PHOTOGRAPHED BY REMY FINK
WHAT FIRST DREW YOU TO WORKING ON TILL? I’m a native of Chicago, so I was very familiar with the story [because the Till family was also from Chicago]. I was really drawn toward [Emmett Till] and I had a conversation with director Chinonye Chukwu, where she said she will not inflict pain on a Black body. I thought that that was very honorable and special because it was being told through [Emmett’s mother] Mamie’s perspective, because it’s also talking about a Black woman’s perspective.
HOW DID BEING FROM CHICAGO INFLUENCE YOUR COSTUME DESIGNS? The vibration of Chicago. I don't think it’s ever changed and I don't think it’ll ever change. I was blessed enough to have someone on my crew who grew up on the South Side of Chicago. His name is Al and although he worked in the background, he still helped me keep the essence of Chicago at that time. I am thankful that I had the vision and the crew to back me up with bringing Chicago, as well as Mississippi, to life.
WHAT KIND OF RESEARCH DID YOU HAVE TO DO? It’s funny—when I was in grad school, I said that I was going to design a movie on Emmett Till, but the research I did was really just riding around the city and getting into the vibrations of what it may have felt like to live there in the ’50s. I also reached out to the Chicago History Museum and [tried to understand the music of the time].
HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAPTURED THE RACIAL DYNAMICS OF THE U.S. IN THE 1950S THROUGH YOUR COSTUMES? Particularly with Mamie—[I dressed her in yellow in pivotal scenes]... and yellow was a color assigned to Emmett early on. In the opening scene, we see him in a yellow shirt. … Yellow itself, color theory-wise, is a symbol of hope or resignation of hope. He was taken from us, but the hope in the end of the movie is that if he would have returned and she saw him in that last scene, everything would have been different.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS THE BIGGEST REWARD OF WORKING ON THIS PROJECT? The fact that it chose me to tell this story because it could have been anybody, right? When I landed it and we shot it, I really started to chant to Emmett and Miss Mamie to use me—it was very sad and serendipitous because my mother’s name was also Mamie. It’s been an honor [to work on this].
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