August 23, 2016

Meet Los Feliz Stylist and Fashion Consultant: Melissa Barclay

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Barclay.

Melissa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles and spend about fifty percent of my time in New York. In the world of fashion, you can technically say that I started pretty late. In high school and my early college years, I had a couple of high fashion retail jobs. In addition to having top sales, my mentors pointed out to me that I had a keen eye. Over and over again, I was told: “you know what works.” However, my parents thought it was important to get a “real education,” so I spent most of my twenties studying medicine. After I got my second degree, I decided it was time for a change. I was twenty- five and decided that after spending almost eight years doing something I wasn’t passionate about, I needed to turn the tables.

When switching to a different career completely, I knew it was important to identify exactly where I fit in. So, like any student studying medicine, I knew how to do research. After about a month of exploration, I submitted my resume to a couple of fashion PR agencies. I landed my first internship at a Beverly Hills agency working the showroom and doing social media. I then quickly learned that I needed to pursue styling. This was my foundation. I learned the ins and outs of how to contact designers, celebrities, and stylists. Alas, I was in my comfort zone.

After working in the showroom for about six months, I began to contact stylists asking if they needed assistance. Many of them did, and I landed one amazing internship and an assistant job that basically took me to the next level. Being a styling assistant was probably one of the craziest and stressful experiences of my life but I worked hard because I knew where I wanted to be. After a year, I left my boss when she and I mutually decided that I would take on two of her clients. From then on, I became a freelance stylist and my clientele started to grow immensely. I didn’t only work with celebrities, but I worked with socialites, philanthropists, and bloggers.

I have worked with a countless number of celebrities from Felicity Jones to Emily Blunt. While the media continues to focus on celebrities, currently I have decided to expand and not only style but to be a fashion consultant. In the time that I have worked as a stylist, I realized the importance of relationships, honesty, and trust which truly are the foundations of my career. This has enabled me to develop my scope of work in an industry so rapidly changing. In the recent past, I have worked in fashion show production and pop-up shop development worldwide. While I think it is important to see your vision executed on the red carpet, I also believe that the world of fashion is much greater, and day by day I am becoming a bigger part of that.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road but it is becoming less bumpy. Finding out who you are and where you belong in this world is one of the most challenging aspects of life; pursuing your actual passions has to be the second.

Being a styling assistant is a strenuous job. You work eighteen hour days, you’re constantly driving around the city dealing with traffic, people are consistently yelling at you about something and even when you’re right you’re wrong. In addition to that, you are carrying eighty percent of the workload but only get about five percent of the credit.

Becoming freelance was also scary because you don’t know what your future may look like. You are regularly worried about your next job, whether or not you will be paid, and if your customer is happy.

Outside of all that, I would say the biggest struggle I’ve faced is getting people to recognize my work. In this industry, unfortunately, there is always a fight about who did what and who chose what; so you have to learn early on in the game to make your mark and to really focus on individuality.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Because I have found that not only celebrities need help with their outfit decisions, it’s important to bring styling services to the masses at affordable prices. With that being said, I want to open a “style house” per se in multiple locations worldwide. The idea is that everyone, not just celebrities, can visit a location, bring in their outfit ideas and be styled for literally anything including work, events and do wardrobe consultations. Of course, there will be a VIP section for those requiring more exclusive treatment, but the overall vibe will be an easy, non-stuffy atmosphere.

Let’s explore some of the challenges you’ve faced along the way. What was the most difficult part of your career so far?
One of the most difficult times in my career was working for a celebrity stylist as her first assistant. It was one of the most challenging and emotionally draining times in my life. The world of styling is fast, unstable, and requires you to be extremely flexible. The hours are long, sometimes the clients are unhappy, and there are a lot of avenues that you are required to navigate. This includes being in constant communication to develop and maintain PR and designer relationships, which is often very challenging. In your head, you have a million things to accomplish and only a few hours to do it. The deadlines are constantly changing, and you have to be able to be three places at one time. In addition to all of that, you have a crazy boss yelling at you for things you may have forgotten, someone you didn’t talk to, and for a delivery that you missed.

With that being said, this is only my personal experience but a very familiar ordeal in the industry. For some reason, older household stylists seem to work on pure adrenaline. There is no organization in their brain; just do, do, do. But, I wouldn’t have changed this time for the world. Even though the times were insanely crazy, I learned so much and that is how I made it through each day. Working as an assistant, you have unbelievable access. You get to go to events that your boss doesn’t want to go to; including book signings by Christian Louboutin and movie premieres; you get to talk to emerging designers like Erdem over the phone as if you had been lifelong friends. All of these things combined are what made this time in my life the most challenging, yet the most rewarding.

Do you ever feel like “Wow, I’ve arrived” or “I’ve made it” or do you feel like the bulk of the story is still unwritten?
There are a lot of small victories as a stylist. But one of my favorite moments was working with Felicity Jones on a promotion tour for her first big movie, Like Crazy. The movie was premiering in New York and against the advice of my boss, I decided that the perfect moment for her would be to wear a Dolce and Gabbana Spring 2012 green and black floral number. I remember it being extremely difficult to pull this look together, but the girl I was working with at the time helped me make it happen. When the red carpet pictures came out, I instantly knew that regardless of people that doubted my abilities, I had the aptitude and capacity to make a difference in the styling world. Needless to say, it was one of my favorite Dolce and Gabbana moments in the recent past.

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