Kimberly Steward: The Image Architect

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you know, when you’re working with celebrities, you’ve got to be able to envision them um or or or executives and whatnot, you
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have to be able to envision them in so many different ways, right? Um and for
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some of them, like with the W, there are some of those players in the W you have um that are really comfortable in every
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situation, having on makeup, having their hair done, no matter whether they’re playing or they’re in the tunnel.
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others like Nisa when she’s like doing her thing, don’t come towards her with no mascara. No, you know what I mean?
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And it don’t it don’t hurt that she wake up like this, right? She’s gorgeous.
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Like the girl rolls out of bed looks like she got on a full face. But yeah, like you know, I had to learn like I was trying to put a whole bunch of makeup on
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her in the tunnel and she was like I she’s like I don’t I don’t want all of that because I got to play and I don’t want to play in all that makeup, right?
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Overtood.
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Y know it takes a special track to do this. I’mma be super fluid. I’m here to remind y’all I’m sick with it. My name
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is hot. It’s ubiquitous, meaning it’s one and the same. Simple and plain. I’m all about my paper. The beacon gener.
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The talent to Mr. Porter. Keep it flowing like it’s water. But here we go.
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There we go. Creeping to a low speed. Is it him and his friend sitting in the nose ble? He ain’t special just cuz he’s
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on TV. Everybody’s hands up acting like they know we
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[Music]1:40
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welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Taste Music here food podcast show.
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I am your host Ed Porter, the home for all things food, music, and culture related and how they connect. Today we
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have an amazing guest, someone we supposed to have on a little while ago, but I’m happy it happened when it did.
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And so before before we start, I have to give this woman our flowers the best way I know how, and I’m going to do with this intro. Okay.
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Today’s guest is a creative architect whose canvas is culture itself. A stylist, a designer, and a master image
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maker. She doesn’t just follow trends, she builds legacies through style through founder of KS styling team and
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has spent over 15 years crafting bold authentic visuals for artists, athletes, and brands. Recently shaping the
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signature looks of WNBA superstar Nfisa Kyer. Whether it’s a magazine cover, a brand campaign, or a red carpet moment,
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her work bridges fashion, music, and identity. With every detail telling a deeper story from the runway to the
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streets, from classic cuts to cultural statements, when she styles, the world pays attention. Please welcome the stylish, the unstoppable, Miss Kimberly Stewart.
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Oh my goodness. How was that? You’re gonna make me tear up a little bit.
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Alissa. So, I’mma tell you like I tell every all my So, first and foremost, I cherrypick all of my guests. So, there’s
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no one that sits in this chair that I would not love to have and speak to. So, the best way to pay that forward is to
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do you justice with the proper amount of flowers. And so, oh my goodness, rose petals for you. I appreciate that. Like,
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kudos, King. Thank you. Seriously, thank you. And thank you for being here. Thank Listen, you just literally almost
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brought me to tears. Um, and we can listen, we can no matter where you go, any red carpet that you’re doing, we can have that. We have the audio. Play that
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at your will, you know, before you walk in. You That’s your new intro. You can have that. That’s my new pep talk. Yeah.
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So, people need to know. People need to know. So, I I one thing I know about creatives, me, myself being a creative, is that we are horrible self-promoters.
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Yeah. Horrible. Yeah. Because we are too busy doing and less showing. If you anybody you see showing tons before
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doing is not really doing anything. No, that’s real. So if you’re spending more, you gota you have to balance. You’re either spending your time doing
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something or talking about doing something. And so you’re a doer. So therefore, there you go. I appreciate that. I’m really You’re going to go down
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in my book. So let me tell you, there’s one other person who has made me, and I mean made, she strong me. Oh. And that’s
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King Ashley Anne. Um she Yeah. When I met her years ago at the Periscope Summit, you know, you got to be a little older to know about Periscope.
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Um she said, “I Googled you.” And um she said, “Not many.” And back then like you had to have done something to be Google.
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Oh, yeah. But I didn’t I didn’t realize, you know, I didn’t get it like that. and she said, “I don’t want to ever see you introduce yourself or write your name
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down without putting awardwinning in front of it.” And I said, “That I’m not going to do that. That’s weird. Like,
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why would I do that?” And she was like, “No, sis.” She was like, “Get your bag.” And I said, “Okay.” And I did that and it changed my career. So, shout out to
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King Ashley and she is the bomb. Love you, girl. Yes. Absolutely. Speaking of that’s a great segue into to your origin
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story. So I also not only Googled you, so I I do a deep dive. So anybody that that I I want to talk to is for
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multitude of reasons. So this show specifically is about food, music, and culture. In my personal humble opinion,
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I believe that food and music are two of the four universal languages. So there’s food, everybody understands something
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tasty when they eat it. Absolutely. Like chocolate like we just talked about.
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Everybody understands a a good beat or music that moves them whether they understand the language or not. Correct.
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Uh the other two are violence and then unconditional love. Everybody understands what unconditional love feel like and everybody understands what a
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left hook is whether it is what you know you know what’s up when it’s up. Listen. And so and you know when you’re down. Yes.
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The two the two food and music for me as as I believe are the two easiest way to
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get to know a person and to to immerse yourself in a culture and along with that comes out of culture, right? And so
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being stylish and being a a a style image maker is a huge component of that culture piece.
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And those two, all three of those things have to work unilaterally in order for that to be a thing. So talk to talk to
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us about, you know, your origin story about what how did how did you when did you know that cuz it’s not an atypical
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this is not something you go to the goddess counselor and like this not on the list, right? It’s not on any list.
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Exactly. So when did it become your thing? Wow. So if you ask my mother, uh
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it was when I was born. Um I she birthed me and here I am. Like the person that I
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am today has not changed much. Um she said that when I was less than 6 months old, I would literally um look at people
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from their shoes up. So they would walk in the room and I’d look at their shoes and I and if I wasn’t like vibing with their shoes, I wasn’t vibing with them.
