Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirby Emile.
Kirby, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Working in costume design has been a winding path. It started with me being my stylist. As a toddler, I lived with my mom, great-grandparents, and my mom’s first cousin. Whenever it was time to get dressed, I would go to my great-grandparents’ armoire and examine myself, and even at that tender age, I had demands about my style. I had to have on a dress or a skirt, some pink somewhere, ribbon in my hair, and my nails painted. Once I was done getting my look together, I would go to the living room where my cousin would be on the couch, and I would model my clothes without saying a single word. This was when he was obligated to tell me how pretty I looked. During this time, I developed a habit of playing in clothes in the middle of the night that lasted until my early 20’s.
Once in my teens, I started modeling and working as a runway instructor. I also started skipping school to go shop in Little Five Points for shoes at SoHo and clothes at Envy. I would keep a continuity book of what I wore to school to challenge myself to style the pieces differently for future use and write letters to my mom about the clothing I wanted. Then one Christmas her gift to me was to allow me to go to NYC and shop all day. This birthed the costume buyer in me. It was such an adrenaline rush to know I had until the last flight out to find fashion gems at reasonable prices. My teachers in high school also encouraged me. They would walk me to one another’s classrooms in the middle of class to show each other my looks and tell me I could make a career out of shopping for others. These were white women telling me I could make money in a way that I’d never heard of anyone making money before. I felt like they were encouraging me to begin some new and unheard of occupation. I thought it was nice of them to have that much confidence in me, but I didn’t know where to begin…
In my early 20’s I landed a spot in a national ad for Zune, which gave me lots of confidence because I was both talent and stylist for my look, which was chosen to advertise the product as a fashionable accessory.
Shortly after that, my boyfriend at the time started his own production company and let me style his jobs. I loved it! During this time I was attending Georgia State University completing a degree in political science only because I didn’t understand how majoring in fashion merchandising would help me make money after graduation, but I kept hearing the voices of my high school teachers. Towards the end of my program, I decided to start the fashion merchandising program at Bauder College while also finishing at GSU. I was also working full-time at Bank of America. Little did I know, that this was grooming me for the long hours of film & tv.
Once I had my son, I refused to return to work doing something that made me miserable. I rolled the dice and got an internship at Tyler Perry Studios in the costume department. From there, I started working as a Costume Production Assistant under Lorraine Coppin, and I will be forever grateful for all she taught me. After working as a PA for over a year, I joined the union as a Costume Buyer and landed a job on “Hunger Games: Catching Fire”. From there I went on to work as the Costume Supervisor for the Atlanta unit of “Creed”, as the Key Costumer for season 1 of “Stranger Things”, the Costume Buyer for “The Fate of the Furious”, the Costume Designer for a combination of shorts and commercials just to name a few projects and am currently working my butt off as the Assistant Costume Designer for season 2 of The CW’s “Legacies”. I’m a decade into the business of motion picture, and as much as I don’t boast, brag, or post all over social media about the projects I work on, I am very proud of myself and very thankful for all the opportunities I have been given and all the blessings to come.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The entertainment industry is no smooth road for anyone whether they be cast or crew. One of the biggest struggles people face in the business is not knowing when their next job is coming. I have had that anxiety a few times in 10 years, but overall I have consistently been booked.
Please tell us about your work.
I currently work as an Assistant Costume Designer for season 2 of “Legacies”. It’s my job to help create looks for the characters of the show that illustrate who they are and what they are going through. Costumes always tell a story. Unless production is fantasy, period or high fashion, most viewers don’t consciously pay attention to what the costumes are telling them- it’s when something is wrong that they notice in an active way that the costume story is off.
In addition to telling a story, there are technical aspects to be considered such as how audibly loud fabric, patterns on a fabric that will make it look like it’s moving on screen, colors are used on the set in relation to the costumes, making sure characters in the same scenes aren’t wearing colors, patterns and silhouettes that are too similar, etc.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the immediate future, I am preparing to wrap this season of my show and begin the next since we’ve already been picked up for a third season.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5694378/
- Email: kirbytemile@gmail.com
- Instagram: kirbysdaughter
Image Credit:
Thomas Howell
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