Inside the Global Agency That Turns Stylists Into Stars

Once upon a time in Hollywood — before 1990, in the dark days before the dawn of celebrity stylists — watching an awards show red carpet was akin to fashion-crime rubber-necking: “Is that gorgeous movie star really wearing that??”  The style mishaps kept piling up as cracking wise about wardrobe and hair malfunctions became both a media and national pastime. Remember Jack Nicholson playing The Joker in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, a villain who laced all beauty and grooming products with deadly chemicals, resulting in Gotham’s on-air newscasters being exposed sans hair and makeup? That was an early pop-culture peek behind the glam-squad curtain. All it took to be a stunner was the right touch and lighting. And hours upon hours of prep.

Wardrobe malfunctions of the past are too numerous to mention. I’m not just talking about Barbra Streisand in see-through Arnold Scaasi bellbottoms, Kim Cattrall’s sunlamp Golden Globes disaster — toasted skin, not a good look (unless you’re George Hamilton) — or Cher’s intentionally over-the-top fashion debacles across decades (“They call it drama for a reason!” she once defended in THR). Demi Moore in bike shorts. Jodie Foster in a baggy off-the-rack prom gown for her first Oscar. In 1990, Kim Basinger designed her own white pouf gown (it looked helium-injected). Blake Lively once posed in Forever 21, Zendaya blithely donned Target to her first movie premiere. The red carpet was almost more gauche than a Miss America pageant. But the tacky parade was finally eclipsed by Giorgio Armani’s early ‘90s reinvention of good taste; on WWD’s first Oscars fashion cover, the headline read: “The Armani Awards.” What followed was “celebrity stylist” becoming a job.

Today’s red carpet, with its perfectly fitted couture gowns (the result of many stylists, fittings, structured corsets — and, pre-Ozempic, double Spanx), with its Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton custom tuxes strewn with thousand dollar brooches, might have continued being that tacky mish mash if fashion and entertainment hadn’t gotten into bed together in the nineties. But they did, and it was a precipitous and lucrative marriage for all: stylists, their agents, fashion designers, luxury brands, celebrities. When the ’90s weeklies — Us, People, Entertainment Weekly — started printing best and worst dressed lists, stars and their reps knew they had to take matters into someone else’s hands.

No one had really heard the term “stylist” before then. In the biz, “stylist” was short for wardrobe stylist, someone people who worked on commercials or music videos, procuring wardrobe for casts.

Around the time of Hollywood glam explosion, Brooke Wall began to pursue jobs in the hairstyling jungle of New York. She wound up working for the masters: Oribe, John Frieda, etc. “One day,” she told us at The Wall Group’s 25^th anniversary party last month, “out of nowhere, John Frieda came to me and said, ‘I’m going to give you the money to start your own agency.’ He saw something in me I didn’t see in myself.’ It was 2000. I thought I should set up in Paris, but people started telling me: ‘You should go to L.A. So many shoots are happening there now. You can shoot all year round.’” For fifteen years, her agency ruled the red carpet, meaning, so did she. “She’s a visionary,” says her longest employee Ali Bird.

After a sale to WME in 2015, Wall’s well-trained deputies — Kate Stirling in L.A., Ali Bird in N.Y. — became co-heads of The Wall Group. “Brooke had the vision to start in L.A.,” recalls Bird. “She could see it was about to become the center of our business.” Adds Stirling, “When I started at The Wall Group twenty three years ago, I had no idea what a hair and makeup and styling agency was. Few others did either. I’d been working as Ashton Kutcher’s assistant. Brooke and I had a mutual friends. She said, ‘I’ll teach you the ropes.’ The timing was right: celebrities were starting to take over magazine covers and ad campaigns from models.” This was before the explosion of Instagram (2000) and TikTok (2016).

In 2011, The Hollywood Reporter printed its first annual Power Stylists Issue, capping off the stardom of many of the Wall Groups stylists. “It kicked them into the stratosphere,” notes Stirling. “Lucrative brand deals came calling.” Those included mega brands, cosmetics, hair products, commercials and shoots.

“Our real first star stylist was Deb Waknin,” explains Bird. “She was our first client, ahead of her time, with clients like Halle Berry. She marched in and said, ‘You should represent me. [Deborah Waknin passed away from cancer in 2020.] Brooke’s greatest talent is her eye for talent.”

