- She's like, "Turn on the news!"
She's like, "Everything's on fire!"
(energetic brass percussion music)
My name is Johnny Valencia.
I am the owner of Pechuga Vintage.
I've been working in fashion since 2011.
I started off as a junior publicist.
My first stylist horror story involves a $14000 gown,
a frozen Starbucks sandwich, and the will to live.
So I was getting a gown for one of the judges
for the finale of a singing competition,
so I had coordinated everything.
The dress was coming from overseas,
so the gown arrived to the destination before I did,
despite tracking saying otherwise, and so what UPS did was,
because there was no one to sign it,
they sent it back to an unknown distribution center.
And, mind you, I'd been tracking the dress by the second.
So UPS had me chasing the dress all over downtown
to two different distribution centers.
On top of that, they tell me,
"Oh, so the sender didn't tick off a box
"for the duties and import fees,
"so you're gonna have to pay, I think,
"$1200 out of pocket."
So I'm in downtown.
They tell me,
"Oh, the dress is in another distribution center."
I get there, and they're like,
"Oh no. Actually,
"the dress is back to the original destination."
And in the midst of it all, I run into Starbucks
because it was like 9 in the morning.
I get this sandwich, and I get my coffee.
I jump in an Uber.
My Starbucks sandwich is frozen.
I'm like, "Can anyone do their job right?"
And I remember bawling in the backseat of that Uber.
There was a big internal monologue of "Okay."
Because in instances like those,
you just have to prepare for the second dress,
the third dress, you know, options.
I just didn't wanna disappoint people,
and I was just so mad at UPS.
I get another call from UPS, and they're like,
"The dress is here."
It all ended well.
She wore the dress.
I didn't even see the finale,
but all I know is that she wore the dress,
she bought it, and it looked amazing on her.
- Hi my name is Taylor Negrete.
I'm a celebrity and fashion stylist.
I've been styling for about three years now.
I have only lived in L.A. for a year,
and I was previously in New York for the last two years,
where I didn't drive.
And then upon moving to L.A., I was working with a stylist
when I first moved here. She was like,
"Hey, can you pick up from this client?"
Go to get into my car, my engine light is on,
and we decide it's probably not best
that I take my car up Mulholland Drive.
And Mulholland Drive, if you're not familiar with it,
it's just a notorious road for accidents,
it's just very windy, it's dark.
She's like, "You can take my car,
"but my windshield wiper on the driver side was stolen.
"So as long as it's not raining, you'll be totally fine."
I'm driving up.
All of a sudden it starts to drizzle a little bit.
I'm like "Okay, you know,
"I'll turn on the windshield wipers
"and see how much it works."
So the passenger side's going, driver side not.
I can see nothing.
It is now full-on downpour.
I have my driver side window down.
I'm wiping the windshield with this rag,
trying to see anything.
My arm is soaked.
I manage to pull over into a lookout area,
which I don't even know how I managed to do this,
and I look at my phone, and I have no service.
I finally get a bar to pop up, and I call an Uber.
Take this Uber up to the client's street, get out.
It's like, "Please don't leave!
"Like, I have no service."
Go to the client's house.
The client's like,
"Oh, where have you been?"
Go back to the Uber driver, and I'm like,
"We just need to backtrack this entire route.
"We need to get back to this car.
"I have no idea where it's at,
"and I need to get it back to the stylist."
We've somehow managed to locate the car on Mulholland Drive
I literally don't know how.
And he's like,
"Okay, here's what we're gonna do.
"You're gonna follow me all the way down.
"Just stay right on top of my tail,
"and I'm gonna get you out of here."
And he did, and he is an absolute hero for doing so.
And now it's hilarious,
but I remember getting in my car, going home that night,
and I was just crying 'cause I was like,
"This was so scary,"
and I was totally calm throughout it all,
but at the end it was absolutely horrifying.
- For Pechuga, my business,
one of the things that I love collecting
are Vivienne Westwood corsets.
They're not only stunning,
but they're also really rare.
So I have one that is in museums all over the world,
and I had a client that was interested in it.
So I go over to her house.
She loves the corset.
She keeps it.
The next day, I see in her stories,
she takes a photo of a plume of smoke
that's a couple of yards away from her house.
Didn't think much of it.
Then I get a text from someone that I work closely with.
She's like, "I don't mean to alarm you,
"but we had to evacuate."
And she's like, "and we left one of your pieces behind,
"another Vivienne Westwood corset."
And I'm like, "Evacuate 'em, why?"
She's like, "Turn on the news!"
She's like, "Everything's on fire!"
I'm like, "Well, this makes sense."
So I tied that in with my other client's IG story.
I made sure that the clients were well
and that they had evacuated,
and then I was like, "Oh my God!
"I have two invaluable pieces
"that might have been burnt down to a crisp!"
But it turned out the pieces were retrieved.
The clients were fine.
Their houses did not get burned down.
Life went on.
- When I first got started, I was interning in New York.
In New York, you don't have the luxury of having a car,
so you're on your feet all day,
carrying everything, going up and down the subway,
dropping off, going back out.
So anyway, I'm at my very last stop.
I already have a couple garment bags.
I have a couple shopping bags with me.
I pick up from this designer house,
who I have admired since the beginning of his career.
One of the girls at his studio was like,
"Hey, let me help you bring everything down.
"You have a lot in your hand."
So I was like,
"Yeah, thanks, that's amazing!"
So she helps me down.
She's like, "Are you sure you're good?"
I'm like, "Yeah, I'm totally good.
"I'm just gonna call a car."
There's no way I can get this down the subway tracks.
So I'm trying to call for a car.
I've had so many cars cancel on me,
and I'm trying to hail a cab.
Nothing's stopping for me.
It was pouring, and so all the cabs were taken,
and there's me with everything that I had picked up,
and I can barely walk with it.
I decide that maybe it's best if I cross the street
because there's a hotel over there.
Maybe they can do a better job of helping me get a cab.
So I grab everything,
and I pretty much waddle across this crosswalk
with everything.
I manage, of course, to step in a puddle
because just my luck, I would do that.
My phone is dying at this point.
I have been rained on,
and it's just completely pouring outside,
and there was no car in sight coming for me.
And then I get a text, and it's from the stylist.
She was like "Hey, is everything okay?
"The designer said that you picked up from them
"for, like, 45 minutes ago,
"and that he can see you across the street
"trying to get a cab still."
I'm like, "Oh my God.
"This designer, who I have admired
"from the very beginning of his career,
"has basically just seen me at such a low."
I mean, I could barely carry everything,
I just looked like a complete wreck.
I'm sure he saw me step in the puddle.
(upbeat techno music)