As I've said before, several times in this thread ... a college education (although a very good thing to have for something to fall back on, because most stylists fail to ever make a living at this) is not a requirement to be a stylist. Nor is a "certificate" or completing a styling course. Any education is not wasted, but it's not important to have, if you want to become a stylist.
Most stylists are freelance and that means you work for yourself and you get one job at a time ...usually just one day at a time. No one ever asks you about your education, they only want to see the work you've done and jobs are gotten by referral in many cases.
Having said that ... there is only one program in NY that I know about that teaches fashion styling and that is at FIT.
But it will only teach you a little bit about what you will need to do to get into the business of styling ... after school you must actually do it and it takes years. It's the same stuff that you'd have to do in any creative, free lance career whether or not you took classes ... practice for free (we call it testing), try to find other stylists to assist, network and market yourself and start to build clientelle.
I don't think that a full course of study is worth the money, even at FIT. It's money that you can invest in equipment, a portfolio and marketing tools. And it's money you will need to support yourself while you get started ... you will be working at a loss for quite a while. You are a small business owner as a free lance stylist and it takes money and time to succeed. It's not a "job" where they pay you a salary and benefits ... you are completely on your own.
One exception is this: I know a girl who got a real job at Patagonia or one of those places as an assistant stylist. She is salaried and does the same thing day in and day out, 40 hours a week. She prepares the garments, off model, to shoot for their many catalogs. They have so many catalog shoots going on all year that they actually have a senior stylist and 2 assistants and are always working on one of their many catalogs for different countries. But it's not creative .. it's strictly technical and she was just hired off the street ... no previous training nor schooling. It's baciscally a minimum wage job ... with the possibility of working up to the senior stylist's position in time.
And the other exception is working as a fashion editor for a magazine ... that is essentially a stylist and it's salaried. But it's my understanding that fashion editors have not studied styling either. They usually work up to the job ... perhaps a journalism or other type of major and are hired at an entry level job at the magazine ... perhaps someone's assistant, a receptionist, a copy editor, even the mail room. And they have some talent and a good eye and eventually get promoted to be a fashion editor.
In any of these situations, the "fashion styling" course is not important. But the hard work to get there is important. People get into styling by other means in almost all cases.
s Bette!
