Stylectory: what's this project and why it could be useful to you

How a pandemic, a move to Milan and the search for a job led me to the creation of a multi-year editorial project that got stuck thanks to algorithms

Welcome to all of you, I am Erika, I have been an Italian blogger for several years (a bit out of necessity and a bit out of will, especially after several months of searching for a job without a positive outcome in 2019) and I’d like to tell you what I built online during all these years, anticipating an interest in the fashion field that people would eventually develop in the following years.

This statement could seem everything and nothing to you, but be sure that by reading this article you will get the full picture of what I do every day, between daily anxieties that are never fully gone and an impostor syndrome that often made me doubt my work (but maybe the culprit is my maniacal perfectionism).

I prefer writing in English because I can reach more people this way but I also hope that Substack will enable a translation feature for the articles in the future too.

First of all, I’ll give you a bit of context (which never hurts).

I’ve always thought (encouraged by my mother) that my future would be full of foreign languages, travels, far from home, unforgettable experiences, translations and whatever you could think about, but sadly my wishes clashed with the hard reality of a parental figure too eager to protect me rather than to let me go my own way.

I graduated in Linguistic Mediation more than ten years ago, I attended the University of Turin and I can’t hide the fact that I had a hard time getting used to the amount of study I had to take on once I was enrolled, seen that I was coming from a technical school (honestly, I wasn’t planning on getting a Bachelor’s Degree).

Once I was done with high school, I took an aptitude test that was offered by the school I was attending, and from the results I got the confirmation of what I knew all along: I was destined for a career in foreign languages, journalism or arts (I didn’t even consider the latter because my mother thought it would lead me nowhere work-wise).

If you noticed my emphasis on the maternal figure of the family it’s because I don’t have a relationship with my father anymore and my mother was in charge of everything related to me—he simply handled finances.

But now, back to us.

I settled for foreign languages, hoping that I could use my degree as a springboard for success in different fields, or at least that was the common thinking.

People thought I had a thousand doors ready to be opened in front of me, more than I could think of myself.

In reality, time went by very fast and things changed a lot during those years (think about the 2008 financial crisis and its consequences), so when I was ready to work, I truly did not have that many real life experiences to display and that was something I could not overcome easily.

Now I’ll explain where I took the inspiration for what I do daily.

During my college years I used to stroll through the streets of Turin, running from a lesson to the other, observing people who were totally different from those I was used to see in the suburbs.

I finally understood that there was a different world out there.

My personal style has always been dark, alternative, eccentric and I saw the most profound expression of myself in that city.

When I had time to spare in between classes, I used to go to a famous international bookstore in the city center called Luxembourg. Once inside I spent hours looking at the covers of independent fashion magazines or I spent all my money on the classics of literature in their original mother tongue.

While reading those magazines I started to realize that I could recognize which photographers worked on different editorials but mostly I was in love with the work of makeup artists, hairstylists, image consultants, nail artists, barbers, men’s groomers, facialists, aestheticians, tan artists—all those behind-the-scenes professionals who worked in entertainment.

A lot of people in Italy probably don’t have the slightest idea of the universe that’s behind their favorite actor attending a TV show or the level of preparation that a singer goes through before strutting on the red carpet.

The general public doesn’t know who is a costume designer, how much his/her work is important in a movie, how hair and makeup done in a blockbuster film differ from a red carpet or a music video.

Influencers are part of the conversation too now and their media reach can help a lot professionals who are dipping their toes into a career of their own, away from a corporate job.

This is to say that everything you see online when there are big events happening all over the world (such as festivals, award shows, runway shows, the famed MET Gala, the Golden Globes or concerts) is not improvised, but actually it’s something wrapped in a bow for your consumption.

What’s appealing to me in this conversation is the fact that stars like Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga, Maluma, Olivia Rodrigo (or even politicians might I add) keep the economy going because they give a lot of job opportunities to people who then gain a following and who can successfully collaborate with brands later on so that they can be not too reliant on celebrities.

Because of this, these masters of their craft can all enjoy more stability in their lives because they are all freelancers mostly.

Do you know why I care? I care because being a stylist or a makeup artist was my dream but there was no Italian market for it (it’s slightly different nowadays but the landscape is still depressing) so I gave up.

I didn’t have the money to move abroad where there are many job opportunities in those fields, my parents weren’t that accommodating, and I surely did not have the money to enroll in specialized courses.

For some years after my graduation I didn’t know what to do, I felt lost.

I sent CVs here and there with no success and I worked as a babysitter part-time till my best friend decided to move to Milan after she was mentally and physically drained from her commute.

