Trading Secrets - 26: Secrets from The Red Carpet Fashion Showroom with Celebrity Stylist Lo VonRumpf

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Do celebrities get free clothes? What about those million dollar necklaces they wear on the red carpet? Is there such a thing as an ‘investment’ piece? Is working for an IG shout out worth it? Celebrity Fashion Stylist Lo VonRumpf shares his trading secret that will make people know your worth. It’s another episode you can’t afford to miss. For All Access Content - join our networking group for less than 30 cents a day! StoryWorth.com/secrets and save $10 on your first purchase Host: Jason Tartick Voice of Viewer: David Arduin Executive Producer: Evan Sahr Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are digging deep into the economics, business, and process behind the style game, the red carpet game. In an industry, I still have not wrapped my hands. head around, and we are with LA's favorite celebrity stylist, the host

of the low life, and the better half of the J-Lo. Let's be honest, my good friend, the water to my oil. It's Slovan Rumpf. Well, thank you so much for being on sharing secrets today.

Oh, my God. I'm an honored privilege to be here. Oh, God. That introduction got me. That was fired up. That was a beautiful intro. Are you excited to be back in Nashville with the pod? Yeah. I mean, it took a year for our little reunion, but it's, I mean, we've seen each other,

but like to be all in one underrun roof is perfect. And I feel like we have dived fully back into right where we left off. Do you think any beat has been skipped? Not at all. No beat has been skipped. No, that's the thing about a good friendship. You can just pick up, even if we, well, we talk a lot. But if we didn't, it just picks up right where I left off, which is nice.

That's beautiful. and you're a beautiful man and it is so good. We have a little yinging vibe going. I'm wearing white. He's wearing black and that is our relationship. But I want to talk to you because we talk about a lot of things. This is the thing about Lo and I. We will sit and have late night chats.

We have our little fireside chats. There might be an edible involved. There might not be. There might be a little lupé fiasco joint in there. There might not be to each their own. Yeah, maybe a cocktail. Maybe a cocktail or two. Maybe just nothing.

Maybe we're just. water. I think it's fair to say we've done it all. But that being said, one of the fun conversations we've had, I told Lowe about the time that I waited in line at Louis Vuitton. I waited in line at Louis Vuitton. I was really annoyed by it. It was because my buddy had wanted, not had, correction, wanted to buy his girlfriend a Louis Vuitton purse. Oh, nice. Because he came to visit Nashville, a concept I will never understand. But a concept that apparently that's like a thing. Like you go out for the weekend and you come back with a purse and it's okay. Oh, yeah. Would you not do that for Caitlin? I don't know. There's no utility in that. You think if I have to, if I go to see a friend, I have to come back with a

$3,000 purse. Maybe a little gift. This is trading secrets. This is a money management. It makes no sense. A little gift is different. Yeah, well, I mean, it's all relative. That could be a little gift to him depending on what his bank account looks like. Okay. I don't. I don't. don't think even if you are stacked, you're getting 3K, but is a means of having to go, it's like a permission slip. Like, here's a $3,000 bag because you went on a trip to see your friends. Or more so, I know I was gone and you probably had to handle things while I was gone. Thank you for being so patient with me. I wanted to treat you to a little something, something, since I went and had a good time with my boys, lived my best life. Drink, spent a lot of money while

you were at home holding down the fort. Here's a little $3,000 something, something to let you know that you're valued, you are loved, and you were thought of. If Kaelin and I did that every time we left the house for all the days going on, once in a while. Do you know what that line item would be on my side and her side? What? Outrageous.

Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. But I'm just saying like it's a little thoughtful something. See, I think there's ways to be thoughtful and still have utility behind it, regardless of how much money you have. What do you mean by utility? Utility is like, does it make sense?

Is there utility for it? Is there a reason? is their rationale? Is there logic? Like a $3,000 purse because you went for two days to go see your buddies? Is that what you have to do every time you leave the house? Get our coffee mug. Anyway, this was one of our conversations. And similar to this banter, this is exactly what ensued. Nuts. And what I did is I waited in line like a good friend for a fucking hour to get into this stupid ass store. And I know a lot of people love this brand and swear by this. And what I'm going to tell you is, if you got Louis Vuitton, enjoy it.

their stock too because it does well. But I sat down with the sales associate and I told you this and I said, okay, I just waited an hour to get in here. He just bought a $3,000 purse. I looked at the store. There was nothing under $2,000. And I asked what percentage of people come in this store and actually buy the goods? And she said about 95% of people that wait in that line buy something here. And I was blown away by that. And I told you I put it out and people, it was a very controversial subject. People had certain opinions on it. Now the beauty of this conversation to keep it full circle is low has worked at louis baton yeah so i want to hear your perspective and i want to know the inside scoop like when you work in a retail position like

that for a very luxurious company i'm curious how much you make are you compensated on what people actually purchase like to get a percentage oh yeah like working on commission yeah yeah i did a high-end retail i worked for them and then louis viton and then i also i think like louis viton okay Viton. Yeah. Anyway, and then Berberi, not Berberi. It's Burberry? Burberry.

Burberry. Yeah. Which is a British label, Heritage Company. Gabbardine fabric. They created the gabardine fabric for the trench coat. It's a particular type of fabric that makes you retain utility-wise, the temperature of your body. Bring utility back. Yeah, so when you end up going into a war-type situation, and it's crazy weather, you can maintain your body temperature and not die.

So that's where Burberry came in and then they turned it into a luxury brand. Anyway, at Louis Vuitton, it's usually sales associates. So you start with, like, depending on where you're a sales associate, but I was one in Los Angeles. New York is probably a higher base, but you make hourly.

Interesting. Some high-end retail like Chanel is strictly on commission. So you don't make a base. Stop it. You only make commission, so you have to sell. Otherwise, well, you get fired. So, okay, so those are $3.

thousand dollar purse. Like, or Chanel's more expensive, right? So you have your sales goals every month. What do you get paid on that? Like how much we just guess? Like usually, like usually for a sales goal, it will be anywhere, let's say, you have to make $20,000 this month. So at least $20,000 worth of merch or 50. And every time you sell a certain amount, the 20, the 50, or however much you hit, your percentage goes up so you can make a 2% off that or 1% or it's not much. You're not making a lot of money. You can if you sell your selling a lot. If you're selling a lot. But it's a very aggressive, tough thing to do. So Yeah, and you have to really build relationships.

And it's, yeah, it's a tough industry to get into. Part of the reason, first of all, there's two reasons I don't really go into too many of those stores. One, because I don't really buy much of that. And two, because if I do walk in there, I feel like I'm looked like there's like eight shark circling me. And they're just judging the way I looked the way. I talked the way I walked up. That's such a thing. Is it, okay, you worked in that.

You worked in Burberry. Yeah, Burberry. Is it a thing? Someone walks in, you're telling me, if you've got to make that commission, you're not staring them up and down to see, like, can they afford the product or about to sell? See, the thing is, when it comes to high-end retail, specifically brands like that, where the lowest price point is like $1,000, something like that, that's like entry level. Sure.

When we would have walk-ins come in, yet we'll look and see who it is. And people would say, like, oh, they ignored me because I don't look rich or it looks like I don't have money, so they don't want to give me the time of day. It's not that at all. For the most part, just speaking from my experience and the people that I worked with, if you were walking in there, we have our clients already. If you're just randomly walking into a Louis Vuitton, that's not as common. Like, the people that shop Louis Vuitton regularly, they let us know when they're coming.

They're regular clients. The people in that store have an external list of clients they work with that they will actually bring into the store themselves. I rarely dealt with walk-ins. I only had clients that I had built. And these are clients that are passed from sales associate to sales associate, your client book. And you cultivate those relationships and you're sending them gifts. you're corresponding with them. You're letting them know what's happening all the time. So if just a random, like Jason walks in, just to give it, you know, a little browse, we know that's probably not going to

result in a sale. I'm not going to waste my time when I have all these incredible clients that I need to get into the store. And appointments lined up. I have from my beginning of my shift to the end. And usually there's one person, like a seasonal employee or something that handles the random walk-ins that are just going to buy something and probably return it. Interesting. All right. So you see a guy like me walking, you're like, this greasy Buffalo is just a window shopper. I'm like, look at this. He's going to give me nothing in return. God, is Wolf on Wall Street coming in.

Yeah, I mean, and you could end up going in and thinking like, I could turn this into a great client. You never know. But for the most part, especially specific stores, like Hermes, are you familiar with that brand? That's like only because you've said it. Okay. But it's one of the highest in the, I guess, the retail chain of expensive products. I don't have those in Buffalo.

