Words by Bailey Alexander
Nayaab Tania, founder of the 9inety6ix Agency, speaks to us about styling, working with big names like Fredo, Central Cee, and João Felix, and her favourite current street trend.
BA: So first of all, I was going to ask if you could just tell me a little bit about 9inety6ix?
NT: 9inety6ix Agency is a visual representation and body of work that shows I’m not just a stylist, which is what a lot of people think. I’ve been doing creative direction, pretty much producing most of my clients shoots and projects, and connecting talent to brands on the low for 2 years now. I was actually 6 months pregnant when I made the decision to launch my agency as it felt like the right time, and for once I had some low time to invest into it, so it worked out perfectly.
Did your pregnancy play a bit part timing-wise in setting up 9inety6ix?
For sure it did. Like I said, I was 6 months pregnant at the time. It goes without saying that I wasn’t able to be as productive as I usually was pre-pregnancy which was a real challenge for me as switching from working on, at times, 5 shoots a day, to not being able to even do one was super frustrating for me, so of course I had to think of something to keep me busy. I knew I would still be working when the baby arrived, so I wanted to have everything set up for when he did arrive and it’s all worked out perfectly. My biggest thing was I didn’t want to lose focus once the baby was here because I knew I could achieve so much in life, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way. I hope I can touch women in an inspiring way so that they can also make something of themselves, even with kids. Of course it’s harder, but if you put your mind, focus, and all into something, it will only flourish, even if it takes time.
You tell ‘em. So what kind of things is the 9inety6ix doing?
Everything: covering image consultancy, creative direction, styling and personal shopping, luxury concierge services, marketing, and brand partnerships exclusively for talent. I don’t want to give too much away, because there are a lot of projects that are confidential, but I was just in Milan with Juventus player Weston McKennie, and just before that I was in Barcelona for a GQ shoot with João Felix who plays for Barcelona. Obviously things have been slower than I would have liked due to me being pregnant and adjusting to being a new mum, so I’ve pushed a lot of projects to the beginning of next year so I can fully branch out.
What was the very first brand partnership that the agency undertook?
There isn’t just one, but the very first were Tom Ford’s fragrance, Killian Paris, and Young Thug’s brand SP5DERWORLDWIDE, who we exclusively seed for in the UK and Europe. We have seeded all of their products to players at AC Milan, Juventus, Chelsea, Man. United, Barcelona, West Ham, Liverpool, RB Leipzig, Brentford, Arsenal, Al Fateh, and a few more. If I named all the players I would be here all day.
No way that’s major. Running it back to the other facets of 9inety6ix, I’m glad you mentioned styling because I think a lot of people always wonder what exactly the styling process involves. How do you go about helping out a new client?
I think a lot of people misunderstand styling as if it’s just like going shopping. Most of the time I work with an open creative brief. So, say for example, I was taking on a new client and I’ve never worked back with them before, I would do research on their own personal style. My key thing in my branding is I never ever take away my client’s personal style — I just add to it or elevate it. I think it’s very, very important to always understand the person you’re working with as an individual and that a talent has their own personality and identity, and it’s better to add to it than take it away. So I would look at, for example, what would suit their body shape, what the event is, and what would elevate their look all together.
So for instance, a footballer — what would that styling process look like?
It really depends on the occasion, but usually as everyone I work with tends to trust me to do my thing, I’ll send 3-4 full look options if I don’t have time to see them before or, if I do, we’ll do a fitting and choose a look there and then. A lot of my clients are international and my schedule is back to back, so most of the time I send their clothes straight to them with a driver. Sometimes brands dress head to toe for events or a shoot so it’s as simple as picking a look they have sent images of.
Honestly, I have to level with you — this is a dream of mine. Styling just sounds like so much fun. I really would have loved to have been one in another life.
