Ryan Gosling's Stylist Mark Avery On What It's Like to Dress Literally Him
How a Virginia native with a love of cowboy clothes ended up styling one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, plus insights into The Fall Guy actor's favorite boots and more.
For today’s post I had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Avery, a longtime set costumer and stylist who’s been working with Ryan Gosling since 2015.
Ryan Gosling’s superpower might be that he is simultaneously one of the most talented (and, of course, handsome) dudes alive, yet retains an uncanny everyman charm people can’t help but feel connected to. After all, there’s an entire meme economy built around the fact that he can imbue even a plastic doll or a robot in a dystopian near-future with such a sense of genuine humanity that people would gladly adopt them as their entire personality.
His style evokes a similar charm. Though I assume he could probably wear anything and make it look cool, the stuff you’ll typically see him sporting is made up almost entirely of un-trendy stuff any non-A-lister can pull off: denim jackets, straight fit jeans, boots, aviators, and pendant necklaces.
That in mind, much like how the biggest stars often turn to a pro for big stunts, Gosling’s most public-facing fits aren’t put together entirely on his own, which is where stylist Mark Avery comes in. But while the Virginia-native is the first to say that his job is much more of a collaboration than it is building a wardrobe from scratch, for nearly a decade, he’s been by Gosling’s side helping guide an ever-present penchant for vintage workwear and contemporary menswear. Occasionally, Avery, whose daily uniform consists of boots, jeans, a white tee, trucker jacket, and Stetson hat, will put Ryan in a suit I’d classify as “movie star only,” (see: his pink suit at The Oscars). But for the most part, if you’re looking for nice, quality wares that you can sport to the office or on the weekend without demanding so much attention, Gosling—and by extension, Avery himself—are your guys.
Below, Mark was nice enough to talk to me at length about how his strong sense of Western style helped him break into the biz, what it’s like knowing that anything Ryan wears will inevitably become a best-seller, and more.
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Jake: How did you first get into styling? What was the first moment that you discovered this was something that you wanted to do?
Mark: I previously had played in punk rock bands. And when that kind of ran a full circle, I decided to move to LA and try to work in the movies. I knew so little about it. I literally called it “the movies.” Now, I'm as far from a nepo kid as possible. Most of the people in my family don't even leave Virginia, much less have connections in Hollywood. So I showed up answering Craigslist ads, doing anything I could do—working for free, unloading trucks, whatever. I eventually worked my way into the costume department, and then up to the point where I was working with real actors. Basically what happened was I'd be working with actors and they'd just be like, "Oh, where'd you get that shirt? Oh, I really like your jacket!"
I'd be like, "Oh, I could get you one." Or I'd tell them where it was or whatever. So it just happened really organically. And then somebody whispered in my ear, "Do yo know that's a job? Sourcing this stuff and helping actors dress and get ready for stuff?" I was just like, "Oh, okay." After that I worked on one of my first movies, which was James Gunn's Super in 2009. At the end of that movie, with Rainn Wilson, it was that kind of thing—we just chatted a lot on set, got along, and Rainn was like, "Hey, would you want to shop for me and help me get some clothes for the premiere and the press or whatever?" He was so kind to give me that shot and see that potential in me.
That just continued. I worked on a movie called The Internship in 2011 and I was Josh Gad's set costumer. Cut to a couple of months later and I was in line at Starbucks on Melrose when I used to live over there. Josh was in line with me with his whole team, and he was like, "Hey man, what's up? You're the costume guy, right?" And he was like, "I'm going on Jay Leno tomorrow. Can you help me?" And I was like, "Yes, I'm totally a stylist."
So in a way, your personal style actually led to you making your career in some ways.
I was a walking billboard for what I could do for other people. But it's not like I dress everybody like a cowboy or my own personal style. I think one of the things that people who are great at styling do, and I'm not saying I'm great at it, but is seeing what someone else's personal style is. Because you can put together a great outfit, but it might not be great for that person.
