Last week I was standing in Target staring at a rack of white t-shirts for the thousandth time when it hit me. I burst out laughing, standing there in the children’s clothing department surrounded by toddler clothes while Emma danced at my feet screaming for Goldfish crackers. I remembered a story my former PR coworker Sarah told me six months ago.
Sarah went through a divorce last year (happily, might I add?) and moved back to New York. She just started working with celebrity stylists shooting magazine editorials and such. We were video chatting one day- me stained with what I think was peas and carrots puree and her looking effortlessly stylish in her Brooklyn apartment- when she told me this little tidbit.
Magazine and editorials stylists FREAKING SHOP AT TARGET. “Taylor I swear to God,” she hissed into the computer screen. “These women who style A-List celebrities…they’re buying plain white t-shirts and leggings at Targets and Walmart across the country. And then they CUT THE TAGS OUT.” Say what?
You guys.
I’ve been in the public relations industry long enough to know that it’s a ton of smoke and mirrors. But hearing about secretaries of state wearing jeans I picked out for my middle school career day while actual celebrities are wearing budget-store basics with the identifying labels painstakingly removed was mind blowing. Wait…did I just compare celebrity stylists to secretaries of state?
Eh, moving on. ANYWAY. Since that moment six months ago when I learned this huge revelation, I’ve been thinking a lot about basics.
About how we as consumers think we need to spend exorbitant amounts of money on “the perfect” sweater top or jeans or white shirt when actually some of the people whose job it is to make celebrities look fabulous are buying plain jane apparel at Wal-Mart. No judgment if that’s your jam. But hear me out.
Sarah was telling me about this stylist that was working on a photo shoot for Marie Claire or Vogue or some fancypants magazine. You know the ones- effortless hair and makeup and outfits that take eleven hours and three makeup artists to get “perfect.” They were styling this model with some “very simple” white t-shirt that you’d think was from J.Crew or Banana Republic or Le Creuset because they photograph all clothing. BUT IT WAS NOT.
Budget store basic that you can get anywhere, tags strategically removed. Better than the store’s expensive, designer sample shirt that was supposed to be used for the shoot because it photographed too cheap. I sat there listening to her bouncing Jackson on her hip while he gnawed down her favorite teething necklace whispering, “Buy Nothing t-shirts are ten dollars,” in between giggles about how much money we waste trying to look nice when we have expert fashion stylists shopping at places we’ve already been told are basic.
Have you ever purchased an “investment piece?” You know the ones. That blouse you swear you need even though it’s sixty dollars and you don’t know exactly where in your life you’ll wear it but you THINK you will. You love the fabric so much, and it’s tailor fitted and basically the most flattering thing you’ve ever seen in your whole entire life so it MUST be worth it.
I used to work in fashion public relations. Pre-kids, pre-sweatpants thirty-something Sarah thought that buying a sixty-dollar camisole was sophisticated. We were working on some presentation for a client and Janet, my boss who could always throw on jeans and a t-shirt and look incredible while I struggled to put outfits together, stopped me in the hallway. “Oh my gosh Sarah,” she laughed when I complimented her cream-colored sweater. “Target clearance.
Eight dollars. I bought three.” Eight dollars. Our literal boss who we both worked our butts off to impress every day was buying clothes from Target’s clearance rack.
And not just clothes, but THINGS she loved so much she bought multiples of. Are you sitting down? Because I still have no idea how I thought it was smarter to blow my entire paycheck on articles of clothing I was terrified to wash than learn from the experts around me.
Flash forward to pre-kid Sarah, post kid me rocking around Target again wondering if that sixty dollar Madewell sweater was really necessary or if I should just suck it up and spend forty dollars on something similar from The Gap. Ever since Sarah told me that secret about celebrities and stylists rocking Goodwill garments as a day to day thing I’ve really changed the way I look at basics. And I don’t mean basics like underwear (though Lord knows that absolutely matters regardless of how much you spend) I mean clothes that work as staples to build your outfit around.
Items that aren’t necessarily the focal point but can make or break your entire look. Photographers notice things. They REALLY notice how certain fabrics look on camera.
Sarah was telling me about a shoot she had done where they went through three different white t-shirts because certain shades just don’t photograph well. They’re too translucent. They photograph blue.
They look dingy. The white that worked for their photos? Basic, ubiquitous brand that you can find at any mall chain store.
Plain cotton that wasn’t expensive, but was thick enough to look white-washboard abs white on camera. Isn’t that ridiculous? We’re trying to create this aura around “good clothes” when it really just comes down to thread count and cutting/rstitching.
