AMATUS
Rashida Bumbray
ODE TO BABEL
Join us for the soft launch event for CreativeTypes!
Stop by for an afternoon cocktail and hear from Ode to Babel owners, Marva & Myriam on how they started and maintain their concept/lifestyle business. CreativeTypes will be having an informative talk on the tools for cultivating a successful space for creatives, and also hear detailed advice from Marva about what's needed to be a designer based on her career with luxury retailers such as Fendi.
SUNDAY
8.28.16
12-2pm
Ode to Babel
772 Dean St.
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.odetobabel.com/
Bring aspiring creatives & spread the word!
The Costume Virtuoso
"IF IT INVOLVES ANYTHING CLOTHING, I WANT TO DANCE IN IT."
Mrs. Carmia Marshall-David is star dresser and stylist in the film and television industry tells how to make it work for you.
Job Title(s): Costumer, Wardrobe Mistress, Star Dresser, Stylist and personal Shopper
Born: Flint, MI Lives: Brooklyn, NY Works: where the job takes me
CT: Describe Your...
Projects:
- Star Dresser: Russell Crowe for Noah, Winter Tales, Fathers and Daughters and The Nice Guys
- Key Costumer: The OA, The Affair, Annie, Sex in the City 2, Spider-Man 2
- Personal Shopper: Individual clients looking to create a functioning closet
- Head Stylist: Of Whonder Luxury Apparrel
CT: what do you do?
These days we have have a slash behind each career title since some specialized industries over lap
As a star dress/key costumer, I execute the vision of a costume designer. I maintain the wardrobe continuity of any film or television show since we making the project we shoot out of order.
As a personal shopper, I help individuals clients create a functioning wardrobe closet for their overall lifestyles.
As a stylist, I create an image in collaboration of my client on a image that help identify the brand.
CT: what is the easiest way for someone with no experience to do what you do or break into your field?
Internships are great. As cliche as it may sound, an internship can lead to job ops. In NY, there's a program called Made in NY that help place interns are professional film and television sets. It's a great way for someone with no experience to work on a full throttle set.
CT: (project) what is the project/work that you're most known and/or proud of?
Noah is one of my favorite projects. It was a ton of water work and keeping the costumes in tip top shape was a daily challenge. Not to mention, we were shooting during the winter months. Imagine all of your clothing completely wet during the winter in NY. We were working with raw fabrics that didn't react well to water and we had to figure out ways to keep them camera ready.
CT: (process) how would you describe your process?
My process is to understand the story and the character of whom I am dressing very well. During filmmaking we don't shoot in order so there are times where I have to justify why things are being worn a certain way. Take for example, someone wearing a blazer during a fight scene. I just to the actor to keep the jacket open. Why? More movement to fight without damaging the costume. He won't have to worry about the jacket popping open during the fight. As a result, he can purely concentrate on the chreography of the fight and he or she doesn't have to worry about the costume.
CT: (practice) what skills do you need and how did you learn to learn these this? (skills)
The skills required are many: pro-active, ability to follow directions. Sewing skills are very usual. I was trained on the job. The more I practiced, the better I became at my job. I also read technical fashion books to learn about style and cuts, fabrics, clothing maintenance, distressing
CT: (progress) what do you do to stay relevant or creative?
I look for the subtle nuances of human interaction and behavior. The small details of what and how someone is wearing clothing is crucial for me to understand especially when storytelling via garments. People give you a sneak peek of who they are by what they wear at any given moment. I stay tuned to these details since its feeds my creativity and makes me a better costumer and stylist.
For more in depth look into the careers of a star dresser, stylist and personal shopper, log in to the LIVE CHAT on [date] Prepare your questions and get the scoop beyond the page on how to work in this fabulous career.
The Escape Artist
Name: Erica Sewell
Job Title(s): CT Co-Founder, Career Counselor, Recruiter, Designer, Educator, and and...
Born: Chicago, IL
Lives: Oakland, CA/Brooklyn, NY
Works: Globally
CT: What do you do?
As a Fashion Designer, I have worked on brands where the area of clothing has been fragmented by category. For example at Armani Exchange I started by designing Women's wovens then ended designing Men's knitwear. I came up with concepts through color and images and fabrications and sketch clothing ideas from there then see those ideas through to production overseas.
In Talent Casting, I have worked on identifying subjects in contemporary art projects such as Untitled (Structures) - a film installation by Leslie Hewitt and Bradford Young that explores mid-century civil rights era photographic landscapes through a contemporary lens. With that project, I found the "subjects" who were used to be photographed in the work by advertising casting calls and interviewing and photographing people who could be a fit for the tone and aesthetic vision of the artists.
As a Costume Designer, most recently I put together a concept board and sketches for the volunteers of artist Simone Leigh's Free People's Medical Clinic, which served as one of the sites for a Funk, God, Jazz, Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn - a month long exhibition in held by Creative Time and Weeksville Heritage Center.
My primary day-to-day work is in Talent Acquistion, which means that I bring creative talent into brands. I start by digging into the needs of the hiring team for the roles they are trying to fill (from User Experience "UX" Designers to Online Content Editors). Then I start to see what talent is out there and engage them about the opportunity for the brand, and manage that process and the relationships with both candidate and the business until there is a successful hire. In other areas of my work.
As an "escape artist", I may go from one-on-one career counseling with an aspiring fashion designer to speaking on a panel about identity politics within dress for "The Dandy Lion" exhibition. It all varies depending on what projects are thrown at me.
CT: what is the easiest way for someone with no experience to do what you do or break into your field?
In general, relationship building. That's basically the key ingredient for any job that is thrown at me. Some of my projects more than others require skill trainings.
For Fashion Design, you must have a good sense of color, be able to sketch and know garment construction. Besides that, an internship is key for getting your foot in the door. It's easy to obtain a job that is of low or no cost to the employer, so set your heights high with your internship selection because whichever name you have on your resume will determine your next job.
This is sort of the case with all "industry" related fields, but everything else that I do is about managing and obtaining relationships to get your foot in the door and not being afraid to start at the bottom to learn from others.
CT: (progress) what do you do to stay relevant or creative?
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