For me, great style comes from the chemistry between the person and the garments. It's that interaction. It's two plus two equals six. And I think a lot of people in my life when I first started working in Hollywood felt that way about me. They were just like, "What's the deal?" I mean, it was really a little off-putting almost at first because I was like, "Are they kidding?" Because when you have a very specific look, and someone says, "Oh, nice hat,” you're like, "Are they serious?”
Can you just explain what a set costumer does and what that entails?
Basically the costume designer is responsible for designing the costumes, so it’s exactly what it sounds like. A set costumer is a person that works directly with the actors every day. So that's the person that puts the clothes in their trailer and manages the continuity.
Let's say you and I are in a movie and you and I are in the airport, and then when we leave the airport and we get off on the plane the same day. One, we shot on a sound stage, the other one we shoot a month later at the airport. So you’ve got to make sure that the person's wearing the same clothes, so it looks like it's all the same day. But there's little details like, "Oh, the sleeves are supposed to be rolled, or how many buttons run buttoned on the shirt?" It's very simple, but a lot of people don't realize you shoot a movie out of order.
How did you first get linked up with Ryan?
I worked on Gangster Squad, but I was actually not his costumer. But we would occasionally chat on set. I remember actually one day he was like, "Oh, I really like your jacket." And I was like, "Oh, thanks." Sometimes you meet someone, especially in Hollywood, that are kind of special people, whose art or music or whatever it is they've done you admire. And then you have a conversation and you walk away feeling like it was a good conversation. That's a great feeling. I don't care what anybody says, that's a great feeling. For me, Ryan was the coolest actor in Hollywood, so having a good conversation and having him say, "I like your jacket," was great.
Later, I was working as Liev Schreiber's personal dresser on Ray Donovan and I got a call from Mary Zophres, who's a costume designer that I had worked with on some Coen Brothers’ movies, Interstellar, and just a bunch of cool stuff. And she said, "I got this script and it's not a long shoot, it's for scale, but it's really cool and it's going to be cool clothes." She was like, "I feel like I remember you and Ryan getting along." I read it and I was just like, "This script is awesome." It just made me feel all the feels. That was La La Land.
As somebody that started out in music and somebody moved to LA to try to make my dreams come true, it really struck a chord. So I left a great gig with guaranteed work for 10 months out of the year making a better rate than most people made to go work on this movie. By the middle of La La Land, I was shopping vintage clothes for Ryan, and I haven't stopped working for him since then. So that was 2015, and we've been working together steady ever since.
So basically you started doing all of that set costumer work on La La Land, and then as that process was happening, it basically poured over into Ryan the real person.
Yeah. It then became a natural progression some time around Blade Runner where I would start helping him kind of guide the costume designer and bring ideas, do research and bring garments in. Eventually it became where I am now, where when we do films, I'm a personal set costumer, but I'm also a creative consultant where I help out the creative process any way I can—whether that's research or throwing ideas around or just helping the process along. When you’ve made a lot of great decisions, and have great instincts like Ryan, you get a lot more input than say someone else does. Somebody who's just starting out their career, they might just show up and wear what the costume designer tells them to wear, hold the props they tell them to hold…but as you build momentum in the town, you get to have little bit more of an opinion. So I kind of just help along that process.
“Style doesn't have to be admired by others, and it doesn't have to be agreed with. It's a personal spot that you've carved out for yourself that defines who you are and makes people understand.”
What kind of clothing conversations are you guys having these days, and is there anything about his taste or personal style that you’ve found really exciting or interesting?
The process really starts and ends with Ryan. The reason why he's one of the most well-dressed guys in Hollywood is not because of me, it's because of him. He has great taste, though I do think that we have similar tastes and I think that's why we work well together. It's kind of like if you were a comedy writer and you had a buddy that you wrote comedy with, and you'd be like, "Oh, wouldn't it be funny if this happened to that?" And you're cracking each other up. You have the same sense of humor, so maybe the place where you land is even funnier than it would've been if either one of you had written it alone.
