Shopping for Fame and Fortune

"It's like you'd be wandering around a big fitting room, somewhere in New York, pulling things out. And celebrities are standing there, and you're like, 'Ok, you're wearing this, you're wearing that!" Then you all go out and photographers take pictures of them on the red carpet, then you all go to the party together."

So says a 15 year-old from Kelowna. She's not shy about her desire to be a stylist. She wants to work with Kate Hudson and Mischa Barton, in particular. Along with her entire grade ten fashion merchandising class, she spent five hours on a bus to get to the Kwantlen graduation fashion show. There, the auditorium was packed with hundreds of girls from rural and urban British Columbia (BC) who, glassy-eyed, shared similar career aspirations.

Many of those young women are now taking their first college fashion courses, and they're attending shows at this week's Vancouver Fashion Week. Testimonials from teen girls and the success of shows like America's Next Top Model may show that modeling is still one of the top career choices for many young women. But while even five years ago, many young women talked about wanting to be fashion designers, now, few do. Over the past many months I've asked dozens of 15 to 25 year olds about their aspirations. I heard over and over again that "no one" wants to be a designer anymore. Most want to be stylists - celebrity stylists.

Ticket to fame

Enrollment at BC fashion colleges reflects this. New programs are springing up (at the Art Institute of Vancouver, for example), and at existing colleges such as Blanche MacDonald, fashion merchandising classes outnumber fashion design classes by over three to one. Most of these are at private colleges where the tuition can be up to $10,000 a year, and "dreams" are as high.

So what's life like for a recent grad, determined to make it? "I have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. and set everything before anyone else shows up on set. Sometimes, I'm there 24 hours straight. I get the blame if anything goes wrong. I've got a radio attached to me and people will yell at me to bring socks, bring coffee for the director, sweep something up, anything."

"I didn't get paid anything for the first couple of years, now sometimes I make fifty dollars a day, sometimes two hundred on a really good one," says Stephanie Hartwick, a Vancouver-based fashion merchandising grad. "In Vancouver, you have to be really motivated and constantly networking and partying with the right people. If you're starting out, it's labour intensive, and people aren't nice to you, but if you're really determined, you can do it," According to her classmates, she stands a far better chance than most (several classmates raved about how talented and amazing she is). But Hartwick is one of the only people from her grad class who is getting any work. Hartwick says she'd like to stick with it, but will likely be moving into a more full-time career in retail, keeping up her styling on the side.

Marketing dreams

A cynical or savvy adult might have seen that coming, but most young women don't. And marketing materials for "stylist" programs don't help the critical thinking process. One program gushes, "Envision putting makeup on Jennifer Lopez and Al Pacino in their latest movies, styling Britney Spears' sleek and shiny hair, and having the photos of your creations published in Elle, Glamour and Self. You hang out with the world's most stylish people; some are celebrities, some are members of royal families and some are 'ordinary people' with discriminating tastes. These people admire you for your Midas touch that turns everything into sparkling diamonds. Most importantly, they love you and your works because you make them feel beautiful inside and out."

But marketing materials like these point to why the dream of being a "celebrity stylist" is becoming more widespread. There's the promise of an easy path to celebrity, and a day filled with shopping. Oh yeah, and a future filled with adoration, popularity, and friendship.