How To Style A Photo Shoot

I get so many questions about how the fashion styling business works. Since so many of my styling gigs are celebrity-driven, it's not that easy to share tips and tricks on my blog, for the sake of my client's privacy. {Although I'm sure you all want to see how I line up underwear for Hollywood's elite!}

But last week I did the most breathtaking menswear shoot, and I'm giving you all of the on-set juice... 

Quite possibly the biggest "eeeekkkk" moment when a white box arrived in the mail, with the message, "Dear Elshane, we'd love to see how you wear #mycalvins" from the marketing team at Calvin Klein. May as well been a signed NKOTB autograph of Marky Mark in there, too, for all I cared. Instantly, I threw my clothes off in pure joy and started jumping on my bed... until feathers were everywhere... {insert three days later and one friendly intern chucking endless feathers ripped from six white boas from my local costume store at my head.} Just what he signed up for... 

Click through the album of my behind the scenes CK Underwear shoot in my bedroom...

To sum it up in one word? Unfiltered.

"This is my life you guys! I am getting paid to be in a room (well I'm not paid tonight, but you know), with a cut-out of myself taking a belfie {butt selfie}. I mean, there's really nothing to complain about. Life is really good."- Nicole Richie, in a toast last night to her guests at a private dinner party she held to promote the premiere of her new reality show, #CandidlyNicole, on VH1. Seated two away from the beaming host, I dove in to her visual feast...

It's been years since I would sit in my college sorority house with six friends on my bed watching Nicole Richie steal scene after scene of The Simple Life-- the comedy, the clothes, the conundrums! This girl was pure entertainment. 

It seems only natural that seven years later, she's back, starring in her own reality show on VH1, titled #CandidlyNicole {Nowadays titling a television show without a hashtag would seem backwards, right?} pulling those same dry humor "jokes" that make you wonder how many people watching are truly offended. I for one, am not. 

In episode one, she forces her friend Erin to join an online dating website-- practically writing Erin's entire profile for her, fluffing the content well beyond Erin's honest capabilities. "Do you do drugs," the profile asks. Erin claims she's never tried drugs in her entire life, but Nicole chimes in and answers "YES!", coaxing Erin to believe if she tells her potential suitors that she is into various unnamed "pills", it would make her seem edgier. I laughed. Some parents might cry. But I laughed.

At her private launch party last night held at the Soho House West Hollywood, I had a chance to sit down with Nicole and ask her a few questions specifically about her wardrobe and beauty choices for the show. I mean, who could forget Nicole famously ripping fashion's red carpet from underneath Paris Hilton during their The Simple Life venture thanks to her stylist Rachel Zoe's keen eye for every vintage 1970's Emilio Pucci dress possible? We also can't forget that this is how Rachel Zoe achieved her fame. So, here's what she shared...

I am so flattered to be featured by Simply Stylist and Lucky Magazine as the Blogger of the Week! Shop my summer must-haves below, and read why I love them in the article above!

I'm at the festival for the weekend, soaking in the sun. Follow my adventures on instagram @elshanesworld!