I think the process for us is really a lot like that. I bring a lot of vintage in, I bring ideas in, he likes it or doesn't, and we talk about it. Sometimes it spurs ideas for other things. That's kind of the process. But I don't like to talk too much about how the sausage is made. I think it's boring. For many years I've been so secretive, so I like to keep some of that, but the short version of it is he's a guy with great taste. I'm challenged to try to bring him stuff that he's going to think is cool. That's what makes it really fun for me.
Honestly, my taste has been broadened by his taste because he's got the ability to pull off so many cool things. A lot of times it's like I'm pulling for what I think is cool, and then it's like, "Oh, if it looks okay on me, then it'll look amazing on him." So I've kind of broadened my horizons with color and fabrics and stuff because he's just so capable of that thing I was talking about where it's the chemistry between the garment and the person. It's not like if anybody throws on a pink suit, they're going to look like Ryan at the Barbie premiere. It’s a combination of the two things.
Is there was an example where he wore something that you were like, "Oh, I'm going to start wearing that because it looked great on him."
There's nothing that comes to mind off the top of my head. But mainly that's just because I have a go-to look and vibe, and I kind of just exist in that world, and that's fun for me. But that's part of my advice for other people, too. I tell people, "When you're trying to develop your own personal style, have something that if you left it behind at dinner, everyone would know who it belonged to."
That's great style advice.
That's when you really have style. Style doesn't have to be admired by others, and it doesn't have to be agreed with. It's a personal spot that you've carved out for yourself that defines who you are and makes people understand. I think that so much communication is done through style. You can go through your day and maybe only actually talk to four or five people, but even if you just walk into a coffee shop that has 20 people in it, you've communicated with all 20 of those people.
I think why so many people look to Ryan for style guidance is that he’s really cultivated this aura of relatability and down to earth-ness. For starters, I just wanna know, is he are aware of the meme where people constantly say that he's “literally me” when they watch, say, Blade Runner or Drive? Does he know about that whole thing?
Yeah, I think he's made some jokes in press, that kind of stuff. I've shown him a couple of times. He's not active on social media or anything like that, but when Ken started, people were like, "Oh, the new personality dropped," that kind of thing. I think that's when he became more aware because it's really fun to show him that stuff.
So, knowing that so many guys are looking to him for what to wear, does that put any added pressure on you? Do you think, like, “If I put Ryan in this jacket, then 10,000 other guys are going to be wearing it around town, so it better be good?” That's just where my neurotic brain would go.
Well, I think in order to do the job, I have to let go of that a little bit. I mean, obviously along with the privilege of getting to dress someone that designers want to work with and people want get their stuff on also comes the pressure of everyone's going to see it or care. But I think one of the reasons people relate to him is because the clothes are really how he dresses. Those are his choices. That's his personal style. Not to beat it into the ground, but that's style. I can find the coolest jacket in the world, but on certain people, if you put it on them and they're not sure about it, even their body posture is not right.
But because he's so involved in the process, when you see him wearing stuff that's because that's what he likes. So it's relatable because it's real.
There’s no disconnect between Ryan out in public and Ryan just at a normal day-to-day sort of level.
Yeah, exactly. I hate to say it, but you can definitely quote me, is that he just really, is that cool and that's great for me. So if your question is like, "Oh, do I ever think, oh, if I give this jacket to Ryan, a thousand guys are going to wear it or whatever?" It's like, "No." It's almost just like, "Look I get to work with my friend that has great taste and find stuff that’s cool." So if he agrees, I get enjoyment out of that. At this point, almost 10 years in, I know if he and I both think it's cool, there's probably a lot of other people that think it's cool, too. And that's exciting. When we find those vintage pieces or those everyday pieces like the [CAT] baseball cap or whatever and people identify with it, that makes me feel great. Not because I feel like, "Oh, I'm influencing the market,” but just because sometimes it's hard to find cool stuff to wear. I think that's how I got into vintage and going to flea markets. It wasn't because I wanted to get up at five in the morning or I wanted stuff that already had rips in it or whatever. It just wasn't at the stores.
