David Thomas is a world-renowned, well respected fashion stylist with over twenty-three years of experience in the fashion world. Mr. Thomas is considered one of the original pioneers of the celebrity stylist.
In 1982 at the age of sixteen, David Thomas was living in his hometown of Gloucester and dropped out of school at the advice of his career teacher. The teacher stated, “You won’t pass your exams to gain entry to college and best to get a trade.” Upon that advice, David pursued a four-year plumbing apprenticeship. David did however, pass his exams but opted to take the apprenticeship. When he was a plumber, during his spare time David would devour glossy fashion magazines and newspaper gossip columns. He was inspired by pictures of Boy George and his contemporaries out and about in the “New Romantic” scene and dreamt about going to London, meeting Boy George and becoming a fashion stylist. “A Square peg in a round hole,” as a plumber, David was often bullied and ridiculed by his workmates on the building site which only served to fuel his secret ambition more. Determined to fulfill his dreams, David left his plumbing job and as he was not qualified to attend a fashion college, he knew he had to find an alternative route to become a fashion stylist. David went to numerous banks seeking private funding to start his own business but was repeatedly turned down.
Undaunted and unstoppable, in 1988 David applied for and received a grant from the Prince’s Trust. He used that grant to secure a place on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme and then began to invest the money in his first portfolio and moved to London. To support himself, David worked weekends washing dishes in a café and evenings as a lavatory attendant in a West End nightclub while attempting to build his career. Cleverly, David knew that with two part-time jobs, he was able to offer his services as an assistant in the fashion world for free. That allowed him to get his foot in the right door. He began working as a freelance assistant to Isabella Blow and Ian R. Webb; eventually landing his dream job as an assistant to Judy Blame, Boy George’s stylist and jewelry designer. By 1990, David was himself styling Boy George and continued to do so for the next ten years.
In 1991 and at the age of twenty five, David became the youngest fashion editor in the world for British Esquire Magazine and subsequently at twenty-six, the youngest fashion editor in the US as contributing fashion editor of Esquire Gentleman. During the years that David worked at Esquire, the magazine had a policy of ‘no models’. David developed an alternative approach to filling the fashion pages and promoting fashion by using musicians, actors, artists and writers. In addition, David later worked as contributing fashion editor at Vogue Homme, L’Uomo Vogue, Vogue Hommes International and Interview as well as contributing to American Vogue and Vanity Fair.
David is currently living in Hollywood and is the contributing fashion editor of Esquire UK, and continues to work for a number of magazines including Vanity Fair US, Vanity Fair Italy, L’Uomo Vogue, Flaunt, Tatler and American Esquire.
With his global recognition as a fashion stylist, David has worked with iconic photographers such as: Mario Testino, Annie Leibovitz, Ellen Von Unwerth, Glen Luchford, Mark Seliger, Norman Jean Roy, Tony Duran, Walter Chin, Randee St. Nicholas and Yu Tsai.
Over the past twenty-three years of David’s career, he has worked with various clients such as: Oasis, Sting, The Verve, Snow Patrol, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie, The Spice Girls, David and Victoria Beckham, Geri Haliwell, Kylie Minogue, KD Lang, Robbie Williams, Dita Von Teese and Usher.
He currently works with clients such as: Puff Daddy, Diddy Dirty Money, John Legend, Chris Brown, Britney Spears, Matthew McConaughey, Chris Hemsworth and Avril Lavigne.
