September 1, 2016

Meet Silver Lake Fashion and Commercial Wardrobe Stylist: Jardine Hammond

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jardine Hammond.

Jardine, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I don’t have the typical story of a stylist who goes through the ranks of fashion school, assisting, and then working on their own; mine kind of meanders. I’ve had about 6 lives, a few careers—from working in editorial, events, and marketing at an action sports media company, managing a women’s clothing brand, to co-founding a PR company—and they all have seemed to lead me to where I am today, taking from everything I’ve learned in those positions. Some of it happened by chance but most by weeding out what I didn’t want to be doing on a daily basis and moving towards the fun stuff.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think because I’ve literally gone into so many jobs not knowing what I was doing or how it was “supposed” to be done, I feel this time it’s been relatively smooth. Looking back, I would have definitely assisted more and earlier just not to make the rookie mistakes that you just wouldn’t know how not to and to learn what the real priorities are. I feel really lucky to have gotten a lot of mentorship from my friend Monique, who I assist still when I can and who I’m constantly learning from and inspired by. I also learn a ton from my assistant Christin who works for a few different people and has a great bag of tricks of her own that are really instrumental in organization. The key, I find, is to never be above “moving the box” (as opposed to just pointing at the boxes to be moved) and to see that there are so many ways to the best final result sometimes.

What is the most difficult part of what you do?
There are quite a few components to wardrobe styling that are definitely a challenge. One is the sheer physical labor—schlepping the massive amounts of clothing to and from jobs is kind of intense sometimes. I would say another part that is difficult is the financials that go along with it; sometimes having to front costs, being responsible for thousands of dollars worth of merchandise (borrowed and bought), and then on the back end, waiting for reimbursement and paychecks that take weeks, sometimes months. People think this job is really glamorous, and sometimes it is, but a lot of times it’s just not. Oh, and who can forget returns: They suck. But all that said, I have enormous freedom in my life, my days are never the same and I’m constantly learning new things so I feel the trade-offs are definitely in my favor.

What are you striving for, what criteria or markers have you set as indicators of success?
For me success comes down to, as cliche as it sounds, spending my days surrounded by creative people I love and having a ratio of more fun work days than stressful ones while paying my bills easily and on time. Laughing a ton, having savings and traveling to all kinds of random and exotic places would also fit in with my idea of “success.”

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I don’t foresee any major changes, just to hopefully work on creative jobs and/or bigger jobs more frequently is always the goal. I also want to incorporate more travel in as well, whether it be for fun or work.

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