- I'm looking right in the lens (laughs).
Hi, I'm Christian Joy.
I am a costume designer and artist,
and I've been doing my job for 18 years now.
(upbeat music)
So, I moved to New York in 1998.
I was kind of just working in boutiques and stuff.
I just kinda decided I needed to change my career,
and talking to a friend of mine
and I was telling her the idea of a dress I had,
and she was like, you need to just be a fashion designer,
and I was like okay.
I lived near a Salvation Army in Brooklyn,
so I would go over and I would get old clothes
like old prom dresses and stuff,
paint them or draw on them
or glue stuff onto them and stuff.
At the same time,
I was working at a store called Daryl K on 6th Street,
and one of the people that, of course,
that came in was Karen O, and I had, I think, my dress,
and she had a Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD or something like that.
A lot of times,
there's a thing where people give you their CD
and you're like is this gonna be good?
Then you turn it and I was like wow, this is amazing.
I had some dresses and she said oh,
will you make one of these for me for my show?
And, you know, I just sort of saw myself in that moment
suddenly of her being on stage
and I could see her on the cover of magazines
just going through my head,
and I was like this is gonna be huge.
And then that's sort of just how it happened.
It was hard,
especially in the beginning 'cause I was sort of like oh,
I have 50 dollars and I have to pay rent,
you know, or whatever.
My parents haven't been able to give me money,
no one gives me money.
You feel like the universe is sort of taking care of me,
but also, I think it's like that thing
where it's not like you can sit in your house
and sort of be like oh,
well I hope that somebody's gonna pay me for something.
You really have to kinda keep going like here,
look what I'm doing now and this is what I'm doing
and this is what I'm doing.
I guess my aesthetic, it's kind of changed recently.
I mean, it's always more print based.
I love a lot of color and I love a lot of shape.
I want people to feel sort of this energy
and excitement when they see it,
especially if I'm making something for stage
that I want the person who's all the way
at the back of the festival
to look at the stage and be like,
still be able to see the piece and still feel excited by it.
How it moves.
Color communicates a lot.
If you have something that moves on stage like this,
it communicates a lot.
If certain, say, icons on stage or items or symbols,
it's like that says something too.
Whenever I make something new,
I try to kinda research that and sort of figure out
what that is that I wanna show to people.
It kinda depends on the artist.
Karen has always been...
For years, I would just show up with something.
She wouldn't even know what it would be,
and I would be like here's your outfit,
and she would just put it on and go on stage.
God bless her.
I can't believe (laughs) she did 'cause some of the outfits
were really not gorgeous.
And then other people,
they wanna be more part of the process
and they wanna kind of know more about what you're gonna do.
The less control people try to have,
the better the outfit ends up coming out.
Sometimes three days, that's what I'm given,
but I like to have at least two weeks.
You know who I really liked for a long time was Migos.
I liked the way that they look.
I mean, they look a little Earth, Wind & Fire sometimes,
which I think is really funny.
So, it's like the contrast between kinda who they are
and some of the outfits they wear I think is pretty amazing.
Yeah, I think it's really good to kinda just start doing it,
and when you do that,
then it's like you put yourself more open to mistakes.
You kind of have to figure it out more on your own,
which I think is, for me at least, was really great.
And I think when I realized I didn't need to be perfect
with what I did was really when things started to work out.
The things that I think are the lining's not in that right
or somethings weird happened with it,
that'll be the piece absolutely
that everybody likes the most.
Now, obviously, I want it to look perfect,
but I think when it's earlier on,
it's what people are really looking for is that energy
and that, you know, these new ideas.
Yeah, I've definitely compared myself to other people.
I mean, I think especially if you're small,
you sort of feel like you need to be how
all the big designers are and you have to do things
in the same them do them,
and you think about how many people there are in the world
and there's always gonna be someone there for it,
some audience there in a way.
I have a lot of favorite pieces.
Let me think, what's my favorite piece?
I have to say Maggie Rogers,
the Matisse suit that I made for her recently.
It's one of my very favorites.
For me, it was sort of like a interesting turning point.
I feel like I've gotten to work
with some many amazing people, just incredible performers.
I mean, this is what I love the most.
I mean, I see myself doing it for the rest of my life
in one form or another.
(upbeat music)
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