Ty Hunter

If you think it’s hard to let your truest, most authentic, and most fabulous self shine through, imagine how difficult it can be to get someone else to do the same. Fortunately, stylists like Ty Hunter make it look oh so easy.

With a long career dressing celebrity clients that include icons like Beyoncé and Billy Porter, who contributed a foreword and afterward, respectively, to his motivational book Makeover From Within: Lessons in Hardship, Acceptance, and Self-Discovery, Hunter has made a very successful business out of making others look — and feel — phenomenal. And in a world that is filled with people trying to constantly tear each other up and bring each other down, that can be a rarity sometimes.

But Hunter, who considers himself blessed to be motivating and uplifting people the way he does, says he is proud to bring out the best in people and make them feel good about themselves via the clothes they wear. And even though his work seems like it’s all about the beauty you put on your skin, he wants folks to know it’s the beauty that comes from within that actually shines through the most in life.

“We’re not born with clothes on; our first outfit is our skin,” Hunter says. “Until you get comfortable in that outfit, you won’t be comfortable in anything else.” @tytryone