The digital era has ushered in a creative class privy to unconventional pathways and LA native Jessica Willis has steered the industry’s currants as a fashion editor, stylist, and a well-versed student of the internet. As a teenager enthralled by craftsmanship, she spent her high school years rhinestoning accessories and repurposing clothes to sell to her friends and classmates. Always taking to texture and form, she set her interests on becoming a sculptor, but after watching the 1966 French fashion mockumentary, Who Are You Polly Maggoo?, Willis sought to recreate her own interpretation of the cult film’s wearable art. This passion project was featured in an art show and ultimately, secured her first opportunity working at a budding costume shop, one that would be outfitting Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour and constructing for preeminent pop stars during the aughts.
Following her time at the shop she ventured into work as a touring stylist for The Black Eyed Peas and a freelance stylist for music videos– navigating the industry both on the cusp of big-budget productions and the aftermath of streaming. Now helming the visual language at New York Magazine’s The Cut, Willis has styled the likes of Meghan Markle, Naomi Campbell, Megan Thee Stallion, Tinashe, and Julianne Moore, playing an integral role in the leading publication’s fashion-forward pivot as Fashion Director. Her stylistic talents have lent themselves to the musical projects of Solange Knowles’ When I Get Home and Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us video. Moreover, her style lexicon emphasizes shapes and embellishments, making her sartorial choices identifiable in the editorial landscape. Models.com contributor Nia Shumake spoke with Willis on embracing a non-linear creative path, her process of building out magazine covers, and how to function in a creative ecosystem.
What drew you to styling and how did you hone in on the craft?
I thought I was going to be a sculptor, and I was always in school doing things. In high school to make extra money I was rhinestoning belts and shoes, making jean skirts, repurposing clothes, and selling them to my friends. I always enjoyed art as well so I went into community college at Santa Monica College and was on the way to starting the process of transferring over to RISD. I wanted to do sculpture and I watched Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? which changed my life in a crazy way. I had a friend who was a photographer and I was like, “Oh, I really want to make these wearable sculptures,” that are in the opening scene of the movie. I went to Home Depot and got different materials to make them and I put [the pictures] in a group art show in Hollywood at this place called Barracuda. There was an artist named Marco who was at that show and asked who made the [wearable art] pieces and asked me to visit his studio. He was a part of a collective that moved up the street and Rick Owens had moved his Atelier to Paris and they took over the space when he left [Rick Owens’ stepdaughter was a part of their collective too]. [Marco] invited me to come and hang out and he would do photo shoots there. At first, it was super fun and creative. He was showing me how to sew and then he ended up getting Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour because he was a really talented costumer. He [said] “You’ve been hanging out here, do you want to come on this project with us?” I [said], “fuck yeah.” I literally just dropped out of school. I was like, I don’t care about anything else, I want to work on this. Long story short, he started getting all of the pop stars at that time.
What was the day-to-day like?
A lot of stylists were coming in, like B. Akerlund and Johnny Wujek, their top clients were Katy Perry, Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, and Lady Gaga, and we [also] did a lot of stuff for Nicki Minaj. The studio went from being barely moved into to being morphed into a full-blown shop that was doing custom costumes for big celebrities. Once the Monster Ball stuff came out, and then more stylists learned about the shop, I became full-time there. Marco and the team taught me how to sew, how to make patterns, they taught me everything I guess because they saw my potential. If you watch Katy Perry’s California Dreaming, I worked on the cupcake bras she wore. We were always experimenting. I would say that’s where I got my start in fashion. Then fast forward, at the shop, they needed help with the Black Eyed Peas because they were going on tour. B. Akerlund was the main stylist and they needed a touring team. I ended up touring with them for three years on a six-person team.
At what point did you pivot from your work as a touring stylist?
Fatima Robinson was on the tour with the Black Eyed Peas and put me in touch with Azealia Banks because she thought that I would be a good fit to style her. My first music video that I did all by myself as the key stylist was Azealia Banks’ 1991. But I realized that it was going to take a long time for me to get to the point of where B. Akerlund and Johnny Wujek were, because they had all the big artists and the music industry was starting to take a turn because of streaming. My mind turned to where can I lend my talent and commercialize it a bit so I started doing test shoots with friends. I worked with some photographers who were working for Nasty Gal at the time and I think because of that I got the attention of Urban Outfitters who asked me to join their team shortly after that. I moved to Philly and that’s when I started working with a corporate company. I worked there as a lead stylist for a couple of years. It’s not a linear journey but everything kind of lends itself to where I’m at now. When they hired me they brought me into the interview and they asked if I knew InDesign and Photoshop and I just said yeah, even though I didn’t at the time. I [thought] these people aren’t gonna hire me, I’m so young. I ended up getting the job and I was like, Holy shit, now I have to learn all this stuff. When I was on the plane, I was YouTubing tutorials on Photoshop and InDesign because immediately when I started it was building out decks and conceptualizing for a huge brand.
How did your work in the editorial realm come about?
I moved to New York shortly after working at Urban Outfitters for three years. I felt like I was prepared for it at that point from touring, costuming, and working on videos myself. I think that working corporately as a creative I felt like I was starting to get boxed in and I wanted to explore more. While I was at Urban Outfitters, I was longing to do something outside of them, and there was a magazine called Suited that was brand-new and New York-based. They asked me and Paul Jung [photographer] to do a story together and it became the cover. It was with Sudanese models and it went viral on Tumblr. I met both Paul and [designer] Peter Do through Tumblr. [Peter Do] and I had just admired each other’s work from afar when I still lived in LA and he was heavy on Tumblr as well. When we decided to do that Suited story, I [ reached out to Peter Do to pull his clothes. When he was in school, I drove up to the city and visited him to see his thesis collection and really liked it, so I asked if I could use his thesis collection and he agreed to it. He told me, “You have to come today because I’m leaving to go to Paris to work for Phoebe Philo at Celine.”
