Teddy Czopp is a fashion editor, stylist, and consultant who has been working within the fashion industry for over ten years. Born in France, he was brought up surrounded by creativity and even collected fashion magazines at a young age.
Teddy talked the class through his personal experiences within the industry, starting with his exceptional responsibilities at Dutch Magazine. He described his time at Dutch Magazine as unique: one with a small work environment but the type of work you would run to every day. His time at Dutch Magazine is where he experienced the vast aspects of the industry and lead him to make great connections within fashion. While he talked often about luck and how it is important to work your way through the industry, he had some words of encouragement for the students. Ensuring that while it may be tough to break in, Czopp noted that the rumors and gossip of the fashion industry being particularly evil has little truth to it.
With a background in styling, Czopp details the process in which he plans and executes a photo shoot, the typical responsibilities of a stylist and the sometimes recurring problems that one may encounter working with celebrities or photographers. Some things that tend to be forgotten when we see glamorized images of stylists, is the great effort put into each image. Starting from the long hours of curating a mood board to acquiring garments from varying brands, these are just glances of what it takes to create a story. Teddy gave examples of times in which he had not managed to acquire the garments he intended to use, the make-it-work talent you have to cultivate when working in time-sensitive situations, and even how sometimes you end up with more than you could possibly dream of in a celebrity. But then, there are the celebrity clients who prefer to be photographed in the jeans and the basic t-shirt they arrived in, to which one has to make do.
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Teddy Czopp visited Parsons Paris on 7 February 2017 for Fashion Cultures Seminar.
Written by Tala AlGahmdi, MA Fashion Students, Class 2016-2018.
Edited by Sarah Safar, MA Fashion Students, Class 2016-2018.
