This British Stylist Is Behind Some Of The Red Carpet’s Most Avant-Garde Looks This Awards Season

Actors Jessie Buckley and Emma D’Arcy are spearheading a new vanguard of red-carpet fashion stars. Their secret? Stylist Rose Forde.

“It’s about curating moments,” she tells Vogue over Zoom. With a background in editorial styling, Forde’s first run-in with Hollywood happened early on in her career, when she worked with a cast of emerging talent on a photo shoot. From there, she built a client roster of “men that wanted to be seen” and to steer clear of anything too stuffy or traditional, including Josh O’Connor, Joe Alwyn, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matt Smith.

Her progressive approach subsequently attracted other big names – Paapa Essiedu, Noomi Rapace, Will Sharpe, Omari Douglas, Buckley and D’Arcy among them – and now, she’s the brains behind some of the freshest red-carpet looks in Hollywood. For Forde, collaboration is key, with the stylist reviewing her clients’ portfolios before teaming up with them. “I tend to gravitate to people whose work speaks for itself,” she reflects, noting that she rarely exchanges pictures of clothes with talent but rather snippets of poetry and works of art. (In addition to her styling work, Forde has curated exhibitions for London’s Cob Gallery and worked as a consultant for Frieze.) “You can’t just talk about clothes; you’ve got to be able to talk about the world that influences the clothes, the fashion.”

Read more: Everything You Need To Know About The Oscars

Naturally, then, she tends to gravitate towards provocative emerging designers “because it extends [my clients’] visual language and opens up their fashion cache much more – I connect with brands that are also telling interesting stories.” Among her favourite storytellers right now? Grace Wales Bonner, Robert Wun, Bianca Saunders, Commission and Ernest W Baker.

It’s Forde’s attention to nuanced details, though, that really elevates her work. In the cases of Buckley and D’Arcy, she’s worked closely with make-up artists and hair stylists to create beauty moments that add to the overall impact of a look. Take D’Arcy’s gothic Golden Globes tear (masterminded by Holly Silius, Forde’s long-term collaborator and friend) and both actors’ ever-changing hairstyles.

And yet, despite having captured the world’s attention on red carpet after red carpet, Forde is remarkably modest. “I just get on with the job,” she says happily. “I like the idea of being an exclusive club, for people to come in here and feel protected. I just want anyone that I work with to feel confident and feel like they’re expressing themselves.”