Hollywood is a town built on relationships, but no professional pairing is quite as intimate as the coupling of star and stylist. From understanding personal taste to being supremely sensitive to a star’s likes and dislikes about their own body, the stylist often must adopt a persona that’s a blend of fashion guru, psychiatrist, best friend and keeper of secrets.
So what happens when the connection no longer works? Lately, a number of stars have sought to make a drastic change, forging new stylist alliances to overhaul their red carpet game. Jennifer Lawrence, who’d worked with Jamie Mizrahi, launched into a partnership with Ryan Hastings before her Die My Love press tour last fall. Meanwhile, Oscar best actress favorite Jessie Buckley — who had embraced a punk aesthetic in 2023 while working with stylist Rose Forde — decided for the Hamnet promotional tour to pair up with Danielle Goldberg, who is widely agreed to be the hottest stylist working today and has brought couture-level sophistication to Buckley’s awards season looks. Goldberg likewise has taken on Zoë Kravitz and Carey Mulligan — both of whom had been working with Andrew Mukamal — in recent months. And Minnie Driver has been winning praise for her style since switching from Katie Bofshever to Andrew Gelwicks before the season five press tour for Emily in Paris.
Stylist switcheroos have become a game of musical chairs. Margot Robbie made the leap from Kate Young to Mukamal before the extensive press tour for 2023’s Barbie, which three years later still reigns as the most effective example of method dressing in both the film and fashion industries. Mukamal and Robbie built on the idea with February’s Wuthering Heights tour, with the stylist sourcing custom corset looks from Chanel, Thom Browne, Dilara Findikoglu and others. Robbie, notably, was a producer on both films, which means she and Mukamal were not only creating method-dressing moments that became Insta-worthy fashion conversations, but they also were making smart business decisions for each film’s promotion.
Jason Bolden, stylist to Cynthia Erivo, Nicole Kidman and others, was working with Sabrina Carpenter as recently as the Governors Ball Music Festival in June 2024. But Jared Ellner also had recently signed on with the singer-songwriter and is thought to have played a role in the star’s collaboration with Victoria’s Secret, which became essential to the lingerie-inspired looks Carpenter wore throughout her Short n’ Sweet Tour in 2024 and 2025.
Social media plays an undeniable role in the star-stylist equation, as rabid fans increasingly don’t hold back with their opinions. Last April, stylist Julie Ragolia tweeted on X that one of Pedro Pascal‘s fans had gone too far with criticism: “One of you called for my death because you didn’t like Pedro’s outfit,” she wrote. That brought additional critics out of the woodwork, dismissive of the boundary-pushing and often viral looks Ragolia was creating, and which Pascal wore with enthusiasm. The same day, Ragolia tweeted, “Pedro is a grown adult with his own opinions on what he likes and what feels good on him. Stylists are not dictators. We are collaborators.”
But the stress of becoming a styling pariah to anonymous fans may have taken its toll, as Ragolia announced two months later that she and Pascal agreed to call it quits. “I’m a storyteller, so I told a story about how men of a certain age can still be seen as sexy. After Cannes was a good time to part ways,” she told GQ in July; most recently, Pascal has been working with Mizrahi (who, if you’re keeping up, was dumped by Lawrence), and in the images she posts to her Instagram, Pascal’s fans seem to have backed off the judgment.
Of such changes, one stylist puts it succinctly: “It’s not personal. It’s business.” Ultimately, the star-stylist marriage never was designed to last forever. For every Zendaya and Law Roach (together since 2014), Demi Moore and Brad Goreski (2008), Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn with Jennifer Lopez (2011), or Emily Blunt and Jessica Paster (2005), there are other A-listers who find that their evolving taste may require a change of stylist. Though sometimes it isn’t their idea. “If a publicist or manager is seeing that the star they represent isn’t getting the style coverage they should, they’ll start looking at stylists who are getting accolades for their work, and they may start pushing that conversation,” explains one agent.
Paster, who worked with Louis Vuitton on the sleek white custom gown Blunt wore to the Golden Globes — roundly agreed to be among the night’s best looks — believes loyalty on both sides is key. “Zendaya will never leave Law, Demi will never leave Brad, and Emily and I will never leave each other,” says Paster, whose longtime clients also include Aubrey Plaza and Carla Gugino. “If Jennifer Lopez came to me and said she wanted to work with me, I’d tell her no, because what Rob and Mariel create with her is magic. That’s when you know it’s working, and all of these relationships are magical.”
This story appeared in the March 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
