Alisha Chauhan

Lilyana Khoshaba’s bedroom is her safe space. Meticulously designed to embody her with neutral tones, white walls, off-white bedding, and cinder blocks used as a shoe rack. Her room is subtle but far from basic. The placement of her furniture and every design decision is made with intention. Her walls are neatly taped with fashion mood boards that she’s created, positive affirmations, and a famous quote by the dancer Martha Graham. 

Ripped out of a page in her journal, the quote posted on her wall begins with “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost,” says Graham.

Khoshaba’s intention behind the inspirations and reminders placed throughout her bedroom is to create a space where her creative ideas can flourish and grow into something real and substantive.

Khoshaba is a 20-years old, freelance fashion stylist based in Toronto, known as lil.sweets on TikTok and her other social media platforms.

When the pandemic was at its peak in early 2020 and everybody was locked away in their homes, Khoshaba spent that time creating fashion TikToks in her bedroom, with just a backdrop, a ring-light and bountiful natural light. Khoshaba posted TikToks of her outfits, how to style a piece of clothing in multiple ways, her thrift finds, and DIYs on how to reconstruct simple clothing items.

Khoshaba doesn’t like to box her sense of style into one lane as it continuously evolves but if she had to describe it as something, it would be earth-girl core and “if all the Anti-fashion designers had a baby,” she says.

Her unique avant-garde sense of style and confidence was admired by her viewers, and she slowly started to receive more attention and views. As she continues to post regularly, her platform has significantly expanded and she now has approximately 994, 000 likes and 28, 900 followers on TikTok. Her social media platform paved a way for her to pursue her true passion as a fashion stylist.

The summer after Khoshaba graduated high school in 2019, her friend Rachel Caramico, a fashion photographer asked her to style a photo shoot. This was Khoshaba’s first gig as a fashion stylist and the project “Nia” was published with PhotoVogue in Vogue Italia. “This first experience was so surreal and was something I wanted more of,” she says. “I knew that this is what I wanted to do with my life because the thrill it gave me is incomparable to anything I’ve ever experienced.”

After this first project and Khoshaba’s active presence on social media, she began to receive messages on social media from different photographers in Toronto who wanted to work with her. Khoshaba was initially modelling for these projects which eventually morphed into styling as she networked within these creative groups.

“I was able to show my followers and mutual friends that I do more than just post outfit pictures on Instagram and I’m actually able to help them if they want to work together,” Khoshaba says.

As a stylist, a typical job for Khoshaba starts off with a mood board or reference photos that she must recreate. From there, Khoshaba creates her own mood board and finds examples of outfits that could work and sends those back to the client. After receiving the sizes for the models or talent, the next step is doing stylist pulls, which consists of shopping or renting clothing. Khoshaba works with some of her friends that let her rent clothes, as well as certain stores that do stylist pulls where you can put down a deposit. If renting isn’t an option, Khoshaba loves to shop at vintage stores and Value Village. Khoshaba pulls multiple options with various sizes and has a fitting, which is the most crucial part of her job.

“You can envision an outfit as much as you want but you can never envision how it looks on a specific person and their specific body type,” she says.

The final part of the process is making minor adjustments or swapping pieces to create the finished look. After that, it’s a waiting game until the project releases.

In the fashion industry, showcasing diverse body types is still an ongoing issue. With that being said, there have been strides to change that now more than ever. As Khoshaba furthers her career, styling diverse body types are her top priority. In the early stages of Khoshaba’s career, she would typically style people with similar body types as her because she would use a lot of her own clothes.

“I wanted to step outside of what was easiest for me and it has been challenging learning how clothing sits differently on everyone and finding pieces that complement each and every body type, but I think it’s really important for me to learn as a stylist,” Khoshaba says.

Khoshaba works with a lot of diverse creatives in Toronto that are around the same age as her. Diversity is natural in these environments, it’s common to work with all women teams and people of colour. Building a community and breaking boundaries in fashion and all creative sectors is what Khoshaba and her peers strive for with every project and is one of the perks of not being tethered to an agency.

“It’s nice because we don’t always have to call on these big corporations and older people in the industry to help us sell our work, in the next decade it’s going to be us running all of this,” says Khoshaba.

To find opportunities and build a career in the creative industry, especially the fashion industry, you often must donate your time and build your portfolio to be considered valuable. In the first year working as a stylist, Khoshaba was never paid for her work.

“Asserting my rates is something that I still struggle with because I’m typically working with other up and coming creatives in Toronto who have smaller budgets,” says Khoshaba. “I find myself feeling bad and doing things because I want to help out, but at the end of the day I’m losing money and after a certain point it’s not beneficial for me.”

Toronto based photographer Xavier Samuels, has worked with Khoshaba on multiple projects. Samuels is very particular when it comes to the way he envisions his projects, including the styling. Working with Khoshaba for the first time, Samuels was surprised by how much mutual understanding they had and how smooth the experience was.

“She took my feedback and executed the styling exactly the way I had in mind, which was amazing,” Samuels says. “She would ask questions to make sure I was okay with it, but she would also stand her ground on looks she really believed in and her confidence was reassuring.”

So far in her career as a stylist, Khoshaba has been published in Vogue Italia twice, has styled multiple music videos for local Toronto artists and has done countless independent projects. This is just the beginning for Khoshaba, the possibilities are endless and she is a force to be reckoned with as she makes her way through the fashion industry.