What does it take to style someone like Beyoncé? Take a cue from Zerina Akers

How does one become a stylist to the stars? When you hear the story of Zerina Akers, stylist to Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion and Karol G, you learn that success not only takes devoted work but also genuine community building. One builds a career alongside others.

Visual artist Maria Maea has had the unique experience of following Akers since the beginning of her professional career, when they worked together in production. Both have since become successful artists in their fields. Curious to reflect on what this journey takes and has been like, Maea reached out to Akers to have a conversation. The timing coincides with Akers’ newly launched Saint Helen’s House, a social club and showroom in Tarzana that will serve as a space for young stylists and women across industries to socialize, find outfits that feel good for their bodies and appreciate art — Akers collaborated with Hammer Museum curator Erin Christovale for the space’s first of many exhibitions. Saint Helen’s House is a natural outgrowth of Akers’ first business venture, Black Owned Everything, which she describes as a digital marketplace that has “become a launching pad for Black entrepreneurs and creators” and a way to break barriers and share information with people.

After years of collaborating with others, Akers is starting to feel reciprocation from her community with the opening of Saint Helen’s House. In her words to Maea, “They’re able to show up for me in a real way.”

Maria Maea: What are some of your earliest memories of fashion?

Zerina Akers: Oh, my goodness. My earliest memories of fashion would be getting a red polka dot dress for Easter and refusing to take it off.

MM: I love it.

ZA: There are pictures of me from about ages 3 to 5, and I'm still wearing the same dress. They had to hide the dress from me.

Zerina Akers

Back then, I didn't realize we were in the quote-unquote ghetto or in the hood or anything — I didn't really know the difference. But in hindsight, I think fashion and what you wear held a lot of power — how you showed up in a room and the hierarchy of social anything, like wearing the latest sneakers and the latest trends put you in a powerful position in a room. Eventually, in high school, I started making my own clothes, and people would wear them and buy them. Back then, I thought the only way to work in fashion was to become a fashion designer, so I started studying fashion design, but quickly realized I didn't have the patience to sew a button-down shirt. So I switched to marketing and was able to discover styling through my first internship at W magazine.

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MM: What was the moment where you knew that this was your path, where you decided, “OK, I can grow in this space”?

ZA: I never really felt like I was cut out for a 9 to 5. I always knew I wanted to work for myself. Going into my very first internship at W, I was trying to find myself, trying to see myself, though I didn't necessarily see myself in that moment — I was the only Black girl in the office as an intern. I just started to explore assisting bigger stylists, and I was always taught to make your mistakes under an umbrella. So I took the path of assisting and interning and wanting to learn as much as I could and go from there. I started doing commercial styling, and that's really what I think set it in for me. I was assisting stylist Ray Oliveira, and these jobs are very different than the high-fashion jobs. You got off at 6. You came in at a certain time and ended. I saw single women that were working and able to buy houses and make a life for themselves without necessarily being married or coming from a rich family. I was able to see a lot of women take hold of their own lives and that, for me, resonated, while still being able to be creative and create your own hours on your own time. I kept going after that.

MM: You and I have known each other for almost a decade in the industry. I thought a lot about the magic of women working collectively and the trust that we can build and the communities that we can create, that get forged through our labor, but also, as you said, all these moments of agency for women of color. Thinking back to your early days as an artist, how did you create trust with your vision and your voice in these spaces? How did you begin to build yourself up?

ZA: I assisted for a while, but when I went to go on my own, I was fortunate enough that my first client as an independent lead stylist was Beyoncé. In hindsight, looking back, the goal was for me to step into it, because often, people are more afraid of success than they are of failure. That being said, it still took me a while to build my confidence, I was kind of doing it as I was learning the job.

