Can you tell our readers a little about yourself and how you got into costume design?
In undergrad, I thought I would be a biochemist; but that didn’t work out. I took a theater class along the way and thought, this is cool. I loved that you can create a character that tells this larger story and that this beautiful experience stays with viewers and leaves them engaged when it’s over. I switched my major to costume design and went on to get a master’s degree and work at the Metropolitan Opera.
That’s a significant career shift and not an easy one considering that there wasn’t alot of women of color in costume design when you first started. What was it like to initially navigate that space as a first-generation American woman of color?
When I first showed up for job interviews, navigating spaces as a brown person was interesting. Because I go by Nicky Smith, everyone would expect a different Nickey Smith to walk in, but when my little brown faces show up, they’d be like, oh. A period costume designer back then was not traditionally a brown girl with tattoos, piercings, and dreads—it was a specific type of person that I was not. A lot of the time, I felt like there wasn’t space for us to tell our own stories, there were people who were telling everyone’s stories, but it wasn’t us. So to see the drastic changes that have happened over the past five years is lovely to witness. There’s a lot of room for communities to represent themselves, especially women of color, to take the forefront. We’ve seen that through costume designers like Ruth Carter, Gersha Phillips, and Sharen Davis. Many talented Black costume designers, from established to young, have paved the way for people like me, and I’m so grateful for that.
Well, I’d add you to that list of women who are paving the way because you’ve worked on many incredible projects that foster that sense of community storytelling. Has there been one project you’ve loved working on the most?
Such a tricky question, as I know all aspects of costume design. I’ve done everything from working on The Tonight Show and House Cars for VH to designing costumes for Pose and Ramy season 3. But, if I had to pick, I’d say when I did a campaign for Drag Race All-Star Season Two. It was so wonderful because I supported these talented queer artists at the top of their field. And it was all very collaborative because there were no pre-filming fittings; everything was done on the spot and shot that day; it was an exhilarating experience.
Creating costumes on the spot is insane, but so is the general design process. Would you say your approach to creating for creating costumes for contemporary shows, reality, or period pieces is different if it all?
Ideally, you never want to do things because you need a little preparation, so creating costumes on the fly is a different experience. But, when it comes to working on a modern series, it does have the same fast pace as you have to fit actors on the same day of shoots, and you need to have a range of times to play with. Versus, dealing with period pieces is defiantly harder and requires more time because you’re sourcing particular components to fit that era. The dream is to not be fitting things the day of, but there are always alot of moving parts to consider.
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