Tools of the Trade: LA Stylist Anne Ross

Anne Ross shares her indispensable tools of the trade:

1. A calm attitude.  In this field, it’s most important to be calm in order to let the creativity flow.  The minute I get stressed out or consumed with the politics of the shoot, I find myself blocked from making solid choices.  A calm mind is the best way to allow creative solutions to come forward.   Once, while working on several overlapping jobs, I actually forgot my entire kit at home.  After a small freak out, I took a deep breath and got very creative finding all the tools I needed to make it work.  After that experience, I realized how important this “tool” is to always have on a job.

2. A steamer. You can figure out almost every other tool from pins, to a makeshift clothing rack on the fly if necessary but a steamer is a must!

3. A gerber or leatherman.  I bring a complete and full kit for whatever curveball may come my way, but if I had to limit my prop kit to one tool, this would be it.  

4. I also really like the Business Expense Tracker app to keep track of expenses and receipts.  It can be personalized to include categories specific to each job.  The fact that it is a phone app means I don’t have to worry about getting back to my laptop to do accounting.  It also syncs my iPad, laptop and phone so each time I save something, it’s updated universally.  I get a little obsessive about keeping track of receipts and love the satisfaction of inputting them as soon as possible.  I also like Genius Scan, which  uses the camera on my phone.  It’s a quick & simple way to turn any document info a pdf.  Of course, for accounting I’m always impressed with QuickBooks.

To read more about Anne Ross, check out our interview with her here

Interview by: Annika Howe
Photography by: David Zaitz