The image we see in the magazine comes at the end of an amazing process of planning crafting and oh yes, styling. Today I muse on the wonderful work of imagers, stylists and art directors who posit intentional, subliminal messages to create experiential portraits. Indeed, we do experience their sensibilities and their peculiar blend of influences inspirations and incarnations. Here’s to the portrait of a stylist as a young woman.
We, as Caribbean style influencers, have made some indelible impressions on the global fashion scene - Antiguan uber stylist June Ambrose and St Lucian fashion doyenne Shala Monroque have done wonders to impress our Caribbean stamp on the international style template. Our Caribbean aesthetic is subtly becoming an omnipresent phenomenon.
Just last fall in New York, I bounced off some fashion ideas with our very own Stephanie Ramlogan, @that NoMoreFashionVictims Girl, whose independent style is moreover refreshing and truly representative of our cosmopolitan, eclectic milieu. She speaks affirmatively of not being dictated by imposing prevailing trends, but whose individualistic fashioning, in her diminutive frame, is absolutely riveting. She is evidently a young woman whose biographic subtleties define her sense of style - her portrait.
Styling, therefore, is a fascinating composite indulgence of forward-thinking trendsetting, imaginative storytelling, cutting-edge imaging, selective branding and pushing-the-envelope fashioning. Another daughter of the soil, Crystal Ivy London, reflects this interpretation, having concocted stellar images meshing her inventive fashion insights with intuitive photographic pizzazz, sartorial art direction and vanguard hair and makeup savvy to smack of modern original tableaux, tinged with undeniable Caribbean affectation.
Crystal’s biography reveals a delightful engagement with fashion designers, informing their runway presentations and look books with an au courant capacity which transcends any insular expression and renders universal on-trend appeal. Her work with local fashion maven, Claudia Pegus, augured well as grounding in the rudiments of fashion styling and transformative imaging. Her recent accolade as the principal stylist at O2N Style 2 at O2 Park, under the creative direction of yours truly, saw her utilising all of her craft to impact subtle innuendos of our multifaceted Caribbean aesthetic.
Her portfolio is a melting pot of due diligence in understanding style, fashion, design and its evolving aspirations following on the footsteps of exemplary precursors like June Ambrose. She ascribes her visioning to her early years of observing her grandmother’s sewing skills and her father’s painting dalliance. Today, she is in high demand and is already an established and internationally published Fashion/Wardrobe Stylist and Fashion Coordinator, who has worked with some of the most prominent designers and Magazines in the US, UK and the Caribbean. She has styled and worked for Galia Lahav, Tracy Reece, Zimmermann, Noon by Noor, Claudia Pegus, SHE Caribbean Magazine, Filtered Fashion Magazine, World Bride Magazine, Upscale Magazine and Hello Modlin Magazine to name a few.
As a young woman, all these references and innuendos amass, for Crystal Ivy London, to the portrait of a consummate stylist.