Phillip Bloch ushered in the era of the celebrity stylist; as he candidly admitted to me in our interview earlier this week: “After people saw that I was having my 20 minutes of fame, they wanted their 5!” Fashion heads will concur: the first time I “met” Phillip was watching him on an early cable style program on TV in the ’90s as a ‘tween, and I remember thinking, “Stylist…what’s that?” I’d never heard of the role before that but Bloch, before anyone else, branded it for himself and the legion of celeb stylists to come behind him.

With names like Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, and Jada Pinkett-Smith on his resumé, not to mention his work with Vogue, InStyle, Vanity Fair, and Entertainment Weekly, among countless others, Bloch’s list of credentials is the ultimate “Who’s Who?” of style. I had to ask him: um, how do we even *set our sights* on accomplishing as much you have?

“Really, it’s about taking the ego down,” he shares. He advises young stylists to just “do the work,” as there’s really no way around it. He also counsels up-and-comers to “keep it real” and not fib about what you’ve worked on. To illustrate, he mentioned a run-in with a makeup artist who bragged that they’d done all of the work on a recent *major* music video only to find out later that the person had only done the extras. And there’s no shame in that–everyone has to start somewhere. “Just don’t lie!” he cautions. Remember, too, that “this is a business” at the end of the day, so don’t get caught up in small personal issues like not being seen front-row at a designer’s show.

As far as where he gleans his styling inspiration from, it’s as vast and varied as his career, which also includes acting, designing, and writing. “A daisy growing out of the concrete in the sidewalk, old buildings, and, recently, the Muir Woods in Northern California. Beauty’s really where you find it, as Madonna says in ‘Vogue’.” Couldn’t agree more!

What I found most refreshing about Phillip is his aim to “really try to use [my] platform for good.” Currently, his project as a brand ambassador for Flexees Shapewear by Maidenform is what he’s most excited about. “It’s fat-free dressing for the woman who has no inclination to go under the knife, and it’s affordable!” he enthused. He also asked me to also tell Bombshell to enter to win a personal $4,500 makeover with him over at Star Magazine, so get thee to the contest entry page quickly!
And for more with Phillip, visit his site PhillipBloch.com!
~Adriana
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