How to be a Celebrity Stylist & Fashion Consultant with Wilfree Vasquez Torres

#CelebrityStylist #costumedesigner #FilmIndustry

Jim Eaves here, and you've tuned in to the Honest Filmmaker Podcast, where we dive into career insights from seasoned professionals in the industry. 

Today, I'm thrilled to have Wilfree Vásquez Torres joining us. Wilfree wears many hats – he's a celebrity stylist, a fashion consultant and a costume designer. He's worked with top-tier celebrities like Cher, Christina Aguilera, Kim Kardashian, and Selena Gomez.

During our conversation, Wilfree shares his journey into the industry, his approach to collaborating with high-profile clients, how he stays ahead of the curve with fashion trends, and invaluable advice for those aspiring to kickstart their own careers.

Enjoy!

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Transcript

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[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I'm speaking to Fashion consultant stylist and costume designer wilfrey Vasquez Torres wilfrey is a sought after celebrity stylist having worked with Sher Christina Aguilera Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez he's also worked on several feature films and television shows as costume designer and regularly works at fashion shows I talked to wirey about how he got into the industry how he works with his celebrity clients how he keeps up to date with fashion trends and his tips for you starting your career enjoy so I start where I start with most people and this is um did you go to university uh where did you study I didn't go to university I started but I never finished okay I started uh going to school for musical theater and then stumbled into fashion and here we are oh really okay so how uh so you didn't finish that uh music course did your fashion how did you then end up getting work without that uh qualification so I was working retail and I learned in retail what visual merchandising was right no one really knows what that is unless you know you're going to school for fashion um and once I got into visual merchandising it was kind of like a networking thing where the more I get hired for different kind of jobs the more people I got to meet I worked in the industry and I believe I was the visual supervisor for Converse they were opening the first convers store in New York City and uh I was the visual supervisor there and one of the associates who I was really cool with was like Hey I work for a designer and she has a runway show and we need help you have an ie I like what you do with the store do you want to help and then that's how it started and I started working with Arena shaba as her executive assistant doing everything you know whether it was beating on a dress or um uh helping her create her VIP guest list and kind of like uh coming through the interviews everyone that wanted to interview he want interview her on the day making sure the models are ready for the stage um so I did that with her for probably I mean I still do it till this day so it's been a good like 12 years that I've been doing it with her and um I I worked more with her I got to work with different celebrities and also work on different projects and do you know a lot of cool things up until um I decided that I wanted to do it full-time right so and then here we are here we are yeah yeah that's cool so um and this is another I keep finding myself talking to people who are in industries that are so far removed from me and I know nothing about so it's fascinating um so for example let's look at a fashion show um m i imag in my head I'm imagining backstage people getting made up people getting the hair done going past Someone Like You who's going yeah you look good or get back in the chair is that what happens yeah so typically I'll give you a little bit of a a a rundown of what happens on the day yeah typically I I would arrive and then I will check in with the lead uh key makeup person and the Lead Hair person and then I also will check in with the ex get producers make sure we're all set show is going to be running on time I'll give them my list I'll check them with the DJ make sure they have the right music and as I'm checking in with hair makeup I review that they have the proper images of what the designer wants for the show um and you know as you're getting the models ready I'll check them off I'll look at them and I'll say good no you need to darken the ey you need to shade this more or we need to do it all over again or sometimes I have to yell I don't like to but when you have to speak to a room of like over 350 people you have no other option and they know once my voice gets loud everybody starts quieting down and I'm like we have 20 minutes I need my girls I have an hour I need my girls so it's a bit chaotic yeah backstage but it's Controlled Chaos so it's the fun part about it so and so what was it like doing the first one did you know did did someone explain to you all the things you had to do or did you just sort of make it up as you went along no not at all I had an eye for fashion and I had an eye for intricacy and an eye for detail which is very important in what I do um and the girl that brought me on and the designer immediately saw that the way I spoke about things the way I handled the garments the way I would understand what she was talking about when she was talking about certain things I always loved clothing and looking good and making sure that my appearance mattered um and especially when you're working in the visual Department everyone's always looking at you for inspiration especially the sales associates because they don't know how to dress it just how the mannequin looks you know like that's the brand of the store so that's how they should drust so when they see you you know it's like okay does he look like a visual person is this person inspiring to the brand is it going to make me want to dress that way um and I think she picked up on that and it's one of those things where you can't go to school for that you can go to school to be a designer you can go to school to be a stylist but if it's not in your blood it's just not meant for you I've met plenty of people um networking that thought that's what they wanted to do and they just couldn't they're not good designers or they're