Timothy Chernyaev ‘relaxitsonlyfashion’ In Conversation With FAULT Magazine

Timothy Chernyaev’s evolution from esteemed Fashion Stylist to the beloved fashion commentator “relaxitsonlyfashion,” unfolds with a refreshing authenticity. Taking TikTok by storm with his meticulously researched and genuinely expressed commentary on fashion trends, Timothy’s extensive expertise, professional acumen, and unwavering dedication to truth-telling in an industry not oft known for it’s sincerity struck a cord with fashion enthusiasts worldwide.

In an era where fashion, trends, and traditions are more accessible to the masses than ever before, the privilege to voice opinions with authority and garner respect remains largely confined to a select few. Yet, through his platform, ‘RelaxItsOnlyFashion,’ Timothy has fostered a space for the democratisation of fashion discourse and his viewers have found a forum to speak openly about their own fashion opinions.

We caught up with Timothy to discuss his journey into fashion styling, his transition into the world of content creation and of course, his FAULTs.

Starting at the beginning, how did your fashion journey begin? 

I really like clothes. When I went to college I took a full-time internship for academic credit. I wanted to explore advertising and my school set me up with an interview at an ad agency that had big clients. I saw that side of it and realised that wasn’t what I was interested in. 

What I really wanted to do was learn how to produce and make. So, I asked for anything else and there was something available in the accessories closet at Women’s Wear Daily (WWD).

I took that internship for six months and at that point, I realized there are so many different aspects to the fashion industry. If you want to sell clothes, if you want to style, you can get to whatever success is to you.

Working in a newspaper was really how I figured that out, and now I see making content as a mix of journalism and creative writing – you decide what it’s gonna be.

I really like clothes – Timothy Chernyaev

The LA fashion scene has transformed rapidly the last decade – how did you transition over to the West Coast? 

After that Women’s Wear Daily internship, a friend connected me to Camilla Nickerson, and I interned for her at W Magazine. After I graduated, I got an assistant position for Anya Ziourova and I helped to produce all her editorials for Vogue Russia and Vogue China. When she booked a project for Kmart,  I flew out to LA with her and met a bunch of fashion assistants who convinced me to move there.

This was December of 2011, it was very different from now; there weren’t as many PR people here. There were showrooms downtown where you could pull clothes but there was nothing like the fashion available at the showrooms in New York or Europe. I started working for B. Åkerlund and worked with a lot of great people like Rihanna, and Pharrell, from 2013 to 2016.

The last job I assisted B. Akerlund on was the music video “Hold Up” by Beyonce, after that I decided to focus on my own work.

How did you find the jump to solo styling and working with Ariana Grande? 

In 2016 I was doing a mix of assisting and styling my own projects, mostly music videos and editorial shoots. I worked on Chloe and Halle’s first couple music videos which was very exciting. In June a friend put me in touch with Law Roach, he said he needed help on the Side to Side video with Ariana Grande and asked if I was available. It was a really crazy job but I met Ari and we got along really well and after the shoot she asked me to style her for a couple projects. We worked together for about a year, it was fun and I’m really proud of everything that we did. The last thing I styled her for was One Love Manchester.

When you’re in your twenties, it’s glamorous to always be catching flights, but now I prefer waking up with my partner every day and having control over my schedule.

When did you decide to transition into content creation? 

I started doing editorials again until the pandemic started and I was unsure what I was going to do for money. So I downloaded TikTok and started reviewing fashion shows. 

I felt like there was just no space for people to talk about clothes without it having to be about art, greater culture, or informed by some sort of social context. I felt there needed to be a space where it’s just clothes.

I’ll talk about celebrities or events but ultimately I just want to create a community where people can get in the comments and agree or disagree with fashion takes. 

I like to learn, that’s the most rewarding part of doing it. it’s fun when I really like a skirt and somebody comments “it’s not good” because maybe it’s not.

The shows happen so quickly and you have to get to a point of finding your opinions but if you don’t like the show there’s no need to overly embarrass or criticize the designer. I would never say “Don’t buy this brand ever again” because somebody had a bad resort season.

I want people to engage with the clothes and keep the conversation about what you would wear, what you didn’t wear, what the design works, and keep it moving.

As a fashion commentator, you fulfil a function that’s been around since the dawn of clothing however, have brands ever seen your work as less-than because your medium is social media? 

I got an email from Burberry after my review and they said “thank you for your kind words.” I get good feedback from brands like Chanel and Celine and I feel appreciated. I always have to remind myself that it’s for my audience, not the industry.

