Take 5 with Shirley Kurata

TAKE 5 is an ongoing series where I photograph and interview inspiring friends and creatives to see if I can take some pretty portraits and see what's been on their minds.

Shirley Kurata is one of Los Angeles’ most iconic style icons. Shirley and her partner Charlie Staunton run the invaluable Virgil Village staple Virgil Normal. Very notably, she was recently nominated for an Academy Award for her costume design for Everything Everywhere All At Once, and has collaborated with every great photographer in the world. Brands adore her. Magazines fall at her feet. She is one of one in every way. The photos were taken at a recent Dodger game where they lost Nationals 10-6.

Shirley, one thing I’m always impressed with you is your ability to create a story with your costuming. Every time you put clothes on someone, yourself included, it immediately creates a sense of intrigue about the history of the person: who they are, where they’ve been, what they do. But then you also have such an ability to create these visual compositions out of color and shapes. Is there a particular project in your history that you can point to and say, “This is the project where I found my voice and hit a stride that set me on my path?”

I think maybe it was styling Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins for their Rabbit Fur Coat album cover and packaging and shot by Autumn de Wilde back in 2006.  I had recently watched Robert Altman’s “3 Women” and I loved the twins that were featured in the movie- they were dressed identically with matching outfits and purses.  Jenny and Autumn wanted the shoot to have a cinematic aspect to it- like they were film stills from a movie, so I took that inspiration and dressed the Watson twins in matching outfits and purses.  I also had this red vintage dress that I found in a thrift store that fit Jenny perfectly and being a Pedro Almodovar fan and knowing how red is such an important color in his movies, it felt right to put her in red.  For me this shoot gave me the opportunity to mix aspects of film into the music world.  That mixing of genres and inspirations is still an important aspect of my styling and costume design.  

You grew up in the Los Angeles area and you’ve seen fads come and go from the city. When you wax nostalgic on this beautiful place, can you describe what you see as LA’s golden era for you?

I think LA in the 70’s seemed golden to me, like my memories of it has a summery hazy golden feel to it.  Technology hadn’t taken over yet, it was a time for kids to be outside, make mud pies, ride bikes or big wheels, skateboard, rollerskate, go swimming in a pool, play in the park.  I’m kind of grateful to be able to have those years because I felt like we were living in the present more, and more connected to nature.   There were less things to keep you indoors.  LA has such great natural places to explore- mountains, beaches, canyons along with year round great weather, but it’s so easy to get pulled into staying home watching Netflix or being on the computer and oftentimes we don’t take advantage of the great things LA has to offer. 

If you had to move somewhere else, what city could you see yourself thriving in?

I think somewhere in Japan, maybe Kyoto or Osaka.  

Two-part question: Do you have any opinions on space tourism? In the future, would you ever consider taking a vacation to the moon?

I think spending the money on space travel when it could be spent on cleaning our planet up is kind of ridiculous.  I think humans would probably end up trashing those places too.  So no, I’m not really into it. I also saw the Challenger blow up as a kid, so that kind of traumatized me regarding space travel.  Plus there are so many amazing places I still need to discover on this planet!

What was the last thing (movie or just moment in life or anything) that you saw that made you pause and go, “Wow. That was beautiful”?

Hiking in Malibu and seeing all the flowers in bloom. 

Thank you for joining us, Shirley! We enjoyed having you here at Fudge Monthly.