Filed under: Interviews
These days, it seems as though everyone's byline reads 'Stylist.'
However, Becca Alexis, a brown-skinned beauty who gives moments worthy of their fair share of camera time, is not to be confused with those amateurs. She is, without question, a bona-fide pro. Just check her resume.
Over the past eight years, Becca has styled the likes of Jamie Foxx, Kanye West, Janet Jackson, Katherine Heigl, Molly Sims and Marlon Wayans, to name a few. The University of Florida graduate, who got her fashion training at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, started a company with fellow stylist and best friend Hachy three years ago and continues to contribute to Harper's Bazaar Asian and countless celebrity, commercial and film projects.
She helped transformed Trey Songz into a sex symbol and is even featured dressing the R&B crooner in his current Rocawear ad campaign.
"A lot of people had no clue who his stylist was and he was getting so much recognition for fashion, [which] made me realize that I have to develop myself as a brand," she told BlackVoices.com. "It can't just be work, work, work. I now see myself as a business, as a brand, as somebody who is an image innovator and developer."
Scroll through her blog, Purveyor of Style, or watch Becca's '5 Minutes to Fab' makeover vignettes on Hello Beautiful and you will get the feeling that she's not your typical fashion stylist. Her favorite necklace is from Aldo. She has no shame asking her super to help put together new furniture and she'll readily admit to shopping sample sales -- or, even better, splurging her rent on a pair of fabulous designer shoes.
"Having assisted for five years, it was more so about developing relationships with key contacts within the fashion industry, so that was when I went out on my own; I knew it would be easier to have access to the information that's so hard to get if you don't have the right credibility," she said.
With Trey Songz for Rocawear
"Being in the fashion industry, I wanted to be that representation for that woman who sometimes feels like she can't find herself in fashion," Becca shared. "There's that curvaceous woman who is not necessarily a plus-size, but she is not that super-thin model, either, and I wanted to be that voice for that woman who [wonders], 'How do I dress myself up so that I don't look bodacious or over-sexualized because I have big breasts and a big ass?'
"My blog was that voice and my personal diary for the girls who felt like, because they didn't grow up having access to a Chanel bag, fashion just wasn't for them. I wanted to show them that this is somebody who worked with the Janet Jacksons and the Jessica Simpsons of the world, but she's first-generation American and her parents were Pentecostal ministers in a small town."
These days, Becca Alexis, who previously worked alongside style maven June Ambrose, says that much of being a good stylist is in creating your own brand.
"I'm that person who made it in an industry that sometimes segregates people. I sort of found my home. This is always the person that I wanted to be, but kind of felt awkward doing it in other settings and New York allowed me to be that person," Becca revealed.
"This industry propels you to think outside the box. We're out of those days where stylists were the ultimate last word."
She added, "The Internet has opened the doors of fashion accessibility, so now the artists are right there in front with the fashion editors. It's our job to enable them to find themselves. That means sometimes we have to shut up and listen."
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Source: http://www.bvonstyle.com/2011/03/30/celebrity-stylist-becca-alexis-talks-fashion/
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