Meet Rachel Mannello

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Mannello. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Rachel, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?

At 29 I found myself wanting more from my job. I had a degree in photography but didn’t quite feel passionate about pursuing it as a career. I was a producer at the time which lacked the creativity I longed for. Then inspiration struck while watching the Prop Stylists on set. Their job wasn’t always easy, but felt like the perfect combination of creativity and play.

Once I had my “AH-HA” moment I had to figure out how I was going to make being a freelance prop stylist work. Not only was it a career change but I would now be working for myself with no safety net of a full time job.

The way I have learned to make big life decisions is to work backwards. What is the worst case scenario? It doesn’t work out, I make no money, get no jobs. Okay, then what? I would have to leave New York and live at home for a few months while I looked for a full time job again. Not ideal but I can live with that.

So here I am 6 years later working as a Prop, Set and Interior Stylist in New York. Schelping, creating and playing.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a Prop, Set and Interior Stylist.

I feel very lucky that I get to do this for a living. Creating something from nothing, scouring the city for some obscure ingredient, or finding the perfect piece of art. There’s never a dull moment and you are constantly learning new things.

One day I can be in a studio doing a still life shoot for your favorite sock brand and the next day I am in a gorgeous Clinton Hill brownstone shooting the catalogue for a high end furniture design company. My most recent project was stepping into the Interior Designer role and designing a new restaurant opening this month which has been one of my most challenging, exciting and rewarding projects to date.

Don’t get me wrong. The schlep is real. Last minute requests are not scarce. But even on the bad days it’s still better than any other job I can imagine and there is a really beautiful community of other stylists who love to share their wealth of knowledge and lend support and camaraderie when needed.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Resilience
A good work ethic
My personal job history

My advice to anyone who is looking to get into this field is to research and reach out to as many working stylist as you can to create a network. Try everything. Assist as many different types of stylist as you can. See what you like and don’t like, be open to learning.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am always looking to partner or collaborate with other creatives be it a test shoot, a new project idea, etc. I love learning and trying new things.

The same goes for clients. I want to help bring their newest idea or project to life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rachelmannello.com
• Instagram: @rightmeeeow

Image Credits

Jonathan Pilkington