(Laughs) Oh, really? I mean, it’s so much more stressful than people think because sometimes I have to work on an hour deadline or even sometimes a day deadline for 50 looks. So it is super, super stressful. If you only have a few hours to pull something together, it doesn’t always turn out how it should be. Plus sometimes a client will have a brand deal or a sponsorship that has to be incorporated into the look, so there’s a lot of ins and outs to styling. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m so blessed to have my job and have very good clients. Getting to travel around the world is amazing, and also just working with individuals that are talented is a blessing too.
Has there ever been an instance where the client has just outright hated the styles you’ve put together?
Luckily, no. Obviously there’s been situations where there’s been items that a client doesn’t like, but luckily not everything. It’s just a fact that sometimes things just don’t work. For example, the sizing may be off, or the client may not be in the mood to wear something that’s not really comfortable, or other times they’re just not in the mood to cooperate at all. That’s why as a stylist, it’s super, super important to always have options. If I’ve been asked to do a job or asked to bring three looks, I’ll bring 10, just so there’s always room to fall back on, and there’s always other options that the client will probably like because the worst thing is to be in a situation where your client doesn’t like something and then everyone’s just in a bad mood and the project just falls apart.
I can see why you’re the best then. You seem to have all your bases covered. I saw your portfolio and there’s a lot of rappers on there. How did you first get onto the rap scene?
So, I met Sincere, who is Fredo’s manager and owner of Blanks Factory, at an Idol magazine cover shoot and we just connected. He hit me up after the shoot and said ‘I’ve got a shoot coming up with an artist called Fredo, you know him, right?”. I lied and said yes because I didn’t want to seem uncool, so it’s actually really funny because I had absolutely no idea who he was. This was a good six years ago before he blew up. I remember messaging my friend and I was like, “Who is Fredo?”, and my friend was like, “You serious?”. So anyway, I did a press shoot for him and, after people saw that I had styled it, I just started getting more and more music jobs. I would say I really owe my career to Sincere, to say the least, so I appreciate him a lot and it’s crazy how just one person can have such an impact on your life without you even realising it.
That’s insane. It’s really all about who you know.
And that’s also one thing that I value very highly. When you are in a room of people, you should always treat everyone the exact same, speak to everyone, socialise with everyone, because you never know where opportunities come from or what room your name is mentioned in that could bring something to you.
I mean, I think that’s a really good philosophy to live by. What about the footballers on your roster? How did you get into that space?
I was actually fashion director at Gaffer Magazine. I was there from the beginning actually. Again, that was kind of an accident because I started working with Gaffer through my friend Hamish, and obviously Gaffer’s whole thing is bridging the gap between football and music. When I was there, I worked with Reece James, Emile Smith Row, Rob Holding and Rhian Brewster, and was overseeing a lot of other player shoots that I was getting other stylists commissioned for because I was super busy with my own work.
And then you were off to the races. Because you take a client’s personality and identity into consideration, have you come across anyone who has become fun to style because you already love their individual style?
I have to give this one to Cench, even though Cench is more of a collaborative process because he has his own distinct style. I’ve worked with him for 3 or 4 years now, and he still surprises me sometimes. What I love about him is he is just Cench, and doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him which is great, especially for a rapper ’cause a lot of them feel pressured to wear designer or heavily branded stuff. He’s definitely the most challenging too, and it’s funny because he’s at a place where every single brand wants to work with him and he literally does not care. He will only collaborate if he genuinely likes the brand or would actually buy it himself.
Just having a variety of styles and talents sounds fun to work with. On that note, I wanted to ask, what would you say are the best and worst street trends at the moment?
I can’t tell you the worst because it may get a little too political, but I’m really loving the fact that everyone’s open to wearing flares and wide leg trousers now, because I was trying to put my clients on to this years ago, and they would say it’s just not a thing or that it looks weird. Not everyone likes to wear that style but they kind of elevate an outfit and you just look fly without even trying. You could literally just wear flare trousers and a hoodie and it’ll still look good.
To see more of Nayaab’s work, check out her website and Instagram.
Also take a look at 9inety6ix’s Instagram for more info on the agency’s clients, looks, and partnerships.