The industry is going to get it, these are already doing it, writing about it, and consuming fashion content. I’m trying to speak to somebody who maybe doesn’t have an understanding, but they have an interest. And I’m trying to lure them in a little bit. 

The whole thing with TikTok and what I say to everybody is “TikTok is a visual medium. In the nineties and the two-thousands pictures were so low resolution and now you have access to everything. There are the detail shots and influencers not just going to the show, but they’re going to the re-see and you’re seeing the clothes on the hanger and there’s so much information.

As an editor, if you’re just looking at photos of the show the photos of the show are the only context that you’re giving people, it’s not great. All these magazines are losing money because they’re not able to engage this audience that doesn’t understand these pictures. Sometimes I’ll do plus-size content and I will show the video and people will be like, “I had no idea that it looked like that”.

When you have a body that people are not used to seeing on a runway and you’re just giving them the same picture, they need to see what that looks like from all angles. That’s what I do that I don’t see other content creators do. I always try to mix in video with the photography as that’s how you’re gonna get an understanding of the clothes. The Vogues and everyone like that have all of this access and they’re giving people their opinion, but not the visual.

What do you think people take away from your content?

One thing about me is, I’m gonna say whatever I want. I’m always trying to give just enough information for people to understand my thinking; people like it because they understand what I’m saying. My videos aren’t that long, you could reduce them to one or two sentences. ‘ As an editor, you should be able to reduce every show to ‘what it was’ and ‘what you need to walk away from the show and see’. People like my content, I don’t waste their time.

At the start of your content creation journey, was it ever daunting to be critical to certain brands – knowing you would possibly go back to styling? 

A lot of these brands, particularly Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, don’t only have two seasons. They have four. So if you hate the fall collection, it doesn’t matter, they have shows again in two months. When I look at clothes, I look at the clothes, the way that people are going to experience them, which is on a rack.

If you went into a store and walked up to a rack of clothes and you didn’t like the pieces, you wouldn’t be like, “What is the artist trying to tell me?” You would just go to the part of the store that you like. So for me, I’m always trying to concentrate on what in the collection looked great.

What would you say was the most challenging creative hurdle you had to overcome to take your work to where it is today?

Until you start making content and then you film yourself speaking it’s very bizarre because you’ll look so good in writing and then the moment that you say it, it’s like, “I can’t possibly say this out loud.”

To be fully real, so much of it is the clothes. People always ask me, “What do you do?” And I say “I pick clothes”. I’ll watch an old video and think if I were going to do it again, I would say completely different things, but I would pick the same clothes.

My creative process is to first get all the media because I can’t work around that. For me, a big part of my creative process is just feeling strong in my choices.

When I look at a show, it’s just good or bad or whatever. If I don’t like it, I don’t care that it’s the one that went viral on social media. Sometimes people will be like, ” I can’t believe you didn’t talk about this.” And I’m like, “I saw it.”

I just need to stand behind what I’m saying. It’s really important for me to like the clothes. 

 What would you say would your career highlight? 

I really like recieving emails from young people asking for just basic advice on what I do. I think being a person that people look to for guidance has given me a lot of perspective on the industry. I think it’s made me say things that I never imagined I would say publicly.

Professionally, I don’t know. I always say, “Don’t ever do greatest hits unless you absolutely have to.” because once you do greatest hits, there’s nowhere to go from there because you’ve told people that this is my best.

I always refuse to do things like ranking shows as the best of all time. 

It’s fun to go viral and be profiled in all these magazines but my biggest accomplishment is just creating a community of people who talk to each other. Sometimes I’ll post a video and no one’s even responding to me, they’re just chatting with each other.

Will we see you return to styling? 

I want to go back to styling and I have a few clients that see me and I like working with them, but once you do styling, you can’t split up your time. Sometimes people ask, “Do you still want to style?” And I’m like, “Of course.” But there’s only so much of a life. And I tell this to people who want advice all the time: you only succeed at what you choose to do if you’re talented. So, if you want to style, put your energy into styling. You’ll be a great stylist. If you want to have a store, put your energy towards selling clothes; you’ll succeed. If you really believe in yourself, you can get ahead in whatever you want to do. But if you try to give everything 10 to 15% of your energy and expect it all to succeed the same way, it’s not going to work.

What is your FAULT?

I don’t live in the moment. I have to actively tell myself to be present. I can do it at dinner parties and events, but I think that’s a little bit of the nature of fashion. There’s always, you’re showing this season, but you’re thinking about next season, and then you’re also selling the previous season at the same time. So, I’m always a little in today, a little in tomorrow, a little in yesterday, but more often than not, I’m too much in tomorrow.

I’m 35. I’m going to be this person for a long time. So all I can really do is change my habits.

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