Stylist Edit... Hannah Grunden

Stylist Edit... Hannah Grunden
Is it a showroom, is a concept space, nope its a pastel paradise! This season we're inviting our favourite young stylists to play dress up and edit a selection of our high summer garms. First up preview our soon to be released Little Sunny Bite prints with badass anime lover Hannah Grunden, the half-Korean Cali girl and self proclaimed "crazy little pony"... Hey i'm Hannah! Alongside being a fashion stylist slash illustrator, I also contribute to Superhero and Fizzy magazine. I live between London and California, but I need to be near the ocean to be truly happy. These days you'll find me at the gym doing yoga, or if you know where I live just snuggling my cat and playing Animal Crossing on 3DS! A typical day consists of emails, photo shoots and lugging my suitcase all over London, picking up beautiful clothing. My styling soundtrack right now is Rae Sremmurd, Sremmlife! Those bois are so cute, I don't always know what they are saying but I would love to be friends with them. My personal style is a mix of Y2K Japanese street style, the Spice Girls, and anything that makes me look like an anime character! I’m super inspired by k-pop and j-pop bands like 2NE1 and Orange Caramel… and cartoon muses like Princess Kida from Atlantis, maybe thats why I like to throw in lots of black leather too!  I first came across Lazy Oaf when I was interning for Fred Butler, and now i'm obsessed. I love the  Super Tee and Yes Please Skirt, my favourite words in pink bubble writing! Supporting independent brands is so important to me and it’s lovely when they support aspiring creatives back too. I look for different qualities each time I shoot, but my favourite studios to pull from are always fun and unique. Besides Lazy Oaf, Piers Atkinson is one of my favourites because he’s high concept and a real boundary pusher, but I also love what Clio Peppiatt is doing, every girl wants to wear her clothes! London labels are definately more colourful than the rest of the world... seriously I need all of the colours. This Summer i'm really excited to embrace high nineties and hunt down unexpected treasures to customise accessories with. I just bought a cowboy fringe dress which is so not me but I really love it, maybe this could be a new "kawaii rodeo" direction I am going in! For this career path to be succesful you have to decide what breed of stylist you wanna be, serious editorial fashion, celebrity, or kinda your own personal brand, like Soki Mak or Anna Trevelyan, who i started out assisting with. But regardless you have to be super organised, network really well and come up with original, creative content. This all takes time, so It also helps to be patient! Instagram is a great tool for branding yourself and creating an aesthetic, it’s also good for tagging collaborators who can promote you right back. We live in a visually stimulated culture that feeds off of instant gratification so Instagram is kind of perfect. My own photo editing process is very serious! First I use Line Camera to edit the colours, then if I need to fit it into a square I’ll frame it in Alisa, then add some signature sparkles and stickers with the Princess Cam, and get glitchy with Glitche app. I don’t know what my most memorable look of all time would be, but Rihanna’s green Versace outfit was definitely a killer moment! I don’t ever knock celebrities for their fashion sense or overnight style changes because generally they all have stylists telling them what to wear. You can't be precious when subcultures inform the mainstream, stuff just gets recycled. When commercial ideas become nostalgic subculture kids find it ironic and cool again, so the cycle starts over in a fun new way. My advice for aspiring stylists is be thorough with your research and never satisfied with yourself! Just be nice to people and appreciative when brands collaborate with you! Try to street cast models and think differently from the usual stuff you see in magazines. Peace out! See more of Hannah's kawaii styling on her website & Instagram, and shop her Summer edit below. Little Sunny Bite collection launches later this week !