No one's walking into an Armez randomly. You're usually letting them know. you have your salesperson that you work with. And if not, you have the sales girl in Dallas that you always deal with, call your New York contact. Like, we handle that thing for you. All right. So, Hermes, Burberry, Louvaton.

What is the most that you've ever rung someone up? Oh, my gosh. Give me a dollar amount that you've seen someone spend in one of those stores. The most someone is spent with me personally was about, I think it was like 87,000. Jesus, fucking.

Which wasn't that much stuff. A couple luggage pieces. 87. He just didn't just come in the door. Oh, yeah. Oh, we had actually someone paid with over $120,000 sale in the store. That was a big one. It was this guy from a Sinaloa drug cartel.

And he came in with just all this cash. He had like three ladies with him and they had strollers. And the strollers were filled with cash. He had to get rid of it. It was drug money. So I always gave a fake name. I don't know. It was Arturo.

And then it was Miguel. And it was Pablo. Interesting. Elcobar. All right. So you've got people you've seen, you know, Spend it 87 grand. It's insane.

You've seen people that I didn't realize that those... No one from the States. It's always international clients. I never see someone from the U.S. Is that because the style game in the U.S. has a different level of prioritization? I just think when it comes to retail, like Dubai money, it just runs a lot deeper than U.S. bank accounts when it comes to spending. And like that particular culture, if you're coming in from Dubai or China or Japan, they're huge on labels. they're really big with brand recognition and they want to drop a lot of money.

Interesting. They spend a lot. And they're getting it cheaper than what they would get it in Dubai. Okay. So let me break this down for you. So I got, I want to hear just what you think.

Because of course I hear these dollars and I want to talk about return. And I personally don't understand it. And I'm not saying that it's not real, but I don't understand the return on investment for fashion. I know I'm practical. A lot of people don't.

But think of it's so like, shirt right here. I think it's Farity. It's about probably $120 or something, right? Now you can go to Gap, probably get this for $40. Yeah. You could probably go to Burbury and let's say it's like much nicer and 350. We could keep going up Balenciaga. Balenciaga, what would it be there? A thousand? I'd say $1,500. So how do you compare

something that literally is just a zip up sweater or a t-shirt ranging from a $40 price point to $1,500 and say, I get why it would make sense to buy that. Like you're a stylist. You do this every day. Why are people spending that kind of money on that kind of clothing? I mean, we're talking.

But you can't say. I don't want to hear you say because they can't afford it because I'm sure they can. But not everyone can. 50% of Americans only have 600 bucks in their savings account. But yeah, but I also have clients that are uncomfortably rich, richer than Midas, and they don't feel comfortable spending that. That's not where they want to put their money

anyway, even if they can't afford it. Interesting. So that just depends. Different strokes for different folks, but I will say it's commercialism, capitalism at its finest. And sometimes you just want to buy into a lifestyle. I don't think there's much difference between a Balenciaga T-shirt and one that you're going to get a gap. Besides, I mean, maybe it's a little softer or something, but like cotton is cotton. You know what I mean? Like it's not that big of a deal. But I think with those entry level like basic items, wardrobe basics, you can go to Zara or you can go to Louis Vuitton. Like, you do you. But there is a difference when you start getting into the

construction of like a nice suit sure you'll see an h-and-m suit and a burberry suit is a very different ballgame just the way they fit the way they feel it's they're really nice so with certain things invest in it but i think some people just want to buy into i mean it's a little bit on the bullshit side if we're really like breaking it down like what are you getting from this yeah it's some sort of brand recognition yeah and it's almost like this it's status symbols too there's specific brands that amongst like wealthy groups of people that they like to flex with each other. It's kind of like a guy who wears like a Rolex. There's no need to wear Rolex. You're flexing. You want to show that you can get $100,000 in Upwatcher, however much you're spending on it. Crazy expensive, but a Seiko does

the same damn thing. They're all telling time. You know what I mean? I love Jay's Rolex. We love Jason's Rolex, don't we? It's a very good comparison and a great callout, Rolex from Rista Aficionado. You and I need to go through that Instagram and check it out. But I will say this, like even wearing that, because I'm not a big on, you guys know that, spending money on things like that. But wearing that Rolex, it's insane the amount of conversations that come up about it. It's almost like a business card. I thought it was good at, like I thought it was the dumbest thing ever.

It's a status symbol. People are talking about this, talking about that. Where did you get it? What year is it? Like more people would approach you. And people collect them. It's vintage. And right now they're actually appreciating.

Like I know Louis Vuitton purses are. So here I am. Fucking hypocrite. But it is crazy. Like, it actually has sparked a lot of conversations and stuff. I've had some day traders that I've never interacted with. And they DM me on Instagram, like, dude, where did you get that from? And I'm like, all right, forget about the watch.

Like, tell me more about your day trading. Can we work on something? Yeah. So it's crazy that fashion could open doors like that. And you agree with that. Oh, 100%. Yeah. Well, even I was going to say brands like Brunello Cucinelli, which is a big Italian brand,

beautiful clothes. No labels on anything. It's like a ripped up sweater for like $1,000. Yeah. But, like, no one would know where the hell that sweater came from. But people that buy Brunello, it's like a specific type of person that wants to wear that kind of shit. Because you're spending so much for, I mean, it's just a status symbol amongst, like, I guess, your fellow rich-ass people. But no one outside of, like, those people would.

So I guess you're just, again, slightly flexing silently for, because, again, no one would know. But, like, but those who buy it are very aware. Like Cleo's friend, he has a bunch of those sweaters. And I was like... You knew. And I knew. I was like, oh, my God. All the Brunello in here.

It's crazy. It's kind of is like this thing that you'll relate to other people that are in the same game. Got it. Now, I want to ask you about this experience I had. So for U.S. Open, we connected with Boss. And it was really cool for U.S. Open tennis. We got to go to a boss store and... Hugo Boss.

And we got to pick out two outfits and we got to wear them. And it was comped. They obviously asked for a tag. We gave him a tag. I felt like this is the coolest experience. And then I realized that's something. bait like that's a huge part of your job and even this this weekend you went to kaitland i think it was to like a showroom but i know back in l.A you go to these showrooms and i think for anyone listening

right now that's like i'm very intrigued with this whole celebrity stylist thing like how does this work there's this thing called showrooms and this is where low will actually go to pick out the outfits that he's going to style his celebrity in so just can you explain the basis of what a showroom is And how those brands get in there and what they pay to get in there? Yeah. Well, Cliff Notes version for listeners, everyone usually asked me that's the first thing out the gate is do you buy all the clothes? Just celebrities have to buy that stuff and then just return it or keep it. Like, how does this work?

Nothing is bought. Pretty much nothing is kept. It's all on loan. A lot of celebrities are all wearing the same things. Literally, like, I've had Caitlin in a blazer that Selma Blair wore. And then I saw it on Julia Louise Dreyfus like three months later from Veep. And you think it's the same? No, I know it's the same.

It's from the same showroom. It literally was the same. What is the cost of that? The blazer was like, I don't know, $800 or something like that. So at that point, why wouldn't they just, like, gift it? No, they can. Sometimes they do gift it. Yeah.

Or, but a lot of times it's a one-time wear. Caitlin had to wear this blazer on Good Morning America. Yeah. But once you get photographed or seen in it, the moment's over. It's done. It's been posted on social media. We keep outfits fresh. Give something that doesn't look like that.

So this is wild, guys. Anytime you see like a paparazzi photo, you see a shoot or a red carpet, There is so much that's actually going in behind the scenes of what that person's wearing. And what do they always ask? Red carpet. What are you wearing tonight? Who are you wearing? So let's talk about the dollars and cents there real quick.

Yeah. So let's suppose, and don't make fun of this, but it's very easy to laugh at. Tardick starts a clothing line called Tartarge. Yeah. Yeah. Tartic for Tartic. Wait, Tartic for Target. Tartic for Target.

Okay. And let's just say it's a suit line, right? Yeah. So with a showroom, the showroom is actually. Like, who would I pay to get into a showroom? Oh, back to showrooms, yeah. How do I pay? So, brands reach out to specific showrooms.

Okay. And they're all over, usually New York, Milan, and Los Angeles. Okay. And so these showrooms will house several brands. Usually they keep them around the same price point. Some of them diversify. So they'll pay the showroom. And the job of the showroom is to get placements on celebrities,

to get placements in editorial magazines, commercials, influencers, digital. So they'll have different sectors of their showroom. that they cater to an influencer market. Some showrooms are like, we don't want to work with any influencers. We only do celebrity red carpet. Some only do editorial.

But the brands pay the showroom a retainer every single month. Give me an idea of like if Tardik, Tarjeet clothing line, I want to get into a big showroom in L.A., what am I paying monthly? Well, again, it depends on what you want for deliverables. If you say I want the whole package, I want you guys to do editorial, everything for me, I mean, it can range anywhere from like $25,000 a month and up.

