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Ai LIVE: Owner of Strager Style, Shaye Strager, Chats about Fashion

In this episode of Ai LIVE, host E. Vincent Martinez joins Shaye Strager, fashion stylist and owner of Strager Style. Strager shares how she became a fashion stylist for celebrities and private clients and what advice she has about the fashion industry.

Strager defines her career as combining that of a wardrobe stylist and a fashion stylist. According to Strager, a wardrobe stylist is someone who creates an entire wardrobe for things like film and TV shows, consisting of multiple looks, rather than a fashion stylist’s focus on a single piece or look. She has designed wardrobes for corporate business individuals, lawyers, podcast hosts, and even celebrities.

Interestingly, Strager didn’t start out in fashion. She graduated as an English major and went straight into work in broadcasting after graduation. However, she's always wanted to live and work in New York, so she kept trying to achieve her dreams. Eventually, she became a spokesperson for the fine jewelry industry in 1997. Her job was to get the jewelry pieces into fashion pieces and fashion shows via cold calling. At this time, it was an era of minimalism, so jewelry wasn’t as in demand. Thankfully, in 1999, she was able to work her first show, the Millennium Fashion show in Times Square, and from there she began her fashion career in earnest. She started working one on one with celebrities and their looks, and moved into wardrobe styling when Pauletta Washington, wife of famous actor Denzel Washington, told Strager that she should be styling her whole looks, and that’s what happened.

While fashion might be a creative career, Strager points out how important it is to learn the business of the industry. There are a lot of hidden costs to be aware of like insurance and inventory. For her, it took about ten years before she was truly comfortable with the business side of fashion. When working with clients, Strager has learned to consider what their goals are, and what their wardrobe needs to say about them and their business. If she can do that, she feels she has done a good job.

If you want to explore a fashion career, get started at The Art Institutes by visiting https://www.artinstitutes.edu/academics/fashion to learn more.