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Um she was like people would come up to her and have on horrible like their shoes wouldn’t match their outfit or the shoes just weren’t good shoes at all and
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she was like I would scream and cry when they would try to like you know reach out to me and what whatnot. So that
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turned into a fullon I have hundreds of pairs of shoes to this day. Um, but you
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know, then she thought I was cute as I got older. So, she put me into modeling and you know, I modeled and I learned
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the business um on that side and I realized I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be in front of the camera. I wanted
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to be behind the camera. My how things have changed though for you. So, you know, me being in front of the
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camera always comes because somebody gets my interest in a certain way,
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right? Um, and then I go, “Okay.” Or, you know, the good old publicist in my life tell me, “Listen, you need to you
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need to do something.” So, I’m like, “Okay.” And then, you know, I learned uh for a long a long long time ago that I
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social media was where it was at. Um, so I had to, you know, kind of bring that old thing back. But I modeled until I
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was about, man, 19, 20. Uh, seriously, I I I did it, you know, almost for a living. Um,
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and then when I was about, I would say about 13, 12, 13, I my sister used to sell Mary Kay. Both of my sisters are
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celebrity hair stylist. My oldest sister also did makeup and she had this pink
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Mary Kay briefcase that I thought was the best thing since sliced bread. Let me tell you, I I think it’s cool right
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now. I I Mary Kay was was about that business. They had pink Cadillac yet. Okay. And I my favorite color is green.
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I’m not even a pink girl, but something about that briefcase and she opened it and it was like the light
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And it was like these little cardboard things of all these like um like testers, okay, of makeup. And so I would
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watch her transform people in less than 30 minutes cuz they had 30 minutes to do these uh you know appointments. So make
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a very long story short, I was just enthralled. And one day that woman gave me that briefcase. Oh my god. Oh, you
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were gifted the briefcase. Oh my goodness. She So she created she created the monster. Oh, completely created the
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monster. And so, you know, I I thought I was going to be the best makeup artist in the world. That was my goal. And I
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wanted to be Pat McGrath. I want to be her baby. And so, um, yeah, go Google Pat McGrath.
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Those who don’t know, definitely if you don’t know, you you better find out. Um, and so, yeah, so I got in the industry.
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I started doing makeup. Um, and I had been in the industry already, so it was a little bit easy to transition. Where
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it didn’t get easy is when I started to build my book, I was working with artists that weren’t all the way up to the level of my vision.
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Um, and I wasn’t good enough yet to work with my sisters.
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And so, um, I started doing these photo shoots, trying to build the portfolio.
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And I would do this amazing makeup to myself. I thought it was amazing and um I look back on it now and it’s like
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dreadful but but I time and space time and space it’s going to come back in fashion. believe in you that well I
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don’t know cuz it was bad I don’t think bad makeup’s going to go that you know I don’t know but anyh who so I I then I
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was like you know I want this kind of hair and the people that I was working with couldn’t do it or they didn’t have the vision to do it and so I was like
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well I’ve watched my sisters do this like I can figure this out um and so and I’ve watched it on set I’ve watched you know all these different shows I did a
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lot of like runway shows and so I can figure it out and so I I figured out the hair and so I started doing hair and makeup in my photo shoots. I wasn’t
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getting hired for it yet. Eventually I started getting hired. Then I wanted to do fashion shoots and so the wardrobe
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had to come in and same thing. I I didn’t have access to wardrobe stylist who had the vision that I had. Um and so
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I had to start wardrobe styling. And all along the way I was doing I was the casting director. I was the producer. um
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you know I was the set designer like you name it I was doing all the things and the whole time I was art directing and I
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didn’t even know what an art director was you know so that’s how my my uh career kind of blossomed that’s amazing
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and um yeah I’m grateful I’m grateful it’s so it’s a very so again another reason why I love this platform is that
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you know to me I believe there’s so many parallels between hip-hop and in the world. And so what
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you just described was a very hip-hop approach out of necessity. Yeah. You’ve you you kind of you willed your way to
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and and learned. So you got to a point to where you were more you was the most knowledgeable person in the room in all of these aspects. Well, you know what’s
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really really really this brings me back in my life. I feel like I’ve lived about 12 different lifetimes. Um, I used to
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manage hip-hop artists and um and and I used to manage models and so um my old
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business partner wanted an entertainment firm and so we had an entertainment firm, we had a artist division, a
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modeling division and so I used those um opportunities to image those those
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artists and those models and that’s how I honed my craft honestly. Um, and there were a few artists that weren’t that
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great, but because I gave them an image, right, they were in the industry, like in the actual music industry. And so,
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um, like kudos to hip-hop because let me tell you, listen, it fed me and my kids.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Right about now, we’re going to play a little game I call One’s Got to Go.
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Okay. And so what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you three different options. Okay? And then you’re just going to pick which one just got to go
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to make the cut. Okay. All right. So it’s going to be three staples. Okay. All right. Red lipstick.
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Statement jewelry or high heels? One of them got to go. Statement jewelry.
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Statement jewelry. Yeah. And why do you why did you choose that one? And how does that most reflect your design philosophy?
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First of all, red lipstick. Do you That’s why I chose That’s why I chose What are we talking about? Again, I do my research. That’s why I chose it. Red
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lipstick is life. Okay. Okay. Um I don’t care if you’re black, white, yellow, green, purple, blue. Red lipstick looks
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good on everybody. I don’t care if you’re scared of it. It still looks good on you regardless. Uh you may have to
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find your shade of red. I have never met a shade of red lipstick that I don’t like. Understood. So, that is not a
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thing to go away. Um, high heels. I have been walking in high heels since I could walk. Like, what are we talking about
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here? Like, what are that? Can’t go anywhere. Can’t go. Um, statement jewelry. Although, I mean,
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it’s hard. Yeah. But I feel like with wardrobe and with makeup, you can take
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the place of uh accessory or jewelry. Um it’s a great point. It’s a great point.
