How To Become A Fashion Stylist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a fashion stylist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

A fashion stylist puts together outfits for models working for fashion houses and clothing brands. You also give fashion advice recommending outfits for actors in television and film and individuals who have high-profile events to attend.

Your work might go beyond providing fashion advice and making recommendations to liaising with fashion designers and other related service providers to coordinating shoots, choosing props and accessories, and overseeing the entire shoot process. You might choose to work as a personal shopper for celebrities or as a freelance stylist working with editorials, movie sets, music videos, and the red carpet. You have to be up to date with new fashion trends while maintaining your creativity and ensuring that you set trends of your own.

Your salary varies depending on several factors such as clients, experience, and industry. The average fashion stylist, however, earns about $51,000 annually. Some of your most useful skills are coordination of photoshoots, customer service, e-commerce, and creativity. Most fashion stylists have bachelor's degrees in graphic design or specialized sales and merchandising.

ScoreFashion StylistUS Average

Salary

3.6

Avg. Salary $45,524

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.2

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.51%

Asian 11.65%

Black or African American 7.34%

Hispanic or Latino 11.90%

Unknown 5.57%

White 63.04%

Gender

female 79.23%

male 20.77%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

6.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a fashion stylist

Explore fashion stylist education requirements

Most common fashion stylist degrees

Bachelor's

63.9 %

Associate

22.2 %

High School Diploma

6.6 %

Start to develop specific fashion stylist skills

Skills	Percentages
Editorial Photo Shoots	15.26%
Product Knowledge	13.96%
Customer Service	13.16%
Sales Floor	11.81%
E-Commerce	5.60%

Complete relevant fashion stylist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New fashion stylists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a fashion stylist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real fashion stylist resumes.

Research fashion stylist duties and responsibilities

Manage cleaning up activities after hair care appointments by ensuring appropriate cleanliness and sterilization of cutting and trimming equipment.
Design the window display for spring & summer seasons.
Create inspiration boards and key stories for sketch reviews & new seasons.
Research trends for spring/ summer collection.

Prepare your fashion stylist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your fashion stylist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a fashion stylist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable fashion stylist resume templates

Build a professional fashion stylist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your fashion stylist resume.