Meet Lori Lyu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Lyu.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lori. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I moved to LA about two years ago, the first reason I came here was to get a master degree in Filmmaking. My graduate school is in Burbank, the center of the Hollywood industry. I stuck around there for two years, collaborating with various great filmmakers, and working in different positions. I have always been interested in wardrobe since I was a child, which is why sometimes I worked as a costume designer on set. Working as a costume designer is very fun, especially when the script is about a historical story and you have a lot of opportunities to play with all the antique costumes. I did enjoy it a lot, but sometimes I felt the job had limited my creativity, and instead I decided to focus on producing my thesis short film.

I never thought I would become a stylist until last April. One of my friends who is a fashion photographer asked me to do styling for her birthday fashion shoot. I worked as a production design assistant once for her shooting for Sicky Magazine, and I enjoyed the vibe and experience of fashion shooting. I created eight looks for her, and it actually worked pretty well. That was my first experience as a stylist. After I posted the photos on social media, another photographer reached out to me and offered me another styling job. From then on, I officially began the stylist life.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road is never smooth, especially that I am not a fashion design major. Every time I dive into a new project, I have to take both my own field assignment and new project preparation into account, which is always exhausting.

When I started working as a stylist, it was right at the time I started pre-production of my thesis short film. At the beginning, I was able to balance these two, but when I locked my script, finished casting and got the location, I needed more time to deal with my thesis. So I stopped all the styling jobs for a while until October when my thesis was wrapped.

Fortunately, my thesis short film was successfully completed and had a screening at Warner Brother theater last month. Right after my graduation several photographers sent me DMs and wanted to collaborate with me.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
As you know, I am a stylist, I style models for fashion shootings. I collaborate with photographers, make-up artists, and models. We create photos for magazines, or sometimes we just want to create some new things just for fun.

My inspiration comes from movies. Some of the movies that inspire me are The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, and the Moonrise Kingdom, directed by Wes Anderson. I always play with color palettes from movies when I create looks.

I’ve never majored in design or fashion. I’m engaged in this job entirely only by interest and intuition, so my insight and drive when designing every look is different. I think this is what makes me different from other stylists.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I can’t be any luckier than having the opportunity of being in this industry. I am thankful that one of my friends allowed me to assist with designing props for her shoot for Sicky magazine and styled her for her birthday video.

This opened the door to have a gifted photographer find my work, reach out to me, and trust me when I didn’t have any official experience of working as a stylist.

Being a filmmaker and stylist is good luck, and they inspire each other. I can also relax when switching between different jobs and avoid being bored with one single job.

Coming from an Asian community and background is also good luck to me. It has given me the opportunity to experience different growing environments that have led me to create different tastes and styles for me.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 7472834749
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @how_about_lori

Image Credit:
Huimin Zhang, Changhao Song, Eponine Huang, Yunzhi Wang

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