Stylists spill their celebrity red carpet secrets

As the countdown to the Oscars begins, celebrity stylists reveal what goes on behind the scenes. By Prudence Wade.

Lady Gaga at the Oscars afterparty in 2019 (Ian West/PA)

With the Oscars fast approaching on March 12, stylists are busy getting A-listers ready for the red carpet.

But what happens before the stars actually step out in their designer outfits?

Celebrity stylists Danielle Whiteman, who is part of SmileDirectClub’s Confidence Council, and Ryan Kay, know a thing or two about dressing famous faces.

Whiteman is the brains behind Holly Willoughby and Christine Lampard’s style, and Kay works with singer Fleur East, television personality Olivia Attwood and Coronation Street’s Lucy Fallon.

For Kay, styling isn’t something you can learn. “You’ve got style or you don’t,” he says. “That sounds so pretentious, but I truly believe styling is your personality.”

This is how glamorous red carpet moments actually happen…

Picking a look

Whiteman first considers what the event is. “Some red carpets are bigger, [and require] more of a show-stopper dress than others,” she says.

“I have a database of all the designers I contact, which is hundreds.” She’ll put a call out to her global contact list – “so it’d be a dress designer in Lebanon, or in Turkey, Spain or Brazil. It could be anywhere – I send out one email individually to everyone, and see who’s interested or who has something available”.

Outside of her database, Whiteman attends trunk shows – where designers put out samples of their work – to see what’s out there. A lot of the job relies on relationships, she says.

When reflecting on some of her favourite outfits she’s dressed Willoughby in, she says: “Our relationship now with The Vampire’s Wife, we didn’t really have one. [Willoughby] wasn’t really someone who was on its books.

“I have a good relationship with Hurr, the rental company, and I love to use them. I dressed her in a Vampire’s Wife dress for one of the Christmas episodes of This Morning. Then Susie [Cave] who runs The Vampire’s Wife was like, ‘Oh my God…’ Now they have a relationship, where she wears her designs.”

“It doesn’t really start with an idea,” Whiteman says. “It usually starts with contacting people and seeing what’s around.”

For the Oscars, it might work a little differently for some of the biggest stars on the red carpet – who work with designers to get an outfit custom-made for them.

Kay would like two or three weeks to prep for an event, but “sometimes I don’t always get that time, sometimes I get two days’ notice”, he says. “Then it’s my job to reach out to designers and different PR companies that look after designers to say, ‘I’m styling X, Y, Z, and I’d love to call in samples’.”

He follows the latest from London and Paris Fashion Weeks, and will reach out to designers if anything catches his eye.

“I’m that middleman who gets the clothes on celebrities,” he says. “It’s about calling in many options – I couldn’t cope with just having one.”

And no, celebrities don’t get to keep their outfit after a red carpet. “It’s basically a loan,” Kay admits.

Finding inspiration

Every client is different, but Whiteman says she doesn’t really speak much to Willoughby about her ideas.

“I don’t chat to her until we’re at the fitting, maybe the day before it – she’s very trusting,” she says.

“She might say, ‘I think I want to wear a suit for this event’ – like for one thing she said, ‘I really want to wear a white suit.’ She trusts me – she’s not one to really give me direction.”

Whiteman will sometimes give Willoughby a heads-up – for example, telling her if she’s thinking of doing sparkles for an upcoming red carpet., “or I might send her a mood board” – but ultimately, “I get left to my own devices”.

For Kay, the most important thing in a stylist-client relationship is knowing who you are dressing. “I wouldn’t necessarily put Fleur East in something I would put Lucy Fallon in,” he says.

“You’ve got to really understand who they are, and what their personality is.” He knows what colour schemes work for each of his clients, but also notes the importance of keeping an eye on new designer’s collections to see where trends are heading that season.

One of Kay’s favourite outfits is the white dress he dressed a pregnant Lucy Fallon in for the 2022 Pride Of Britain Awards.

It’s not all glamour

“Everyone thinks the job is going to be so glamorous, it’s a beautiful experience, or you don’t really do much work,” says Kay.

“I’m like, ‘Do I not do much work?’ Oh my God, I’m stressing, I’m waiting for deliveries to come from Paris, Italy, London, there was a strike going on – will the dress come on time? It’s a very stressful job. And when you’re doing three, four clients for one red carpet, you’ve got to try divide your time.”

Whiteman also emphasises the unglamorous side of the job. “It’s carrying suitcases – unpacking, repacking – on set, you’re on your knees most of the day. I call our office a goods in and out, like a post [office] – clothes come in, unpack them, pack up, then send them back – it’s constant. It’s a lot. It’s a big slog, styling.

“It is glamorous, because everything we do is different every day. We’re also put in situations people aren’t normally in, so it is exciting – but it’s the behind-the-scenes that’s not.”

Plus, Whiteman says she’s her “biggest critic” when she sees something she’s styled come to fruition. “But it does feel amazing – and you’re really proud of it. There’s nothing like it.”