Even if you don’t know Erin Walsh, you’ve seen her work. He grooms the most talked about celebrities, including Selena Gomez, Mindy Kaling, Kerry Washington and Anne Hathaway, who is currently opening heads on the press tour for “The Odyssey”. Walsh is now an entrepreneur and author. Her first book, “The Art of Intentional Dressing: Your Essential Style Guide to Revealing a Magnetic Life,” was published by HarperOne in May (and includes a foreword by Hathaway).
As if she wasn’t busy enough, Walsh teamed up with luxury lifestyle and concierge platform Velocity Black as an official partner to create exclusive fashion experiences for its members with curated styling sessions and fashion shows. To celebrate the World Cup, he created a shoppable capsule in collaboration with Moda Operandi, inspired by the way fashion is seen in the game (complete with a limited edition collection of hand-painted Marc Jacobs Tote Bags).
Image: Courtesy of Velocity Black
We caught up with the stylist while she was in Los Angeles for a collaboration and talked all things fashion, sports and dressing on purpose.
Why do you think sports and fashion feel more connected than ever?
Because these high-level athletes are in such a position, it is the case that brands and partners follow them to represent them as ambassadors. And, when you look that way and work at such a high level, fashion can elevate how you feel. So it is obvious to use fashion if you stand out as an athlete. And it can be a lot of fun, too. People look up to you anyway.
Then, in the chicken and the egg, if you look at the fact that many top players end up becoming the face of the brand, that’s because they were already a supernova version of themselves in the public eye.
Image: Getty Images
Your philosophy is about dressing deliberately. Do you think people are becoming less interested in trends and more interested in personal style?
Trends are important because they give us ways to think about what we don’t think about and expand and level up, which is always important because we’re not here to stay the same. I think the concept of trends is the only part of the information you use when dressing, that doesn’t sound interesting to me. And I don’t think that affects many people because, ultimately, fashion is meant to make you feel like the best version of yourself.
When you ask yourself, when you go to get dressed, ‘How do I want to feel?’ — that’s something that will resonate and work for you on a much deeper plane than, ‘Is this bag trending on Instagram or Ujo Shop right now?’ The world is also complicated right now. So using fashion as a way to embody that version of who you want to be, that’s its most important, beneficial use.
Luxury brands seem to invest more in experiences than products alone. Why do you think consumers desire those timepieces right now?
I talk a lot with brands about the new nature of partnerships and VICs, Most Valuable Customers, what’s the most effective way to connect with their customers and make them feel like they’re being delivered to the world?
I think when you invite people to participate in an informed way, it’s something you try on for size, and it’s immersive. When done right, you leave the experience profoundly changed and transformed. So instead of just being sent something from a designer or being invited to shop, when you’re being taught and inspired and immersed in something in an auditory way, it’s just more exciting.
Image: Dark Speed
What advice would you give to aspiring stylists who want to build a career like yours, and eventually break into publications, brand relations and entrepreneurship?
It was around COVID that it became more visible, because our industry was shut down as celebrity stylists. It gave you time to think about this: How can I use my skills and abilities to continue creating again, both from a professional perspective [and] to create money for my family, but also: I believe that we are all here to serve the world in some way. So, how do we go about doing that?
I think the celebrity style business is a service business. Your value can be determined by whether the other person is working. So, in terms of creating a business out there, social media is a great way to do so. It’s a great way to tell a story. Start figuring out what you want to say to the world and why.
The way I did it… I sincerely want to change the way women look at their possibility and power. And that’s been the basic thread, luckily, for both my celebrity style and all the things I’m working on, from the book to all the extensions of what’s to come, including the app I’m working on.
But don’t limit yourself and your possibilities. Go ahead and find out what makes you tick, what makes you connect with people, what is your message, what story do you want to tell? Then the opportunities around that will come when you start having the courage to put that out there. And don’t worry about your money to begin with because once you start telling that story to the world, opportunities will follow.