In A Nutshell: Aimee Croysdill

As part of our commitment to local creatives we are using this time to get to know the Winchester scene a little better! Our ‘In a Nutshell’ interviews are aimed at local creatives, practitioners, freelancers and independent businesses residing in Winchester. We want to use our platform to meet new people and showcase the incredible talent residing in this city. Hannah caught up with stylist Aimee Croysdill to talk about growing up in Winchester, her journey to becoming a stylist, and learning to say no.

Aimee Croysdill is a London-based stylist. Originally from Winchester, her roots in fashion can be traced back to her great-grandfather, who was the first womenswear tailor on Savile Row. Today, Aimee carries on her family's sartorial legacy by working with notable celebrities including Kelly MacDonald, Laura Haddock, Sally Hawkins, Lara Stone, Natalie Dormer, Olivia Cooke, Josephine De La Baume, Daniel Radcliffe, Charlotte Riley, Charlotte Hope, Joanna Vanderham, Rhianne Barreto, Sorcha Groundsell, Anne-Marie Duff, Heida Reed and Florence Kasumba. Known for her timeless aesthetic, many of her clients regularly top the ‘best dressed’ lists on Vogue, Marie Claire, InStyle and many more.

In addition to creating iconic red carpet looks, Croysdill has styled music talent including Clean Bandit, AlunaGeorge, Zara Larsson, Sigrid, Laura Mvula, Jones and Anne-Marie, collaborated on international ad campaigns for clients such as Coca-Cola, Dove, Jaguar, Nike and Samsung, and has worked with publications including Cereal, Suitcase and Refinery 29.

Hannah Castleman: Can you explain a little bit about growing up in Winchester and your creative background? 

Aimee on set with Alice Eve for Fabric Magazine. Photo Credit: @bypip

Aimee Croysdill: I was always from a family that said ‘do what you love’; I was very lucky that my parents could afford to support these hobbies that me and my sister really loved and immersed ourselves in. We didn’t really do it by halves! I used to do lots of ballet - that was my thing. I think I did about 16 hours a week. I was also in a hip hop street dance company in London. I used to do ballet on a Saturday in the morning in Winchester, and then I would get on the train, come up to London [to dance]. I was just really lucky that my parents let me go off and do that. I guess educationally in terms of the arts, it stemmed from my parents who were liberal in what I was allowed to do. 

Primarily, it was my ballet teacher outside of school [Annette FitzGerald, The Florian Dance School]; she was so well put together, and so elegant, an amazing figure for little girls to look up to. I think [she was] a massive inspiration to what I’m doing now. Ms. Fitzgerald was very aspirational. 

I used to go up to Basingstoke and to London to be in two street dance companies, and there was none of that in Winchester. I really felt like it was a lot for me to go and do that extra travelling after school. It felt like Winchester was lacking in the cultural diversity. 

Dina Asher-Smith in Dilara Findikoglu at The British Fashion Awards

HC: It must have given you a sense of independence. Was that aspirational for you wanting to live and work in London? 

AC: I didn’t think about where I was going to live. I mean we always went to London as kids, and I guess that’s what is so amazing about Winchester. It’s very close to London. It wasn’t a place you only went to once a year. I think naturally everyone gravitates there. So there was that, and a lack of the more modern elements of the arts [in Winchester].

HC: So why did you stop doing ballet? Or are you still doing it? You have a whole different career now. 

AC: I stopped doing ballet when I went to university - I went to university in London - but I carried on with the street dance company in London. I always thought I would go to dance school, but I had this epiphany that maybe I wasn’t good enough, and that it was a really short career path. I loved the idea of doing choreography and that was always a massive love of mine, but I just had a change of heart. 

HC: That’s a really brave thing to do - to shift gears completely. 

AC: My mum sent me a letter! She was like, ‘are you sure? Are you sure you’re not giving up on your dreams too early?’. But I didn’t even audition to go to dance school. I just realised I loved fashion. I remind my mum and my ballet teacher that so much of what I did is so ingrained in what I do now. I work with performers all the time, I’m on music videos all the time. 

HC: So - and this is not to disparage the amount of hard work that you have done - but would you say your journey in your career has been pretty linear? 

Laura Mvula’s deluxe album cover. Photo credit: Zoe McConnell.

AC: Yes. Lots of hard work - I was lugging suitcases and heavy stuff around London for a long long time. It wasn’t glamorous, and I didn’t get paid, but I loved it so much. I got signed to an agent, from an agency called The Wall Group, about three years ago. Before signing to them, I would literally say yes to everything, and I would totally swamp myself in work. The agent said ‘we need to do some weeding - you’re spreading yourself too thinly, you’re taking on too much work and then you’re not able to progress and do better work because you’re not allowing yourself to do the work that you love and do it really well.’ I was doing a job that I loved that paid alright, and a job that I didn’t love that paid really well. That still continues of course, but it’s different because my day rate wasn’t as high then, so I was doing five of those jobs that I didn’t want to do,, because I really needed that money. 

