Celebrity Stylist Erin Walsh On Dressing To Embody Your Best Self

As one of Hollywood’s preeminent imagemakers, Erin Walsh knows great style. But it’s her ability to make her clients feel their best – not only look their best – that sets her apart. It’s an expertise she’s honed over the past two decades, while working with some of the world’s most influential – and impeccably dressed – celebrities, including Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kerry Washington, among others. Now, with the release of her first book, The Art of Intentional Dressing, she’s sharing her wisdom with a wider audience.

“Style is not exclusive or a luxury, but it’s something for all of us to embrace every single day as a means to find and embody our best selves,” she tells PORTER. “What we wear says a lot about how we think about ourselves, too, and the roles that we believe we’re capable of playing,” she adds.

For Walsh, getting dressed is a form of manifestation. Her book outlines a six-step method for aligning your style with the best version of yourself – from getting clear on who you want to become and curating your closet, to making intentional, expansive style choices. It’s an approach that recognizes fashion as a powerful tool for communication and self-expression; a way to tell the world who you are. And at the heart of it all is a simple yet significant prompt: going to your closet and asking yourself, “How do I want to feel?”

“The method centers around the idea that fashion should be a means to embody how you want to feel – because, when you feel your best self, you start living bigger and better and brighter,” she explains.

It’s the same method she uses with her celebrity clients – and one she’s been applying throughout The Devil Wears Prada 2 press tour. “My favorite look from the tour is the red Louis Vuitton dress Anne Hathaway wore to the New York premiere,” she shares. “That just felt like such an embodiment of joy and feminine possibility – beautiful curves, gorgeous bold color, iconic silhouettes, perfect proportion, and none of it competing with the beauty of the person in the dress. That dress, for me, crystallizes how fashion can help you embody the very best version of yourself.”

For anyone hoping to channel their inner superstar, Walsh suggests identifying the pieces in your wardrobe that resonate most with the person you want to become. Is she powerful and creative, or serene and joyful? Which pieces make you feel that way the moment you put them on? Walsh emphasizes that it’s a deeply personal process: “What makes somebody feel something isn’t the same for the next person; different items resonate with different people.”

Still, certain styles carry shared symbolic meaning. “When you think power, you think suiting, right?” she observes. “It offers structure, it offers clarity, it offers clean lines so that you can focus, it offers elegance.” Indeed, the power of a great suit is undeniable – who hasn’t felt an instant shift when slipping into a sharpy cut blazer or perfectly tailored pants? Case in point: Anne Hathaway, who exuded natural confidence and sophistication in a Michael Kors suit, Khaite’s ‘Keefe’ belt and Christian Louboutin’s ‘So Kate’ pumps during a recent outing in New York City. It’s a prime example of the art of intentional dressing in action.

Whether you’re getting ready for the red carpet, an important day at work, or a first date, Walsh wants to enable everyone who reads her book to realize their “supernova” worth. “I want to make all the women reading this, and all the women out there, feel like superstars,” she says. “To keep guiding women to use clothes to embody their best selves and tell their stories in the most powerful way possible. I think it’s the key to unlocking your identity, your possibility and your potential.”

Erin Walsh’s book, The Art of Intentional Dressing: Your Essential Style Guide for Manifesting a Magnetic Life, is out now