My favorite kind of styling job is the one with no money. I know that sounds insane, but hear me out.
This week I got asked to style a small editorial shoot for an emerging designer friend — the kind of project where the budget is basically vibes and a MetroCard. Forty dollars. That was it. Style a whole shoot on a $40 thrift budget.
So I did what I always do. I took the M to Fresh Pond Road and started at the Goodwill in Ridgewood, the one most people sleep on. Then L Train Vintage down the block. Then a little rummage spot near Myrtle-Wyckoff that doesn't even have a sign.
Here is what I've learned about styling a shoot on a $40 thrift budget: you don't shop for pieces, you shop for silhouettes. I'm not looking for a "good top." I'm looking for a shape, a weight of fabric, a color that photographs like it costs ten times what it does.
I found a men's oversized blazer for six dollars with these ridiculous strong shoulders. A slip skirt, three dollars, that I knew would catch light. A stack of silk scarves I'd use as tops, as belts, as headwraps — my nani used to tie hers exactly this way and I think about her every time I do it.
Sustainability in fashion isn't a marketing word to me. It's how I was raised. Nothing in my house in Ahmedabad got thrown away. Saris became cushion covers became dusters. That instinct is my whole aesthetic now.
The shoot came together yesterday in a Bushwick studio with no AC and a fan pointed at the model's face between shots. The forty-dollar outfits looked like a runway. The designer nearly cried.
Good styling was never about money. It's about looking harder than everyone else is willing to.
Spend the forty dollars slowly. Look twice at everything.
Love,