It's expensive. But you have a whole team of people that are working, around the clock to make sure that your brand is getting placed seen on the right people you share this is like for your brand you're like okay I want these five celebrities are my target dream list and this showroom says well we work with all of the stylists that represent those celebrities so you're probably going to get that placement and you said okay well then name your price that's when the negotiation comes in and that's when the brand signed with showrooms so that they can get placements that's the main thing you want to get a placement fascinating okay so I'm going to talk

to recap about my experience in a showroom with David. So just stay tuned for that. But in that being said, I still have to ask a question there because if you are a stylist connected to a showroom and the showroom is then selling the brand that the celebrity stylist's low will be coming in. Does the showroom pay the stylist? No.

No, showrooms don't pay stylists. Do you pay the show room to have access to their clothing? Usually no. Sometimes you'll have to pay like a dry cleaning or restocking fee or something like that, but most of the time, no, well, the showrooms are sending me flowers. Showrooms are creating me like King. Because you're bringing your clients. Yeah, because I'm going to make sure I'm getting their stuff placed. I can choose what I want to get place for however many

editorial shoots, commercials, red carpets I have coming up. I just had it happen. Oh, I'm going to go spend some time with Jason. Everyone knows that we're homies, we're besties. So one of my girlfriend said, oh my God, there's a couple products from our influencer division. Why don't you take those with you, give them to Jason? That would mean a lot to me. If you could get a placement on him. I'm like, sure. Now, is there a way that you could skip the showroom in a revenue source for you could be. To go straight through the brand? Yeah, like a Hugo boss comes to you.

You come to me and then a Hugo boss or something a brand pays you. Sometimes I'll work with the brands directly. Yeah. But most of the time, the brands are paying so much money every month to have a showroom, to have PR people that are reping them. So it's like, yeah, like I can go straight to Jason if I'm just a brand wanting to do a deal with you. But you'd probably like them to go through your team because you're paying them.

So yeah, sometimes, especially after the pandemic, I noticed. a lot of showrooms kind of went up and smoke because there weren't red carpets, there's not events happening. So instead of these showrooms paying to be with, or these designers paying to be with showrooms, it's flipped and now PR has gone in-house. So a lot more like Hugo Boss went in-house, but they used to be with a showroom. Okay. It makes sense.

I'm starting to understand this industry a little bit more. Let's take it to red carpets. So name a celebrity that you would see at the Oscars or the Emmys that you look up to. Give me a celebrity. I'll say like a Julia Roberts. Okay, Julia Roberts. Leo DiCaprio. Oh, Leonardo is my favorite.

So let's go with Leonardo. Leonardo DiCaprio, if you had to project his stylist, how much does his stylist do you think gets paid to, like, prepare him for like an Oscars? Yeah, well, usually, like, so if Leonardo DiCaprio is going to the Oscars, he's doing a whole campaign leading into the Oscars. So he has the pre-Oscar brunch. He's doing some after-party. What is that?

There's so many events that lead up to the Oscars. so I mean it's rare where a client just says like I need one event it's usually a campaign because if you're going to the Oscars you're usually nominated your film is doing very well if that's the case like a Leo DiCaprio then you're going to have to go to the certain parties that are leading up to it and there's big parties before and after again to mingle you but he has to he's contracted to go sometimes sometimes you are under contract with the studio to make appearances at these parties or at least walk the carpet other times it looks good because you want to kind of like rub shoulders with people in the academy because if you're good with the academy, you'll get the awards. And if you get the Oscar, it increases your demand to get rehired again.

Exactly. Because then you're the hot kid on the block. Also, there's this whole like kiss of death thing with getting an Oscar, which I was interested about exploring that. Some certain individuals, particularly female performers, actresses, like Jennifer Hudson, she got the Oscar for Dreamgirls.

And there was another one that got an Oscar and talked about how she was like, didn't feel like she was hireable after getting an Oscar to killing it and getting like that big award that everyone would dream of getting as an actor and then she was like I didn't feel like I was hireable because I had hit my peak.

Do you think they think price points too high or something? Either price points too high or now that person's pigeonhold and that specific like that was their role. And now it's like tough to go back from that. They're so identified with that. Got it. Okay, that's something I never heard about.

But let's go back to Leonardo Capra. You're styling him. What you're trying to tell me too is that you style Leo for the Oscars you're styling for many events you're not just styling him to walk the red carpet yeah so it's going to be you know price point wise i mean you could break it down to like i mean i'd say like on the low end like $2,500 per red carpet event yeah so yeah 25 but of course you have the fitting pre-fitting the actual fitting alterations all those sort of things get added into it yeah yeah and most of the time leo's probably not paying for that shit you probably has

Like the studio covering it? Yeah, because he's required to go to these events through the studio. So it's production budget. Okay, then one thing about the red carpet, I'll never forget, is when we were on the People's Choice Awards red carpet, and Gwen Stefani walked by, shoulder to shoulder. First of all, my breath was taken away. Second of all, she must have had,

and I don't know anything about the jewelry business, other than the engagement ring business or watch business. That being said, she must have had a million dollars of jewelry on. Oh, easy. Is that her jewelry? No, no, no, it's not. Where does that jewelry come from? So, again, showrooms.

There's specific showrooms. So the stylist is getting the jewelry to give them just for that picture. Yeah, or just for that event or whatever. So a lot of showrooms will only work with jewelry brands. And that's actually where you can get paid because sometimes I'll have, there's so many jewelry brands. I mean, a lot of people have diamonds. So that being said, I'll have brands that reach out directly to me and say, Lo, we really want a placement. Like for Caitlin's wedding.

Yeah. If I want to put her in a million dollars worth of diamonds, I can do that, but I'll probably do a contract with a specific jewelry designer so that, like, Caitlin will get paid. I'll get paid to wear that company. So you would work a one, it's all on loan. You would work a deal with one jewelry designer. They would pay you and Caitlin a fee so that she's wearing that jewelry, so that when she wears that jewelry, it will be photographed in the pictures and it will be an editorial in press. Is that right? Yeah, well, it would only happen for Caitlin's wedding.

if she had an exclusivity agreement with a media outlet, like People Magazine. Sure. If the story is exclusively for that, then the jewelry company feels comfortable with doing a brand deal like that. Because they know that if their brand is mentioned in an article with Caitlin and I getting married in People Magazine, then they will get the eyeballs and impressions that they need to justify the cost. Yeah. Wild. Yeah, but she doesn't keep anything.

It comes right back. Yeah. Okay. What if she's got a million dollars of jewelry on her? What happens if, like, do you get insurance? Like, what if? Yeah, you should get insurance for everything. Sometimes the brands will have it.

Most of my clients don't have insurance. Only the ones that go to events all the time will pay the $250 to $500 a month to have crazy expensive insurance. Yeah. But once it's out of my hands, it goes with the client. My insurance doesn't cover anything past that. It's the person wearing it. So when you start your year, and obviously I'm sure you make goals for what you want your

income to be. Sure. Are you targeting? Like, do you want, you're like, I must do at least. five red carpets. Like what is the biggest sources of revenue? Is that what you're trying to get? Yeah, usually. Well, and every stylist is different. Some work exclusively with studios. So they're like SAG part of the union. Sure. And they're on set for like six months doing a show. I'm freelance. So I'm diversified in my business. So I have editorial side, magazine work, commercial side,

which pays great. And I'll do a few of those. And then red carpet and then I guess like press, day to day styling, that sort of thing. So for me to have like a really, good month, I need to make sure I'm hitting all of those little revenue streams, different, I guess, modalities of my business. I got to hit the commercial side. I got to make sure I get red carpet day to day, get it all in. And then I feel comfortable financially. If I do that, then I'm okay. Gotcha. And so is it fair, like, is it possible for a celebrity stylist to make, and again, I'm just ballparking. Like, it's possible to make half a million bucks. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Possible to make a million bucks?

Yeah. Especially now, because the world is your oyster. Like, if you're, like, I did a collaboration with a specific brand. That could be a $50,000 deal, $100,000. Depends on that's where. So you're, because you could be able to, because I'm thinking there's only so many red carpets. But you could be doing the brand work. You could be doing the YouTube studio.