I wrote an article in 2023 for GQ about how Ryan wears Red Wing Moc Toe boots in The Fall Guy, and has off screen for years, too. What is it about that particular silhouette that he loves so much? I know that you're a fan of them as well, so I am assuming you guys have had some sort of conversations about that shoe in particular.
I think that that classic moc toe silhouette is just beautiful. For me personally, I'm not a tennis shoe guy. I occasionally wear tennis shoes on a hike or something or exercising, but I'm just a boots guy. And we both love that silhouette, and it’s something that we both already liked when we started working together. But Red Wing was so awesome. That tan suede boot was not out on the market when we started making that movie.
I think it's a great shape. It's a comfortable boot, and it just looks better the longer you have it. Of course Ryan likes it in real life, but that really spoke to the character. That's what stunt guys and those guys who ride motorcycles, that's what they wear. It's the authentic to the character.
But because it’s an action movie, it literally took 30 pairs because he had five different stunt guys. They all have different shoe sizes, and we were destroying them, and we were cutting holes in them. For the water work, we had to drill holes in the bottom of the boots so the water drained out. It was just a lot, and Red Wing was so helpful and such a cool company to work with.
Whether it was styled by you or otherwise, what's your favorite Ryan Gosling fit of all time, and why?
That's so hard. There have been so many. For selfish reasons, I really love the Western Barbie look because I'm a big fan of Hopalong Cassidy and Davy Crockett. I love all those singing Cowboys from the forties, and I thought that it was such a celebration of that look. It felt so genuine and the way that when he sees those clothes, he's so excited about them. I guess I personally relate to that because my house kind of looks like the Mojo Dojo Casa. That's kind of how I felt when I first started watching cowboy movies and saw that stuff and I was like, "Yes, this is my thing. I love it."
As far as red carpet stuff goes, I don't know. I think maybe it's just all the little subtle things, like the ‘E’ in the Barbie font that he wore on the red carpet for his lady. It goes back to having something that makes you feel good when you wear it and it looks great, but also communicates. I feel like, for me, that was kind of an iconic moment because it was celebrating Barbie and you understood everything that meant. You understand that in his world, that's his Barbie, that's the most important person in his world. That's just so romantic and sweet and cool. So I just thought that was really awesome.
There was a childlike wonder to Ken seeing himself in the Western outfit. He's like, "If I put this cowboy clothing on, I'm going to be the coolest guy in the world."
And I just love that feeling. I'm still that guy who's like, if you see me at Long Beach Flea Market and I'm shopping or whatever, you'll see me get so excited over dirty old jackets or whatever. It's like, "Yes, this is it. It's so cool." I don't know. I love that scene. I love that moment. And personally I love that look or whatever. So yeah, that's definitely up there.
What is it about the sort of cowboy look that during your childhood you really related to or that led you to this place where you're like, "This is going to be my look?"
I mean, honestly, it's kind of a cliche, and obviously it's a song title, but my heroes have always been cowboys. I love Josey Wales. I loved Willie Nelson. I still am a huge Dwight Yoakam fan. I just love the culture of the West, not only the real culture of it, but America's obsession with it in the forties and fifties and just the TV shows and the comic strips—the really kind of Hollywood cowboys like Hopalong Cassidy and Davy Crockett, Gene Autry and that group. I spend so much time at The Autry because I love that part of the culture too. It's one of the things that feels truly American. It's truly a unique phenomenon that's happened in the West.
It communicated immediately. You see that look, you see the hat or the boots or the shape, and it's a choice. They made a choice to buy these certain kind of clothes. That was the first time, and I didn't even know what it was called or thought about it, but it was just like, "Oh, I want to be one of those people that makes a choice." I'm not just wearing pants and a shirt. I'm wearing a special kind of pant and a shirt and I'm making a choice.
