PRESS HIGHLIGHTS th February 5 – February 14th 2018
T O P B I L L I N G | News | Voices
Frock Yeah Kate Young is not only a stylist, she has a budding fashion empire.
She Makes the Clothes Call for Hollywood
Kate Young dresses top actresses and has expanded the celeb stylist brand By CLAIRE COGHLAN W H AT D O M A RG O T RO B B I E ,
Michelle Williams, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Dakota Johnson, Selena Gomez and Sienna Miller have in common? Apart from stellar talent, stunning looks and stratospheric
Young’s fave client looks Selena Gomez in Jacquemus (1) “Jacquemus is the most exciting young designer. I carried that dress to L.A. in my carry-on. It’s the most simple, easy, tiny little dress.” Margot Robbie in Versace (2) “Margot can carry dramatic clothes. It’s an easy road to put a pretty girl in a simple dress. It’s much more
interesting to put her in something smart or cool.” Michelle Williams in Louis Vuitton (3) “Michelle has this little gamine, French thing that’s super inspiring. It’s fun to dress her in a way that’s a little bit more sweet or buttoned-up than my other clients.” Natalie Portman in Dior Couture “When I started working with Natalie,
success, they also share stylist Kate Young, making her one of the most in-demand — and influential — celebrity stylists working today. It’s an achievement Young couldn’t have foreseen back when working as an assistant at Vogue. “Celebrity styl-
she was an ingénue. She’s a woman to be reckoned with now. A timeless, classic beauty.” Rachel Weisz in Chloé “Rachel looked so pretty at the Chloé show. Natacha Ramsay-Levi is the new designer at Chloé and they met when she was at Louis Vuitton.” Dakota Johnson in Gucci (4) “I loved her look at
the Golden Globes. Dakota has a very distinct personal style. What I do is just sort of refine it and organize it for press.” Sienna Miller in Proenza Schouler “She wore Proenza a couple weeks ago, and it was super cute. Sienna’s really, really fun and funny and she loves clothes, and has great taste.”
ing wasn’t a big thing at that point,” says Young, who happened upon it by accident. “I would do these shoots and people would ask if they could borrow the clothes for a premiere or a press tour, and I’d just organize it. “They kept calling me. At the time I don’t think anybody ever paid me. I didn’t think of it as a career, it was just a side thing. I liked doing it. I tend to like actresses a lot — for the most part, they’re interesting, complicated, smart people.” The admiration is mutual. “Kate’s super smart and wickedly funny and understands my specific needs and changing body shape around pregnancy and its aftermath,” says
Portman, who’s been working with Young for almost 17 years. Says Weisz, a client of 10 years: “Kate has incredible intelligence and instinct. She takes her work incredibly seriously but she helps you navigate the red carpet with her own brand of humor and irreverence. Her taste is immaculate and a fitting with her is always a hoot.” By 2010, when Young decided to make celebrity styling the “focus” of her career, her role — and impact — had noticeably shifted. “People, meaning managers and agents, started to realize that actors who worked with me got big deals and made a lot of money, and Vogue wanted to shoot them,” says Young. “It changed the way people talked to me, from being an afterthought to being included in conversations, like, ‘We want to be strategic with this press tour, this is what we’re trying to achieve, these are our goals, we want you on board.’” Fashion brands, too, took stock of her work. “Most of my clients are ambassadors to somebody,” says Young modestly. Shortly after she started working with Gomez, engineering an evolution from Disney star to style muse, the actress/singer became a face of Louis Vuitton, followed by collaborations with Coach. While still a relative newcomer in Hollywood, Robbie attracted the attention of Calvin Klein, and Johnson, Gucci. Portman has worked with Christian Dior for more than seven years, Williams is a longtime face of Louis Vuitton, while Weisz has fronted campaigns for Bulgari and Burberry. “Working with Kate is so much fun,” says Robbie, describing how they pick a theme for press tours. “For the ‘I, Tonya’ press tour we’ve used hair accessories like scrunchies and ribbons and lots of sequins and sparkles. Styling always feels like a good time with Kate. She doesn’t take it too seriously, which is why I think a
YOUNG: INEZ AND VINOODH; GOMEZ: JOHN SALANGSANG/BFA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ROBBIE: JEN LOWERY/SILVERHUB/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; WILLIAMS: EVAN AGOSTINI/INVISION/AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; JOHNSON: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
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