You could be doing the endorsement, the influencer. Not to mention all the creative direction I've done for so many brands. They bring me in as a creative director for their capsule collections. They want me to go and style basically give my. insight into what they're going to put out into the industry. I'll come in. I charge a monthly fee for that. So a brand will hire you, Tardick clothing line. I hire you to say, like, I need you to develop my collection and then they pay you a fee to do that. Yeah. I have to imagine that money is much better and the stress level is much better than dealing with like a red carpet celebrity trying to get

them ready. Everything's got to be perfect, et cetera. Some people just sticks with red carpets. That's all they want to do. So you carve out your knee. I can't do that. Like I would insane. No, I got to diversify my business. Like, red carpets are difficult. They're stressful. That Caitlin, remember that? Oh, one. She flew in the day of the malfunction. The people's choice of words. I remember that? Yeah, wasn't there like a malfunction? Well, her left tit was completely exposed. There's the malfunction. Her titty was out. And I was like, shit. Caitlin, I got to figure this out. I had my seamstress altered the dress. I don't know. The way she altered it, her boob was exposed. All of a sudden, it wasn't

during the fitting. We worked it out. Pinned it, clamped it, taped it, flipped it, reversed it, boom, hit the carpet and was best stressed. So we're good. It was great. But the stress of that had to be nuts. Yeah. Your minutes before the carpet and your tits coming out. Sure it was. But yeah, I had a little anxiety. But anyway, yeah, you have the potential to be in the driver's seat when it comes to your business with styling. Also, I didn't go agency route. Anyone listening to this right now that wants to break into fashion, a lot of people go the agency route, which I'd say is... What does that mean?

Well, there are agencies that represent certain artists. Make up hair and styling. Your glam squad is usually represented by some sort of an agency. Wait a second. So you're telling me, every time Caitlin goes or we go, you get your glam done, those artists are represented

by an agency. An agency hires those artists out? Yes. And the agency has these great relationships with different producers, commercials, talent. This world is wild. So the agency is in charge of basically getting you work. So that's how most people who are new to it will start assisting a stylist who signed to an agency and their dream is to become part of the agency.

Now, I was about to go that route in the beginning of my career. This was 12 years ago. And I thought, oh, I want to be a wall group. It's a big-ass agency that a lot of people are like, oh, the wall group. It's like CAA if you're an actor and actress. And I remember the wall group was like, we'll put you on your emerging artist division at the wall group. But I started getting so much work based on referral. and I realize that agencies take between 10 and 20% of your revenue.

And they also don't, there's good and bad side to everything, but the agency is for the agency. They're not for the artist. So let's just say this. I'm killing it. I'm doing so well. And I have these incredible clientele that I've built with an agency. Well, now the agency signs a new artist, and this happens a lot.

A new artist, a new, let's say, stylist comes in. We're all artists here. So a new stylist will come in. Well, they want to help the person build their book. They want to get this person's feet grounded in the industry. So I'm already swamped and I'll just wrap this up with like, because I've seen it happen. Let's say like I'm unable to style Caitlin because now my calendar is full. But usually if I was managing stuff, I could make it work.

But because the agency's handling everything, we'll send it stuff somewhere else. We're going to actually partner you with this specific stylist and maybe not even tell me that like Caitlin requested me. But the agency is going to say. because they want to get that person's foot in the door. And that happens so much. So the only asset you own is really your clientele. So if the agency takes that asset from you, what asset do you have at the end of the day?

Yeah, nothing. So it's difficult in that situation. So, yeah, you have to trust your agent. You have to make sure you're with a good agency that has your back. But again, it's tough. So I've just realized that, like, you don't need an agency. If you put yourself out there and have a great representation, Every single client I've had, I'd say 95% has been referral upon referral, all word of mouth.

People talk in L.A. and New York. And my reputation is pretty impeccable in regards to my fashion work. Sure. You know, I'm not even. What's not impeccable? I was just going to say, like, have I slutted it up a little bit? Have you done? Have you?

Actually, no. Have you slutted it up to get a deal or two? You know, I wouldn't put it past. Have you slept with a client? I actually have slept with the client. Guilty as charged. But it wasn't, I was already silent. It wasn't to get the client.

I love it. It just happened. I'll never do it again. I love it. All right. Let me take you a different direction. I'm stressed out. My God.

Click bait, low, sleeps with clients to get next deal. Okay. Early on in my career, you know, I won't cross that boundary again. Yeah, right. Okay. Anyway, another area of the style game. I'm curious about I was on The Bachelor. Caitlin, of course, was on the Bachelor.

And we as contestants have to pack our own backs. But what happens is when we mean your wardrobe for this. Your wardrobe. So it's a guessing. You're almost like shooting and you know me. That's now a game. Can you use some improvement. So it was a crapshoot.

It's very, yeah, basic. You just call me a basic. Yeah, basic guy. I'm going to spice you up. You're spice me up. Okay. What happened was when we got to the final four, though, Kerry, the first time I ever met him, he's the show stylist.

Oh, yeah. He started measuring me for stuff. And I started to realize what he was measuring me for is if there was the off chance that I was actually going to propose that he, I would have the, my tucks ready. And I think in the final three, they had suits ready and stuff that I quickly learned that actually Kerry is working with the lead the whole time. And so Carrie has been, and he's a great, great human. He's been a stylist on The Bachelor since inception. Yeah, I think like over 20 years. Season. Yeah. So my question for you is, and I know Bachelor did like Revolve work

before, like they did a date at Revolve. Sure. Are brands paying the network or nzk to get their look on the leads and stuff like that like is that a big business yeah i'd say some brands will probably pay to get the placement sure but i've seen carry at showrooms and i've pulled from you know carry i don't know him personally but you've seen yeah i facetined once with him through kaitland and i met him a couple times i've seen it we've been in the industry i've been here for 12 years i'm going to run in a showroom eventually so that's where i saw him but yeah and he was pulling like jewelry and shit for like the finale and they weren't paying to have the jewelry on the client like they were not no they just had beautiful stuff and care really loved it and wanted to

do a solid for his PR friend who he really was like and the jewelry's gorgeous so why not get a placement yeah but there's some brands that will i'm sure pay and they could work some sort of a deal it's tricky when it's network though it's not like carrie's like having his own thing like it's also because it's not go like if he does get kickbacks it's not going to him it's going to the network right yeah i think you'd have to keep everything on the table and they'd have to be okay with it, especially because it's televised, there's branding, copyright issues, that sort of thing.

If there's any brand logo recognition or anything like that. Right, right. So it's a little slippery slope with television. But, I mean, Kerry has a great gig. He's making, I'm sure, great money. And he's probably exclusively just doing that. I don't know if he does anything outside of Bachelor World because that probably consumes all of him.

With all the different shows. Would you ever want a job like that, like to be a stylist for a show? Or is that not up in your future? I think it's really cool. do something like that, but I'm going to pass on that opportunity. Why? Well, just because, like, I know how much I could, well, I don't know exactly how much he makes, but I know how much I could make. And just to keep, like, the spice of life, I don't know if I'd only want to be working on one specific show. I'd get bored with it quite fast. Is your motivation in this style industry to get

the biggest and best celebrity, or is it to make the most money? I think neither of those things, to be quite honest. Yeah. Well, the biggest celebrity doesn't necessarily pay the most. Sometimes, the, like, if you work for Kim Kardashian, she's notoriously super cheap. She doesn't pay her people a lot. And like me saying that's not throwing shade. Do you know what that reminds me of? It's just like common knowledge. A lot of that reminds me of that fucking quarterback who's not a Buffalo bill. Oh yeah. I won't say his name unless you give me this. Don't do it. Don't say his name. Who still hasn't paid you. Literally still hasn't. This son of a bitch is one of the most paid athletes. in the world.

I know. And he sift you on how much? It was like 2,500. But that's still fucking insane. I know. Yeah. Just kind of ghosted me. And so Kardashian is known to be cheap in the style game?

Yeah. Well, they'll do, like, you can do my makeup or do my hair or style me for credit. I've had friends do photography work for them. What does that mean? Like, take photos of them. Oh, like you can take credit. Oh, take credit. Like what influencers do.

Understood. Oh, take credit meaning like, I'll tag you. you. But like now I've had a few influencers that have 20 million followers and up. And they've said, lo, I love your work. Can you please tell me? And I will tag you. I'll put you in a story and I'll mention you in the caption.

And do you see a financial or monetary return? I always tell them no, I don't. I don't see anything. I'll get like maybe a few followers, but like nobody cares.com. No one gives shit. So it doesn't do anything for it. I mean, it could elevate you a little bit like because of like association like, oh, you're with that person

who's very popular. But that wears off within seconds. And now because the Kardashians, for example, have done that so much. That people are like, fuck you. Well, there's a lot of artists they've worked with. And they have, she has a regular person, Mario, who she's for makeup that she's been with for years. But then she'll work with a bunch of other random people tag them. But like, it again, doesn't turn into anything financial. If anything like it looks good in the moment. But it's probably good for your portfolio, though. Like if you're supposed you're going to like a random one in New York City with a wealthy couple and you're like, yeah, I do Kardashians makeup. They're probably like, oh my God, she does

go to issue the makeup. Or you've done it once. Like, that's what you should say. Yeah, you did it once. You did it once. And now you have your resume builder. Sure. But again, nowadays, I just feel like it doesn't really pay off all that much to do that.

