About

Hellin Kay

Hellin Kay is a fashion editor and stylist, brand consultant and photographer with fifteen years in the fashion and entertainment industry.

She was born in Moscow, Russia and emigrated at age seven to Baltimore, Maryland where she developed an obsession with music, fashion and art as a result of too many trips to the museum with mom and too many punk shows at an impressionable age.

After graduating with a BA and MFA in film from Bard College, Hellin went to work as a design assistant for Calvin Klein in the men’s collection design department and soon after accepted her first job in the publishing world as a fashion assistant to Fashion & Creative Director Polly Mellen at Allure magazine in New York City.

Following Ms. Mellen’s retirement in 1999, Hellin spent over a decade working as a stylist, fashion editor and photographer, both as a freelance contributor (L’Uomo Vogue, i-D London, British Vogue, Elle, Nylon, French, Blackbook, Teen Vogue, The Fader, Glamour) and as staff Fashion Director & stylist for the Russian editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Spoon Paris, where she styled, photographed and oversaw fashion shoots and content.

Most recently she was West Coast Fashion Editor for Women’s Wear Daily and Editor in Chief / Creative Director of Signature Magazine, an LA-based fashion and entertainment monthly which Hellin re-designed and re-launched with the September 2009 issue.

In addition to styling and photographing countless actors, fashion editorials and advertising campaigns she has also written on the subject of fashion, music, film and art for print and online publications and has spent fifteen years honing her eye and creative skills in every facet of the industry, working with some of fashion’s top brands, designers and magazines.

Her art and fashion photography has been published in numerous magazines and books and included in group and solo shows in the US and abroad. Her short films have been written about and screened at film festivals and she has styled and directed music videos for young emerging artists.

She has photographed and styled advertising campaigns for a variety of brands including Joe’s Jeans, Anthropologie, Enza Costa, Guess, Godiva, Selfridges London, Style Network and most recently ShoeMint. She has also done brand consulting for Alpinestars, Sorel, Sears, Conde Nast Digital and others. Her celebrity clients include Tia Mowry, Dawn Olivieri, Taryn Manning, Jessica Szohr, Estella Warren, Jessica Stroup, Rachel Bilson, Abbie Cornish, Brendan Fraser, and Matthew Perry.

During New York Fashion Week in September 2011 and February 2012 she styled the runway show for Tara Subkoff’s recently re-launched Imitation of Christ Spring Summer 2012 and Fall 2012 Collections.

Champagne & Heels

The name of the blog may not always match the content but that is somewhat the point. What you see is not always what you get and vice versa and on a good day there should be a surprise beneath the surface. We are all walking contradictions and cliches. That is the beauty of it.