Shop Girl to Stylist: The finalists

After a nationwide search, over 400 applicants and months of hard work from the 10 finalists, the winner of ELLE’s Shop Girl to Stylist competition is revealed. Elizabeth Black, 23 from London who works at vintage store Beyond Retro wowed the judges with her “nu austerity” moodboard and modern, supremely ELLE styling. Elizabeth wins a job on the ELLE fashion team and will have a shoot published in the magazine next year.

The two runners-up were Sarah Ineson from York who works at Topshop and Katie Smyth from Dublin who works at Urban Outfitters.

The final challenge saw ten finalists given a rail of clothes and asked to style a model in their interpretation of the 70s trend within 45 minutes. The girls were mentored along the way by the ELLE fashion team and the final decision was reached by ELLE Editor in Chief Lorraine Candy, designers Giles Deacon and Katie Hillier, LA stylist Arianne Phillips and model and ELLE contributing editor Ben Grimes.

“The search was exciting and inspiring from the start” said Lorraine Candy, “and our aim was to uncover high street styling heroes – which is exactly as we’ve done. We looking forward to welcoming Elizabeth to ELLE”.

Elizabeth added, “I’m feeling amazing. I’m thrilled and really excited that this is the beginning of the experience and not the end”.