Meet: Patrick Mackie

Stylist Patrick Mackie believes that both education and practical work experience have played an important role in his successful career; where he has done covers with everyone from Gigi Hadid and Jennifer Lopez to Gisele and Precious Lee. He's currently a Contributing Editor for British Vogue.

A London College of Fashion (LCF) graduate from the GNVQ in Business of Fashion and BA (Hons) Fashion Studies, we spoke to Patrick to hear his advice to recent graduates wanting to break into the industry.

Why did you choose to study at LCF?

I always knew I loved fashion, but I had no concept of how to get into the fashion world. I loved History and Art, but I wasn’t sure how they fitted into a job, let alone a job in fashion and my all-boys school was quite traditional. The advice was to carry on to A-levels, choosing from the limited eight subjects.

It was when I was sixteen and I went into the school’s career office, that I spotted a purple brochure for LCF.  Having a flick through, I saw the GNVQ in Business of Fashion. It was like a lightbulb moment – the course was exactly what I was looking for as it offered an overview of the entire fashion industry. I applied for an interview and was offered a place!

How did you find the move to New York? 

It was when I was completing my visa application for the move that I realised how important the work placements had been. Part of the application process considered years worked, and both the placements and being able to work alongside the part-time course were an integral part of that.

The actual move itself was a bit of a shock – New York is even more fast-paced than London, and despite having a strong education in fashion I didn’t feel like I knew enough about the practicalities of working in the fashion industry.

One thing I learned was how important it was to say yes to any opportunity. It’s actually how I ended up working with Camilla Nickerson, who has been described by Business of Fashion (BoF) as one of fashion's most accomplished fashion editors.

I was working with a stylist assistant Anouchka Houser on a shoot in London for Arena Homme+ when she asked me to help clear a whole room of returns. It was this chance meeting with Anouchka that helped me further my own career. Anouchka went on to work as Camilla Nickerson’s assistant at American Vogue, and when she left the role, I was recommended for the job. It was my first big break into the industry in America.

I worked with Camilla for seven years, and it was an incredibly formative time. She taught me that to be a great stylist you need to get inside the mind of the designers, to be able to work collaboratively with them; you need to understand their minds and their reference points. It’s where my interest in History and Art really came through as well, as I would spend hours in libraries researching.

You’ve had such a successful career full of amazing experiences, but are there any that really stand out? 

One moment that really choked me a little bit was when my work was in the MAD (Musée des Arts Décoratifs) Paris exhibit at the Louvre. It was for the 150th anniversary of Harper’s Bazaar. The exhibit opened just before COVID broke out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the event, but people sent me images and videos from the opening night. It gave me goosebumps as they put the cover story that I shot with Camilla Akrans and Zoe Kravitz where she’s running with wolves and had the actual Valentino Couture gown next to the image in the exhibit. They had the pictures I did of Angelina Jolie with Solve (Sundsbo). There were quite a few cover shoots that I’d done in the exhibit and to see the covers that I did with Zoe, Angelina, and Jennifer Lopez flashing over the Louvre walls on the opening night made me think “That’s pretty epic.”