[Marvystone]

Charlotte Stockdale
Works with Paul Smith, Dolce e Gabbana and Patrick Cox
'Different designers ask for different things and have different needs at different times,' says Charlotte Stockdale, the 32-year-old stylist and contributing editor to British Vogue and indie fashion mag, 10 . And she should know. This season alone, Stockdale has worked with Paul Smith in London, Dolce e Gabbana in Milan and the lingerie giant Victoria's Secret in New York. On the day we caught up with her, she was preparing for a new advertising shoot with shoe designer Patrick Cox, working with photographer David LaChappelle and model Sophie Dahl.
'I have worked with designers where they have wanted me to help design,' she says. 'But that's not the case with Paul Smith or Dolce e Gabbana.' Both have strong ideas of what their collections are about. 'The clothes are there, but it's how you put them together. Are you emphasising the sexiness? If I put a corset over that shirt and shorten that skirt, that's sexy. My role is much more the putting together of a collection. That will influence the direction it takes. What goes down the runway is what people want to buy.'
Stockdale is the daughter of a baronet and was educated at Heathfield, Ascot, before trying her hand at acting, opera singing and modelling. It was then that she discovered the other world of fashion - behind the camera. 'I have absolutely no training,' she says. 'I'm simply opinionated.' And her opinions have certainly got her noticed. She has worked for The Face and Dazed & Confused as well as Harper's Bazaar and is currently under contract to Vogue .
When In Bed with Madonna director Alek Keshishian was looking for a stylist to work with him on the Max Factor advertising campaign with Madonna in 1999, he got in touch with Stockdale. She commissioned outfits from Chloé and Versace, as well as a mask from London-based jewellery designer Sarah Harmarnee. The job of a stylist is as much about knowing who to contact for what, as how to put the look together.
'I'd do my own collection, but I know what a massive pressure it is. You need backers and you need to sell. It's a business, which is what a lot of people forget. You're not doing an art work, you're doing a collection. It would have to be global from the word go. It's too much of a responsibility.'

guardian.co.uk