The difference between, and how to define, Styling and Wardrobe

An interesting conversation came up over a zoom conversation with friends who work in different parts of the wardrobe industry the other night. One who does a lot of styling work, predominantly in commercials; one as a seamstress who does a lot of work with US children's networks. We all have different backgrounds and we all had the same question.

Why don’t most people get that Wardrobe and Styling are both different things?

This got me thinking about our occupation within the music industry, and how its perceived by ourselves and others. Theres a definite attitude from some management that it’s “just clothes”. And it is, but in the same way that it’s “just sound” or it’s “just video”. None of us are surgeons saving peoples lives! But our bosses appearance on stage or in a video is very important to them. It’s their brand after all. I also think we can devalue our role quite often, tempted to say we can do everything due to the lack of available work, with the knock-on effect being that we ourselves allow the boundaries to blur because of this. Any of you who know me personally though know I’m a strong believer in advocating for ourselves more. And those who don’t - you soon will!

So how do we differentiate the different roles that make up wardrobe?

The way I differentiate between styling and wardrobe for music tours is this - Styling is part of the creative process of how to put a wardrobe for a show together, and Wardrobe is looking after that wardrobe once it’s put together.

Yes, there are overlaps. Yes, there are projects where you may do both. But in my mind, the two disciplines are different, and both require a different skillset

In the creative process you should be thinking about why somebody would wear something - what are we trying to convey? What’s the story? Why would they be wearing this? And (most importantly) what looks good.

Once the wardrobe creative is put in place, next comes Wardrobes job. How do we adapt/rig/make this so it’s able to tour? How do we maintain this for the next year while touring? How do we move all this clothing around the world, and set it up each day to wear?

Not all designers are technicians, and not all technicians are designers. That’s cool. We don’t have to be everything or nothing. We can be good at certain aspects, passable at some, and rubbish at others. It’s fine. But I think once we know that not all stylists are wardrobe, and not all wardrobe are stylists, maybe others within the industry will get there too