One of those first moments for me was the hat look in the “Formation” video — I just remember fighting for that video, and I really wanted to work on it, so I would pitch all these ideas. But I was just the closet girl; they didn't necessarily think I could take on such a large project. So I did a couple of fittings, and Beyoncé liked this one look that I did specifically and decided to put it in the video. And that look then became almost a symbol for a movement, and a symbol for an entire music era of hers. That, I think, is when I realized I was contributing to creating things that were going to outlive me someday. And then, what do you do with that? Working with someone like Beyoncé, who has seemingly done it all, and worn it all, how do you create new silhouettes? But more important, how do you utilize the platform? For me, it was always important to reach out to independent designers and allow them space on that platform, so it wasn't just all seemingly high-end Parisian, Italian luxury. She kept her ear to the street, and just that simple gesture of allowing a lot of the younger talents to take space, you have the success of designers like Sergio Hudson and Romeo Hunte. Also Sarah [Diouf] with her brand Tongoro out of Dakar, Senegal. Beyoncé wore her garments twice one year, just on vacation, and Sarah went from employing seven people to employing 50 people. You can't measure that kind of reach, where you're able to shift the trajectory of someone's life and their success. That's really powerful.

MM: With Saint Helen’s House, you talked about it becoming an art space and a social club. Why have you decided to make L.A. the home for this project? What is it about this moment in your life and also this location?

ZA: I relocated to L.A. about seven years ago, and it's been home ever since. When you really get to know Los Angeles, like the real Los Angeles, there's a certain family unit that's really beautiful. The way that there's legacy community and people generationally helping each other — you don't really find that in a lot of cities, and so that's always inspired me as I've gotten to know the real L.A. But then, juxtaposing that with being in Hollywood, having experienced firsthand the industry, it can be very exclusive. That inclusion, giving younger stylists access that [they] typically may not get to standard showrooms, giving women — the backbone of this industry is often a lot of women [and] they too are going to events, going to red carpets. Where’s their look? They want to look good, they want to feel good. Opening the doors to everyone has changed the game, because it's just opened a floodgate of community and networks that we are able to build on at the showroom.

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I decided to go into more of a residential space to maintain the intimacy of what we were offering our clients, to be able to forge that community there in the space. With Saint Helen’s house, as I went through escrow closing on the space, all of these other ideas came to mind. I have a deep love for the art community as a whole, and the business of art is also very interesting to me, and how artists develop, how their work evolves and how people get to know them. There is power for me in also investing in art. I wanted to offer that to the clients that are coming in the showroom. I wanted them to have their ears to the streets and feel like they're ahead of the curve in getting to know a lot of these artists. You actually introduced me to Erin Christovale, and we were able to work on this and bring this to life. “Glimpses of the Self” is the first gallery opening of many. I plan to do exhibitions quarterly.
 
MM: Can you speak a little bit on “Glimpses of the Self”? You had wall text up about seeing yourself, which was such a powerful gesture because so much of the showroom is about getting to embody yourself.

ZA: The combination of artists that we have, like yourself — you have a beautiful woven piece that for me resembled an eye — you have Adee Roberson, who is capturing family and people in joy, in moments of intimacy, to February James, her [portraits capture] some of the more somber moments, which kind of really forces you to reflect on yourself. I just wanted people to come in and see themselves. I thought that was just a great way to open the space.

MM: What advice would you give to a younger self or up-and-coming young women who are navigating these spaces?

ZA: First and foremost: Take the time to learn your industry and your business. Often, we've gotten caught up in the 120 characters of life and just how quickly social media is moving. I think people aren't necessarily taking the time to learn their industry and really learn the business they're being a part of. It's fun wanting to learn a couple of things and then go out on your own, but if you're not managing your bit as well, you're not going to be able to keep those clients — they're making sure [that] you have clean business, that you're in good financial standing, to really be ready to take on the growth that you see. And do right by people, because in three short years, that intern can be your boss. Just always be decent to people.

MM: I want to bring up the value of women working together. There's so much energy that's forged around being on a job and showing who you are through your labor, how you show up. A lot of my friendships have been built in that space. Can you speak about some of the histories you've had working with different people along your path?

ZA: I'm seeing a point where so many people around me have evolved and morphed into something totally different than how we met. Even us, for example. You were this production master and now you're this flourishing artist, and you've evolved into something so very different. Where I'm seeing women now, where I'm connecting with a lot of women and people now — they're at the top of their game. We're able to pull together our resources and create something new and amplify whatever we're doing and help each other. It continues to be so powerful for me, for us to support each other, especially in this climate, where it seems like we're being targeted. I think it's important to come together and stay together.

Makeup Brandy Allen
Hair Diane Griffin
Location Saint Helen's House

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.