Dan Sablon
DAN SABLON
Photography : Jonas Martinez
Photography Assistant : Klarysse Prepont
Words : Sarah Souli
Growing up, Paris-based Dan Sablon used to spend summers in his parents’ home country of Guadeloupe, a volcanic archipelago located off the coast of Mexico and an overseas department and region of France. “I really have a thing with colours,” explains Sablon, “and the colours I saw there really struck me. The sky, the clouds - the colours from Guadeloupe have really stuck with me.”
Today Sablon is recognized as one of the most forward-thinking and in-demand stylists in Paris, working with some of the industry’s biggest brands. But he remains a real lover of the extraordinary, within the ordinary. “I love looking at people to see how they wear things,” he says with a smile. “Even those who think they aren’t stylish, everyone has a style. I love looking at how people put colours together, how they think about colours - I love analysing that.”
Currently the senior fashion editor of France i-D and an industry veteran, his foray into the fashion world was not straightforward. He entered La Sorbonne to study finance, casually excelling at a topic he barely cared for. “I passed the concours,” he explains with a laugh, “but all the other guys who actually went to class at the time didn’t.” Instead, Sablon spent much of his time assisting photographer friends on various shoots, doing some styling or prop work. It didn’t immediately strike him as a viable professional path. “It wasn’t clear that I should work in fashion,” he says. “My friends working for various fashion houses were telling me all the time I should work in fashion, though. And you know, the more people tell you something the more clear it becomes.”
But professional crystallization came in the form of a documentary, serendipitously picked up at Colette, the now-shuttered Parisian store, when Sablon was 22 years old. The reportage focused on Marc Jacobs, and Sablon was hooked. “I watched it a bunch of times, and I was like - this is what I want to do.” His friends promised to hook him up with some internships, but he’d have to return to school, this time for fashion. Sablon left La Sorbonne and the world of fashion behind, and enrolled at the prestigious Studio Berçot. Students typically stay for three years to learn the ins and outs of the business, but during his interview with the school’s director, he asked if he could complete his studies in just one year. “I stayed long enough at La Sorbonne,” he explains, “and I really wanted to prove to myself that I could learn everything in one year. So I worked three times as hard.”
One year proved too much time, anyway. Part way through his studies, Sablon started assisting in Rick Owens’ studio - quietly, as the Studio technically prohibits students from working. A classmate mentioned Sablon’s illicit activity to a faculty member, and rather than quitting Owens to stay in school, Sablon left Studio Berçot for the real world of fashion. “Things were going really well with Rick Owens,” Sablon said, “and they offered me a proper job - it’s a very small team so it’s really organic, and Rick was like, well you can help us with the showroom, preparing for shows, etc.”
While at Rick Owens, Sablon was invited through a friend to do an interview at Marc Jacobs’ studio in New York. “That’s where things really started,” he says. Just a few years after watching Marc Jacobs on that documentary, Sablon found himself invited to New York for a six-month internship. He ended up staying six years - building an important creative relationship with Jacobs, and establishing a strong professional and creative identity for himself. His time at Marc Jacobs proved to be the most formative time of his career. “It really moulded me,” Sablon says, “It taught me everything that I use now in my work - rigor, discipline, to understand and to really see how much work goes into what we do. You know, everyone wants to make a collection, but the work that goes into it is enormous. People really need to understand that.” It also sharpened his eye. “My references are not the same as my other stylist friends,” he says. “I love to see how with the same piece, how five different stylists articulate the look.”
“Everyone wants to make a collection, but the work that goes into it is enormous. People really need to understand that.”
Those attributes, solidified in New York and Paris under the helm of Marc Jacobs, allowed Sablon to take on bigger jobs, like working with Rihanna at Fenty - where he oversaw styling for a massive cast of models. In September 2021, he began working at i-D, the seminal magazine first launched in 1980. But despite his stature, Sablon remains dedicated to the diligence his industry demands.
“Curiosity, patience, and rigor are the three most important elements to becoming a stylist,” he explains. “Curiosity is definitely the first thing - I mean, we work in fashion, it’s always changing. The goal is to be open. Something we don’t like now, could change later. The goal for a stylist is to chase the next thing, so we constantly have to be flooded with information and to remain really curious. Rigor is the second thing - you really can’t be scared to work. You need to see your work as a long term investment. I still do jobs I’m not paid for, and it’s because If I do that that other things come. Investment isn’t just financial. Sometimes not being paid means meeting a photographer or hairdresser who will be instrumental in your career’s next step. Of course, to start making money it can take some time. If money is a problem, you work on something else on the side. But if this is really what you want to do, you’ll find a way.”