a shoot with "True Star Magazine," which is a youth run mag, non-profit, I don't quite know the full details of it, but it seems cool. I jumped at the chance to play that role. Also since, I helped my friend shop for two jobs a few years back, as well as tagging along with Star Jones' celebrity stylist Stacy (whose last name escapes me now), I felt overly qualified to do the job.

MY INITIAL THOUGHTS

First things first, I papa freaks... No really, where were the clothes coming from? They're bringing their own. O.K., but to seem official, I had to do some shopping on my own, right? Right! With what money? Well, I'll just do the old stylist trick. I'll pay for everything on my credit card and take it back. OK, that's a plan.

So as I went shopping, I really got into to pulling things and putting them back. Thinking a lot of it was too old or mature for the teens. WRONG(in the voice of Charlie Murphy)FAST FORWARD to the day of the shoot. Can you say hoochie gear? These girl's brought club attire. In my day, (and I can't believe, I wrote that) girls in high school were all about baggie jeans, totally crossed out, hats to the back, gangsta bitch gear. Not today, where everything is a literal 80's throwback, these chicks are all about showing off their curves wearing tight jeans, off the should Flashdance shirts, Nike Dunks, leggings, and booties. The boys, well let's just say shopping for guys is boring, and these boys had their own flavor, if you know what I mean.

All in all, I tried it, it went fairly well, minus some of the push back from the kids. It was fun, and I'll do it again if asked, and ON TO THE NEXT EXPLORATION.