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Celebrity stylist James Yardley didn't always work in fashion. "My degree was in photography, which I studied in London," Yardley said. However, Yardley always loved fashion and began interning at Attitude magazine. "The more I worked with the fashion director, who would go on to become my boss for three or four years, the more I learned just to love fashion," Yardley said. Eventually, Yardley began working as a stylist and now has actors such as Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie and Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham on his roster of clients.
For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Yardley shares how he got his big break in the industry, how he ended up working with Storrie, and more. To read excerpts from the conversation, scroll below.
Before we get into all of your work, I would love to hear a little bit about your background.
My degree was in photography, which I studied in London. I really did love it. I did fashion, but my big thing was documentary photography. I loved documentary photography. I assisted photographers, and it was a horror show. I think it can be just a very cruel landscape in terms of assisting. I just dropped the idea of ever being a photographer and couldn't even really tell you how to use a camera anymore.
How did styling come about? How did you get started?
It was a very different time back then. In essence, interning was still for free. You didn't get paid in anything. I went in every day looking at it as just like, "This is an experience, a very addictive experience." The more I worked with the fashion director, who would go on to become my boss for three or four years, the more I learned just to love fashion. I started on the menswear with the models, and that was amazing. And then he had some very famous clients. He had Kylie Minogue.
I think I've heard of her.
Just the icon Kylie Minogue and Nicole Scherzinger. He had some people like that, so I really then started to learn the glamor of womenswear as well. And then he hired me.
At what point in the Heated Rivalry debut moment did you [and Connor Storrie] start actually working together, and how did you know he was the right client for you?
I get a call from Nick Todisco. I feel like I owe Nick Todisco my life. He calls me, and he's like, "I have this man. He's gorgeous, incredibly talented. You need to see the trailer for the show." I looked at his Instagram, and he's a real creative. He's done his own editorials in the past. So I was like, "Let's do it."
A lot of my portfolio with menswear had been very exuberant, very over-the-top—which I love—but he was far more refined in his notes of what he liked. He came to my very tiny apartment at the time. We did a fitting. … We could have done it in half an hour, but I think it was two and a half hours. I immediately just knew he was a real joy to work with. I think that's the best way of putting it.
How did you start to hone in on a strategy together about how you wanted him to look? How did we go from the earlier press moments— pinstripes, higher-waisted trousers, strong tailoring? How did these early elements become so central to his red carpet looks?
I think the fact that we are aligned with one another is pure luck. … Maybe it was something in the universe that threw us together because he has similar taste levels that I have with Hannah [Waddingham] and other clients as well. I reference a lot of Old Hollywood. I do it with Hannah with Marilyn Monroe–esqueness of the figure. With him, it's the same thing. It's Old Hollywood with a twist that's modern. People might have noticed with my tailoring [that] it's always slightly above where the waist would be, but that's his true waist.
Then the wide-leg pants, the pinstripes—it's very early Hollywood. The same with the blazers and the shirts. We've experimented with lots of different silhouettes that are very similar but always, always have a tweak of something else.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.