Unknowingly, needing to express myself [with that Suited project] ultimately got me my first campaign job with Apple because they got sight of that shoot and reached out to Paul Jung to shoot the campaign. He reached out to me [saying], “I really want to do this with you so you have to make the deck of your life.” After that more projects came rolling in and Suited’s editor-in-chief asked me to come on as fashion director. That’s where I got a taste of working as a fashion director and for a publication going to print.
What were the specific ways that all of your work experiences informed your current approach to style?
I’m starting to learn that I have always gone with the flow. It was ingrained in me that I really needed to be in school and was something that I was so stressed out about. I can say that there was a power that I was able to acquire from not going to school. I didn’t have a plan but I did have a plan at the same time. I knew exactly what I wanted to do but I think not having the constraints from a linear path of school, where you’re supposed to go and intern, [ I was able to] let life take me where it was supposed to go. I flowed into different experiences very wide-eyed, ready to receive, and ready to learn. I allowed them to take me to the next level without resistance. I look back on it and realize I just did these things and didn’t think I couldn’t do it. Even just moving to New York and thinking I could just move without having a job or anything lined up. I got humbled really soon, but then the fight came back in.
In 2018, you told The Cut that you were extremely shy and freak out every time you post. Is this still the case? How do you mitigate nerves in order to maximize your output?
In the beginning, I used Instagram as a tool, like Tumblr. I’m always saving images and I used to sit on my computer for hours and collect photos from Tumblr. I feel like then I was subconsciously saving images for decks that I was going to make in the future, not even realizing it. I would post a little bit, but I was also shy about posting and then as time passed, I started getting the mentality of not caring so much, just posting and not being so precious about what I’m posting.
As Fashion Director at The Cut, you’ve played an integral role in the publication’s iconography. Is there a particular vision you initially had for your role as Fashion Director? When building out looks for cover stars, do you follow a process?
I wanted to develop a strong visual language that was identifiable with The Cut. The audience is women, and I wanted to always show strong women on the cover and what that looks like for a platform of mostly women who are talking to women. I wanted to make it more fashion-forward and more editorial. Usually [my process] starts with the person, I always say that I’m not here to take away from anybody in the way that they show up, but I am here to elevate and see in a way that is complementary to them. I don’t overlook them up [online], but I start with them as my inspiration and then I build out. I don’t want to put my ideas of who someone should be onto them, I only want to add to it. With building out a look I have a lot of images in my head and so a lot starts with inspiration that I have in my folder of images I’ve saved from the past like movie clips, past editorials, architecture, everything. There are so many things that are in my folder of just saved images. Sometimes an image will pop in my head of how I see [talent] or what they remind [me] of at the moment. I travel a lot, so a lot [of inspiration] comes from traveling, from books that I’ve bought on my travels. I follow a lot of accounts on Instagram that are just different inspiration blogs, and photos that I’ve saved from Tumblr.
You’ve helmed styling in Solange’s When I Get Home and Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us music videos. Both artists lean heavily into visual storytelling and world building — I’d love to know how you’ve used garments to push narratives even further in your work.
I think they [garments tell a narrative] do. [I] very purposely worked with these two artists on these projects, because I respect their process and their artistry through what they do. I think everything is intentional and that’s a word that is very important to me, being intentional and genuine. I think that both are artists and their teams are artists. I know that if I’m asked to do a Solange project or a Kendrick project it’s because I was intentionally put there. So I’m just a small part of the bigger picture. I just go with the flow of what the project is and it’s not about me but it’s about the ecosystem.
We have to talk about the iconic Meghan Markle and Megan Thee Stallion covers. What was life like for you at that time and how did it inform your approach to styling two women in the public eye undergoing both public scrutiny and adoration?
For Megan Thee Stallion, the first thing that came to my mind was how can I make her look sexy without showing an ounce of skin? How could I do the opposite of how I’ve seen her? I’ve seen her very sexy, but how can we show her sexiness without showing it all? She was really fun and amazing. For Meghan Markle, when that came in it was just like what the hell– it’s working with royalty and it was really special but it was really intimate. I felt very peaceful that day shooting it and at ease and ready for the assignment. Both of them [Meghan Markle and Megan Thee Stallion’s covers] were shot with Campbell Addy, who is a really good friend of mine, who I also met on the internet. That was our second time working together but it was really easy to do that knowing that I was going into it with someone I trusted wholeheartedly.
I read in your biography that you love furniture and collecting objects — is this connected to your styling approach in any way?
I think it goes back to form and wanting to be a sculptor when I was going to school. Informing my style was sculpture and architecture. I love design, texture, and the feel of things. I think my favorite thing to do after shows is to go and actually feel the garment, see how much stretch it has in it, see how it’s embellished — that really excites me.
Are there any creatives and designers that you’re into right now?
Dilara Findikoglu. It’s provocative, it’s perverse, it’s sexy – it has all of the elements. I’m really into fantasy, when [I] look at a show or at a piece, I like to feel something. I love Schiaparelli and Alaia. I love brands where I can tell they love designing for women because the woman looks and feels empowered and comfortable but still chic, like there’s integrity in the design. That’s why I think I loved McQueen so much because so was much going on but you always saw the woman’s shape. He understood the body, he understood fabrics. I really appreciate when the woman is celebrated. I think [Alexander McQueen] is one designer that really changed my life and the way I saw everything. I remember he was the first designer that streamed the show through Twitter and I sat in line and waited because Lady Gaga tweeted that the show was going to be live.