Given the magnitude of celebs The Wall Group, which has expanded to offices in New York and London, works with today — Keanu Reeves, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Renate Reinsve, Jessie Buckley, Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Michelle Williams, Bradley Cooper, Charlize Theron, Julianne Moore, Dakota Johnson, Natalie Portman, Elle Fanning, Robert Downey Jr., Kim Kardashian, Demi Moore, Jennifer Lopez, Paul Rudd, Gwen Stefani, etc. — it’s not surprising that WME/IMG and Ari Emanuel paid an undisclosed sum to acquire it. “In 2000, we repped forty artists’ says Stirling. “Today. it’s 250 of the top wardrobe, hair and makeup stylists in the world.”

One example: Stylist Brad Goreski, former assistant to Rachel Zoe, has been working with Demi Moore since 2008; Moore considers him, she said at this year’s WWD Style Awards. “my partner in style.” “It’s decades of iconic roles, an iconic red carpet presence,” describes Goreski, who outfitted Moore for her brilliant 2025 campaign for The Substance.  “I think for her, she’s always going to be the best representative for designers she can possibly be.”

Kate Young, signed in 2012, was truly one of Wall Group’s superstar clients, dressing Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams early on, going on to style Dakota Johnson, Margot Robbie, Rachel Weisz and Arianna Grande. This season, she replaced Rose Byrne’s longtime stylist to help the nominee shine during the awards season and at the Oscars. Like Leslie Fremar, Young came from Vogue where she assisted Anna Wintour (“one of the best credentials you can have,” notes Stirling), after which she styled editorials for Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, InStyle, Elle, etc. “With each one my clients,” Young explains about her approach, “I think about their body, their style. Their style is both their taste and my version of them, combined.” She has made THR’s no. 1 Power Stylists three times since inception.

Ilaria Urbinati, who joined The Wall Group in 2007, has built a stable of some of the top male stars in the business: Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, Rami Malek, Adam Brody, Chris Evans, Barry Keoghan, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Putting manly man Johnson in a pink satin Dolce & Gabbana tux at the 2023 Oscars resonated throughout the culture. “I thought it was a fun idea to have this macho star wear pink,” she laughs. “He was game, so we went for it.”

Bird says she met New York-based Fremar (she’s been both Anna Wintour’s assistant at Vogue and head of VIP relations at Prada.) when she was eight-months pregnant: “I think it helped that Leslie’s a mom. She wasn’t sure she wanted to sign yet. But the rest is red carpet history.” Fremar had begun to work with Charlize Theron in 2008. “Charlize is a rebel in her craft,” Fremar says. “She’ll cut her hair off or gain 70 pounds — she really transforms for her work; I have to embrace whatever is happening with her aesthetic at the time. The clothes have to work with the look.” When Theron’s hair was shaved for Mad Max: Fury Road, it meant smokier eyes and tighter dresses. Fremar herself, Stirling says: “is the antithesis of how Rachel Zoe would show up in public in a gown and stilettos. Leslie prefers to wear Birkenstocks in the front row of a fashion show. You have to love someone being that down to earth doing such beautiful, sophisticated work.”

How does TWG pick and choose clients? “When we first interview stylists,” Stirling explains, “we ask a lot of questions: What’s your background? What photographers have you worked with? Some come from Vogue, some from indie mags with more avant-garde tastes, some from assisting well-known stylists. We always try to match the stylist with the right client. After all, we want the collaboration to work. Many of our stylists have been with us for years.”

Wall recalls following stylist Karla Welch (signed in 2008, works with Justin Bieber, Ana de Armas, Reinsve, Greta Gerwig, Matt Damon) around Barney’s when Welch was heading up their celebrity service department. “I just loved her style. I told her I had to sign her.”

Hairstylist-to-the-stars Cervando Maldonado signed early 2003. Having enjoyed an illustrious career styling Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Carey Mulligan, Naomi Watts, Sofia Coppola and Camilla Morone, he’s still very much A-list, having cut Margot Robbie’s recent bob and shaping Jessie Buckley’s formerly wild hair into a carpet-appropriate chic chop.

