On the third and final day of Essence Fest’s GU Creator House, fashion’s finest enlighten their audience on the secrets to having good personal style. Sitting down with celebrity stylist Sierra Rena, and fashion designers Zay Morris and Wole Olosunde, the GU social lead Rhyann Sampson asks them all about what sets their style apart.
Sierra Rena credits her successful path into the fashion space, especially at such a young age, to her outlook, age, and personality. Rena learned very quickly that she would often be the youngest in the space, but never lets that deter her from bringing her own flair into the conversation. “Fashion is supposed to be so fun, you don’t have to take it so seriously. If you’re passionate about it, your passion will shine through,” she tells the audience.
Wole Olosunde is the literal embodiment of the word “multi-hyphenate.” This fashion designer, event planner, and ED registered nurse is fully tapped into his right and left brain, and pours all of that into his design. He believes that pulling from multiple experiences and skills when looking at fashion can help in curating a personalized and unique look. “The more of your interests that you’re able to develop, the more unique your perspective will be. As you continue to develop your multiple passions you’ll have multiple grounds to draw inspiration from,” he offers.
When you incorporate who you are, and what you do outside of the fashion space into your style or design practice, it yields a style that exudes confidence and most importantly, tells a story.
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To the tune of storytelling, Louisiana-based designer Zay Morris describes the mediums he pulls from to shape his design. As a Southern designer, Morris speaks to the way music, especially regionally, dictates a lot of his design direction. He connects the influence Southern designers have to style, “I don’t think Southern designers get enough credit for the creativity they bring to the fashion game,” he begins, and highlights how their incorporation of music and culture into their designs has a large impact on the trends that make it to the mainstream.
The relationship between music and fashion is longstanding. If style is a physical expression of self and creativity, it would only benefit from pulling from multiple passions, creative outlets, and artistic modes of expression.
They also briefly get into the relationship between sustainability and style. Morris explains that “making clothes the conventional way is very expensive,” which is what sparked his leap into sustainable fashion. He went back to his days of thrift store shopping and tapped into his creativity to “break down garments and transform them into new pieces.”
For all three fashion experts, stepping outside of the box when approaching style and design is what sets them apart. They encourage the audience to tap into sustainability, experimentation, studying past trend cycles, and being open to looking for inspiration outside of yourself to make it your own (as long as you give credit where it’s due!) This mindset can extend to reworking garments as well, such as using skirts as shirts, or vice versa.
“Not everything that you buy has to be for that specific intention,” Sampson adds to the conversation. Pushing the boundaries when styling yourself goes a long way.
When it comes to incorporating all of these tips into your own style, Sampson offers a final thought to the crowd, “fashion inspiration can be pulled from everywhere. Allow yourself the space to do more than what’s expected.”
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