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Um like we just talked about, I think the worlds of specifically in your former life, as you just said, the
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worlds of food, music, and culture, specifically food, I’m sorry, specifically music. Yeah. And and and entertainment in general. Yes. have the
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lines have been blurred for for years as far as you know they they both feed each other. How have you seen the evolution
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of your work and what the I don’t want to use the word industry standard because I don’t believe that anybody that’s a professional is aiming
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for the standard right um the the protocol let’s say that the protocol of the industry what it demands how have
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you seen your work and the skills that you acquired early on benefit you in in
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the landscape today oh man So, let me tell you, one of the biggest things that
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I um really like cut my teeth on when I was working with artist was lighting.
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Um, you know, when you are doing makeup and hair and wardrobe for um someone
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who’s going to be on stage, you have to know all these different things about lighting and how it’s going to hit the
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person and their skin and um the things around them. Um, so that was a huge thing for me and let me tell you, learning that taught me a lot of thing.
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There’s no person that could sit in my chair that I cannot do their hair, their makeup, or their wardrobe because of it.
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Um, so you could be from the palest of pale all the way to the darkest of dark, the silkiest hair all the way. It
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doesn’t matter, right? Um, and that is something that really really really like actually set me apart
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from a lot of other artists and or stylist. Um, another thing was they’re not models and so they don’t understand
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it. Yeah. You know, so I had to be able to dress any size of a person, you know.
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I There was one group there were brothers and one of them he was 66 and the other brother was 5’8.
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I had to figure it out, you know, u cuz they’re not selling No, no, no. That in the, you know, off the rack. No, no. and
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I got to make them look, you know, cohesive. Um, and then it also, you know, one of the other things that made
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me understand, um, image making was the mood of music,
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doing music videos. Oh my goodness. Um, that’s the only reason why I actually I
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think have been able to do a lot of the things that I’ve done. Yeah. especially movies is because of music videos, you know, uh you have to really be in there.
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It was this one music video we did. It was like 100° outside in New York. No AC
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cuz you know New York don’t believe in AC in the building and and then we couldn’t have the fans on because you can’t hit the sound and
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all this. So, I had to keep the artist and all of the extras and the models and
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the the actors in this this music video dry in basically 125 degree inside, right?
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With all the lights and the cameras and all, all the humidity. Yeah. All Yeah.
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And then on top of that, that the two actors are skin-to-skin.
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Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, at that time I learned a lot about cornstarch. Ah, yeah. Um, I learned a lot about a
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product called No Sweat. Um, and then I also learned about Pam. So, there’s a
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mixture that you do, right? And sweat glands. I guess it keeps Well, it keeps the skin looking shiny instead of
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sweaty. That’s two different things on camera. Sweaty looks nasty sometimes on camera. So, I mean, it’s a little it’s
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it’s a lot. It’s so There’s a there’s a little bit of So, in in in the food side, when we do
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shoots for food, like magazine shoots and and even movies, there’s uh so food styling is different than cooking.
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Absolutely. Because there’s a whole there’s all this movie magic. Yeah. That is, you know, chemistry. Absolutely. Science. Very much science. Yeah.
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Science, mathematics, and and and then it comes down to Yeah. It’s a lot. all the things that they told you you should learn in school, you know. No, seriously, shout out to my sister
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Fatima. Um, one of the things that I admire about her is she’s a, like I said, a celebrity hair stylist. She
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knows the science of what she does for every single thing. And so I took that
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uh as a learning, you know, um, and started to learn how do these products mix together. Even, you know, like I had
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to redo my my own makeup a lot of times when I was younger because of the type of products that I put in my hair. Yeah.
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Right. And so I would do my makeup and I’d be all done and then I put some hair products in because don’t let the smooth
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face fool you. This afro takes a lot of product, right? And so I would get all the product in my hair and then my
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makeup would be like rubbing off or like I’d have a spot and I’m like why did that happen? Or you know your oil start
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dripping down and and you know it ruins the whole makeup and I’m like wait a minute there has to be a way right for
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me to not ruin one with the other and I so I had to learn the science of it. Yeah. Alchemy. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So in food that’s that’s gastronomy.
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It’s it’s this and this means that makes that it’s it’s a beautiful thing. It really is. there’s, you know, been so many
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highlights for you and and different things that you’ve been involved in and to see how you
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are able to navigate situations um with grace, I believe, you know, and
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how you represent all of these different diverse backgrounds and ethnicities while still staying true to yourself, I
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believe, is the is the secret to all of How do you how do you put into the things that you do your
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your diverse knack for being able to navigate these situations and and also inject your own ethnicity into
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everything you do because I I believe that an artist whether they say they did something or not like you know a Monae
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when you see a Monae right and so I believe every artist has a signature if you will in in a a style And you also
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retain that no matter who you were working with. Yeah. So, how how do you feel that you you know that translates?
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Well, I’m gonna tell you right now it’s it’s probably harder than it’s ever been in my career right now. Um I’ve never worked in the sports arena.
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Um so working with Nefisa, uh and I work with a co-owner of one of the WNBA
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teams. um and and working in corporate I I work with a lot of um corporate
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individuals, executives who are a little bit more laidback than what I’m used to.
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Um and so it has just been a lot of listening and understanding what makes them
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comfortable. Um helping them to build their image because I I was used to, you know, coming from models and models
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don’t talk. So, we put whatever we want to put on them. Um, artists are expressive. Yeah. And so, you know, and
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and one of my one of the biggest artists that I I worked with for a long time, she was a model as well, so I could put anything on that child like and you
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know, she would rock it, right? Um, but when you’re dealing with people who haven’t had this lifestyle, they don’t
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some of this some of these red carpets and things like that are their first, right? they’re they do their thing on the court or in the in the uh boardroom
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and things like that and sort of get them to kind of come out of their shell and um come into my world of things. It
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takes listening and getting them to a place where they feel comfortable in how I might see them. And so, and there’s a
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lot of give and take. Some of the things that you see me style on people right now are not necessarily the biggest um
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Kim Eised, you know, Kimberly thing, right? But it’s for that client.
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And one of the things that I pride myself on is being able, again, like I said before, whoever sits in my chair,
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no matter who they are, no matter what their style, I can give them a service that they can be happy with. And so,
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it’s not always about interjecting your specific thing, but then learning, right, um, what that person brings to the table and how they want to express.