I had nothing to lose so I moved with her but I still had not much luck finding a job (it’s a sad reality in Italy, it’s not truly related to you or your preparation, the salaries are very low and there is a significant mismatch between what the market wants and what you were taught in school).

It was in that moment that my friend suggested I create a portfolio that could help me develop my skills through time and be a way for me to show HR that I could be a valuable asset for a company.

In the blink of an eye I thought about a personal website called www.stylectory.net (a mix of the words “style” and “directory” meant as “guide” or “container of files and subfolders”) that I launched in February 2019 thanks to my friend who set it up for me, using her IT knowledge.

Week after week— after a long research—I wrote articles about movie premieres, festivals (Cannes, Toronto, New York, Venice among others), award shows (Academy Awards, Grammys) crediting all the people who worked on the final looks the stars wore on the red carpet.

I created individual profiles on the website where you could find a selfie (sometimes provided to me by the pros themselves), a brief description of their career based on what I could find online and some details I could copy from their rep agencies’ websites.

In the profiles I also included links to their social media platforms, personal websites and links to their rep agencies where possibile.

HERE is Mimi Cuttrell’s profile.

HERE you’ll find the general structure of an article.

Of course I have always been in charge of content management on multiple platforms too because I had to make sure my website was well positioned online.

I consider what I do slow journalism because I care about sources and in-depth research. I would never write something that is simply not true.

I like to call my content evergreen because what I write about is ciclic, annual and it never loses relevance.

Some of my articles have become viral online even after years just because there is a renewed interest toward a person or a dress in a specific occasion.

The same happens to the profiles I create, especially when there is not that much available about a person online.

I still remember this January when everyone was interested in Bailey Moon, who is Rama Duwaji’stylist, wife of the new and very young mayor of New York Zohran Kwame Mamdani (fun fact: Moon also dresses the former First Lady Jill Biden when needed).

I think that what I do can be considered a big archive, the editorial direction is mine and it follows what happens in the entertainment world.

I follow trends, I observe fandoms, I know which actors are the talk of the town in a certain moment in time and I focus on their brand collaborations or whoever “behind-the-scenes” they are working with.

I follow the same pattern when it comes to established singers, influencers or online personalities that are different from the others.

During all these years and throughout the pandemic I found my place online: people were interested, I became friends with pros who understood how much I valued their work and how much I loved writing about it, till it didn’t work anymore.

Do you know why? Because website views were counted in a different way, the content did not make it to the first pages of Google anymore (so it got lost) and the readers were no longer able to find me.

Instagram’s reach is now a joke and don’t even get me started on AI.

Obviously I immediately started thinking that what I wrote was mediocre and that I didn’t deserve the attention anymore.

I cried over it of course and I thought about new communication strategies but the truth is that you are not in control, so you’ll never win.

That’s why I am willing to give Substack a chance now, hoping to find what I sadly lost along the way.

I observe a lot, I believe in things left unsaid, in gestures that hide something that we fear saying out loud. I also simply know that we cannot show our true self to everyone.

I believe in dreams, I know that the time we have on this earth is limited and that’s why I promised myself that I would have tried everything in my power to get closer to what I could not accomplish at first, but according to my rules.

That being said, if you’d like to explore with me everything that concerns the entertainment world and those who work “behind-the-scenes”, this is the place for you.

What I plan to do here:

• Always publicly share with you my observations about society and its inner workings for free, while asking for your feedback

• Tell you what happens in the fashion world throughout the week, starting from the promotion of a new Creative Designer, the announcement of a new Brand Ambassador, ending up with the news of a merger between companies (sources will of course always be provided)

• In the future, I would love to write in-depth analyses for you, complete with downloadable material but just for premium users who’ll pay a subscription fee because research requires a lot of time and connections that I was able to build through the years (needless to say that all of this requires remuneration)

But first of all, you need to be passionate about what I write here to let me even think further ahead, and of course I already have an idea in mind for what I’d like this space to look like if you’ll give me a chance to shape it the way I see fit.

Once my readers will be more and engaged, I’ll implement some changes, but I’ll tell you first, it won’t be sudden.

I can speak English, German and French, so this will be my way to be of service to you because I can take information from the original sources without intermediaries.

I’ll do the work for those of you who do not have time or who do not know where to look. Trust is all I ask of you, you won’t regret it.

What do you think? Do you have any tips or requests?

Is it a world that fascinates you and of which you would like to know more about?

Were you aware of the existence of these behind-the-scenes professionals?

Do you know any of them and do you admire their work?

Give me your feedback if you’d like,

Erika Noir