The stylist Ashley Weston moved quickly around the eighth-floor suite of the London West Hollywood hotel the other day, pinning and tucking the folds of an eggplant-coloured Zegna suit. Rami Malek, the star of the TV drama Mr Robot, needed outfits for the GQ's Men of the Year party and the Gotham Awards, and looked slightly dazed.
What did he want to try on first? "Let's try what you like," he said to Weston. Shoes? "Whatever you think," he demurred. "You're the stylist." Want to try a third suit? "Sure."
"She knows how everything looks on me and what I enjoy, so it's a good match," Malek said.
Such is the effect of Weston: her clients wear what she suggests without complaint. They also tend to be men. With a roster that includes Harrison Ford, Jon Hamm, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Rob Lowe, Darren Criss and other A-listers generally absent from worst-dressed lists, Weston, 28, is one of the few celebrity stylists in Hollywood who work almost exclusively with men.
"I always say, 'Think of me as an extension of your brain,'" Weston said. "'I'm basically you, but I'm going to refine it, clean it up more, I know more about it than you would. Basically, I'm taking the hassle out of you having to dress yourself.'"
Her clients appreciate the sartorial mothering. "She listens but always knows what will be reflective of who I am as an individual," said Tyler Oakley, the YouTube star whom Weston dressed for the Grammys and Teen Choice Awards. "She has a great spirit and infectious personality that always comes through in her work."
Her approach has also garnered the attention of men's wear brands. Weston recently styled an advertising campaign for Brooks Brothers that featured actors like Geoffrey Arend and Matt McGorry. "She is young and exuberant, but at the same time, she has a real respect for heritage and tailoring," said Arthur Wayne, vice president for global public relations at Brooks Brothers. "She really insists that the gentlemen she's dressing look really sharp, that their suits are perfectly tailored, that their pants aren't too long, that their shoulders aren't too wide."
Growing up, Weston didn't dream of dressing stars. A Southern California native, she studied psychology and education at the University of California, Los Angeles. As part of her master's programme, she spent a year teaching high school math in the city of Compton, though she was often mistaken for a new student. "It's very funny when you're freshly 22 and you look like you're 15," said Weston.
But Weston quickly realised that teaching wasn't her thing. After a few months interning at marketing firms, publicity houses and talent agencies, she met Mitchell Nguyen McCormack, who at the time was the creative director of the DestinAsian Media Group, which styles and photographs actors for Asian magazines. They bonded over being Vietnamese and their desire to work in creative fields despite their families' wishes.
She spent two years with McCormack before becoming a full-time stylist in 2012. At first, she styled both men and women, but after an impossible-to-please actress wanted Weston to postpone a family vacation to Hawaii to help her find a dress for a movie premiere, she decided to focus on men. "Men don't want to keep trying on clothes," Weston said. "They trust people's opinions. If there's any doubt, I just have to flutter my eyelashes."
It helps that she incorporates men's clothing into her own look. "It's always basic," she said. "Navy, black, shoes that are comfortable enough for me to run around but still look good. Because if I look like a disaster, my clients are not going to trust me. I'm supposed to be their audience."
"I'm their female fan base," she added.
Weston shuttles between Los Angeles and New York, and sometimes holds fittings in a studio she keeps in a three-bedroom apartment in Hell's Kitchen.
While the awards season now underway is her busiest time, she also works on media junkets and premieres year-round. She sometimes takes on more intimate projects, like when she overhauled Vince Vaughn's closets this year. "It was a two- or three-day job," she said. "I can't tell you how many pairs of 501 jeans I threw away. He was wearing things that were making him look like an old dad."
While men may make for less demanding clients, Weston encourages them to reach out anytime. "I make it known to them, 'I'm always on the phone, please bug me, it makes my job easier when you look good,'" she said.
Meanwhile, she remains picky about whom she works with. "I do get requests from my clients asking if I can dress their wife or their girlfriend," Weston said. She politely declines. "I'm good at men's wear," she added, "and I'm good with men."
©2015 The New York Times