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Being an image maker is about making sure that their image is what they want to see and then giving it to the public
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how they want it to be seen, right? And so definitely I always try to put little possess I mean if all my clients would
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wear rhinestones and red lip a little bit of cheetah I’d be very well I mean that’s I mean at the end of the
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day at the end of the day it’s it’s a very bespoke service it and so I mean you have to how do you feel about
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being entrusted because so that takes a lot of a lot of trust to entrust someone um that people and trust in you to be
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able to deliver uh deliver a statement with zero words.
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I think so there’s a so we do it with food all the time. So like I the the words on the menu and then just that dish when it’s sent out that’s if it’s
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not an open kitchen where the chef gets to speak right that is the representation right and then then it’s left up to interpretation too. So you
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have people’s different interpretation of of what the art is, but then there still has to be an overarching
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the the the narrative, right? And so I I believe you do that kind of flawlessly. Thank you. And that
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that to me I think is the magic because and you can tell so there’s a there’s a you can tell when someone is wearing something that they’re not 100% comfortable in. You definitely can.
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Yeah. Now, there is a there is you can also tell when someone is in their zone, right? But then there’s like a fine line
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between, okay, I’m I’m growing into this. It’s that baby deer stage, right?
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It’s like I’m learn I’m figuring out how to walk, right? But that that magic the magic is is when that that person feels
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comfortable enough because they were instilled in with this this this confidence, right?
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and then to go out and then live up to that. I think that’s definitely, you know, um there was an artist that I worked with for a long time. I still I still work with her from time to time.
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Um and she was really coming into her own. Shout out to Isis. Um, and
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you know, we had to I had to give her a signature hairstyle in order for her
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to really come out of her shell and be able to be who I knew she could be.
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And that was so empowering.
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Um, and I’m honored. First of all, let me just say I’m always honored when anyone, man, woman, lets me do my thing.
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Um, and and bring them into a different world of how they probably have never seen themselves, right? Um, and so
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we created this hairstyle and uh, you know, I changed it up a little bit, but the hairstyle, the
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foundation of the hairstyle stayed the same. And um it allowed her to really express herself in a way that she had
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never been able to express herself before because just the blackness of it all. Right.
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Mhm. Um she couldn’t quite get that out before because the hair never matched.
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You know, there’s another um he was a a TV personality and uh hair color was a thing, right? A big deal, too.
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Yeah. And and and the fit of his pants, he was wearing the wrong fit of pants for years. And when I got him into a slack that really fit his personality.
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Um, and you know, and that hair color, we switched up that hair color. Oh man, you couldn’t tell us nothing. There’s
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nothing that that that level of of
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confidence that that that exudes from a from a being when they you know you just you just know you’ve got it together, right? And that’s and it’s not at the end of the day say it’s a fine line
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between confidence and conceitedness, but there’s I mean, you know, Yeah.
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Yeah. There’s Okay. There’s a there’s a I got a so on my I have a song called Flambe and I have a line in the that says looking good, feeling good,
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smelling living better, right? And so I believe there’s a there’s a point where you in in order to exude that level of
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confidence, you have to you got to feel good about what you’re presenting. And you know, like they say with food, the first bite you take is with your eyes,
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you know, your impressions truly do matter. Yeah. Um, and they tell us they tell a story whether it’s the narrative you want to be told or the narrative
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people make. Um, in this this hyper visual world that we live in today with social media and everything, how have
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you feel how do you feel that the optics have been steered with
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there’s so many experts, if you will. Yeah. in so many different ways and that there’s a lot of misinformation out there. That’s what
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I’m really trying to get to. Yeah. How do you how do you feel when you see um it’s sort of like what I when I look at
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like some of these cooking videos, whatever, and you can see like like okay, you should like you’re touching raw chicken and then putting it in ready
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to eat food like salad like that’s you’re trying to kill people. like when you see how do you navigate in dealing with these situations, knowing what you
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know, knowing the the ins and outs, the wrongs, the the the the faux paws, if you will, how do you one see the future
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of imagery going with all the misinformation out there? And then how how does how do you deal with that? How
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does that make you feel internally, your inner Well, I will say this. Um,
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people like myself are one of a kind. Um, whether you like what I do or not, it makes a statement.
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It is what it is. If if I wasn’t who I was, you wouldn’t know anything about me. You wouldn’t know my work. You
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wouldn’t wouldn’t know anything. So, um, so there’s that. Uh and I think that the
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future of imaging is always going to be in the hands of trendsetters and trend makers.
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Um trend setting is a little bit different for making trends. I have been one to
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make a trend. There are photo shoots and styles uh that I have done with hair and makeup and even the photography, the
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lighting, the backgrounds I’ve done and I’ve seen copied throughout the years.
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um or photo shoots that I’ve done, man, back in 2010, 2004, and I put that
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picture out on my website or on social and people have they have no clue that it was done 20 something years ago, you
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know. Um and so when you are a maker of, you know, image maker in that way, um
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our minds just work differently. And so if you’re not in tuned with an expert
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that has that type of vision, right, um you’re you’re you’re only going to be
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copying, right, the things, right? Um you’re only going to be doing what’s within. And I’m going to be real with
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you, I don’t do a lot of watching on social media, but I do a little bit. And um you know there’s there things are very
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polarizing on social and so there are people that love what I do with Nafisa there are people that hate it absolutely
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hate it and what I will say is that she loves it and so as long as as long as
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she loves it um and the things that she doesn’t like she tells me like and the things that she thought she liked cuz
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there are some times where we’ll work together and I like something different or she likes something different and we collaborate, we come, you know, to the
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middle. Um, and after it’s said and done and we do three outfits down the road and we see something else and she grows within her personal style, we’re like,
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“Yeah, we don’t like that.” Or she’ll tell me, you know, there’s stuff that I’m like, “Oh, I love that.” And she’s like, “Mm, I didn’t really I wasn’t really feeling that.” And so, I move
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away from it. Or, you know, I make sure to to kind of circle the block or however we got to do it. But having a
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vision like to be able to say, “Okay, Nisa, listen. You have this body, you
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have this presence, like let me go there every once in a while, right? Um, let me do this.” Or her even just seeing her
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personal style develop. I mean, the red carpet for um Time. Yeah. Yeah. Listen,
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listen. So I that’s a great segue too. I think No, I know. So the work that you
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you’ve done with the FISA has been the most polarizing because of if you look
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at the state of the WNBA, a year ago, two years ago, it wasn’t a it wasn’t a
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thing. the the the tunnel interestes, all these different things as far as fashion goes, it was it was very much downplayed or just non-existent. Yeah.
