Power and Style 2025

This is probably my favourite issue that The Hollywood Reporter does every year – and it always happens right after the Oscars: The Power Stylists List and this year THR has named Jason Bolden the Stylist of the Year, well deserved! I was just talking last week about Jason’s output over the last year on this relentless Wicked tour but also, we’ve been waiting for this moment for 12 months now. 

Because, if you recall, in my post about THR’s Power Stylists list last year, I singled out Jason’s at-the-time new partnership with Nicole Kidman and we have seen the results he’s been able to achieve with her in a short amount of time. 

For a long, long time, Hollywood styling was dominated by white women and now, with Jason, Law Roach, Wayman + Micah, and Shiona Turini (Beyoncé’s stylist) in the field, the landscape is becoming more diverse…and so are the looks!

But I don’t think we can have this conversation and the way we’ve been having it without Zoë Saldaña. Because she was on it before even Nicole was. Nicole’s stylist, Jason Bolden, is getting his flowers now, after a year of working with her, but exactly ten years ago, Nicole made headlines at the Grammys, in really great Thierry Mugler dress, because she refused to answer Ryan Seacrest’s question about her look. “I don’t know what to say” is how she responded, followed by awkward silence. 

I posted about it at the time, and the title of that post was “Sit DOWN, Nicole Kidman” and I stand by it, don’t even need hindsight to stand by it. At the time, Hollywood actresses were all caught up in the #askhermore thing, a protest against double standards on the red carpet. Which I’m not saying wasn’t valid but for the actresses to focus it entirely on the clothing also kinda missed the point, especially when you consider that so much actual work goes into what they’re wearing – work that so many WOMEN were doing. And now their credit was being taken away. 

A decade later and it’s all about theme dressing, full wardrobes that become part of promotion and marketing, nobody’s bristling at being asked about who they’re wearing and WHY they’re wearing it. And the gender divide has virtually disappeared because the men are turning it out sometimes more than the women. Thank you, Colman Domingo and Timothée Chalamet!

But credit to Zoë Saldaña who I mentioned back then when I dragged Nicole for her amateur hour reaction in 2015 and who I’ve been crediting since 2013 when she and her stylist, Petra Flannery, were featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Stylists Issue. Zoë was the first major star to articulate that styling and being styled are part of the f-cking job!

“We’ve managed to convince a lot of directors who now have respect for what we put together and for Petra’s essential place in a huge press tour like Star Trek or Avatar.” When Saldana takes a memorable turn on the carpet, “Those directors are like, ‘Oh my God, Petra really knocked it out of the ball park,’ and you’re like, ‘Yeah, she did.’ She killed it, which is very important for me and for her and for selling a movie.”

I can’t stress enough, this was 12 years ago, just as Instagram was taking off, well before Zendaya and Law Roach changed the game – Zoë GOT IT, she still GETS IT, and now she’s an Oscar winner, she was my best dressed on Oscar night, and she never has to look back and regret disrespecting the vital labour of those who are responsible for what’s become such a huge part of celebrity. 

Glen Powell and his stylist Warren Alfie Baker also made one of the THR covers. While Glen’s the client who is featured in this issue with Warren, he’s not actually the client that Warren’s been getting the most headlines for. Warren styles Jeremy Strong. And I don’t have to tell you the impact that Jeremy’s made on the red carpet this award season. Please.

Honestly I’m not sure I can remember a single outfit Glen has ever worn, LOL, because Warren’s work with his other clients, in addition to Jeremy, is that much stronger. Like Andrew Garfield and Andrew Scott. Still, I’m not mad at seeing Glen with Warren here. Because his posing and his expressions are so fabulously cheesy, it’s totally worth it. Look at his corny ass face here – WTF is this smile, LOL FOREVER. 

Also…this super douche walk down the hallway, I love it so much, it’s so gloriously Glen Powell and everything we love about this thirst for movie stardom, the 1980s way. 

And then there’s Karla Welch, no stranger to this list considering she styles so many people in Hollywood from Tracee Ellis Ross to Olivia Wilde to Kristen Wiig and so many more. But it’s her work with Anna Sawai this year that is being highlighted. Anna, of course, won almost everything – Emmy, SAG, Golden Globe – for her performance in Shōgun and almost every look was first class. And then there was this dress from the other night at the Grand Dîner du Louvre during Paris Fashion Week ohhhhh my goddddd, have you seen it? This is Dior, quite possibly the most perfect Dior dress we’ve seen in YEARS. 

Karla’s a veteran in the business but it’s amazing the way new talent can inspire new ideas. This collaboration with Anna has led to some of Karla’s strongest work in a long time. 

But it can also work the other way around – a stylist can bring out in a star what was previously untapped. One of the best examples of this is Selena Gomez and Erin Walsh. Erin makes the list this year, again, but given how prominent Selena has been all season, serving some of the best looks of her entire career, I’m disappointed that Erin’s place isn’t as prominent on the list. I mean, come ON. Selena’s Oscar dress alone! Seriously, the Ralph Lauren that Selena wore on the carpet on Oscar night is now, in my opinion, on the all-time Oscar list, it’s that f-cking great. 

And finally, for next year, you know who everyone needs to start paying attention to? Park Min Hee. Not a household name here in the west but by now I know you know her clients: Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé aka BLACKPINK. I just need to show you one example of Min Hee’s work – Lisa at the Vanity Fair Oscar party in Miss Sohee: 

 

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