Meet Hollywood's superstar stylists

Who makes Hilary hot, Cate cutting-edge, and Hailee the hippest teenager in town? Meet the women behind the red carpet looks of the world's most fashionable stars

TANYA GILL 
Gill (above) has worked her magic on actresses such as Kate Winslet, Hilary Swank, Jane Fonda and Abbie Cornish. Born in Britain, she studied at Kingston University and landed in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, having worked for Jean Paul Gaultier and Martin Margiela in Paris and styled shoots for magazines such as The Face and Arena.

In pictures: Who's styling who in Hollywood?

Gill, who is in her early forties, often works with designers to dress actresses in custom-made creations. It was she who put 73-year-old Jane Fonda in that daring Emilio Pucci number, with its strategically placed mesh panels, for the Cannes Film Festival last year. 'It covered just enough, but it still was beautiful and made her look so elegant and so youthful. She was glowing. '

Over the past decade Gill has seen red-carpet dressing go from something actresses approached with a heavy heart - even wearing an outfit from their own wardrobes - to a vital part of how they're marketed. 'They just want to look their best, and no one wants to get on the worst-dressed lists,' she says. 'You have to look a particular way if you want to be considered for certain roles. There has to be a standard in how you look. That's why [actresses] have been choosing to work with stylists, whereas 10 years ago they didn't do that so much.'

Star turn: Hilary Swank
For the 2011 Oscars, Tanya Gill dressed Hilary Swank in a sparkling, strapless silver Gucci Première gown with a skirt and train of ostrich feathers. 'Gucci had just launched Première [its couture line] in the USA, so it was a big moment. The creative director worked with me and their tailor for a couple of weeks beforehand,' says Gill. 'We just knew that dress was the one.' Gill pinned orchid-shaped diamond earrings by Anna Hu into Swank's hair. 'She felt so special. Everything just came together,' she says.

ELIZABETH STEWART 
Elizabeth Stewart took a winding route to red-carpet dressing, having first honed her skills as a fashion editor for Women's Wear Daily and W magazine, in both New York and Paris, and later at the New York Times Magazine. But since segueing into styling, she has dressed a stellar cast of actresses, including Cate Blanchett, Michelle Williams and Julia Roberts, as well as emerging stars such as Freida Pinto, Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence.

Left: Cate Blanchett and right: Jessica Chastain, are dressed by Elizabeth Stewart

Stewart, 47, says that her time in Paris in particular influenced her style; it was there that she would visit designers' couture ateliers, seeing close up how pieces were made. 'Understanding how much work goes into one red-carpet dress makes me really careful when choosing a dress for the Oscars,' says Stewart, who is known for creating looks of a chic simplicity. 'We often have a lot of choices and I know how lucky that is, and how much [work] is behind every choice we have to hand.'

Stewart sees her role as 'channelling into' an actress's style. 'It's very important to me to incorporate that,' she says. 'I just bring my taste to it. The best way to start is to meet [an actress] to try things on and learn what works on their body and what they like. Celebrity stylists exist less because actresses need to be made over and more because it's simply physically impossible between shooting and doing press interviews for an individual to get the 30 outfits she needs for any given press tour.'

A typical day for Stewart might be spent on a shoot, doing fittings or travelling with an actress, and she says that one of the highlights of her work is seeing emerging talent evolve into stars. 'With my younger clients it's incredible to be along for the ride from unknown to famous,' she says.

That said, she is quick to dismiss the notion of overnight success. 'I'm often working with [a new actress] for a year before they become known.'

Star turn: Cate Blanchett
Elizabeth Stewart's choice for Cate Blanchett at this year's Oscars - a pastel-pink couture dress by Riccardo Tisci, the creative director of Givenchy - won the actress a place at the top of the best-dressed lists. 'The pink Givenchy is one of my favourite Oscar moments, because I truly felt only Cate could wear that dress,' says Stewart.

KEMAL & KARLA 
Kemal Harris and Karla Welch have spent the past six years dressing a gaggle of young Hollywood actresses, among them Olivia Wilde and Zooey Deschanel. Yet it wasn't until this year that the pair became widely known, having put the 14-year-old Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld, the star of True Grit , in a series of beautiful yet youthful gowns for her awards-season debut.

'We were very conscious that Steinfeld needed to look her age and be dressed appropriately,' says Welch, 37. She and Harris, who is 40, called in dresses from Prada, Marchesa and Prabal Gurung, an up-and-coming New York designer, and often tailored the designs to fit the actress's tiny frame.