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The the with the the work that you’ve done with Nfisa and the way that she it translated to it it single-handedly in
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my opinion caused the league to change. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people have said that to me actually.
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Facts. It’s facts. And you know, I think why? Because people think brand is style. No, they
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think that name brands is style. And not to knock anybody that wears name brands.
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I love name brands. Certain ones, not all of them. But um you know, I’ve been on a lot of shoots
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where there is hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of clothes and the outfit still sucks.
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and you’re sitting there like, “Wow, that was a waste of a whole bunch of money, right?” Um, but it’s also personal. And so what I like, you might
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not like, and what he likes or she likes or they like. Um, and then Nfisa and her
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husband are are are polar opposites. So like when I did Allstar, right, I styled them both.
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She’s very edgy and rockstar. He’s very laidback, classic man, you know. So, I’m
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I He’s in a dapper suit and she’s in, you know what I mean, a gown and some boots, you know? So, it’s very
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it’s polarizing at best. Like, there’s not much you can do about that. kind of back to your other question though is
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that uh when you said about all these people out here acting as their, you know, um experts and things like that. I
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think that everybody that hones their craft, no matter whether we like it or not, they’re expert in some way. Because
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let me tell you, these people on social, they may not be an expert in the food, but I’m going tell you what they are expert in is getting us to watch that
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mess. Okay? Yes. And listen, everybody likes a car crash. Listen, so while we all over here throwing up some
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salmonella, we they gotions million.7 8 9 10 12 views, right? That is a fact.
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So, so I’m very, you know, there are certain things that I’m very black and white about, but there’s a lot
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of shades of gray in our industry. And I’ve learned that uh if you take a little bit from here and a little bit
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from there, you can continue cuz it’s hard to really understand someone’s
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vision like me when I’m telling you something that you’ve never seen before.
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Right. Right. And so some people would look at me and say, “She ain’t no expert.” Right. Um like we all look up
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to La Ro, right? He is. He’s the first person to come out in this industry that I could look at and say, “Okay, you know what?
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If I had to say him and Pat McGrath, these two, and thank God they’re both black, right?” Cuz um regardless of who
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I work with, like I I work with everybody, but I like to see myself, right? And so if if I had a mama and a
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papa, even though he younger than me, I think I think I don’t even know, but uh you know, if I had a mama and a papa, it
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would be the two of them, right? Um and so it’s it’s very very um
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important to really know what it is that you’re learning. Yeah. Right. And once you start going down the the aisle of
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the education of what it is that you’re doing, you’ll learn that, you know, you just gave everybody smell the pause.
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Yeah. Yeah. With the you’ll figure it out at the end. You know what I’m saying? I I know that mentorship is a huge part of everything that you do. Um,
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when you think about the future of stylists and specifically young black stylists, what is some of the the wisdom that you
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would like to impart aside from the the technical things, but about this industry and about in order to be in this industry doing things
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independently, how you do them, there’s a level of self assurance and a self-ride that you have to have. You have to have Yeah. Blind faith and
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belief in your ability. Of course that is based on a skill set that you had to acquire, you know, by, you know, being
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all of those roles. Yeah. Um, but what what is some of the knowledge that you would like to pass down to an aspiring,
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you know, young Kimberly? What would you say? Wow. First of all, let me tell you, you just hit on a big passion of mine.
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Um, I want to leave this earth empty.
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um you know on that that big day and the light in the sky and the big G comes down and he’s like yo I gave you 10
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talents what’ you do with them I want to be like yo there’s like 50 me all
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running around here with red lipstick on but they don’t have to be specifically me but they have a piece of me somewhere
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in them because what you endowed me with I’ve endowed them
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One thing that I will say is that I tell I tell the people that I mentor and my children two things.
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One, and I think it’s so important to this generation. Learn the rules and then break them.
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You can’t break the rules unless you know them. Well, effectively effectively.
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when you are coming up in this game, learn the rules. Like I didn’t have a
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mentor. There was no, you know, there wasn’t YouTube and um the Jackie Ayenas weren’t there telling me all the things,
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all the steps, right? Um and so man, like if I would have had a
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me back then, oh my goodness, I can’t even imagine.
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I can’t I can’t if I had all these like gurus trying to tell me what to do and master classes and this that whatever
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like I teach master classes right um and if I would had half of that back then so
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I try to give that right now and so the first thing is learn those rules go down
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the path of all the education that you can seek whether it’s schooling whether it is on the job training
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Um, and that’s how I got it, right? Uh, cuz there was no school in Minneapolis for makeup, hair, not not you could go
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to school for hair, um, and and skin care, but not for what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a session stylist, right?
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You know, I wanted to do editorial.
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There was no hair school that could teach me how to do hair for movies. None of that, right? Um, and so go down the
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path of learning and then when you’ve learned a little bit, go practice. Do a case study. I do a master class about artist and case studies.
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Case studies are the most effective thing to do as an artist, as a stylist, to become a better you, a better version
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of you, and to break into this industry in a whole different way. I took two years to do case studies. That’s how I
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became who I am. That’s how I got called on for celebrity styling. That’s how I got to do People magazine. That’s how I
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showed up in everywhere from I mean, goodness, I had models that I didn’t even know. I I didn’t know about
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the men’s magazines back then. And so I was working with these models and next thing you know my my um work is in like
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43 minutes, 28 seconds
Playboy and uh Maxim. I had to think about it. It was called Maxim FHM and you know things like that. And I didn’t know anything about that world, right?