It’s not all glam — there’s plenty of grunt work, too. After attending shows, stylists pour through new runway looks, fight for them, order them, steam them, have them tailored to the client’s body (there can be a number of fittings, some on zoom), find appropriate jewelry, shoes, bag; then, when the music’s over, pack it all up and ship it back. One dress or suit can mean a month of work. “Kate Young has two full-time assistants,” describes Bird. “But sometimes more. It all depends on the job.” Adds one superstylist, “If people knew the amount of prep, hours of tests and work it takes for actors to look that perfect, if fans could see some of these stars before their glam, they wouldn’t recognize them. That’s what keeps us employed.”

Despite all the heavy lifting, glam squadders “get remunerated for all of that with one fee,” says an anonymous stylist. “The money can be great or in a slump. When we got paid by movie studios, it could be very good. Then the streamers cut our fees. Now the brands pay us directly, so the amount is fairly consistent. The bigger the brand, the bigger the check. Of course, it all depends on your clients having TV shows or films. The real money comes when they hire us for campaigns or we do collabs.” The Wall Group negotiates all these deals with cosmetics ambassadorships, hair product lines, top luxury brands like Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Prada, all while monitoring the work of stylists’ assistants to see who’s ready to ascend the ladder.

The amount of work is mind-boggling. “Think twenty looks for awards season at least,” the agent said. “They might go to the Oscars, then Vanity Fair, Madonna and Guy Oseary’s party, Beyonce and Jay Z’s.” Given brand payments, they’re limited to big brands with big bucks: Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Armani, Valentino, Balenciaga, the occasional Gucci or Prada. If an actress is a brand ambassado, like Nicole Kidman for Chanel and Emma Stone for Vuitton, you’ll rarely see them in anything else. But loyal actors can demand their stylist do their brand campaign: Ka-ching! (This is how non-Wall Group stylist Law Roach wound up with a house worthy of being featured in Architectural Digest.)

Veteran Jeanne Yang has seen it all — she’s worked with George Clooney, Tom Cruise –— even styled the Oceans 12 campaign cover for Vanity Fair. Now her stable includes Jason Momoa, Taika Waititi and Jamie Dornan. “Even men can change looks in one night,” she says. “That outfit swapping does not happen in some magically appearing fashion salon. It’s either backstage at the Dolby theater bathroom, or in the back of the car.” After all, the more looks posted online, the bigger the numbers.

Michael Fisher has been dressing Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Sam Rockwell, Paul Rudd and more for two decades. He got particular kudos for Hawke’s awards campaign, adding Western touches to classic looks with a twist.

Taylor McNeil (Timothee Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Daniel Craig, Lorde), “put Kendrick Lamar in those Celine jeans for his Superbowl show; it was a real culturally definingl moment,” says Stirling.

Makeup queen Ash K Holm’s work with Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian, plus Kris Jenner, has earned her 1.2 million Insta followers, another big revenue stream. That’s a subdivision for some stylists; The Wall Group labels them stylist/content creators. Chris Appleton has 4 million followers. Star makeup man Hung Vanngo [Julianne Moore, Scarlett Johannson], 4.1. Kate Young has almost one million; Brad Goreski, 892K.

These days, “there’s a real interest from athletes to work with stylists now,” notes Stirling. “Many have big brand deals; people really care what they’re wearing.” Examples: Tom Brady, Travis Kelce, Serena Williams, Angel Reese. “We’re really exploring that arena.”

Superstar hairstylist Danilo (only one name needed; he styles the locks of Selena Gomez, Gwen Stefani, Naomi Watts, Lady Gaga, and is a global ambassador for Pantene) was one of the Wall Group’s first signings.  “The game’s really changed,” he laughs. “Your clients change, your earnings, the job itself. But I still love cutting hair and what it’s brought me. I’ve been all over the world, met amazing people. It’s really hard to top that.”

To celebrate a quarter century of helping to create the Hollywood stylist system, The Wall Group pointed out their top 10 looks from over the years. (And let’s not forget an iconic moment from Jeanne Yang, who has dressed many Hollywood superstars from Christian Bale to Tom Cruise … but not all at once! For a 2004 Ocean’s Twelve promo shot, she dressed not just George Clooney, but Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Bernie Mac to look their absolute coolest criminal best.) More iconic Wall Group moments:

A version of this story appeared in the April 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.