None of that romance/yesteryear bullshit companies want you to buy into when they put out their ads. Hold up. Let me tell you about tights.
Sarah watched a stylist change a celebrity after her did jumping jacks during a fitting and her designer tights ripped. Like literally ripped. While they scrambled to do damage control, they pulled out a pair of backup tights.
Plain white drugstore tights that got her through an entire photoshoot. Multiple looks. Jumping jacks.
Crouching down and snapping “natural,” hair-flip selfies. Newsflash parents. You and I have destroyed a good pair or tights JUST TRYING TO PULL UP A DIAPER.
You Might Also Like
How many leggings have I ripped down the butt WHILE PUTTING ON MY KIDS clothes? Or found a hole in after getting somewhere late because I didn’t have time to change out of my pajamas? Guess I’ve been overthinking that purchase too.
Oh and thermal underwear. OH YES. This is where we go down the rabbit hole of “things celebrities wear that I will never know.” Sound dumb?
Well riddle me this. When was the last time you saw a stylish winter photo shoot and thought, “Hmm I wonder what their underwear is?” Yet every single winter garment you’ve ever seen, whether it be Vogue worthy or Target worthy, was piled on top of thermal underwear. Typically that fancy coat hiding all those exquisite layers is actually ten different layers of clothing.
Long underwear. Long sleeve shirt. Sweatshirt.
Sweater. Cardigan. Scarf.
Beanie. Gloves. And that’s not even counting the badass jacket.
But Janet told me (and several other stylists have said this too) that they’re typically running around in basic Walmart long underwear. Long underwear. As in UNDERWARE. “I know, right?” Sarah said when I asked her why. “You would never look at that photo and guess that.” But it’s true!
Layers are EVERYTHING in the winter time for photos. How else are you going to get that windblown, “I just climbed K2” look without freezing your butt off? Jeans get that great wrinkled look after they’re washed and dried one too many times.
Same rules apply for t-shirts and long underwear! Maybe that’s what’s crazy to me about all of this. We put so much emphasis on the brand names and how trendy something is that we forget we’re trying to LOOK good.
And honestly, does it really matter where that shirt comes from if it hangs well on your body? Fits well? Makes you feel fabulous?
Sarah told me that most stylists prefer shopping with cheap basics when they can. Because if that ten dollar t-shirt ruins on a photo shoot it’s no big deal. They can run down to Walmart and grab ten more.
But say one of the designer sample shirts they BOUGHT bleeds on camera, or gets wrinkled, or ripped? Entire photoshoot is delayed while they go buy more. Not to mention, a lot of expensive clothing is thinner.
Yes, thinner. We associate thin, lightweight clothing with higher end because it’s softer and feels nicer. But that also means it gets destroyed easily.
If you’ve ever had a loved one wear cashmere, you know that thing sheds like crazy. It’s beautiful, but not quite practical when you’ve got kids. As a mom I need clothes I can live in.
If I’m going to pay that kind of money for jeans I better be darn sure they can survive a week’s worth of toddler cuddles and PBJ fingers. I don’t want to ruin my clothes, sure. But I also don’t want to worry about every.single.mark they might get while spending time with my family.
Life’s too short for that anxiety. Sarah also mentioned that cheaper brands tend to fit BETTER than expensive brands. Sometimes when designers cut “basics” they do so for a specific body type.
Or it just looks good hanging in the store but doesn’t translate to real life, real people. Cheaper brands have to sell to the masses. They make sure that their clothing fits a variety of bodies because those are the people buying it. “I’d rather spend thirty dollars on a sweater that fits great and washes well,” she explained to me, “than eighty bucks on something I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to shrink back to its’ original shape.” THIS, right here?
THIS is probably the most valuable fashion advice I’ve ever received. YEARS of thinking More Money = Better Clothes when WHAT IT ACTUALLY EQUALS IS Better Marketing.
Ever since that day I’ve found myself thinking about what Sarah (and Janet and Annie, another stylist I talked to) would pick when I’m browsing.
Not What would they pick for the Met Gala? Or Which shirt would they use to showcase the latest viral celeb? But what would they grab for themselves?
Things that would photograph well (not sure why I care about this part but we’ve established I have an entertaining amount of time on my hands) in real life? Feel good? Durable?
Washable? Affordable? Who’d have thought that one of the biggest secrets to fashion was actually spending less on basics and focusing your money on things that truly MATTER to you! ?
The kicker is going to be convincing Chris that scouring the racks at Target is actually high-level creative research. HELP ME SOLD THAT ONE TO HIM.
