FS Style

Guest Blogger: Cleo’s Cat Williams

Cleo Magazine’s Fashion Assistant Cat Williams spends her days seeking out fashion’s next big thing; keeping up to date with the latest trends and designers, sourcing clothing for photoshoots and writing for the Cleo Blog is all in a days work for this hard working stylist.

According to Cat, looking stylish is all about having an independant and personalized approach to fashion. Here, she shares her style icons…

I am constantly obsessed with finding fashion’s next big thing. As a stylist this is not only is for the well being of my magazine pages but also and largely for my own personal style. I like to follow trends but not be a fashion victim and I like to look polished but not contrived. Looking stylish is about having an independent and personalized approach to fashion.

Style icons provide an inspirational reference to generate my own approach and ideas to styling as they too are reworking fashion and style in their own unique manner. I consider influences from the past just as important as finding them from contemporary figures.

My fashion frontrunners for stylistic inspiration include all of your current favourites; the Olsen twins, Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller and Margherita Missoni just to name a few.

I find their day to day outfits more interesting and more useful than their red carpet ensembles. How one person puts together one outfit differs greatly to the next and I feel these girls look effortlessly flawless all of the time. I like the style of these five girls because they are feminine, but not girly, and they are not afraid to try something new and exciting.

I also love to reference imagery of style icons from the past. When Dianne Von Furstenberg was in her younger years, she was overwhelmingly glamorous. I also draw inspiration from French New Wave cinema; stars such as Brigitte Bardot and Anna Karina were dressed simply, but managed to look overwhelmingly feminine, thanks to classic shapes such as A line skirts and wide legged trousers. The epitome of chic is a trench worn over a Breton striped t-shirt.

These women did not rely on accessories too heavily, which I reflect in my own personal style. One key piece often does the trick. At the moment for me that means an oversized men’s watch or a chunky ring. But as all style evolves, I’m sure this will change.