Even if you don’t know Zerina Akers‘ name, you likely know her work. The fashion stylist, Emmy Award-winning costume designer and wardrobe curator is best known for styling Beyoncé, including for the visual album “Black Is King” and the 2016 “Formation” video. (You know that black wide-brimmed hat Beyoncé wore? That was all Akers.) She’s also worked with Chloe and Halle Bailey, Ava DuVernay and Yara Shahidi, among others, and is the founder of the e-commerce platform Black Owned Everything.
With all the (figurative) hats she wears, Akers has also recently found the time to be in front of the camera: She joins fellow fashion stylists Dani Michelle and Elizabeth Stewart as the faces of U Beauty’s “Styled From Neck to Décolleté” campaign. They each appear in self-styled portraits featuring The Sculpt Neck + Décolleté Concentrate, highlighting “the essential first step” for every look, per press materials.
Ahead, Akers shares her thoughts on celebrity dressing, styling yourself and the upcoming project she’s most excited for (we are, too).
Photo: Courtesy of U Beauty
What’s one piece of styling advice you’d give a celebrity client that you find yourself coming back to again and again?
To just not take yourself too seriously. I think Rihanna is a huge success in fashion because it doesn’t look like she takes herself too serious[ly]. Doja Cat even. They’re doing what looks good, what feels good to them. And then everyone else I think has had to evolve in that way…It’s fashion. We are not over here doing rocket science. We are not curing cancer.
Photo: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
What have you learned from working with your celebrity clients that’s changed the way you approach styling?
The way I approach styling is really [about] realizing and acknowledging that it’s a collaborative effort. I’m not here to place a costume on you or just give you a look. It has to be in you as well. Most of the time I’m working with women who are powerful in their own right. I have to acknowledge that process. I often try to give them what they ask for and things that I know that they’re comfortable with, and then also have a rack of things that I know I want to try. That person has to walk out, be confident, feel good.
What’s one piece that everyone should have in their wardrobe this fall?
A beautiful coat. The coat is going to save you. The jacket is the dress.
What are some of the biggest styling mistakes you see people making when getting dressed for an important event?
I think that often people overdo it. Sometimes the hair has to be simple or the makeup has to be simple. I think when everyone’s trying to have their big moment, they don’t consider the woman that’s wearing the thing and the woman that’s going out on the carpet. Everything needs to have a balance.
Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images
For the U Beauty campaign, you’re stepping in front of the camera and styling yourself. How was that different from styling a client?
It’s just easier. I don’t talk back. I know what I like. I know how to dress myself and I know what looks good on me. I went over to my showroom, grabbed a couple of things that I thought would look good and powerful. But recently I’ve been kind of struggling [with] what to wear. I’m not going to lie. I feel like I’ve turned 40 and I’m hitting this curve and I’m somewhere in between feeling younger and feeling more mature and not knowing the balance. Hence the black T-shirt with the feathers that I have on today.
The neck and décolleté can completely change a look. How do you think about that area when you’re styling someone?
I am constantly considering the neck and déc when I’m styling because [when] I’m styling someone like Chaka Khan, who often wears big hair but is a little more petite in size, I need to keep her neck long. We’re going to do long earrings with her long hair. We’re almost never going to do a necklace. We like to keep the neck long and lean, keep the chest kind of open.
Are there any fashion brands or designers you’re particularly excited about right now?
Probably what most excites me at the moment is working on my own collection. My cousin and I are exploring some new designs and to kind of step it back into that space of actually developing product is exciting.
I really love to watch the growth and evolution of my really good friend, Sergio Hudson. I mean, just watching how women really show up for him and really how he makes women feel. And to watch him evolve into a brand with real staying power is really beautiful. I also have always commend[ed] Brandon Blackwood for the way he evolved from the “End Systemic Racism” handbag to just being a known go-to bag for the girls. I love watching his evolution and we actually have a really cool project coming up really soon. I can’t give you too many details, but it’s exciting.
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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
