Celebrity Styling: A Dream Job?

Styling is the dream job of the naughties for little girls, according to the London Times. They could be right. Dream jobs usually aren't dream jobs unless it's basically impossible to make a decent living off them and only an infinitesimal number of pursuers make it far enough to make that living. The core task of a dream job must also be theoretically fun, and picking out outfits for people is a theoretically fun thing to do for many women. Dream jobs also usually come with fame potentia, and with Rachel Zoe going from dressing red-carpet walkers to walking among them herself, albeit on an inherently lower level, styling certainly falls into the "dream career" category.
So no longer are the stylists insignificant creatures crouched on floors in photo studios picking up pins and unpacking garment bags and helping models put their shoes on; they are real people — with names. And ... Bravo reality shows. However, stylists are not safe from residing in the underbelly of the high-fashion world. In the entertainment industry you have soap stars and Oscar-nominated actresses. 10 magazine editor Sophia Neophitou, also the creative and fashion director of British Harper’s Bazaar, notes that in the styling industry, you have celebrity stylists and high-fashion magazine stylists.
Neophitou says it is the likes of Zoe who encourage young girls to hanker after a career as a stylist: “They see it as glamorous, working with celebrities,” she says, although she is at pains to point out that dressing celebs is not the same thing as directing a photoshoot. “In terms of credibility, that’s something you just don’t want to become. Celebrity stylists seem to ride on the coat-tails of that celebrity.”
Well, in Zoe's defense, she rides on the coattails of many celebrities and has done that well enough to have people riding on her coattails, too (or at least Brad Goreski — we're not sure if Roger counts but we're leaning toward no).
But celebrity style is becoming increasingly less boring in the age of Lady Gaga, when every diva except Taylor Swift seemingly feels like they have to wear hooves and stuffed animals and garbage pails just to keep up. Maybe in the next decade finding crazy outfits for celebrities will be the new finding crazy outfits for models for avant-garde European magazines. As Gaga's main stylist, Nichola Formichetti, the creative director of Dazed & Confused and fashion director of Japanese Men's Vogue, tells the Times, dressing Gaga is like creating "a living fashion magazine." If she's the walking Dazed, Rihanna must be the walking Flare-Purple hybrid.