“There is such a psychology around clothes and how an outfit can make you look or feel,” she adds. “Until you find your own sense of style, it is hard to comprehend the massive impact fashion can have on your life.”
With 28 years’ experience in the industry, Rinkoff has seen it all.
As well as styling celebrities for glossy magazines, she has worked on advertorial commercials and prime-time TV shows from ITV’s Dancing on Ice to BBC’s The Voice UK, where she is now working on its ninth series, helping transform talented singers into pop-stars with “anything that shimmers and shines”.
Rinkoff, who turns 50 in July, has navigated everything from pushy press officers to demanding supermodels. She has worked with celebrities who wear only one colour, or one designer, and — with her warm, open and responsive manner — has supported those who are self-conscious about parts of their body.
“I always like to speak to the celebrity before a shoot, even if it is just for a short phone call,” says Rinkoff, who works with publications from Hello! to Red magazine. “I need to get a sense of what they like. Some only want to wear clothes by Armani or the colour navy. There is a lot to think about.
“Everyone has a hang-up about their body and my job is to make them feel great. They have to trust that I know what I am doing, even if they have strong opinions.”
Rinkoff — who started out working in the fashion department on titles from the Daily Mail to Tatler — would spend the days putting together racks of clothes for shoots. At night, she would attend lavish parties hosted by fashion houses across the globe.
“It was fun, it was super sexy, it was the 90s,” she says. “I wouldn’t say it was hedonistic, but I went to lots of parties and shows in London, Paris and New York.
“It was the time of the supermodels; Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford — these beautiful, sexy girls who were just not human. I once went to a show in Paris, and it was just one supermodel after another on the catwalk.”
For Rinkoff, one shoot stands out.
In 1999, she styled a magazine campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer. Supermodel Helena Christensen photographed Yasmin Le Bon and Naomi Campbell for the shoot.
“I put together a rail of pink clothes,” says Rinkoff. “Helena Christensen was just so lovely and unassuming, so was Yasmin Le Bon.
“Naomi Campbell, well… she walked in five hours late and changed the dynamic.”
Still, unlike so many of her contemporaries, Rinkoff has managed to adapt in the competitive industry.
With her personal fashion sense Rinkoff has attracted more than 38,000 followers on Instagram, posting updates on what to wear and how to style it. Often, she is dressed in bright colours — pictured in well-worn jumpers with fabulous skirts and striking shoes.
Her look, she says, is inspired by Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker.
Gayle Rinkoff (Instagram)
“There was once a perception that when you got to a certain age, you shouldn’t wear anything too avant-garde, that you should wear something more classic. Carrie Bradshaw made it more acceptable to experiment with clothes, to be able to wear sequins for breakfast and full tulle skirts in the middle of the day. It should be acceptable to have fun with clothes.”
But she says social media has its challenges.
“Now, a lot more consideration goes into what I wear on a daily basis,” she says. “I had to get on Instagram to stay relevant in the industry. You must join the digital world, otherwise you will get left behind.
“I can’t keep up with the pace sometimes,” she admits. “If you do not get on to a trend straight away, it can feel like everyone has already moved on to something else.
“I think it has squashed a lot of the creativity; I would like it to all slow down.”
Born to a traditional Jewish family in Edgware, Rinkoff has always loved the fun behind fashion. As a little girl, she would use her pocket money to buy magazines, before cutting out articles to stick on her wall.
As a Copthall Girls’ school student, she spotted a denim jacket for £80 — “a fortune at the time”. Determined to buy it, she spent weekends working in an Edgware clothes shop and her family’s famed East End-based Rinkoff Bakery, first set up in 1911.
She bought that jacket and wore it so often, friends called her “Gayle jean jacket”.
After graduating with a textiles degree from Manchester University, she went on to work for a series of publications after phone-bashing offices for work experience.
“I got on the phone and rang the fashion departments of magazines; so many of them have sadly now folded. They don’t exist because the world is a different place now.”
She adds: “People have asked if they need to go to university, to be a stylist. I would never discourage someone from getting a degree, but I do not think it’s a necessity. You can’t teach on-set experience, you need to live it.”
She says that the changing nature of the industry means magazines have sadly lost their allure among the younger generation.
Gayle Rinkoff (Instagram)
“It does upset me that my kids would not think of going to a newsagent and picking up a magazine. It’s a shame really, they would rather be on YouTube, SnapChat and TikTok.
“When a photograph is printed in a magazine, it lasts longer.
“You can look back on it for years, even in a café or doctor’s surgery. I cannot imagine reading a magazine digitally, but then again, I am still buying books. I like touching the paper, I love the limited-edition magazines and the quarterly issues that come in that thick paper.”
Although her daughters — twins aged 17 and another, aged nine — do not buy their own magazines, they enjoy flipping through her collection of work. She encourages them to shop sustainably, and avoid cheap online outlets.
“Online killed a lot of the creativity in fashion and spawned a generation of kids who need instant gratification. Fast fashion is a killer, we need to educate people about the impact it is having on the planet and that [there are] people working in factories who are not being paid enough.”
As well as her TV and magazine work and upcoming “secret” projects, she will on occasionally agree to personal styling for people like Sarah, Duchess of York — although that makes up only ten per cent of her work.
“Fergie was so divine and very kind on the shoot with the horse. She’s a lovely human being and did everything the photographer asked of her. Afterwards, she asked me to dress her for her book tour and a gala dinner, so I selected some gowns.”
Rinkoff hopes people will start dressing-up again, now that we are no longer locked-down.
“I think people realise that there are all these clothes in their wardrobe that aren’t being worn,” she says, laughing as she acknowledges that she is currently wearing a cashmere tracksuit. People will realise life is too short to just wear leggings and a jumper and want to dress up a bit more. I am hoping so anyway.”
