Photo: Photograph by Luis Alberto Rodriguez Growing up in Queens, Carlos Nazario had two wardrobes: Sean John jeans paired with Jordans or Timbs for day and miniskirts with thigh-high Converse boots for night. Most weekends, he’d sneak out and take a two-fare trip into the city to clubs like Happy Valley and Splash, or to Warehouse in the Bronx, where your outfit could make your evening.
Nazario knew he wanted to be part of the fashion industry someday. He toyed with the idea of being a photographer or designer but knew those specific disciplines weren’t for him; he wondered what other ways there might be to somehow have a hand in shaping the magic he saw in magazines and advertisements. He’d fallen in love, first, as so many teens at the time did, with the beefcake images of Bruce Weber.
Typically, a stylist’s work is divided between commercial and editorial — the former is how they make money, the latter how they earn cred. Nazario consults for brands as disparate as Lanvin, Burberry, and John Elliott, styling their runway shows and campaigns and advising on casting and photography. At Hood by Air, which returned from a long hiatus last summer, he’s charged with streamlining Oliver’s vision. “A lot of times with the team, we’re very emotional about the work.
After a year at Love, he cold emailed Joe McKenna, who had styled those Weber campaigns for Abercrombie & Fitch and Calvin Klein that Nazario had pored over as a teenager, and got a job as his assistant. It was an ideal education.
After landing some big covers in 2018 — styling Solange for T, Rihanna for Garage, Gigi Hadid for W — Nazario got on a shortlist of stylists that Vogue wanted to add to its roster. “I don’t know if I’m speaking out of turn,” he said, “but it was my impression that Vogue was going through a transitional phase where they were exploring what the next generation of Vogue editors was going to be.” By early 2019, Anna Wintour’s blind spots were obvious.
TheCut EmiliaPetrarca Love his work. Just observing how a billion dollar industry of women’s interests is still predominantly male helmed😔Gender fluidity aside, I still have to validate my worth in business bc Im a woman everyday🧐Have 2 ask how many women in the industry hold executive roles as such