Photograph Credit score: Danielle Levi, Courtesy of Danielle Levi
As Kim Kardashian’s stylist, Danielle Levi is aware of the significance of crafting a private picture and creating buzz with each look.
For somebody like Kardashian whose affect on trend and popular culture is aware of no bounds as a trendsetter, it’s ironic that Levi’s origin story stems from her feeling like an outsider whereas rising up in Los Angeles.
“I grew up in Jerusalem, so I wasn’t bodily surrounded by trend,” Levi shares of her background. “Once I moved to America as a teen, highschool was a tradition shock. I used to be carrying modest dishevelled linen garments and everybody was wearing Abercrombie — I didn’t slot in in any respect. I felt like an outcast and simply wished to attach with the opposite youngsters and really feel like I belonged, so I began to check trend, learn magazines, and watch extra music movies. Ultimately, this grew to become my profession.”
Vogue grew to become Levi’s outlet and a world that she immersed herself in. It additionally grew to become a type of self-expression, from which she created her id.
“I assumed that if I dressed completely different and expressed my character, individuals can be fascinated about connecting with me. To at the present time I gown and magnificence others with intention — how I’m feeling and what kind of consideration we need to entice.”
In the case of Kardashian’s model, Levi crafts each look with meticulous care together with Kardashian, and to say they entice consideration is an understatement.
The reality is, trend and private model is one thing everybody can domesticate and it’s an artwork kind that may depart an impression on these in your orbit.
“Type is a primary impression, it’s the way you’ll be judged earlier than you even converse — by no means underestimate the worth of this,” Levi asserts. “It ought to attain the max degree of expressing who you’re and the place you need to be.”
A part of expressing your genuine self comes with not following the standard guidelines of engagement on social media and never posting content material like everybody else, one thing Levi enforces on her personal IG feed (@superrrdani), in addition to in her strategy to styling.
After highschool, Levi wished to pursue the liberty that styling supplied her, as a profession. “I wished to discover a approach to enable different individuals to attach in a manner that I wished to so badly, as a result of I struggled with that. Once I model, and I will be myself and put appears collectively and create vibes that different ladies are influenced by, which they’ll really feel cool in and categorical themselves in, I really feel proud.”
She headed to Italy to check design at Accademia Italiana, which helped form the trail she took in trend by inspiring her to pursue styling versus design.
(This system there was extra technical reasonably than the “fantasy and the artwork,” which is the facet of trend Levi prefers.)
“Learning trend design in Italy taught me what I didn’t need to do. I used to be into artwork however we had been taught enterprise, advertising and marketing, patternmaking — it was all lessons that stored me from feeling like a inventive. I obtained into styling so I might really feel extra free.”
After school, she began working as a stylist intern, mainly to each movie star stylist in LA. (Aiding everybody from Jennifer Lopez’s to Chris Brown’s stylist.) Ultimately Levi obtained to Rihanna’s stylist and Interview Journal’s Editor-in-Chief Mel Ottenberg, who took her in as his LA assistant for 2 years.
(That is becoming as Levi all the time cherished music and was fascinated by music movies. “That’s the place my love began. I couldn’t perceive how individuals seemed so recent on the display, however in actuality nobody dressed like that. The reality is, I wasn’t into actuality — I wished to be a part of the dream.”)
And create the dream is strictly what Levi is at the moment doing, right now.
In the case of trend, Levi will get her inspiration from mixing completely different worlds versus trying to one supply.
“I like to combine completely different worlds collectively so nobody can copy our recipe. Artwork, structure, anime — every part.”
(These completely different worlds will be seen with one scroll on her Instagram feed.)
Levi’s recommendation for the lady who desires to reinvent her trend model? “Be you to the fullest. Discover what you like, what makes you completely different and amplify that.”
As for taking up a brand new look or adopting a signature model?
Levi shares: “Step one is to think about your favourite issues in life, as in colours, vibes, designers, characters — and to buy from that place. This fashion you personal items which can be authentically you, so that you don’t get misplaced within the sauce wanting like everybody else. As quickly as you might have key items which can be completely different and signify you, you may add in fundamentals which can be good on your physique kind, and play.”
For somebody whose essential shopper is without doubt one of the world’s most adopted individuals on the earth on Instagram, there’s a paradox in Levi’s notion of social media.
She really stored her Instagram account personal for a very long time.
“I did not need to learn feedback from different individuals. At first, I disabled feedback. So I had an Instagram account, however no one might message me or write something underneath my pictures as a result of I am not doing this for validation or to listen to individuals’s opinions about my pics — I am doing it as a result of I need to do it. And since I prefer it. That freedom was actually enjoyable.”
One scroll by Levi’s Instagram grid showcases her evolution from her genuine self and never taking part in by the foundations, to her taking part in it “safer.”
Dani Levi’s Instagram feed, @superrrrdani, Photograph Credit score: Courtesy of Danielle Levi
“My Instagram feed displays what the within of my thoughts appears like. For those who scroll all the way down to the start, it’s me at my most self, after which as you scroll up I archived most of my pictures and it will get increasingly ‘industrial’ and fewer ‘on the market’, as a result of everybody on this trend sport round me tells I should be extra mainstream if I need to succeed and have a social following to get nice offers and shoppers. I nonetheless have individuals attempting to place me in a field on a regular basis and telling me what to do with my Instagram. It’s a battle — this steadiness of staying true to your self and conforming considerably to what the lots need.”
(Kardashian is definitely the one particular person in her life who has inspired her to not take heed to anybody and to remain true to her genuine self.)
As for Levi’s keys to pursuing your dream profession?
“Solely take recommendation from people who find themselves the place you need to be,” Levi shares. “I additionally really feel like individuals’s objectives are often materials issues, like getting that home, their favourite automobile, or standing. However I’ve seen individuals attain these ranges and nonetheless really feel unfulfilled, so I’d say focus in your aim of being at peace as a substitute. The primary steps to this are your small habits like the way you spend your mornings, the way you discuss to your self, who you observe on Instagram, what you learn, what you watch, who you share your vitality with, and who has entry to you. Additionally, there’s a lot jealousy whenever you’re arising, so an enormous a part of attending to the highest is to by no means do the envy or insecurity stuff — all the time be the hustler, effectively wisher, the go-getter. Minding the place your vitality goes and doing all your greatest to be the best, as a result of all abundance begins first within the thoughts.”
Between Levi’s expertise and imaginative and prescient, it’s clear that her runway of alternative has no limits.
