Patti Wilson Presentation

Out of a hat we got given a stylist to do a presentation on, which at the outset intimidated me as presentations were never a strength of mine although I realised they are a necessity for improving my communications skills especially as a short presentation is one of the outcomes for this task.

Patti Wilson was the stylist I was given; she’s a highly famous New York based stylist who had worked on shoots with world renowned photographers such as Nick Knight, Steven Meisel and Steven Klein as well as editorial features in a large number of Vogues, especially being the new Editor-at-Large at Vogue Italia.

Her personal aesthetic within styling is having sleek work which isn’t over the top in terms of details and accessories but not minimalistic in the slightest either. She creates looks with a few colours complimented by dramatic cuts and shapes to focus the imagery on, sometimes aided by a powerful pose by the model to tie the look together.

In particular, I enjoyed researching a shoot she did with black and white portrait photographer Ethan James Green. This was because both had very distinctive styles therefore it was exciting to see how they collaborated and made a harmony with their styles to create a dynamic and visually exciting editorial to look at. As I had found out before, Wilson enjoys the use of few minimal accessories to tie a look together which she did with this shoot, for example, the large headgear or wide belts in one colour to bring together to look, which is effective as the images are in black and white as this means that the clothes can be more dramatic as one element of the image, colour, is being eliminated. Taking this forward, when doing black and white photography I will try to experience more with shape rather than patternas you can create beautiful shapes easier win black and white.