Clothes are never silent in an image. They can tell us that someone belongs, is pretending, is leaving or has finally arrived. I style fashion editorials, films and selected productions with that language in mind, attending to the person before I attend to the outfit.
From The Awakening collection
For FutureBlackSpace, an artistic research project led by Professor John-Paul Zaccarini, I designed and made costumes and hairstyles for six dancers and styled the film on set. The white sculptural forms had to belong to moving bodies, not mannequins. Each performer brought a particular presence, and the clothes found their meaning among them. The project explored the creative freedom of artists of colour beyond the expectations imposed by predominantly white institutions.
I have continued working with John-Paul Zaccarini as resident stylist for FutureBrownSpace. Its imagined AfroStar Galactica opens a world shaped collectively through Black Study, performance and speculative possibility. Costume is one way of making that world tangible. A shape, a texture or a single dramatic detail can give a performer something to inhabit and the audience something to enter.
Before choosing a look, I want to understand the feeling of the scene. Who is in it? What has just happened? What do we see before we understand? We look at the creative direction together, and at how clothing will speak with the photography, hair, make-up, light and performers.
Designing my own clothes has taught me to notice small things: the angle of a collar in a frame, the weight of a fabric as someone turns, the way two garments change each other’s meaning. For a production, I develop and refine the looks within the agreed brief. Sourcing, fittings, garment access and days on set are planned explicitly.
My styling practice is for visual productions rather than personal wardrobes. Where a character needs clothing designed from the beginning, we may be looking at a costume commission instead. We define the creative responsibility, preparation and production dates before pricing the work.
UltraLove, written and directed by Tobias Rydin, follows Clara and Luke through the tenderness, desire and difficulty of exploring an open relationship. Lina Bembe and Bishop Black play the couple across eight chapters. I worked on costume and styling within a visual world that moves between intimate daylight and charged night-time colour. A garment is close to the actor for every scene; it has to belong to the person the audience is getting to know. That closeness, where clothing becomes part of a relationship rather than a display, is what I love about cinema.
Images from UltraLove.
I am based in Stockholm and available for selected productions, with short periods of travel by agreement. I price the brief once we know the looks, preparation, people and days required.
Send the treatment or mood board, intended use of the images, number of people and looks, available wardrobe, shoot location, dates and budget.
For the thinking behind this approach, read Before you have said a word in the Diary.