William is the latest aspiring fashionista to fall by the wayside on the CW’s Stylista. (Devin was also eliminated at the same time, but she was unavailable for a phone interview.) William started out the competition looking like a crazed fashion victim, but quickly transformed himself into a hard-working assistant. Unfortunately, Anne Slowey decided that he was not the right fit at Elle because she couldn’t see his personal mark on his team’s layout in last night’s episode.
William spoke to BuddyTV and gave us a unique insight about the other contestants on Stylista. According to him, what we see in the episodes is actually a good representation of what is going on with the contestants. I guess that means that those full-on screaming matches aren’t being doctored up with editing. God, I love this show.
This is Debbie at BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to William from Stylista. So William, I wanted to ask you, first, how you got started in fashion?
I finished university, and I worked as the fashion editor at my university magazine. And I came to New York with no professional experience, and just started looking around for internships and I got one at a PR firm, which didn’t work out. But I moved from there to Stuff magazine, where I met the fashion director through the internship at the PR company. When the PR gig came to an end, I hit up the people who I had met and asked them if they had anything, and she said, “Yeah, come in, and you can intern for me.” And I came in, and she didn’t even bother with the internship. She just made me the fashion assistant, and I was there for a while. And then, the magazine folded, and everyone got basically told to go. You know, “You no longer work here. The magazine doesn’t exist anymore. Leave.”
And that was kind of heartbreaking because it was a great magazine and it was a great team. And then I was unemployed for a while, so it was a tough time. And then I got a temporary position at New York magazine, which was amazing. A complete stroke of fate. I bumped into the fashion editor on the street, and she said, “Oh, we’ve got a position available. Come in.” I did that for a couple of months and then I came on the show.
Wow, that’s quite a journey. So, let’s talk about last night’s episode. I really liked your comment after Devin picked the teams and you found out that Team 1 had Ashlie, Danielle, Megan and Kate. And you said something like, “It’s so awful, but it’s wonderful.”
It totally was. There was obviously a lot of competition. You couldn’t take it too seriously. You know, I love Ashlie. The other two, whatever. And Katie, actually, I love Katie. But you can’t take it too seriously. It was fun, and I enjoyed it. I’m not a backstabber in an evil way.
I know that reality TV, there’s probably a big disconnect what actually happens and what is portrayed on TV. And what do you think? Is what we’re seeing pretty realistic? Is it pretty representative of what was going on?
Yeah. We were filming 24 hours a day, effectively, so there are some things that aren’t shown and there are some things that are, but I think everyone was represented essentially how they are. There’s no one that has come across worse or better than they actually were on the show. And I think, overall, you get a good a very good insight into exactly what went on. So, yeah, I think it’s very realistic.
What are your predictions? Who do you think will make it through to the end of the competition, and who do you think probably won’t?
Let me think. They’re all very talented, some of them possibly willing to do more to get there than others in terms of maybe foul play. I think Megan definitely wants it, and she’ll do whatever she has to do to get it. I think Dyshaun is very talented. I think he’s awesome, so I think he’s in the running. Johanna probably fits the bill as an Elle girl, but I don’t know about that. I’d love to see Ashlie do really well. I’d love to see Ashlie win it, actually. She’s the most kindest, good-hearted, great talent, hard worker, a wonderful person. I’d love to see her go all the way.
Last night in the boardroom, Anne had mentioned that she didn’t think that you or Devin had contributed very much to your layout, and—
—And you know what’s odd about that? They didn’t think that me or Devin had contributed much to the page that they didn’t like, right? So obviously the people responsible for the page should have been the ones who went home. It just seemed like they didn’t like the page, they didn’t like the layout or the concept, and that was all…I’m not naming names. That wasn’t really me and Devin. You know, Devin was fairly easy-going. It think Devin was, “Whatever.” She’s very easy-going and she was definitely up for suggestions, and she’d go with them, whatever. What you didn’t see so much of was me trying to get a word in edge-wise with Johanna. Ugh, nightmare, absolute nightmare. But I guess perhaps I should have spoken up and done a Katie and been like, “I didn’t like it! It was rubbish! I tried to tell them! You know, I’m not that kind of person, I’m sorry to say.
The thing that I was struck with when I was watching the elimination was that, you guys are competing to have an actual, real job at a real magazine, and the people who seem to get by are the ones who act unprofessionally.
You know, I’m not going to argue with you there. I was actually reading a blog today and it said, “So William and Devin, the last two remaining sane people on show are gone.” You know, I think that’s kind of true. It just seems to me that I have to behave as professionally as possible because I was going to be going back out there, into the New York fashion industry, so it was important for me to maintain at least a marginally professional demeanor.
One thing that I’m curious about is, at the first episode when you were first introduced to Joe Zee, you kind of went through a personal makeover from this rock star kind of look to a more toned down, professional look. So, now that you’re off the show, have you gone back to your old look?
Have I gone back to the crazy Clockwork Orange outfit? You know, in a way, I’m still doing a lot of stuff that I had been doing before. And I’d still wear that outfit. I would. But I wouldn’t wear it to the Elle offices, and I wouldn’t wear it to work ever. Obviously, it was work-appropriate. But it was the most out-there outfit that I could possibly have put together. But it was fun, but they dressed me down and they were like, “No, dress for the office.” So I did. I think I’ve taken some of that with me. I probably slightly muted it a touch, but I’m rarely as conservative as that.
-Interview conducted by Debbie Chang
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
