Stylist Notebook is a series centering the career path of stylists on our radar discussing their largest inspiration sources.
Stylists who make it in New York City often are the human embodiment of the term grit. Their willingness to show up for themselves and their work is a daily testament to their belief in the power of fashion. Through clothing with their expertise artists and individuals alike are lent a level of influence and symbolism that is difficult to ignore. Here enters Ian McRae, a stylist who is the polar opposite of black-and-white. McRae, originally from Tallahassee, Florida has more than a keen eye–I predicted that he is inspired by his upbringing and a limitless pursuit of storytelling.
This prediction was proved to be true. Over a conversation at Chez Oscar in Brooklyn, before the year wrapped, the stylist and I discussed his inclinations and what he feels called to do, especially currently. “I want to use storytelling and character-building through the lens of fashion and working with brands to figure out what they’re trying to say,” McRae shared.
In his youngest years, the stylist explained that he had a fixation on MTV and magazines. He tells me he once had aspirations of being a lobbyist. This makes sense given how pivotal the capitol city he’s from is in regard to politics in Florida. Even with this ideal everpresent with him, he opted for a different life. As a natural progression for someone who has boundless sources of inspiration such as McRae by the time he’d enrolled in college at Florida A&M University in 2010, he was surrounded by fellow creatives like myself. While there he was heavily involved in student organizations and the campus magazine, Journey. He studied public relations and eventually embarked on a creative path that took him to New York City.
Upon moving, he initially interned at public relations firms, but as time stretched on he fell into assisting stylists on the set of countless shoots, Ian Bradley was one he once worked with. This energy and how McRae stumbled into this line of work proved to be fruitful. Now, over a decade later, he’s created a name for himself. A full-circle moment includes being honored by the British Fashion Council in January for his contributions to the fashion industry.
Whether working with talent like the artist Moses for New York Magazine or contributing to indie magazines including Just Smile and Fantastic Man, McRae’s prowess shines through. His subjects are usually men, but under the watchful eye of Ian, they are shown embodying both their masculine and feminine auras. This is distinct and it offers a lens of softness that is often not a part of glossies. It’s such a particular vantage point that I am often able to immediately connect with his work.
Take for instance his styling work for Vogue which featured Julez Smith. Smith was resplendent in a cream-hued Wales Bonner suit with golden cufflinks. For another example, McRae styled Sampha in a miraculous puffer coat in a New York Magazine spread in 2023. These installments along his creative journey speak to his capabilities and how he leans into sharp statement clothing to tell vivid stories.
“I’ve been told from just people describing my work that it’s this world-building of texture, color, movement,” he shared. “But I think it’s about feeling, I think it’s about what the talent or the person in these clothes feel like and the feeling you get when you play dress up.”
Currently, McRae is looking ahead and he’s hoping to use his prowess and platform to assist others. He’s hopeful he can be a positive influence to the overarching fashion community. In his words, he shared that he’s seen how fashion can help others “but can also hurt in the waste that we kind of consume in general.” The stylist states he’d like to support younger designers and those who aspire to work in fashion yet don’t have the schooling or experience to do so.
“I want to do more outreach and have more of an active appeal of changing the way we see fashion,” he adds.
Below we caught up with Ian McRae who shared insights on his fashion origin story, what it felt like being honored by the British Fashion Council, and more.
What is your fashion origin story?
I was addicted to MTV and inspired [by] magazines, and then I just worked my way up to it. I don’t feel like I kind of ever looked at the position of a stylist and was like, “Oh my God, I want to do this.” At 10 years old? Absolutely not. I wanted to be like Kelly Cultrone. And that’s what I moved to New York to do. And then I realized I wasn’t a PR girl, I kind of fell into styling, which is funny ’cause I don’t have a background in art.
You also have a very intense work ethic. Is that what led you to New York City from Tallahassee, Florida?
I think I’ve always wanted something bigger than where I was and the surroundings. I think it’s one of those weird things–I didn’t have a moment of [detailed planning]. It was more so I wanted to feel like I was close to what was going on and a part of something bigger than a boy from Florida.
Which projects do you feel align most with your unique vantage point and lens?
I feel like this [project] I just did with Jordan, on a commercial level kind of aligns aesthetically [with] what I see myself doing. My balance now is kind of how can I build a world around my commercial work and editorial work and make sure it’s cohesive and supports each other and has the same type of line of cohesion.
In terms of your vision ahead of projects, are you a mood boarder? Or are you someone that likes to start just with the talent and then kind of envision what you want to happen once you get on set?
It does start with mood boarding. It does start with a mood. It’s funny ’cause I feel like as a millennial, I grew up with Tumblr and all these early forms of sharing information.
I go off of images that I’ve seen for so many years and now I have a bigger process of collecting magazines and referencing things from the 1990s, the 1970s, and different periods, and then bringing those images or references to a photographer or to the talent and collaborating in that way. It’s a bit of mood referencing the instinct of feeling.
For me, the process is really just developing a mood and not just through references and images, but through the whole facet of it. To go back to when the designers used to fascinate about [what a] woman is about and build characters. And I think this is the [throughline] of my work: building characters but also using clothes as a practice of doing that.
It sounds a bit like a costume designer’s approach.
Yeah, and it [fixates] on storytelling and cohesion with things looking the same throughout the whole [shoot]. I think I want to use storytelling and character-building through the lens of fashion and working with brands to figure out what they’re trying to say. For me, it’s all about a question rather than a final result or an outcome or the bottom line.
Which brands do you feel are doing an incredible job at storytelling right now whether through campaigns or collections?
I would say Jonathan Anderson. I would also say I love Martine Rose, I love Grace Wales Bonner. I think Bianca Saunders, and all these different designers are world-building in their own way, but slow progression. Every season is a progression of the last. I think we need more of that. We need more of the progression of telling this wider narrative of what brands stand for and us, I think we are kind of going through a time of what the reinvention of these brands means and what they represent in our culture. I think it’s all about re-contextualizing that in a way.
Do you think that you’re optimistic about emerging designers in the New York fashion market? I’m optimistic.
I’m excited. I think there are a lot of people that are doing interesting things right now and reshaping how we look at clothing in general and how we wear clothing. I was recently really taken aback [by] Puppets and Puppets who moved from New York to Paris.
Her first collection was just jeans and T-shirts, a bra set and a hoodie. And I don’t know, I think that we need to go back to what does it mean to have a good fashion company, and what does that really mean? Do you need to be making $40 million a year, or is it about customer base and niche? I feel like we’re in that phase of really fusing those two things, which is good.
One of my favorite brands is a Swedish brand, Our Legacy. Or Auralee [a] Japanese brand who it’s all about more elevated basics, classics, and timeless pieces, but they have such a niche where it’s now become such a bigger audience. And I think a lot of designers can take that role-play of slowing down and not rejecting the system of consumption in a way, but yet still feeding it because we’ve got to feed the machine. There’s a way of doing it in a way that feels real and authentic to what the bigger picture is.
How did it feel to get the honor of being awarded by the British Fashion Council?
It feels humbling. I think I’m very much a person who isn’t interested in the social-facing fame out of it. I think it’s a bit more about the work for me and it’s been, I think seven, eight years now of me kind of doing this on my own after assisting for five to six years. So it’s interesting. It feels good, but surreal in a way. I feel like I’m finally getting recognition for something–I’m appreciative and grateful for it.