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43 minutes, 37 seconds
But those girls back then and that was just because like I was trying to do a shootout. I was trying to get these pictures. I was trying to like practice
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my skill and so that was what was available to me. And these girls put me on. You got your 10,000 hours. That’s
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what you did. Listen, but but but let me tell you, these girls put me on. Okay. I worked with one of the most renowned uh
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uh adult stars back in the day. And when I tell you that woman is gorgeous, and I like went and did her makeup and I was
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like shaking in my boots because I had seen like her pictures and things like that. And she is in this world of
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44 minutes, 18 seconds
fantasy, right? And so, and I come from this world of fashion and I was just like, “Oh my goodness, am I going to be
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able to like, you know, do this, right?” But it was because I had learned what I needed to do. I could break the rules on
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her and create something so amazing, right? So, learn them. Second thing I
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tell my my kids and my god babies is you can be spoiled, but don’t be a jerk.
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Don’t. Yeah. Do not be a jerk. You can be spoiled, but don’t be a jerk. Don’t be a jerk.
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And the reason why I say that is back to your comment earlier about conceitedness. And I said, “Huh, whatever.
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It takes a little bit of being conceited to do what these people do, right?” Right. Like the Nefisas, the um you
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know, the the the the celebrities that are even the Oprah.
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Oprah’s got a little, you know what I’m saying? Like, you know, you could see, you could see even Miss Obama, Mrs.
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Obama getting into her a little bit. You know what I’m saying? Like, oh my gosh, Sabrina Carpenter, like Ariana Grande,
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right? You have to have a lot of a lot of self-belief. Yeah. And uh not be able
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to be shook by by much. Yeah. In order to pull things out of thin air. Yeah.
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But don’t be a jerk because the moment you’re a jerk, the moment that people will go Yeah. other play and even if
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they don’t go other places, why do you want to be a jerk? And let me just say the industry is very it’s already got enough jerks.
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We already got enough jerks in the industry, in the fashion industry, the beauty industry, the world. I mean, everywhere. But it’s really bad in our
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industry. It’s really bad. Um, and some of the clients don’t treat us the best.
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You know, we’re the help. Well, that’s the other thing. So, that’s that brings me to my next statement. So, in in a world where
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more and more people are now seeing the importance of it, but not to the level that I believe it deserves to be. So, we
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46 minutes, 37 seconds
touched on this before about prior the music industry before when there was ANRS and and you were you were you were
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as an artist, you were developed and you were you were basically your style was catered toward for you in order to you
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were your image was of everything and so this day and age I don’t believe that people understand like you said they
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don’t understand the difference between a brand no and and and and pictures.
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47 minutes, 7 seconds
Yeah, exactly. They they think just taking pictures is great or a logo is a brand. A logo is Yeah, a logo is definitely not a brand. And the the
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point of it all is the importance of of what all of it means. So there’s there’s
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47 minutes, 24 seconds
a different thing between uh saying something
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walking in the light of that something and then having an aura that exudes all of these things and that’s a that’s a whole different thing. So if you notice
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47 minutes, 40 seconds
why there’s no talking on the red carpet, right? Because you don’t need to talk. Everything is But you know what they say? they they’re calling your name
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to to pose for these pictures because that’s the thing that is and that’s because the the word that the statement
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is being made, right? And I believe that when when it’s done properly,
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and Mets’s coming up too, when it’s done properly, um it’s it’s it’s a masterful, it’s a masterful thing to to witness.
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48 minutes, 11 seconds
specifically when you have people that are that you see in other walks and other uh places and then you see them in
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48 minutes, 19 seconds
that moment like it’s it’s a that transformation that that you know the swan from the duck syndrome I think is it’s a beautiful thing to watch it
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really is really is it you know my favorite thing right now is um so I
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style one of the owners of the Chicago sky and um she is It’s amazing. Um, and
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she literally went from being a CEO um, of one of the biggest brands, one of
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48 minutes, 52 seconds
the biggest retail brands and then um, but before that, you know, her resume is just like out just outstanding, right?
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49 minutes, 2 seconds
And she worked everywhere from in in beauty and fashion and entertainment world and all of that. um and then ended
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49 minutes, 9 seconds
up in a company here in Minneapolis that is so far removed from fashion and all
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49 minutes, 16 seconds
of that retail but more lifestyles, home type of things. And um so now getting to
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49 minutes, 24 seconds
work with her in this stage in her retirement uh from corporate and bringing her back into the the fashion
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side of things. I mean, this woman, let me just say, okay, first of all, shout out to Ann. Um,
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she just transforms, right? And can do anything from jeans and a t-shirt all the way to
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49 minutes, 52 seconds
a fullon gown. And and that is the thing that you know when you’re working with
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49 minutes, 59 seconds
celebrities, you’ve got to be able to envision them um or or or executives and whatnot, you have to be able to envision them in so many different ways, right?
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50 minutes, 11 seconds
Um, and for some of them, like with the W, there are some of those players in the W, you have um, that are really
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50 minutes, 20 seconds
comfortable in every situation, having on makeup, having their hair done, no matter whether they’re playing or they’re in the tunnel. Exactly. Others,
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50 minutes, 29 seconds
like Nisa, when she’s like doing her thing, don’t come towards her with no mascara, no, you know what I mean? And it don’t it don’t hurt that she wake up
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like this, right? She’s gorgeous. It’s like the girl rolls out of bed looks like she got on a full face. But yeah,
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50 minutes, 45 seconds
like you know I had to learn like I was trying to put a whole bunch of makeup on her in the tunnel and she was like I she’s like I don’t I don’t want all of
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50 minutes, 52 seconds
that because I got to play and I don’t want to play in all that makeup right
50:59
50 minutes, 59 seconds
overtood. What would you say one of your best or worst styling experiences with you don’t have to say a name
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51 minutes, 8 seconds
uh has been and and why? Like what was what was the the most challenging? And then one what’s the best to date? What’s the best styling situation that you had?
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So, um, the worst styling situation I had was I actually styled a celebrity as a
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51 minutes, 25 seconds
rapper that a lot of people know. And, um, they lied to me.
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You know, it it was like they were a yes man.
