BetteT
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Lauren .. don't be intimidated ... we all had to start somewhere.
So you asked for advice and I'll give you some of my thoughts ... hopefully it will give you some things to think about.
Styling usually has a purpose .... often it's for a magazine editorial layout, which is a skill you will need, if you are to advance your styling career. We don't get paid diddily for editorials, but we need them in our porfolios, to attract better clients. So ...you need to know that a fashion editorial in a magazine almost always has a "story". This does not usually mean a story about what is going on, although it can mean just that, sometimes. More often than not, a "story" in fashion often means that things or garments in the various images relate in one or more ways to make an cohesive layout.
It can be something as simple as color ... maybe a black & white story with clothes featuring mainly those 2 colors. Or featuring one type of clothing like a summer dress story. Or perhaps a lifestyle story, such as a rock & roll story where the clothes are picked because they look like what rockers like to wear or a mix of classic fashion and rocker chic ... things like that. Ideas come from everywhere for a stylist.
So start to look at fashion magazines and try to identify the story behind each layout ... figure out if there is more than one common thread in the images, what the stylist is trying to convey, and how the stylist did it ... what things in the images help the story along.
Now, about your own stying in these images ... cute, young, and you were layering, which means you are thinking about putting things together in different ways ... and that is just how a stylist needs to think and to experiment with things. You are not afraid of color, either ... that's good. A great start for your first attempt!
On thing I would do a bit differently. The jewelry ... Somethimes less is more ... if a garment is strong on it's own ... sometimes any accessories ruin it. Sometimes, just one bold piece will add punch to the look. Be very carefull about loading on lots of jewelry, unless there is a reason (such as a black gown as a backdrop to huge strands of pearls and chains ... the jewelry is the main feature in this type of look) ... then it needs to be big, bold and really, really piled on. Use big, statement peices rather than small girly things, that tend to add visual clutter. And make sure that the piece makes visual sense with the garment.
In your first image, I do like the necklace with the print top ... but I would have made it bigger because the print is so bold, but I'd keep the shape, the oval/teardrop sort of shape repeats the shapes in the pattern. I would have taken off the bracelet ... there's already plenty going on there for the eye because of the bold print. Oh ... and this busy a print should be photographed against a much simpler background ... way too much pattern going on there.
I like the bracelet with the blue satin jacket ... enough, not too much. Actually, this is my favorite look of the 4. Love that white belt ... that is a belt I'm looking at? And the satin looks luscious in this image ... love the 80's vibe of the pushed up sleeve.
The last thing I want to mention is proportion. In the first image, I feel like the long top with the short shorts is sort of out of balance .... the top should be shorter, or what is under it should be longer. It's not so much the length, but the visual weight that the very bold print gives the top ... it's almost like the skirt/shorts? are an afterthought. A quick fix, would be to pull the skirt down some (if you can) and pin up the hem of the top a few inches. We do this sort of thing all the time, we clamp, pin, and tuck things to make it look the way we want it to. Or you could add something longer on the bottom, maybe knee lenth tights, or slim bermudas?
And the proportion of the long coat and the red dress seems a bit off, too. Not sure why, exactly ... Maybe too much leg, under a fur coat ... I'd love to see what ankle length tights under all that would look like. I"m not saying this iw what it needs, but that is what I'd try ... so I could see if it balanced the look a bit more. I do like leopard with red ... a long time classic and done with this cute dress, modernizes it.
All in all ... nice stuff!Hope this give you some food for thought. Study what other stylists do ... and copy them for a while ... unltill you find your own preferences. Have fun with it.
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