Daniel Radcliffe on The Graham Norton Show

HC: It’s a common thing of freelancing I think, anyone who is freelance has definitely been in that situation. When I quit my job to go freelance, I had nothing for the first six months, so when things did start to come in, my thought process was: I remember what it was like to not work, so I’ll say yes to everything. And then you get the point of it being too much. I guess having that agent means that they can say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for you. 

AC: Yes, and I think it’s having a bit of support where you’ve only ever worked for yourself. I’ve only ever had three assistants, and so I’ve always really cherished who whoever works with me, I love them. They are my teammate. We’re a duo, that’s how I work. Then, having an agent on top of having a very tiny team to give you that support and hold your hand was really helpful for me to basically not do crazy amounts of work. Three years down the line, I have a two year old daughter, and I’m able to hang out with her and I’m able to do my job, and finally find that work balance. But it took me a long time to get there. It probably took my ten years to get to that point. 

HC: I think it’s good for people to hear that - I think it’s always reassuring to hear that a person who is successful in their career, who has been working at it for a long time, is still learning. You’re still reaching new points. It’s always an ongoing process. 

Jones - New Skin Album Cover. Photo Credit: Sophie Mayanne

AC: One hundred percent. And I always say to people - if you don’t feel like that [there is always more to learn], then you have no ambition, and if you had no ambition, you wouldn’t have got to the point where you are now. Ambition fires you to keep doing better and better. You don’t think the thing you did yesterday was very good, because it hasn't got you to that point, and when you get to that point, you want to get to the next point. Lockdown has been amazing for that, because it’s got rid of all that competition about ‘What this person is doing’ and ‘I wish I was doing that job’. With Instagram now, we’re all seeing what everyone else is doing, which is amazing. I’ve got so many stylist friends who are madly talented and who I love and support and they’re my friends, but I’m also a bit like, ‘maybe they’re getting more work than me!’ You just can’t help but feel like that. But it’s been really nice because lockdown has made me reflect; there isn’t space for competition. It’s given me time to see how far I have come, and what I need to do next. I don’t normally have time to do that because your mind is usually fuelled with the competitive nature of being freelance.

HC: You were saying about your dance teacher instilling that discipline and the rules about what you could and couldn’t do. Do you have similar rules in how you work now? 

Sally Hawkins at The BAFTAS. Photo from The Wall Group website.

AC: I think I can be quite strict with my clients! We laugh about it. A huge part of making sure my client looks good is about how they stand on the red carpet, so there is no way I would be able to direct the way I do with how to use your limbs if I had no understanding of how to use my limbs. I have a huge understanding of placement because of ballet. That’s been invaluable too. 

HC: How do you feel about the creative community in Winchester now? What would you like to see to develop Winchester’s creative community? 

AC: I think the cultural diversity within the arts in Winchester is hugely lacking. It’s important to give children more opportunity to experience cultural diversity within the arts, and to be able to give kids the opportunity to break boundaries a little bit. It’s not enough anymore to just be ballet trained if you want to audition for dance school. A lot of kids don’t have that opportunity to find that thing that’s their flair. And that’s so great for confidence! 

HC: How do you feel the most supported in your career at the moment? I guess a better way of asking that is - how do you feel you support other people doing a similar job to you?

AC: Being a mother in this industry where you’re freelance and you don’t get maternity pay and there is no support from someone above because it’s just you - I work with some amazing women who have children, and their support has been unconditional. Motherhood, sisterhood, womanhood, is the most empowering feeling, especially when it’s taken into the workplace. 

Laura Haddock in Luisa Beccaria

I remember taking Ivy when she was three months old to Wembley Stadium. I had to take her backstage, and she was in a sling, with her ear defenders in, and my client who I was with - Clean Bandit - they and all their team just totally embraced Ivy, and they sat in the makeup chair and had her on their lap, so that I could get all my stuff straight and do my job. There was no shame, it just felt like that’s what you do. 

HC: That’s how it should be. 

AC: Yeah. In regards to support, in the last two years that has been a massive changing point in my career where I was like, wow, these people want to work with me, but they don’t just want to work with me, they want to support me as a mum too. Emotionally, and physically. 

HC: Thank you so much for your time! I’ve kept you so much longer than I originally said - you have just said so many amazing and valuable things!