I've had influencers reach out to me. Now what I say is whatever you think the price of that is, however much you think that's worth to you, just pay me that and don't tell anyone I've ever styled you. We'll just keep it our little secret because I don't give a shit about you mentioning it. I just want to get paid because that instant. Instagram tag isn't going to put gas in my tank. I respect that. I respect that.

And in the recap, again, this is another one. I was hired by, or I did hire low for a shoot. Oh, yeah. I'll tell you what I pay and I'll tell you if I think the return was there. The answer was it was. You killed it. It was great. And it was worth every penny.

And it's nothing I've paid for that before. But it was worth every friend and family discount. And I got the friends and family discount. As you should. Are you okay if I share that in the recap? Not the actual price, but I'm okay. Can I share your retail? What?

I can't share the price that I paid for you? I would prefer that if you didn't because literally no one pays that price. Okay. All right. What I will do is I'll get you with that retail, what it cost. Yeah. And I'll say retail what I pay. I would have paid.

Yeah. Deal. We'll do that in the recap. Okay. Yeah. This is a fascinating conversation. One that I had, I just, these are things about the industry I had no fucking clue about. Now, got a few more minutes, a few more questions.

And so the one thing that you said to me, this trip when you and I were planning out everything to do, our little itinerate. Yeah. One of the things we talked about was going to one of the malls here. And you made a comment to me that blew me away. And I hope I'm not alone for my listeners that are listening to this. I made a comment about the mall and you're like,

that place, like, anything that touches the hangers in that store. Okay. Is nine, nine months from. from how old it was when it came out. The thing is... And wait a second. I was blown away that you go to a store in Nashville, Tennessee, and it's likely that that piece of clothing might be nine months from release.

So, keep it real. It's a little dated. Why is that? Well, actually, for some reason, when it comes to the fashion in Nashville, I mean, they're known for great music, great people, Southern hospitality, but their fashion game isn't necessarily the strongest in regards to, like, keeping up with trends and what's hot, like, coming into the future. I don't think people look to Nashville to, like, predict what's coming in hot for spring, 2022. You know what I mean?

So that being said, I think the buyers for Nordstrom or whatever store are thinking through that. Are thinking that. And also not making a Nashville market, maybe their priority. So if you go to a Nordstrom in Los Angeles, the stuff that I'm going to see is very different. I'll see like newer pieces, stuff that's actually, I think, yeah, higher price point or more fashion forward. That's really, so based on, I could go to the same store. And if I traveled from Nashville, back to hometown to Buffalo, down to Miami, over to L.A., same Nordstrom, same timing, I will see a completely different array. Not completely different, but definitely there's some differences there.

They're going to have some of the core, like, basic items that every Nordstrom's is going to have. the staple pieces from every designer. But for like special stuff or things that are going to make you stand out, you probably won't get it from a Nordstrom inside, let's say, in Nashville. Unless the clientele is requesting it, unless they want that. But if, you know, the clientele isn't asking for it, they're not going to need that Balenciaga, really cool, edgy dress or purse or boots. They're going to save that for a New York client or L.A. sort of a thing.

Don't waste the inventory. Because it's not a ton of inventory these brands have, those high-end brands anyway. So it's tough in that sense. So if Nashville's nine months behind, how far is Buffalo behind? About five years behind. I would say, and it's weird. Like I noticed that when I was shopping in Nashville, this was like years ago, but I was like, everything feels so dated in this store.

Like, where's all the new shit? And she's like, we just got our shipment yesterday. And I'm like, wow, okay. So it was just tough. And now the clients that I do have in Nashville will literally fly. to L.A. to shop. Just like when I want to throw it down, I throw it down once a year and I clean out my closet and get a few new pieces. I had a coat, some jeans, liven it up a bit. I book my trip to New York to do that. I'm going to shop in New York over Los Angeles. Gotcha. Because New York is

where it's at for fashion. You get all the new stuff coming in. Interesting. The best, like in the United States, for sure New York would be the best place to shop. So, okay, well, we're going to wrap up here in just a minute, but now you brought up New York, New York Fashion Week. Okay. Yeah. You get Kim Kardashian wearing like black head to toe. Oh, that was at the Met Gala. Was that at the Met Gala? Not in New York Fashion Week. But New York Fashion Week is, yeah, a thing.

Is that like the goal? Like, do you want to style someone there one day? Or you're just like, is that like a big thing? Is that like the Stanley Cup or the Super Bowl in your industry? Met Gala is a big deal for costuming. But the thing is you get invited. Well, it's cool. It's not a goal of mine.

If it happens, it happens, that's very cool. But it's not something I'm like, oh, my God. Have to do it. Please, like, no. For the Met Gala, the designer gets paired with a celebrity. And basically, they create something special together to wear. It's usually custom. And so the stylists would work hand in hand with the designer to accessorize, finish off the look, or even design it.

But it's not necessarily, like, it doesn't pay a ton of money. Like, it's not something that's that exciting. Except, like, the pictures are cool, you know? Yeah. And you'll get, like, a really unique, I don't know, part of fashion history. if you end up wearing all black like Kim did, covering her face. Imagine her makeup artist probably was so sad that day. Why?

Because she didn't get her payday. Well, no. Like, I'm sure Kim still did a beat down and, like, took her mask off at some point. Oh, so you're saying she probably had to do the work and didn't get any credit for it. Well, yeah, like, she had, like, nothing to post. Like, I did Kim's makeup for the Matt Gala and she wore her freaking cheesecloth over her face. Like, kind of a bummer. But, hey.

All right. Two more questions for you. The one I want to talk about is back to Leonard. DeCaprio. 45 minutes. I don't work. Keep these pods under an hour long. It's like, get you in, get you out.

Wow. The dirt. Give me the trading secrets. Okay. We want the meat potatoes, not the bread. Okay. Leonardo de Caprio. Sure.

Suppose you style them for the Oscars. You hit it. What do you charge him? What do you charge Leonardo? Again, loaded question because it's not necessary, like I said, the one event. Like, you want to break it down. It would be one big fee. Also, is Paramount paying or is Netflix paying?

Oh, because you might change your price based on who's paying. Well, if it's out of pocket, I'm going to charge less than if Netflix or Paramount is paying. Out of pocket is the reference that means that Lean Arnold would pay you directly versus the studio. Yeah, which is, again, not as common. Yeah. Oh, and you also have to take into account, too. Are you getting paid by brands for him to wear certain things? Like, you can also add on.

So you might be able to double debt. I've had a, I mean, this is, again, not a regular occurrence. Sure. Flexing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is what you're here to talk about, the industry. where people can't find this stuff. But I had one client who had a Colgate campaign.

She had a hit show on a big network, and she paid out of pocket as well. So I got the Colgate rate. I think it was Colgate. It was some toothpaste company. But she had to promote that specific toothpaste on the red carpet. So that was paying me because they needed her to wear a specific color that represented the brand. Gotcha. The brand was, another brand was paying me for the jewelry she was wearing.

She was paying me, of course, my out-of-pocket. rate and the network that she was on was paying me. So I had four different people paying my rate for that one person to walk that one carpet. That was like, I think it was like a $15,000 carpet. Because you have four different streams of revenue for that shot. One person. That is the play rate there. That's the grand slam. Yeah, that's a grand slam. It doesn't happen like that all the time. That's actually, I'd say like that's a unicorn moment. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it doesn't. But if you have a client who's killing it and doing campaign work, well then, yeah, you'll get paid quite well.

We've seen inspirational. We've seen outlandish and outrageous. Yeah. We need low von Rump, the water to my oil. Yeah, the yin. The Lowe to my Jain. The yin to my yang. Low Van Rump, celebrity stylist,

the host of the low life. What's your trading secret? Okay, so there's a lot of them I can think of, but I'm trying to think like, what's the most valuable one? Okay. I've got it. I've got it. When it comes to, I guess, a lesson I've learned is, especially now, this is a good trading secret for any, I want a trading secret that, like, people could use outside of fashion.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Just so it can apply to everybody listening, who's an entrepreneur. I have, like, a soft spot in my heart for anyone who is starting their own business. I think that's incredible. It's not easy. 90% fail in the first year. So good for you.