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51 minutes, 38 seconds
So everything I put on them, they acted like they loved it and didn’t and didn’t but but not only did not only did they
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51 minutes, 46 seconds
not love it when I was asking they they just didn’t have any answers for me. Um, and so I
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51 minutes, 55 seconds
don’t know if they didn’t love it or they just somebody else didn’t love it and then they didn’t like I don’t really know. But, um, you know, that taught me
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52 minutes, 4 seconds
a lot because they didn’t have really they didn’t have any personal style of their own, right?
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52 minutes, 11 seconds
Um, and so anything that I said they went with. Um, and I was a young stylist at the time, so I was like, “Oh, okay,
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cool. They going to let me do whatever.” And so I did whatever. everybody from the publisher of the magazine to um you
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know the the the director and the editor, they all loved it. She said she loved it
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and then later down the road hated it. So now everybody’s wasted their time, right?
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You know, and then this product is either going to be put out with something that you hate, right, or scrapped, or it’s going to be scrapped.
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So either way, everyone involved got their time wasted. Um, so that was a horrible experience. I haven’t had that
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experience since, thank God. Um, but I’ve I learned some things from that. I learned how to interview. I learned how
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to really get from people what it is that they like. That’s a skill set.
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That’s definitely a skill set. And it’s and it and it bodess well for what you need to do. What What would you think What do you think your
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best attribute as a stylist is? What do you think is your hallmark that that one thing you do that’s your signature
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thing? That that’s two different questions. No, it’s one and the same. Okay.
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So the best thing I think that I do is I can see people not just for what they
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look like in that outfit, but what that look um feels like to their brand.
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Um that’s my superpower. It’s not about It’s not all always about just putting a
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bomb outfit on. It’s about understanding the client’s brand, right? What is it that they are trying to get across? What
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does their brand mean to people that are are looking at them and viewing them and all of the things? Um,
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I I think the biggest time that I really had to understand that I worked with the
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Property Brothers for years. Um, and I didn’t know who they were. I had no
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clue who they were. And that’s not saying anybody knows the twins. Listen, but that’s not saying anything because I I don’t watch television. So I most of
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the celebrities I’ve worked with I had no clue who they were um before I worked with them because I just you know so
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you know working with them um was very very eyeopening because they have a
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specific brand very much so and I didn’t know it and so because I listen though Um, and
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and I’ve never met a stranger. Um, I was able to like get in really quickly and
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understand and start to, you know, create as that and and I that I was so
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thankful for um because I wasn’t hired by them. I was hired by the network, right? Actually, not even the network. I
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was well, yeah, the network, I’ll say um the owners. So it’s like I was hired by scripts at the time then you know turned
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into Discovery and so it was like you have to make sure that their brand is upheld when you touch them because
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you’re not the one that touches them every single day. Right? And for me I’m very organic. I don’t I don’t like even
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56 minutes
getting into movies that was a hard thing for me because I got to do the same thing 15 times. What you mean?
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Yeah. Continuity. We got everything like what that what that ill. Yeah. You know, and so with with music videos, you only
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film for one or two days, you know, so you got to have continuity, but you’re within that time frame of of of doing what you did at that moment, right?
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So yeah, I that was that was eyeopening and and then running into legends and
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having to style people like Mr. T and I was going to mention miss when you said so when you said signature hair the
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first person that pops in my head Mr. TE had that mohawk. I didn’t get to touch his hair, but that did that did his that did his but that was his Yeah, that was
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his thing. His signature, right? So much so now that he’s balding, but he holding on to whatever he can into a mohawk, you
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know, [ __ ] Listen, listen, it’s for real. I’m sure it’s a it’s a patch here and a p like I’m talking like I’m not follow challenged, but there’s a patch
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here and a patch here. I’m follow challenged. But uh he holding on to that cuz who is he without it? You know, but
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here’s the thing. That’s because somebody hasn’t rethought his vision. Oh, yeah. His his days of having no est. Yeah.
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Well, and I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know that much about his team or whatnot, but like Mr. T is so much more
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than just that mohawk. I understand how important it is, but man, there’s so many other things about Mr. T. Like, Mr.
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T was the first black man that I can remember that wore overalls and was famous. facts.
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I That was like a country I’m from Mississippi. That was like a country bunker thing. You know what I’m saying?
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That wasn’t a celebrity thing. He definitely had overalls on and he wore for for many many many years. He he and he I saw this in the interview. He wore
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the same boots that he had from because it kept him grounded. Absolutely. Right.
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Um, and and think about hiphop, like think about fast forward to crisscross and absolutely, you know what I’m
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saying? Like overalls is the thing. Um, that’s a great that’s a great segue, too. Speaking about hiphop and and
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fashion and and specifically I I’ll take it to the 90s because to me that’s the golden era of of of it all.
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Okay. How how do you and it’s those hip-hop has injected into runway and every right
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now. So it’s it’s it’s the lines are so crossed it’s become very pop if you will. What are some of your favorite
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things and then some not favorite things about the world of hiphop fashion that
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makes its way into runaway or editorial like what’s oh my goodness.
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Give me one thing that you love and one thing that you can’t stand. One thing I love is femininity. Femininity has
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entered hip hop like a boss. Okay. That it has. Um,
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but I’m gonna give a shout out to Queen Latifah because if no one else in the game, Queen
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Latifah was always a lady. Always. I mean, and regal. Um, I.e. ladies first.
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Ladies first. Hey. Um, but femininity has taken over the game of
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hip-hop in a way that never has before. Um, and some people think it’s too far and other
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people think it’s not far enough, you know. Um, but I will say that cross grid of
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the the hip-hop girlies being able to get dressed by fashion houses. Oh my
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gosh, I’m in love with that. Um, I’m also in love with the expression
1:00:03
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of high fashion in hiphop because we did it anyway. It was happening. Like, y’all
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have been taking what we’ve been doing in our $7 videos, right? U for so many years and putting
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it on your runway anyway. You might as well, you know. Um, and I I mean that’s a whole another conversation. We’re not gonna go down that road. Shout out to Dappa Dan for sure. Shout out to Dapper.
