Maybe you’re 24 or 25 and have been toiling in fashion closets for a few years, longing for the year when you can take your full allotted vacation time, which you’ve never been able to do because the higher-ups always get priority and always need you to do things. Like vacuum and book the manicurist. You call in the Chanel, return the Givenchy, put the Cartier in the safe, refill the styling tape, and organize the racks day in, day out, waiting for your chance to decide which shirt will be shot with which top and which necklace and which bra. Maybe in the gruntiness of it all you wonder where you went wrong, why you’re still in a windowless cupboard organizing clothes instead of playing with them. Well, it’s not your fault, necessarily. Ten years ago when you were 14, your future competitors weren’t getting ahead of the game by blogging about clothes. But now that they are, they’re way ahead of you, doing your dream work, making you work for them. Your mistake, it seems, was being born ten years too soon. Tavi the 14-year-old fashion blogger is proof: She just landed a gig styling for BlackBook’s September issue.
A BlackBook editor reports that Tavi’s mood boards were created with Chloë Sevigny cast to model. However, Sevigny had to drop out of the shoot owing to scheduling conflicts. Tavi then had to pick a new model, so she went with supporting reality-television actress Christine Staub, whose mother, Danielle, is a lead on The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Here’s what happened when Tavi got into the closet:
We left her in there, slightly concerned that since the clothes she pulled were minimal for a 10-page fashion editorial — she pulled from 15 designers, but was very selective about which pieces she chose from each — she might get frustrated when pairing items to form looks. Added to the pressure of a first-time styling gig was the presence of Lizzie Widdicombe, who, despite being very sweet, was still a New Yorker reporter writing down Gevinson’s every move and word in her notepad. But Gevinson wasn’t bothered.
When we returned to check on her progress an hour later, she’d created roughly a dozen perfect looks. They were unexpected and perhaps unlikely pairings, but they were also mature, intuitive and inspired. When we first commissioned Gevinson to style the story, we weren’t sure what to expect. That was part of the allure. Can such a new and young fashion authority, one for whom Internet images often replace the touch and texture of actual collections, do the job of a stylist? Can she edit the season’s best clothes, and partner them in an organic and interesting way? Will she be able to put together a fashion narrative and consistent tone? The answer is yes.
So she’s getting profiled in The New Yorker, too. Of course she runs the risk of becoming jaded by 15, but that will just add another layer of authority to her expertise.
Tavi Gevinson Styles Her First-Ever Fashion Editorial for ‘BlackBook’ [BlackBook]