not good stylist or they're not good merchandisers even though they love it just because you love something doesn't mean that you have to divulge your full life into it thinking that that's how you're going to build your career yeah I started on camera went to retail and then went behind the scenes so like it's forever changing and evolving um but yeah and so you talk what's interesting there is you're talking about the way that you uh dress is important because people will read in from that oh he knows you know he's wearing a nice outfit he knows what he's doing so that's obviously something to consider you can't turn up looking like a bag of expecting someone to employ you for a job in fashion 100% yes you have to inspire if you're not inspiring in any career job it's like what are you doing if you have a job and you're working with people specifically it matters because it changes the mood of the day it changes how the direction that the team is heading how quickly things get done if you're a job and you're dressed like a job I mean what do you expect it you know it's going to be a rainy day in London every day in the office right so yes we don't want that so so thinking about something like uh New York Fashion Week I think I saw some things pop up in your insta from that yeah um if I say I'm a fashion student or I'm somebody who's really passionate about fashion can I go to that or is that invite only is it an exclusive thing or how's it work it's nine times out T's invite only there are certain events where you can pay for a ticket and go watch the show there are also some programs that do collaborations with colleges and have the students intern right or come in and be a PA and you know they don't get paid for the job but they get to experience it and get to see it firsthand so sometimes they'll get to watch the show but it's mostly behind the scenes and if there's time and if there's a spot for them to kind of slide out and watch it um they try to get them out there so they can see it it's their first you know we want to inspire the new generation and we can Inspire them if we can't show them Hand by hand the work that it takes to get there you can't just go by what you see in the media and on the tabloids it's like yeah it looks fun and cool you need to see how much work it takes to get there you know it's not just handed to you yeah you can be in the right room because you're so and so's child but are you are you good you know are you gonna have the longevity are you g to become the household brand you want to become and the only way you can do that is by you know learning inter turning doing it for free I did it for free for 12 years you know I mean and I had and I still had a full-time job on top of that so I wasn't just doing it for free and not making money I have to live yeah so in my spare time I was like okay this is how much time I have let's do it let's get it together and yeah so wers okay and and is there anything if you could go back in time and talk to wirey entering the industry what would you say to him what would you what advice would you give him you should have started sooner on your own right okay yeah cuz once I got started in fashion back I believe it was in 2011 2010 around that area around those years um I continued to work retail and then I was working for R Lawrence Club Monaco where I became you know Brown stylist there and I kept you know escalating in my roles in retail and I was working for someone else and I was consistently being creative but also um it's the word I'm looking for uh boxed in as to how far my creative can go and I wasn't really doing it on my own um and it took for the company to say hey we're doing a halt on expanding stores and the promotion that you were going to get is going to be put on hold I said got you that's my Quee to go and I left New York City and I started working in production um and yeah so it's it's like was it should have started sooner right definely should have started sooner that's good advice um and talking about the stylist side so what was your first job as a sort of stylist whether that be a celebrity or whoever um my first job as a stylist was actually working very closely with a designer she you know she's D she's creating all these amazing pieces and she needed help like dressing herself for the interviews and all that stuff so I was working with her a little bit as well her the clients that would come to see her you know from stylist of Lindsay Lohan uh J laado um Fergie Harry Underwood she would be like okay what should we send them and I would work with her in kind of style in that way together with her kind of learning the ropes of how things go you know she made the the dress that uh him K wore when she got married uh to Kanye so like uh and I believe Kelly Rippa what's it Kelly Ripper which got married on TV she also had to make the dress really fast so I was styling there but doing it on my own on my own I think my first styling gig was a transgender teen that a mom I'm a friend was like Hey I need help it was a transgender teen that was transitioning from male to female and she didn't know how to dress yeah for how she felt and all we know growing up is what we're taught by our communities but also what we see growing up right a man dresses like a man and a female dresses like a female you know we're giving gender to clothing so it was a fun way of introducing my solo styling career and from doing that personally with her um I started to expand and kind of as I was working in production doing uh designing for TV shows commercials and movies and music videos I started taking on more personal styling CL yeah so so so talking about that obviously that can be a delicate situation styling somebody and for example what happens if I turn up to you and I go right I'm going to the Emmys I want to wear a bright orange suit what do you think and I'm really set on it what what how do you get me how did you talk me down from something like that well first off I like to talk about Trends yeah and the aesthetic of the artist right who you are is it g to work with your aesthetic is it on Trend because let's be honest I'm not saying you have to be totally on Trend but you need to know what the trends are because you're either going to go with it or go against it and create your own