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Dappa Dan is my Yeah. As a kid from Asan.
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All I ever wanted was uh to roll up on on Dappan in Harlem. You want to talk about a fan girl moment? If I ever Yeah.
1:00:44
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If I ever was in his presence, it would be I would melt. He’s one of those He’s one of those There’s a handful of people that I’ve met that have that aura with
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him. Oh yeah, Bill Clinton’s one. Like there’s something about he just has it.
1:00:56
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I don’t know. He just has it. Uh Obama has that with him as well. Um Denzel and
1:01:02
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I can imagine and Dad Deodan has that uh that special something that you can’t before I let you go.
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We like to do a little something called the lightning round. Okay. where I’m going to ask you a series of rapid fire
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questions that require rapid fire answers.
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So the so the first thing that pops into your mind I like to be a little slow and No, no, no. This is this is this is why this is going to be great. Okay. All
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right. All right. For the for for the internet. Okay. All right. All right.
1:01:38
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All right. All right. All right. You know, I’m from Mississippi now. We like to I I understand. I understand. Get a little chopped and screw. I I get it. I
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get it. All right. So, favorite sneaker of all time?
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I don’t wear sneakers. Favorite sneaker of all time. You still got to You got to have one if there’s one. Okay. I have a
1:01:58
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pair of Public Enemy Pumas. Okay. Okay, that works. That checks. I don’t wear them, but I do have them.
1:02:06
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Check. Okay. Go to comfort meal after a big shoot?
1:02:12
1 hour, 2 minutes, 12 seconds
Catfish. Fried catfish. I’m Yes. and Fry Okra. Oh, okay. Okay, man. Okay. Last album you played on repeat?
1:02:23
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On repeat. My cousin is a hip-hop artist. Um, and I listen to like Christian and gospel music. So, he’s a
1:02:31
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CH artist for real and I always listen to his music. And what’s his name? For real. For real. His name. Okay. Yeah,
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that’s that’s that’s dope. Yeah, for sure. I’m definitely checking that out.
1:02:43
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dream brand collab if you haven’t worked with them yet. Pat McGrath.
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That was that was an easy one. That was But but but a a very close second is Danessa Myrix. I have on Danessa today.
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So yeah, absolutely. Okay.
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One word that you would use to describe the future of fashion. Free.
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And and why do you say I hope for it to be free? Absolutely. Um fashion is supposed to be expressive.
1:03:18
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It’s not supposed to be in a box. And so um that’s that’s another thing that I
1:03:25
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hope for all of us in fashion um is that we all get to be free to express
1:03:32
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who we are, what we see, what we vision, what we yearn for inside, right? Um and
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and free to work with the people that that move us, right? That give us vibes and we can get vibes back, too. Yeah,
1:03:48
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that’s amazing. You also are a person that uh a lot like myself
1:03:56
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when I was a kid, I was into a bunch of many different things and I was always told, but not always, but by most, the masses told me, you know, stick to one thing or just do that one thing, right?
1:04:05
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Yeah. And I’m obviously I’m a product of of many different mediums. You also are very versed in many different things.
1:04:13
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And that those different things, we’re not a monolithic people, right? Most people are not monolithic, right? The fact that you have all of these
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different disciplines that you’ve mastered and and honed them in your toolbox that you can choose to use at
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your whim is what makes you you. And I think that is the biggest example that
1:04:36
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you can give to to anyone kids uh people on looking anybody who is fortunate
1:04:43
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enough to be a mentee. That is the secret sauce. The secret sauce is to walk in your 100% unadulterated
1:04:52
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truth to it full fullest capacity and never stop being a forever student. If
1:04:59
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you do that then it’s a win. Um, you are an amazing amazing individual, a uh a
1:05:07
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lightning rod and and and and definitely someone that uh deserves all of the things that you have coming and there’s
1:05:15
1 hour, 5 minutes, 15 seconds
more to come. Please, please tell everyone where they can follow you, what you have coming next, and how can they
1:05:24
1 hour, 5 minutes, 24 seconds
just get a piece of everything that Kimberly Stewart has. My goodness. So 2025 for me is the year of revamp. Um I have been head down working for so long.
1:05:37
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So I’m revamping my website, my socials, all of those things. But on Instagram, you can find me at Kimberly Stewart.
1:05:46
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Please spell my name right with a D. I mean, cuz Rod Stewart’s daughter is also Kimberly. Yeah, there’s another Kimberly
1:05:54
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Stewart, too. There’s Oh, I’m sure. But but not not you. Um I heard that there’s
1:06:02
1 hour, 6 minutes, 2 seconds
somebody that looks like me. She’s a she Kimberly Stewart is is in film actually.
1:06:06
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She’s a she’s a producer. Got it. She’s a badass, too, but she’s not you. Gotcha. Gotcha. Hey, I mean, you know.
1:06:13
1 hour, 6 minutes, 13 seconds
Well, she looks like me. I would just say let’s make some checks up. Have to say.
1:06:22
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Um but so Kimberly Stewart on Instagram.
1:06:26
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Kimberly.stewart on Tik Tok. Um, and I’m on Facebook and LinkedIn and all the good stuff. And then my website is kimstewart.com.
1:06:36
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And um, yeah, I mean, just, you know, find me out there. Are we going to be
1:06:43
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doing more of your YouTube stuff? You know, that coming Let me tell you about YouTube. YouTube is a conundrum.
1:06:53
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So, we’re trying. I mean, I would love to. Um, so if anybody wants to collab with me on the YouTube thing,
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there you go. Click up. I’m just saying like for real, for real. You heard it here first. She’s looking for collabs.
1:07:06
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So, anybody, any YouTubers out there that want to stop, you know, touching the raw chicken and putting it on the salad. Uh, the raw chicken. Or, you
1:07:15
1 hour, 7 minutes, 15 seconds
know, the YouTubers that want to start stop putting the white powder under their eyes. Yeah. How extra girl. Just Exactly. Well, again, thank you. Thank
1:07:24
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you so much for being here again. This has been Taste Music Hear Food podcast show. I’m your host Ed Porter. Till next time. Peace.