Inside the Closet of Kristen Stewart’s Stylist, You’ll Find Lots of Chanel, Three Pigs, and a Tortoise

”[My clients] allow me to play; it's one of the most fun parts of my job,” says stylist Tara Swennen, whose roster includes Kristen Stewart, Allison Janney, and Ali Wong.

For Stewart’s current Love Lies Bleeding promotional tour, she’s toying with rougher silhouettes, edgier fabrications, and androgynous pairings—all cut with some ironic femininity. For Wong, Swennen has been experimenting this awards season with ostentatious Louis Vuitton gowns and an Iris Van Herpen dress that took up major red-carpet space at the SAG Awards.

Swennen’s own wardrobe catalogs her industry accolades. Thanks to Stewart’s ongoing ambassadorship of the brand, Chanel—“family” as she describes the team—has shared rather fabulous tokens of appreciation with her throughout the years. A white jacket plucked from one of Stewart’s Met Ball fittings hangs beneath camellia-adorned clutches beside a J12 watch. “It really is the perk of what we do,” she muses. “I might have no time to have a social life, but I've got a really lovely wardrobe.”

“I have a lot to work with,” she admits. “I love new Bottega. I love architecture. So I tend to gravitate towards Maticevski or things that have a wonderful shape.” Fond of French cuts, Swennen is partial to the likes of Dior and Givenchy. “There's a classic element to it all," she says.

Initially, Swennen loved the idea of being a fashion designer herself, studying the subject as an undergraduate at Cornell, but it lacked the immediacy she desired. “Styling was just emerging at the time as something cool, but still sort of misunderstood,” she says. Working in the studio services department at Barneys out of college, she met A.L.C. designer Andrea Lieberman, who took her under her wing. Post-9/11, Swennen decamped to LA and assisted Rachel Zoe, one of the first celebrity stylists, before striking out on her own in 2006. Stewart and Modern Family’s Julie Bowen were two of her first clients.

“I loved the idea that I could create these looks without having to go through the whole manufacturing process,” she says. It was instant gratification to “have someone wear one of my concoctions."

Now, she subscribes to the creative’s streamlined uniform. For fittings, it’s jeans and a great white T-shirt—she champions a Rag & Bone V-neck—and sometimes a blazer for added professionalism (remember, the stylist’s life is not solely one of glamour). Pieces from brands like Rails, L’Agence, and Converse round out the ensemble. At home, she’s running after a daughter, three pigs, and a tortoise—yes, Swennen’s LA home is legally zoned a farm.

Her style is simple, though ensembles often include “one edgy thing.” Some of that is personal preference, but it’s also a tactic. “I tend to find that if I just come in neutral, there are really no assumptions to be made. Look at the rack; don't look at me. It's not about me.”

And that’s the world in which she’s comfortable. “I think my generation of stylists grew up in an era where we were not in front of the camera,” she says, recalling a time when she and her peers toted physical portfolios from client to client. “We were very, very secretive and behind the scenes. That is the education I align with.” She’s had to get on board with cultivating an Instagram portfolio, a must in today's styling world.

Despite the undeniable benefits of moving up in her profession, Swennen likes her position in the studio—or closet, if you will. It was never about the flashy labels or recognition, she explains: “It wasn't like, ‘Oh, I love Chanel. I love Prada.’ I love the idea of making women feel beautiful.”