Celebrity stylist

Associated Press

Anne Hathaway at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month in the Atelier Versace gown chosen for her by Rachel Zoe.

AP / Joel Ryan
NEW YORK

There is no stylist more famous, influential or loathed than Rachel Zoe, who selects the red-carpet looks for such A-listers as Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway.

Zoe’s association with Hollywood launched her career. And her boho-glam aesthetic — oversized sunglasses and handbags, statement jewelry, vintage mixed with modern designs — has inspired trendsters and haters who can’t ignore her power in the fashion world.

Zoe is an undeniable force in the industry and one of its most targeted size-zero figures. Routinely pounded in the media, she’s been attacked as a celebrity hanger-on and champion of the skinny epidemic that swallowed former client Nicole Richie. Her looks are mocked online by bloggers like Perez Hilton, who coined the nickname “Raisinface.”

And that’s not the half of it.

“There’s really like this big laundry list of misconceptions,” she said in a recent interview. “I think, off the top of my head, I would say: one, that I’m anorexic; two, that I starve people; three, that I give drugs to people to make them thin. And I would say that I’m a diva or that I’m this sort of very kind of tough, kind of heartless person.”

The negative attention gets to Zoe, who said the public perception of her is vastly different from who she really is.

“I’m very vulnerable. I really am. … I’m human. I’m super sensitive. I take everything personally,” said the 37-year-old, wearing a red Chanel blazer with gold buttons, tight Seven jeans and platform heels so high they could give a teetering Olsen twin pause. As always, she sported her trademark California tan and tousled blond mane.

She hopes to present her “real” self — “for better or for worse, crying with eyelash glue on my eyes, letting it all hang out” — in her Bravo reality series The Rachel Zoe Project, which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m.

Anyone who thinks that stylists have it easy would do well to watch. The self-described workaholic lives in the fast lane, fueled by Starbucks coffee and an obsessive love of fashion.

In under an hour — TV time — Zoe searches for the perfect gown for model-turned actress Joy Bryant, who can pretty much look good in anything but needs to make an impression on the red carpet. She travels to Manhattan from her headquarters in Los Angeles to take meetings with designer Michael Kors and the corporate types who are helping launch her would-be design empire. And she invites tension in the workplace when she hires assistant Brad, who immediately gets on Zoe protégé Taylor’s bad side.

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