It puts you immediately in a place and in a feeling. You see someone wearing double denim and a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, and you think of a sort of lifestyle immediately.
And as my personal taste changed and my life changed, it always applied. The Clash went through a crazy western phase. I don't think everything has to have a really deep reason, but I definitely identified with punk, and I identified with the Western look at a very early age. I didn't think that there was a reason why I couldn't apply both to my life. If you see in my office, I have an autographed copy of Minor Threat's first record, but then I also have a Gene Autry belt buckle up on display.
I always thought there was something really punk about Nudie suits and that whole situation too, and the way that outlaw country kind of spoke to that genre of music the way punk spoke to rock and roll. It was like, "We love this, but we're not going to just go by these rules and we're going to take it further than when we found it." So I embrace the western culture and the western look, but I never feel, no pun intended, roped in to feel like I need to be sitting on a horse to justify the way I dress. I'm as interested in those singing cowboys from the fifties that were just actors playing cowboys as I am the guys that work in the rodeo and the guys that do it for real. It's all interesting to me.
How do you, as someone who’s been into Western wear for so long, feel about the way the look has become so popular in fashion and menswear over the last few years?
As you can imagine, over the last year, I've gotten about a thousand emails about Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton and the Beyonce stuff, and just the kind of uptick of the Western look and the vibe and cowboy hats. I've made a video about how I shape my hats, and I've gotten so many, "Where did we get one? How do we shape it? What do we do?" And it's so funny that this thing is coming around and people are like, "Oh, your thing's coming around." I'm like, "Don't worry. It'll go out again." I'll be the like...
So are you going to stay true to the cowboy look, or does that mean that you are now looking for what's next?
I should probably post some photos of me literally 20 years ago when I was playing in a punk rock band and I was still dressing like this. I was the guy wearing a cowboy hat and Dwight Yoakam T-shirts while literally playing Warped Tour. So I've been me for better or worse for a long time. I think what’s great about style is when you find your thing that works and your thing that you enjoy and it speaks to who you are. You don't need to bend to what's going on in the rest of the world, and you don't need to bend that to what your activity is. I think a lot of times I talk to men that are like, "Oh, I have to go to this wedding. What do I do?" They're so wrapped up in the ideas that there's rules that they don't apply their own personal style.
For me, if I go to a wedding, obviously I'm not going to wear double denim to a wedding, but I might wear a suit that has a Western yoke to it. And I might wear a bandana as a tie. Don't get so wrapped up in the idea of what the rules are. There can still be rules. You can still respect the environment and respect the activity or whatever it is, but still apply what's your version of that. If you're the guy that wears super bright colors, like, okay, let's talk about that. Maybe you're the guy that wears things loose or you're the things that are super tailored or whatever. And then that can kind of bring the fun back into it.
I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but if you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
A Levi's type three [trucker jacket], a nice old worn-in white T-shirt, a Stetson and a nice worn-in pair of leather boots.
Which Levi's and which white T-shirt?
I like 501s and I like 505s. I love old 501s. I love the ones from the ‘60s because I love the way those are shaped. I like the rise on them. This is going to be very controversial, but I wish that some of the early stuff had zippers because I'm probably lazy and I love a zipper. Occasionally I find a great pair of 505s that have a zipper that I really love. With the white T-shirt, I have so many white T-shirts and to me it's just about fit. There are times where for my clients, for example, sometimes the perfect white T-shirt is the Hanes from Target that's been washed four times and shrunk on purpose. Sometimes it is some kind of fancier boutique thing, like the Mr. Freedom white tee, the Stanley. Or sometimes it's the eighties Hanes Beefy Tee.
I like to buy a thicker shirt that is a little too big for me, then hot wash it and hot dry it until it's the right shape. Kind of like the original approach that people had on 501s, the shrink-to-fit idea. I don't like this arms race to have a tee already almost see-through and so soft. It's just not my vibe. So for me it's like having something that has some years on it.
This conversation was so much fun but very long, so this interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.