The advertising executive for a multinational soft-drinks company gasps in horror as the gorgeous celebrity he has hired as the face of his multimillion ad campaign turns up for the photo shoot in a ketchup-stained T-shirt and jeans. No panic, though, because he's hired someone who earns a living making clothes look good on people and on camera, and whose life is dedicated to knowing what gear is going to be cool in whatever month.

He has hired a stylist.

Does shopping for the coolest designer clothes you can find and putting them on beautiful people sound like a dream job? It is for Sonya Park, the most celebrated stylist in Japan . . . and probably the world.

It's a credit to the industry that the most powerful trendsetter in this fashion capital is not only a woman, but a foreigner, too. You wouldn't know it to look at her, or from hearing her talk shop with top editors or jet-setting photographers, because Seoul-born, Hawaiian-raised Park has been mixing it with the natives in their own tongue for almost 15 years. Having paid her dues at the sharp end of the business -- starting with translating for fashion publishers and advertorial tie-ups -- this diminutive style dictator doesn't actually put the clothes on the beautiful people anymore, she has a team of assistants to do that kind of dirty work for her.

Other people's money

As stratospheric as she has become, though, Park still loves the shopping part of it. "I've always loved shopping," she says grinning, "and it's so much fun doing it with other people's money -- especially when they have a lot of it. I've had budgets of up to $20,000 to get clothes for a two-minute commercial, I know people who've been flown to Milan with thousands of dollars to spend on a single outfit."

Park really does love her job, and is conscious of how privileged she is. "Korean girl moves to Hawaii, and then suddenly I'm here, working with the designers and photographers I once idolized," she says. "I know I'm very lucky, it's like the American dream come true!"

But Park, of course, isn't the only foreigner in the styling game in Japan. When he's not commentating on soccer games for Fuji TV, or working as a freelance designer for Muji, Tony Crosbie is sprucing up the likes of Mariah Carey, Vincent Gallo and SMAP, or keeping corporate clients like Nike, Levi's and Budweiser up with the latest trends.

"Every day is different," Crosbie says in his heavy Liverpudlian accent. "I just did a Visa ad with more than 200 extras. You can't rent clothes for that many people, so it was just a case of 'put this tie on,' 'take that scarf off' or 'unzip that jacket' -- so easy!"

Crosbie's work has taken him to locations as far-flung as Estonia and Argentina -- and it's also endowed him with an endless string of eye-popping anecdotes. From rock stars with whopping egos to actresses surrounded by a phalanx of assistants, this straight-talking fashion veteran has seen the warts-and-all underbelly of celebrityland more times than he cares to remember. Crosbie's latest move has been over to the other side of the camera, since he signed with the Tokyo-based fashion talent agency August.

"I've got a contract with Fuji TV now, which is great because it's a regular income. In this business you never know where your next paycheck is coming from," he says.

For Crosbie, who won 250,000 yen in gold on a TV game show last month, or Park, who has just released her own compilation CD of her favorite chill-out tunes and spent 2002 overseeing the design and planning of a luxury mansion in the heart of Tokyo, this glamorous line of work has proved to be anything but a hand-to-mouth affair. For stylists at the bottom of this steep career ladder, however, the sacrifices required to pursue the job of their dreams can be overwhelming.

Flitting between Paris, London and his native Italy, fashionista Moreno Gottardo has taught styling at Bunkamura Fukuso Gakuin and knows how tough it can be to make it in the cutthroat world of glossy magazines, TV dramas and corporate commercials. "I guess many young stylists have to do part-time jobs just to make ends meet," he says. "The interesting jobs, like magazines, don't pay well at all. You only make money from TV dramas and celebrity work."

Like Crosbie, Gottardo now makes his living from consultancy and the occasional celebrity appearance. "I love styling," he says with a wry smile, "but I just can't afford it."

Even getting close to the top is tough, but with riches and fame like Park's beckoning at the end of the rainbow, there are legions of starry-eyed fashion freaks more than willing to half-starve until they get their big break.