Keep going. Anyway, the one thing I've noticed is specifically in a service industry is people don't equate what you do. with value unless your value, you stand by your value and you put some worth behind it. That being said, one lesson I've learned that I wish I would have done early on in my career is when you're building something for yourself, you're going to do a lot of free gigs. You've got to do shit for free. You've got to get your name out there. If you're doing hair, makeup, whatever it is, styling.

But what I've done now is even if I do reduce my rate or I have to do a free gig, which I'm not doing really these days. But if I have to, again, I always will submit an invoice. with the value of what they are getting, the goods and services provided. And it is helpful to do that because I've had clients that when you don't know how much something costs

or you're not paying for it, in the moment you're thankful, but you are so quickly to forget as someone who just receive something for free. And I see celebrities, I see people getting free shit all the time. And I remember I had one client and she's like, do you want those bags?

You could take them. And I was like, wow. And I knew how much each bag was like $1,000. Three of them just stacked. that we take them. Can you drop those off at Goodwill? Yeah. Because she just was like, I just don't have room for it.

The richest people are the ones who get some of like the shit for free, which is crazy because they're the ones who can afford it. That is a whole different discussion. That's a whole other episode. The wealthier and the bigger that you get, the less you pay for, keep going. Yeah. But I realized even with styling and stuff like that, some of these people would want deals and things like that.

But when you submit an invoice and let people know your value, even if they're not paying, there is always a value put to it. And they respect it. And they all, it's funny because I had another client of mine. And I sent her the invoice and I put, this was a $3,500 gig for everything that I did for her. And she called me so upset. I can't believe you just sent me this invoice. Like, why are you charging me?

Like, you're so shady. You said it was going to be for free. I thought I was your friend. You were doing me a solid. Like at the end, it says like a friends and family, Nolan Void. Like, this is just an invoice for your own records so you know what we're doing for you. Just for you to have a receipt. That's it.

She's like, oh, she didn't read like the little print underneath it. She just saw the number. It was like, lost it. Yeah. Yeah. But it's great because it weeds out those that would never pay for you that just want a favor. She ended up hiring me and paying my rate.

And we've continued to work together for over five years. She's an amazing client. But again, I put value to it. And she always talks about that situation. She's like, I'm so glad you did because I had worked with a bunch of other people. And I had no idea what they charged. I was going through them just like not really mindful. mindful that people are actually putting in, you know, blood, sweat, tears, work, time, energy

into something. That is such a good, during secret. And it goes back to the conversation that we had about when I worked with you. And I even mentioned, like, I know what the retail value. And I said the retail value, I would have never known if you didn't send me that invoice. Oh, we did. Yeah. That said, you sent me the invoice.

Yeah. And it said the retail value. It said the family friends discount. And I think just seeing that number gives you such an appreciation. for like to work and the help that you're doing and everything. And you're so right. People who keep doing things for free, for free, for free, then the expectation becomes your work is for free.

So anyone out there that I think that has like 1099 worker, your service consulting gig or anything that you're doing, it's a really good point to get going. Yeah. Or to help people or to start with people doing it for free makes sense, but never forgetting the invoice for what that would have cost to give people the perspective. And also,

and appreciation, right? Everyone, no matter if you're rich, poor, in the middle, Everyone loves a deal. Everyone wants to feel like they're getting a hookup. Yeah. So even if you're like giving them a discount or charging them, you're right, make sure they love to feel like they're getting some sort of a win.

So give them the win and show them so they have a record of it, either through an invoice or you could send it through a text. There's so many ways now. There's apps that do it for you in seconds. Give the people what they want. Give them the win. Lovan Rumpf, people here in this, how they wouldn't have heard of you before,

I don't know. but suppose they have it. Where can they find more... What? Are you talking about? Look at the TV shut down. Where can they find more low? The podcast is social. Oh, yes.

Tell me everything. If you want to keep in touch with me, you could slide into my DMs. You can hit me up on Instagram at Style LVR. That's S-T-Y-L-E. L-V-R, which is an acronym for my name, which is L-V-R-R-V-R. also lover. It's cute, right? Style LVR. And then my podcast is the low-life podcast where

Jason Tartick is one of the highest downloaded episodes, the Wolf on Wall Street, the Dow Jones, Daddy. I'm coming back for more. He is coming back for more. But he's one of the founding fathers of the low-life podcast. And that's, yeah, low-life podcast. And that's wherever you stream your podcast, you could find my little shit show of a podcast, which is a wonderful listen. I love that. It's a wonderful listen. You're a hell of a host. You'll always get something from it. You'll always get a takeaway and you're a hell of a guest. Thank you, Jason. Let's keep his party going.

Thank you so much for being a guest on Trains Secret City. I love it. Thank you for having me. I love you, Jay. Digging that money and money. We are ringing in the closing bell with the curious Canadian, the voice of the viewer on the Lovon Rumpf episode, the stud, the host of the host of the low-life podcast, the celebrity stylist.

We heard it all from him. And guess what? This is going to be a first time ever on Trading Secrets. First time ever. Our guest is part of our recap. So while I'm going to kick it over to you, the voices of the viewer, the Curious Canadian,

for you to tell me what you thought of this episode, there's a lot of pressure on your chest today, David, because all the criticism that you have is going to be right in the face of Lovol. I've never seen the curious. Canadian. Have your listeners seen what he looks like? Oh, yes. Oh, they have? Yeah. Do you want to give him a little synopsis stuff? Yeah, exactly what I'm seeing right now. What do you treat? What a Canadian little snack over here, not hitting on him, just acknowledging the fact that he looks like, look at this.

Who is it? Dylan McDermott. Dylan McDermott. Have you ever gotten that before? Yes, 100%. So I used to get Ross and friends a lot, but I've grown out of that. Your body looks like his too. Wow. Minus the broken collar bone. Yeah. I used to get. at Ross from friends a lot, but I grew out of that into Dillon McDermott. But I have like five good doppelgangers. I think I would want, I think I'd want Dylan McDermott. Do you agree? That's a good looking man.

That's a studdley picture. Yeah. Minus the allegations against him, you know, for a lot of life aside. Aesthetics. Well, now that Lowe is done complimenting the voice of the fewer over here. We have the Lowe who is my bro and then we have David who is bros. We have like the Lowe

show here. Ew. Because Lowe always says that Lowe always says to me, you're such a straight butch. That's what you call it. Accurate. David might not be, David's straight, but he might not be so butching it up. I'm here. I'm down to butcher it up with you guys.

Let's get fratty with it. Let's get fratty with that. All right. So David, kick it up. What do you got for us? Well, I appreciate the compliments. Usually I don't have to see the person that I'm recapping so I can throw a little jabs or some churbs or shred them a little bit.

But I'm not going to do that because, A, you don't deserve it. And B, you butter me up with a nice compliment. it. So we're going to go from there. But no, it was a really, really awesome episode. Like Jay said, I love clothes. I have too many clothes. Maybe they're not the nicest designer clothes, but I've always had an interest in fashion and just looking good, feeling good. This was high level. I felt like I was in science class. We were talking about neutrons and protons and protons. And I'm like, I don't know what's going on. You're talking about showrooms and designers and campaigns. But the thing is, when it comes to like nice stuff, if you're spending $100 on a t-shirt or a 10

bucks on it. I feel like it's worth it no matter what. As long as you're happy with it, whether it's a little shitty item or something you splurged on, I think there's value to it. Like one of my favorite pieces I have is $15 shirt from Amazon and I get so many compliments on it. Just saying it's not all about the boogey life. I do love that. It's not all about that boogey life. Yeah, but affordable is great too. Affordable is great too. One thing I got to ask Jay about that you told me to bring up in the recap, Jay, you're your experience in a showroom and I'm really curious to hear what your experience is like because I'm trying to like picture and visualize what.

when Lowe was talking about showrooms, what they look like, what they are with the experiences. So I have to start by asking you your experience in a showroom. Yeah, so I was in L.A. And it was like, right after I got off the show and a PR company was like, come to our showroom. I had no idea what a showroom was. But it's exactly what Lowe said.

