Sad.

“Bananas!” Celeb stylist Rachel Zoe and her bow-tie clad assistant Brad Goreski have sadly decided to go their separate ways, effective Oct. 1. “I love Rachel and she’s taught me everything I know,” Goreski, 33, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “But there’s a point where either I do it now or I’ll never know what it’s like to spread my wings and soar.” Breaking the news to Zoe about a month ago was nothing short of “major.” “We couldn’t stop hugging and we couldn’t stop crying,” she says. “He did this with such class and elegance. And I get it. I just told him, ‘I’m here for you always.’” Goreski is counting on that. “I hope she’ll continue to teach me more and more,” he says. And while the dynamic duo’s frenzied pace has been constant fodder for Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project, filling Goreski’s designer shoes will be no easy feat. “We have a relationship that’s not normal. I jump into bed with him and wake him up and we have these pow wows and he’s like, ‘Wow, I haven’t brushed my teeth,’” Zoe says. “I don’t want to hire somebody for the purpose of the show, we just got lucky. No one’s ever going to be Brad to me.”