route you can't create your own route if you don't know what's happening you can't say I did it first if it's already been done so that's where my conversations kind of start okay let's talk about it what was the inspiration for it you saw someone else wearing it if I think it's going to look great on you I would say let's do it but let's make it your own let's switch it up like how can we individ visualize it because that for me is very important I don't want to just buy something and put it on you or pull something from a designer and just put it on you just because it's pretty and you like it is it you is it a part of who you are like what is the message that we're trying to convey here like who's the girl that's on the red carpet today or who's the man that's on the red carpet today yeah yeah yeah okay um and uh have you ever got it wrong have you ever sent somebody to somewhere and gone oh that didn't quite work how I want it to work or has it all been all right you don't have to tell me who it was if you got it wrong I don't think I got it wrong I think I wish I would have been there right because I think there was one of my clients who wore a dress for a really big award she looks beautiful and I just gave away was a she but she looks beautiful um and you know I think if I would have been there I would have made sure that he looked as perfect as perfect can be still look great but you know I want a little bit of a control freak in that way like if it's my creation going out there or my creativity being put on someone else I want to make sure that it it's you're being seen in your best light yeah yeah fair enough um and I I'm it sounds like and by the look of your website you've worked with a lot of these big names do you ever get star stck is there anyone you've kind of got a bit overwhelmed working with star struct I would have to say my star struck moment was was Christina gerera um because I was so I would get hired through a thirdparty agency to like come in like hey they need someone to help with the tour while it's in town and that's how I got to work on a lot of these tours and they need you and they'll be like hey I need you as this but then I end up you know tailoring uh dressing doing whatever they need yeah and I remember I had I was running late because I was coming from another shoot and they're like still get here we need your hands on deck I'm on stage Christina gilera is wearing this I forget who the designer was he was the maresa P I can't remember this wedding gwn with a train and the train was made out of this lace and it had this beading on it and I had not connected with her now I was going to be working with her team for a couple of days so earlier in the day I was setting up uh you know fixing some things for her for her interview that she was going to have the next day and first time I'm meeting her is on stage she's about to go on stage and I'm backstage and they're like okay I need you to do this and like they're directing me of what to do and where to go I pulling up the train and someone steps on one of the beads she turns around again this is my first time seeing Christina g face to face like we haven't met yet like we haven't spoken nothing and someone steps on the train the moment I grabbed it she looked back and I swear if her eyes were scissors luckily it was not me and I looked at her and I was like you know shaking my head no no no but always been a huge Christina glar fan and she was very lovely and very nice about the whole thing but at that moment you know you're about to go on stage and you hear cracking like what do you expect yeah so yes that must have been definitely and I'm I'm assuming I got through it though I got through it you got through it yeah that's that's what counts and I'm assuming you enjoy shopping yeah believe it or not not for myself but I love shopping for others that's the crazy part I bet and is that uh because I hate shopping so is that is your partner like shopping do you both enjoy shopping or are you is there like hband listen he loves shopping as much as I do yeah so I usually the the best thing about uh having a partner who's creative as well is I bring him along as my first assistant and he knows how I work he knows what I need and he takes care of me because there's times where I'm just on go mode that I do not have the time to eat or do not have the time to take five minutes sometimes I don't but he's like okay we need to get him this we need to get him that so he like takes care of me and makes sure that you know I'm good to be there for the day yeah that is it very similar situation so I direct my wife produces and she often will look out for me which sounds like a very similar situation um love it what I was going to ask now about was uh costume on movies that kind of stuff so costume design um how did you get into that what sort of projects have you worked on so my first project that I worked on was a docy style kind of movie that was done for Amazon and he was a friend of a friend and uh he saw my work you know my styling work and saw that I was creative I was like look um I've been talking to my friends and we we think we want to give you the opportunity to do this and it was my first costume designing job um it was called The Mighty Adam and I had to style pieces from the 1960s and 70s on a documentary about this man the strongest man in the world the mighty Adam I don't know if you know his story but it's quite beautiful and um yeah I did that and then once I got that under my repertoire it was like okay now I have costume designing under my belt so whenever there were jobs or network connections I mean it was all hearsay there was no platform where you really go to and kind of like oh hey look at me um look what I can do hire me yeah it's all word of mouth all all word of mouth that's how I've done it no agent either I was gonna say that was going to be one of my questions was do you have an agent so I'm guessing you get all your own work is that right yeah yep yes I do again like once I work with one client they'll open the door to something else yeah or they'll reach out to me like I've had PR companies reach out to me to work with certain celebrities out of nowhere um through my Instagram or they'll go on my website and they'll send me a little message and be like hey I