It takes months of preparation: Hours of fittings, matching, prodding and primping, all for a brief walk down a camera-lined red carpet.
Awards season is the busiest time of the year for Hollywood stars — and their stylists.
“Is it crazy? One hundred per cent!” says Canadian-born stylist Brad Goreski. “There are constant problems to fix. There’s a lot of excitement… It definitely keeps us on our toes.”
Goreski is among the style-conscious regulars on the Bravo series The Rachel Zoe Project. The reality show follows legendary celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe and her assistants — Goreski and Taylor Jocobson — through all the behind-the-scenes chaos, excitement, drama and tears that go into making celebrities look good.
The Zoe camp’s star-studded clientele includes Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson, Debra Messing and Anne Hathaway. Goreski recently began filming the second season of Project Zoe, which will air in late April.
“The craziest thing I’ve ever had to do was when we got called in to do a fitting with Kate Hudson the day before she had to do a press tour,” says Goreski. “I was on a plane 24 hours later with three trunks of clothes. That was five weeks into it,” he laughs.
“I got broken-in really fast,” adds Goreski, who grew up in the small town of Port Perry, Ont., a far cry from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.
“Vogue was the first magazine I ever asked my mom to buy me,” says Goreski. “It’s in my blood. When I was in school I used to tie scarves around my waist. I was always mixing things up. It all kind of started with Barbie. I tested a lot of things out on her!,” he laughs.
Goreski interned at Vogue and W magazine, while studying art history at the University of Southern California. After graduation he landed a job as the West Coast assistant at Vogue.
After that, “it was a series of happy accidents.”
He first met Rachel Zoe at a Chanel dinner and spent the next year trying to score a dream job on her styling team. When a spot opened he jumped on it and hasn’t looked back since.
“I loved her right away,” says Goreski. “She seemed like she would be really fun to work for, and I was right!”
Working close together, on call 24-7, stylists and their teams become a lot like family.
“There’s a lot of mean portrayals of assistant boss relationships in the fashion world,” says Goreski, “but that’s not how it is where I work. Working for Rachel is crazy in a good way. We’re also good friends.”
