I am a freelance stylist working mainly in commercial stills with over 20 years experience. Over the years I have become more and more concerned with the amount of waste produced from repeat purchases that stylists like me make on every job and then have to return to store, re-home, donate to a charity, or throw away, so I wanted to see if we could work in a more eco-conscious way.
The original idea for the styling bank came from Khandiz Joni founder of Creative Zero, who set up a hire facility for stylists to donate post shoot non returnable items to be re-used it was a great idea, but sadly was not able to run for very long.
I have over the years collected my own personal stock of commonly re-usable items, mainly wardrobe basics that I bring to almost every shoot, and I know that there are a lot of other commercial stylists who have also collected their own collection, and I wondered if perhaps we could start hiring out to each other. There are also a lot of stylists who are unable to store anything post shoot and would like to hire rather than buying each time we shoot, but currently there is little option for hiring modern & current everyday wardrobe in London.
I have photographed a collection of my own generic stock under studio flash to show how the pieces shoot and to make it easy for mood-boards. The pieces are all available to hire for one week at a time and will be available for collection from reception at my storage facility in Bounds Green North London just off the North Circular.
The styling bank aims to be a styling hub, with useful sustainability information and resources for stylists and will grow to enable other stylists who have their own stock to be able to hire out to each other creating a community & network of local resources to easily source re-usable wardrobe items while cutting down on waste and preventing new purchases.
The idea is still in its early stages and is currently under trial so please bear with us while we get it fully operational.
Please contact us to find out more if you would also like to make your own stock available for hire to other stylists.