saw your work can we talk I have some fun projects coming up yeah um yeah and then again networking is everything like the project that I just worked on this past summer was through someone actually that we hadn't work together work together we've always heard about each other we try to work together on the same job but it never happens she's like look I hope you're available this time because now at this point everybody that I know that's on this job is recommending you so we finally were able to work together and it was a really cool project for Michael Bay that's going to be coming out very soon I don't know if you know who Michael Bay is yeah yeah yeah yeah pretty big name in Industry so it's pretty exciting that's coming out uh hopefully in the fall summer fall so yeah cool networking networking all right so then I know how networking works with filmmakers is it any different with fashion what are your tips for networking for people who have who find it difficult um don't be afraid to approach don't be afraid to engage in conversation treat it as if you're getting to know a friend let's say you're out at a bar and you're by yourself and you see a group of people that are laughing or having a good time and you want to just a project hey my name is so and so are you doing today out of bar obviously you wouldn't say what do you do or like what brought you on here you know like you wouldn't ask those questions but the same idea of the same way you would approach somebody at a bar or out and about that you see that you think they're cool or want to engage and make new friends it's think about it as like you're making new friends yeah you approach feel comfortable in the conversation you don't need to go in with here's my resume you know like that's you don't need to be that strong yeah just a simple hey how are you what brought you here like how are you connected with where we are um who do you know because maybe n out of 10 you might know the same people and then that gives it another topic of conversation and then you guys can connect yeah and uh and the other thing I would add is we as filmmakers obviously we're uh obsessed with movies so we talk about movies so I imagine you guys talk about fashion and all that kind of stuff what you love oh yeah um that's actually that's May me think of another question is how do you keep on top of what is on Trend or what's popular what's fashionable it's so hard it's so so hard because fashion is forever changing and forever evolving it never stays the same for example right now what's like on hot trend is this new Cowboy look right I'm like I just did a commercial with mariana rivera a couple of year a couple of months ago actually just last year that hasn't aired yet and I don't know if you know who mariana rivera is but he's a uh New York Yankees Hall of Famer oh I do not know and uh yeah so he you know pretty big name in the in the MLB World and he you know I dressed him in a cowboy outfit and all of a sudden now that's trending yeah and I'm like you just don't know and it's like yes I'll stay on top of deadline Vogue magazine of course is one of my major go-tos as I'm a Vogue Club member and I enjoy the perks of being a part of that world and that Community um also just strolling through the interweb and just kind of what's happening with the designs that are on the runways the shows that I don't make because there's way too many show there's more shows than you have time to go there's times that during Fashion Week like this past Fashion Week I had 15 shows including my own show yeah that I was doing for the first time ever and that was like very overwhelming because that takes away from the time of you going to go see other shows but then it's like an honor and it's a good thing so but yeah you just you just have to stay on top of it as much as you can you know so so just taking a few takeaways from some of the things you said is so it sounds like your website your Instagram is super important to to show people what you're up to what you're doing your style um yes and then networking super important and then like you say your Vogue your deadline doing your keeping your eyes and your ears open for stuff that's sort of happening in the industry um you also on your because this is question is going to be about um you seem to be able to do a lot of different things is that because you love doing all those things or is that because you thought one thing isn't enough financially or what what's the because you even do hair and makeup don't you so you've you got all these skills are they because you love it all or because you want to be able to do do it all at first I did not know that I loved it all yeah but I do love it all at first it was one of those things where I started doing it and I started noticing that there was a niche in the market for people that could do it all and can do it well there's many people that say they can do it all and they lack on one or the other you know and through my experience of Runway shows and working with you know a lot of uh clients here in New York when I moved to Washington DC I was like everybody when they hear you're from New York forget about it they're like oh you're from New York great fashion Capital you know what you're doing and I kind of just got into makeup and was like you know what let me do it for film and television it's not too crazy I'm not doing this full Glam look like you know Beyonce going on red carpet you know like that's not what I'm doing we don't do I mean you know working in in film you don't need all that you just need to make sure the person's Des shines Beauty so yeah so I started doing it because there was a niche in the market and I noticed that the more versatile I was uh releasing myself as I was getting more work M it was like oh so yes financially it made sense 100% now I love doing the costume and the wardrobing part a lot more than I do the hair and makeup um but just because I feel like it could be a little bit more creative with what you're wearing you know than hair and makeup but I I love to do both I hope you enjoyed this week's episode if you want more advice from industry professionals who are out there at the moment working or you just want to listen to some cool stories from film sets from around the world then please do[Music] subscribe