So we were in this warehouse. I remember we went up two floors. And then it's like you're actually at a store. But each area was branded off based on men's versus women's and also the type of clothing and the brand. So majority, I would say like 85. percent of the stuff in this showroom was for women. But they showcased me to like all the stuff that was for men. I was like, okay, like, I really like that. And I like that. And she's like,

oh, just take it. And I was like, do, is there like a budget here? Like should I only spend 500? Like she's like, no, no, like literally anything you see here, just take it. I was like, well, what if it like doesn't fit? She's like, just keep it. Like no. Like, what it reminded me when low was like that woman was like, oh, there's three bags over there. They're like a thousand bucks each. It was an absolute free-for-all. It was like Goldberg for Muddy Ducks when he goes to Rodeo Drive, except you could actually take it, leave,

and they didn't ask for anything. They're like, you didn't have to tag. You didn't have to do it. They're like, yeah, you're good. Because that's the allotted merchandise that's strictly for gifting. So brands will send that, and that's specific, like, okay, we have this many size run of this. You can give them to whatever you guys want. It's for you to give at your discretion. Just make sure

it gets placed on someone with X amount of followers or whatever. Their specific things are. But that's why, when you go and they're like, take what you want. They're not like that with everybody. Gotcha. But that's a great. David, you would have had a field day in there. Oh, I'm just like, smiled, ear to ear, grinning, like just picturing myself in that position. But I got a question for Lowe. We talk a lot about influencers and social media. So I'm going to kind of stick on that realm here. At what level of, let's say, Instagram, fandom, followership, do you have to get to, to be invited into one of

these showrooms? Great question. Well, actually now, because, I mean, everyone can have a million followers. It's not so much about the actual number of followers now. It's about the content you're producing, the type of influencer you are, and if you fit the demographic of the audience, they're trying to reach. So it's now so specific. I have one client who has, I don't know, 20,000 followers, but they're right on brand. They're the perfect look, feel, vibe.

Their music is amazing. And this particular brand was like, we're dying to get our stuff on this new emerging artist. It doesn't have a ton of followers. But again, so it really just depends now. back like five years ago followers definitely mattered but now no one cares no one cares how many followers you have because it doesn't return the investment like it doesn't do anything for the brand really doesn't i think i feel like brands are starting to identify the power of influencer marketing and because of that they're just pouring more like resources into researching okay how do we actually

like make this work right rather than throwing shit against a wall seeing what sticks like they're actually like doing more research so that's really interesting and then jay i got to ask you because You brought it up, and I have to ask, you hired Lowe for services one day, too. What did that include? And what was the, what's the retail price, going price of what, what was done? For sure. So I was hesitant about it, David. And what I did, you'll love this.

I put a relatively big bet and on a Sunday game. I said, Lowe, I win this game. I'm hiring you. We won the game, hired them. We decided a date that made sense. And Lode picked out all my different looks. I had like six different looks, which means you get six. different, like, really quality pictures and those looks. And then he did my makeup that day

and was just unbelievable at, like, being like, no, we need to shoot over here. These are the different spots. He's at the location. So he did all that in the day. We did that a year ago. I was so overwhelmed with how the price point at what I paid was so worth it. And I'm not just saying that. Because I am, you know, me, I don't know, I wouldn't say frugal. I'm just like the values got to make sense. Boy, did the value. Utility. Utility. The beauty. The beauty. The beautiful. utility, which I had explained to low over there. But it made so much sense. I would do it again over and over. The retail price of what, and Lo gave me a friends and family discount, but the retail price for that day was $2,500, right? Yeah, anywhere between like $2,500, depending on, but

you have to add in like the assistant, my manager takes a fee, an agency fee, if that's needed, which was needed in your case, dry cleaning for everything, showroom and restocking fees, the product that's used for his hair, face, you know, and then my time, gas. Is that when you, is that when you went to the showroom to get the clothes for the shoot? Oh, no, no, I went to, well, I did two pool days to prepare for him and then two return days to get everything back and dry clean. So there's, it's like a four day process just for the, and then the actual day shooting him. So it's really like a three to five day depending on how much we're going to do. And this was just like, David, it was just me, low and a photographer. Like, we're

not talking like studio. This isn't like red carpet stuff. This was like, probably one of the lower level things low is doing on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, but I love every second of it. It was amazing. The behind-the-scenes stuff from the shoot and stuff. But I'm pretty sure the picture, a picture that you took is on the trading secrets cover.

It is the trading secrets cover, and it's going to be on the book. Huge. So think about that. It's really cool. So well done, good vision, David. It's just an absolute elephant brain on my part. $2,500.

The curtains are revealed. Now tell me, what's next? Okay, I got a question for low. Hit it. It's a little game we're going to play. It's called overrated, underrated, and then most annoying. Okay. I want to know from your eyes, not the voice of the viewer, but someone who's very into this scene,

into this world, of fashion, your most overrated brand, your most underrated brand, and a brand that when you see, you just get cringy because of whatever it may be. It's tough because if I were to say any brands overrated, it's going to be the one time I client's a huge fan of that particular brand, and then I'm screwing myself. So I'll just say this much about overrated brands, because there are a ton that you're paying too much. But I can throw everyone under the bus by saying there's certain things that you can buy at designer stores that I think are so overrated. Don't make any sense to buy because it's not their forte. I'm talking about timepieces and sunglasses. A lot of like Burberry, Dolce, Gabbana, Gucci, Louis Vuitton,

they offer even jewelry to some of these designers. They offer that, but I don't think it's worth it at all. And they charge a lot for these watches. I remember being at Burberry and selling a watch for $3,000 or something like that. And they talk about like, it's a time piece. It's not a watch. And it's all this like bells and whistles. It's all the same shit. I think they use the same manufacturer as Saco who starts at around like $150. Yeah, yeah. Sold at Macy's. So again, like if you're buying time pieces, you're strictly buying the name, the designer label or sunglasses. But there's not much to that watch that you're buying. So that's every brand, I guess, would be over. rated in that sense. And a lot of people

go and buy like the Dulchingabana, the microcours watch, but I mean, go with an actual watch company if you want to do, like, just buy a Seco. Unless you just want the brand recognition. So I guess that's overrated, all that shit. That's funny, Jay, do you remember I don't even love no.

Oh my God, yeah. It was low nose of story, but I flew out to Seattle before Jay went on the show to like just, we went shopping, we did all this, trying to just like be with him before he left. And he was like all set on buying this like one watch. It was like, I might have been a, you were thinking about a Rolex, but I think it was a bright. Brightling, I think. Bright. Yeah, it was like, I have no idea

what that is. I have no. You're not spending on this. No, you're not, don't do it. You're not going on the show showing up with one of those. So we went to like a Norstrom or something and end up buying three watches for like 200 bucks total that all had different like one was a blue face. One was like, you could color coordinate with different outfits. And it was like. And so we took that budget and we spent it on clothing, which made way more sense. David was my stylist, actually, going into The Bachelor. I forgot about that. Yeah, huge upgrade, though.

You've upgraded. You've upgraded in the style of the-in-the-stallist department. Amazing. Yeah, so good call there. All right, what about underrated? Oh, under-oh, my God. There are so many small designers that don't get the recognition they deserve. Like, OTT, Dubai, they're out of Dubai.

They have representation here in the States. But these little micro brands that are doing incredible stuff, a particular account you guys should follow. It's called, oh, shit, what's the name of it? What's the name of it? Something. Wait. Because they'll call out all of these brands. They're ripping off these small brands.

And it's Diet Prada. There it is. Diet Prada. Diet Prada. They call out all of these major huge brands that are taking ideas from these tiny brands and designers and redoing it and doing something or stealing an idea that someone else had years ago. Brand stealing from other brands.

They call everybody out. It's amazing. It's a great account. So in that sense, I'd say, like, all these small micro entrepreneurs that are trying to do their thing, they're all underrated. They need recognition. But Diet Prod is a great place to see a lot of those brands. Love it. And do you have a cringe-worthy?

Any brand out there? Cringe-worthy? Makes your skin crawl. You know what? It does make my skin crawl, but, like, I love it at the same time. I'm talking about Von Dutch and good old Ed Hardy. And it's making a comeback. I used to wear some of that in college.

Hell, yeah. Talk about spending overpriced shit. But the amount of trucker hats and Ed Hardy T-shirts, I loved it. I had Ed Hardy boxers. And like right on the hammer, it was a tiger. Oh, amazing. It was little flames coming down. I used to love those boxers.

Is that what you call your dick a hammer? Yeah. Right on the freaking hammer. Wow. What do you call your dick? I usually call it a dick. Oh, interesting. Or in Enrique, I named him, Enrique.

Enrique, Ricky. Or Ricky, sure. Little Ricky. Little Ricky. Little Ricky. Moving on, you guys brought up at the very, very start. And I don't even know if it'll make the edit in the, in the pod. But when I was listening back, you said how you and Lowe bond over fireside chats,

just getting in the weeds, getting deep about some things. And I don't even know if we're going to have time for it here, but I got a good fireside chat we could talk about because I think we already talked a little bit about like cost and value of clothing and stuff like that, which is a good fireside chat. I think another one would be talking about you mentioning that you could style our wedding. I would assume that David just had a wedding, he would probably be like, what the fuck is he even talking about? Is that right, David? That like, am I any bit right there?

