Tati Cotliar: Dress To Express

The Nike Blazer is so classic, you can style it up or dress it down any which way you like. Here’s Tati Cotliar’s take on the varsity staple.

“I love the idea of being able to show your personality through the way you dress,” says Argentinian-born stylist, Tati Coliar. “Discovering that sense of escapism totally marked my existence.” Not only did it help Tati express herself more freely, but it gave her the self-belief, courage and resilience needed to move to London and kick start her career. Now, she’s the fashion director of indie mag fashion bible, Buffalo Zine, which cherishes that very same mindset. Working up a signature style of clashing colours and clustered patterns, she’s helped place Buffalo in a league of its own.

It may well sound like Tati Cotliar is living the dream –but, like most great things in life, it’s taken hard work getting there. Read her story below, featuring an exclusive Nike Blazer shoot styled by Tati, modelled by Abril Shaw.

"I had no clue about style, growing up, as there’s not really a fashion scene in Argentina, so the only concept of clothing I had was through characters in films. Later, I got to travel to New York, Paris and London for modelling, and I would use all my freetime visiting vintage stores, trying to find unique pieces to recreate those characters’ looks. After a while, people told me I should become a stylist as my outfits were so crazy, so I started looking for photographers to collaborate with. That's how I met a director who’s now a really great friend of mine, and I styled my first shoot.”

“That first shoot was so organic and innocent. I had no clue that to request clothing, you had to contact the designers’ PR agencies, so I bought all the clothing myself. After that, a friend in New York taught me how to do a showroom pull and I did a couple more shoots. Then I began assisting stylist, Katy England, where I learnt how to email PRs, create moodboards and work on set. My advice for anyone wanting to get into fashion is to assist just enough shoots that you’ve got some (but not all!) of the tools to get started on your own. You’ll learn the rest as you go.”

“I moved to London, started working for GARAGE Magazine and shortly after I left there, I discovered Buffalo Zine. I fell in love straight away, as every issue is completely different –a different theme, a different logo, different typefaces, different paper, and this really related to my way of styling characters in a ‘playing dress up’ kind of way. I messaged the two person team on Instagram, we met, they asked me to become their fashion director... and then there were three.”

“Styling, when you belong to a magazine, requires a very different approach to styling as a contributor, as there are quite a lot of guidelines you have to follow... But there’s a beauty in that. I think when we’re restricted, we perform at our best sometimes because challenges force us out of our comfort zones. Working this way with Buffalo, while stylistically adhering to its ever-changing issue themes, has brought an all new level of creativity to what I do. I’m not comfortable anymore unless I’m on my toes.”

Join us on the Nike app to get styling tips from Tati, hit the link below.