Hi Daniela, let’s start off by sharing with our readers a little more about who you are and what you do.
Im Daniela Gil from Medellin, Colombia, the city of eternal spring. I come from a big family, full of girls so my childhood was very happy, and very girly. Since I was 5 years old I used to practice figure skating but I stopped when I was 12 years old (kind of regret that). I have 2 sisters, Im in the middle, my parents are still together, and we have a very good relationship.
In Colombia I studied industrial engineering and marketing.
During my second job assignment, it was where I felt in love for fashion, I was responsible to optimize clothes production, so I learned how clothes are made, and all the steps you have to do to get them into the stores.
In 2016 I moved with my husband to Lisbon. I took this change as an opportunity to focus on my passion, the fashion world. So I started to study a LOT, fashion Marketing and also by myself I navigated to every single fashion site and vogue runway became my best friend. I start traveling for fashion weeks, and when in Paris I met in one cafe the stylist of Vogue Netherlands, and in this particular moment I knew which fashion field I wanted to take. So I took a course of fashion styling and creative production and at that point my career as a stylist started
Can you share with us a little about what you do?
Im a full time stylist, dedicated to planning campaigns for brands and also into editorial field. I have so many plans but by now, Im focusing only in this.
What does fashion mean to you?
Fashion is the way I express my feelings and my creativity. It’s a way to speak for me.
How has your culture influenced your taste in fashion? How do you ensure you stay true to who you are while working with a diverse group of clients?
My city is a very particular one, because of all the things that happened in the 80s-90s (drug trafficking and mafia). So that period of history influenced a lot the aesthetic of fashion in Colombia, specially women. Personally im not into that taste, im all the opposite way.
One of the core of my work is to be versatile, I don’t want to put my personal style into the brands I work with because every brand has a unique story and a unique taste so the thing I always do is to understand that and to get into the core, so I can also tell a story WITH them. The thing I certainly do, is to style things with my personal taste, like for example the way I put shirts, or pants, in that little details I stay true to myself and add my mark to the brands I work.
How do you stay inspired? What are some of the clients that you usually work with?
I love to see how real people dress, I Love that,so street style is a huge inspiration for me. Also I look into archives of the big fashion brands. The 60% of my clients are jewelry brands.
What are your thoughts on sustainable fashion and style? How do you incorporate it into your work?
I’m a vintage lover, I think 90% of the things I usually buy are second hand or vintage. Love clothes with history. Also I always check the composition of clothes, because I want to buy something that I can wear during many years, not only months.
What do you think is the future of fashion and how do you think AISPI fits into the fashion industry’s new normal?
The future of fashion is sustainability, fashion houses and also small brands have to make a huge investment into new sustainable technologies and materials.
I really like AISPI supports small and new designers, who are the ones that are taking sustainability very serious.
As a stylist, do you see your work being incorporated in the lives of every day consumers?
I give inspiration with my work, I create ways of how to use things so I hope when someone see my work they can recall something they have in their closet and use it the way I styled. Also, I try to work as well with new designers, so I give peoples ideas where to search when they want something unique and beautiful.
All images courtesy of Daniela Gil.
– Written by Soha Joshi