That was my next note, actually, is you mentioned styling a wedding and Jay has no idea what he's getting himself into in terms of the wedding planning as a whole because it is insane. and just hearing you say like, oh, styling Jay's wedding, is that, I'm just curious, is that the talks to these wearing, is it? Sure is. Yeah. Well, you know what? There's friendship and then there's business and I will shop you out and check and benchmark your pricing. Exactly. But just like you talked about the services you provided for that $2,500 shoot, I don't really care as much about the dollar amount. What are you going to do for his wedding? Is it his talks, his groomsman suits? Is it anything to do with KB? Is it color patterns? Is it florist? Is it what do you work?

So I usually when it comes to styling one, I've done a lot of weddings in my day, which is fun when my clients get married, they usually bring me on to style it. But I'll work hand in hand with the planner. Did you catch that? That was passive, aggressive. Yeah. Typically, if they're a great client, 99% would hire me. If not, if there's budgetary constraints, maybe they're not up and up financially. There's like some offshore accounts. Maybe Jason doesn't want to dive into. Anyway, if that happens, no, but for the most part, when I style a person's wedding, I work with the planner and, of course, the bride and groom, and it's a matter of convenience. So when it comes to, let's say, Caitlin, she's going to be

wearing a dress for the wedding. She's going to do a change for the reception. She's already talked about wanting two different looks. And then, of course, the bridal shower, and then a bachelorette type outfit for that dinner slash party. So about four looks for Caitlin there, maybe five. She might do separate photos, and we'll get another dress for that. So four to five looks for that. All of those need to be accessorized. So I'd get her, instead of Caitlin going in buying jewelry, fine jewelry, I'll get millions of dollars worth of jewelry that she has accessible to her for the big day as well as shoes, like the lingerie, everything is covered, which is going to need a little cute outfit to slip into after.

Wow, that's part of your like... Oh, yeah. I have like cute outfits to go underneath. And then also with Jay, he's going to wear a little G string for his tiger, whatever he wants to put his tiger in. So when dressing you, it will be, of course, kind of the same. You're going to need some nice suiting, some nice casual outfit. if you want to do like the dinner beforehand, the rehearsal dinner. There's a lot of things that come up leading into a wedding and even after it.

So with that, it's just a matter of convenience. I take care of all of that. So you pay my rate. Most of the cost is included within the rate. And then you basically, we do a fitting and you have everything lined up. Get to go head to toe. For Jay, I'll probably do grooming on him for his wedding because I've done it before. You know, hair make a little touch up for the photos and stuff.

But yeah, and then I work with the, what is it? not party planner, the wedding planner, and we talk about the color specifics and the whole vibe of the wedding. So when it comes to the bridal party, what colors, what silhouette best works for their type of body frame, the mother of the bride, the father of the bride. I help with all of that creatively. And it makes it just a little bit of a smoother process and everyone feels great, looks great, and has reassurance because there's a lot of group text that happen. There's a lot of people who question, what the hell am I wearing, what should I be doing, including the bride and both side. So if I'm the liaison for that, it just makes things go a lot more seamlessly. And you can

just focus on having a good time on your day. But I want you to have a good time on my day too. No, the day of, that's what my work is done. I get to see everything shine. Leading up to it, it's quite a bit of work planning. And I've already talked to Caitlin about designers that she's interested in. And there's a whole thing that will go into that. But that's kind of where it comes from. All right, David, you just heard that over under, what do you think his retail price should be for that? I know he's not going to confirm it, but I just want to hear. That's a, that's a huge job. But if you're worried about both sides and more than just the wedding day, we're talking rehearsal dinner, we're talking bachelor,

we're talking different looks, we're talking over top, we're talking underneath. I mean, that's five figures. That's got to be like 50, like you said, I think, like that's got to be 10,000, 15,000, no. If you're doing $2,500 for a one-day shoot, we're spreading this on the biggest day of your life and the biggest moments and the most capturable events.

Millions of dollars worth of jewelry. I'm thinking, I'm thinking it's minimum. I mean, he said 15,000. I think it's got to be close to that. I'll let you guys do the negotiations. We'll do a whole episode on the negotiating. David, we negotiate on the air.

We just negotiate right here. I'm like, five big years, are you crazy? Like, 500 bucks, and you got some buffalo wings on me. I give you a $50 gift card to Buffalo Wildlings. All right, David, what else? This has been some great fireside chat, by the way. This is what happens. We like to keep our recaps to 15 minutes,

but this is how low in eyes life work. And same with you and I, David. Like, when we're together, we're in person, we're on a couch, got a drink, cocktail, maybe a joint, maybe an edible, maybe none of the above, just a nice glass of cold water or the lemon in it. And time evaporates. We just lose track of it. And this happens every time.

And what do you call it here? You call it. The Twilight Zone. He's like, what? That's what it feels like here. The Bermuda Triangle. Yeah. It's just, I start the day and then it just gets lost.

I have a few conversations with Jane and then at 7.30 p.m. and we're ready for dinner. So. Well, I'm jealous because twofold. First off, it's nice to finally meet me. Likewise, Dylan. I've heard so much about you. And I always joke that like you're my biggest rival because all the times that you're in Nashville or like when you guys were together in L.A. Like I wanted to be in that house.

I wanted to be doing. Oh, that would have been amazing. I wanted to betting on football. And I still have never been to Nashville, which I'm way overdue for. Yeah. Oh, it's beautiful. I fell in love with this state. Open-minded.

We got to get you here. We got to get you here. Yeah, it's great. But no, this is great. We could go on for hours and hours. We might have to do a post recap, recap with just three of us and cut the mic, cut the mics off. I love that. I want to ask one last question because I know David and I were prepping for the recap, the last one,

and we're born over 20 minutes. And I think this is a good one for any female or male listening. Do you think, so at our age, we're in our 30s, do you think there should be like a set number of clothing? And this is coming in from David. Do you think there should be a set number of items, like a number of jackets, a number of suits, a number of high heels, like that you should have or like, how do you manage, a closet. Oh, I love a good closet. And the thing is, too, is it changes so often. So give us your takeaway. Well, again, depends on the lifestyle, what type of profession you have, how much you travel.

All those things go into factor in. We're talking about a guy's wardrobe. Guy or male or female. Again, very different. You've got to be a guy. Females have two men. Let's give me a male tie line and a female time. I'll say roughly for most of my guys, if they're just working like eight to five job and let's throw in the occasional family party and then a couple corporate events, you should have between 30 and 40 pieces max. I think that's a really good number to stick at, 30 to 40. That includes, you know, a couple nice leather jackets, a great pair of jeans, dark white, good chino, a desert boot, a Chelsea boot, a wingtip, Oxford, all the essentials, that sort of thing. Okay. And how often should you do an audit,

male or female, on your clothing to make sure you're in the times and in the sizes that are correct? I like to do my audits every season because I don't have a ton of closet space. So as soon as fall rolls around. I'm bringing out my fall wardrobe. But like as I'm putting out my fall coats and stuff, which come on now in LA, but I have a whole little fall. 80 degrees every fucking day. I'm rocking a beautiful trench coat. But when I start to switch over or bring out my pieces, usually then I'll get rid of some spring, summer stuff and just audit while I'm doing that. So every spring and summer are basically, or spring, summer and fall winter are the two times when I will get rid of some shit. God, I need to step my game up. David, does it make you feel

overwhelmed at all? It keeps it manageable. It shouldn't be overwhelmed if you're, If you're doing it as you go, then it feels good. Because summer's over, you're like, I don't need this shit anymore. Let me just, that's a perfect time to get rid of stuff. I have an obnoxious amount of closet space, and I have just, like, collected clothes over the year. So I probably still have, like, Geneseo Intramural Championship features. Hey, no shame in that.

But what I started doing is putting sticky notes on the hangers of all my articles of clothing, and when you wear it, you take it off. And then after a year, you go back and you see what's the sticky notes on it. And then you throw that, you give that away, or you don't. because if you don't wear it in a year you're never wearing it again. I love that idea. Yeah. Look at that. That's why he was my

stylist before I went on the bachelor. Okay. David, anything else before we wrap this beautiful recap with our first ever live guest to be part of the recap? I know. What an honor. No, I'm good. This has been fun. So, David, thank you for this. I love it. Well, I hope everyone here

thought this was another episode of Trading Secrets when they could not afford to miss. I mean, And we hit every in and out, in my opinion, of the stylist game while Lowe's scolding me, like, you think you hit the whole industry in just 70 minutes. Yeah, no chance. Sicko. But if you guys enjoyed this episode, please remember to give us five stars. It has been such a pleasure to have a recap with not only our guests, Lovan, but also

our curious Canadian David Ardwin. Lo, did I say your name right? You did for the first time. ever. Join us next Monday for another episode of Trading Secrets. One, you can't afford to miss. Thank you.