Ask The Stylist – Aisling Farinella Talks About Life In The World Of Fashion

Aisling Farinella is a freelance fashion stylist with a very packed schedule. She's the editor and co-creative director of Thread magazine and juggles this position with working on fashion shows, shoots, exhibitions and installations. We grabbed her for a quick chat about what a typical day as a stylist involves, who she would love to work for and her role in OFFSET, the creative festival taking place in Dublin from 21-23 March. How did you start out styling? To begin with, I wasn’t sure what area of the business I wanted to work in. I ended up doing a little bit of wardrobe which I really enjoyed. Just by chance, a friend of mine was working with a photographer who was looking for a stylist. He knew I was doing wardrobe so asked if I would do some styling with him. At the time, I didn’t even know what a stylist was only that it involved working with clothes but I did it and really really loved it. There was a lot more to it than that but that was the start. The photographer was amazing and that really helped. I’m a visual person and all of a sudden, everything that I had been studying and I was interested in, I found a way to bring it all together through fashion. I didn’t actually come from a fashion background. Describe a typical day for you. Every day is different, I guess that’s typical in itself. It depends on what job I’m working in and I’m normally working on a couple of jobs at the same time. I do a lot of editorial and I do a lot of commercial work. All of my jobs are client based so I’ve always got meetings and am dealing with people or putting together mood boards. I start work quite early at half seven or eight, and I work very long hours. I’m based at South Studios in Dublin, a big old mill building with a mix of illustrators, designers and publications. It’s a really lovely environment to work in and I have my own studio space which I love. I’m based there every day at some point or another. I’m also running around the shops, depending on what is going on. It depends on what jobs I have on, generally I’m a bit of a bag lady. What are your top tips for trends of the season? I’m not a trend driven stylist and I would always say experiment. Trends drive sales commercially and the high-street but personally I’m not really drawn in by trends. You should wear what you like, try something new. Also wear local designers and support Irish. If you can work one of these into your wardrobe at any given time, then you’re doing well. You're speaking at OFFSET this year, tell us about it. OFFSET is an international creative concept, held in Dublin every year. It’s a three day event and it’s held in Dublin. It’s amazing and hugely inspiring. I’ve been myself every year since it started and it’s an accessible event. It’s very design led and there’s a huge focus on graphic design but there are so many incredible speakers brought in to speak. You become so inspired by listening to them speak about their passions. It’s a great event to have in Dublin and it's an amazing privilege to be asked to speak at it. What publication would you like to feature in? There are so many people out there that I would like to style or work with, I couldn’t just pick one. The people that I admire have such amazing style that they don’t need styling. I’m the editor of THREAD magazine and I’m one of three people involved in the set up of that. I’m very proud of it and it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve been able to do through my career. It’s everything I want a publication to be. In terms of dream publications, I guess when I started out working, the first magazine I picked up was Italian Vogue. It’s the one I have a subscription to and I have quite a library of it now. It’s an iconic magazine. Another magazine that I personally love at the moment is The Gentlewoman Magazine. OFFSET 2014 will take place at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Grand Canal Square, Docklands, Dublin 2 from 21-23 March. Tickets are  €165, student rate and group rates apply. For more information, check out the website here.