When bringing characters to life, a star is not born; it’s made. Both fashion and television professionals can attest that it takes a pointed vision to craft the style profile of a scripted character. Costume designer Keia Bounds knows this all too well, having created the wardrobes of multiple successful television shows, most recently including Survival of the Thickest starring Michelle Buteau. In her twenty-plus year career, the costume designer, professor and general fashion industry multihyphenate continues to discover what it means to tell a story with clothing across body types, phases of life, and narratives.
From a young age, Bounds experimented with fashion design and styling, eventually learning to create her own clothes. Her interest in costume design grew from her love of making and selecting clothing for clients, envisioning their stories through their wardrobes. This narrative-informed view of styling made Bounds curious about the world of costume design, a closely-connected but slightly different side of fashion.
After working at Ralph Lauren, Bounds found her calling in the costume design space while contributing to Chappelle’s Show, a sketch comedy series from the early 2000s. Since then, Bounds has gone on to work with series like The Get Down, Rap Sh!t, and BMF, all with unique fashion needs for vastly different characters.
Bounds credits these productions with endowing a creative versatility that allows her and her team to tell diverse stories in their styling. They are very different in different places,” she tells ESSENCE.com. “Working on BMF versus in Atlanta, versus working on Survival of the Thickest in New York, are two very different cultures that we had to reflect in the clothes.” More often than not, Bounds is the only Black head of a department on set. She and her team study the script to understand costume requirements, research costume styles and fabrics, and discuss ideas with the director, make-up artists and set designers.
Survival of the Thickest is a thematic nod to the early 2000s styling work that defined the beginning of Bounds’ career. The Michelle Buteau-starring Netflix comedy follows a woman figuring out her life in New York City after a jarring breakup. It explores the routine of adulthood in an unpredictable city, with the added question of what it means to love oneself. It’s a classic coming-of-womanhood series likened to similar hits like Sex and the City or Emily in Paris.
All of these elements were considered when crafting an eclectic, compelling wardrobe for Mavis. Bounds spoke to the importance of veering away from plus-sized clothing that makes women look matronly or conservative. “That wasn’t Mavis’s character,” Bounds tells ESSENCE.com. Instead, the costuming team worked to style apparel that was bold, sexy and maximalist. Showcasing a realistic image of Brooklyn style, Bounds sprinkled in recognizable Black-owned brands like Telfar, Brandon Blackwood, Yitty, and Brother Vellies.
The making-it-in-New-York trope is a decades-old television staple, but what makes Survival unique is its prioritization of plus-sized Black women, fashion and self-love. Mavis Beaumont, played by Buteau, is a 38-year-old stylist just now getting her big break. This is in stark contrast to the popular template of twenty-something stories centering on the transitions from college. Mavis is an adult, she is a Black woman, and an unabashed full-figured woman working primarily with plus-sized clients.
In creating Michelle’s looks, Bounds viewed the costuming as an opportunity to stretch perceptions of what size-inclusive shopping would look like for a plus-size woman. “Michelle and I have spoken about this so many times on this journey,” Bounds says, “where I would go into a store and just like for any other woman, you would want to be able to grab whatever you need at that given time and the things that are not still accessible to plus size women is sad. They deserve the same experience as anybody else. It’s about access.” Thankfully, many brands were able to get on board and pull pieces for Survival of the Thickest. Universal Standard, Eloquii, Rachel Antonoff, Madewell, and many others were among the size-inclusive brands Mavis wears during the series.
Understanding the many shapes and styles of the characters she styles made Keia Bounds uniquely fitting for a show about self-discovery and love. Despite the challenges that Mavis faces, she remains expressive in her fashion and honest about who she is.
“I’m grateful for this experience with Survival of the Thickest in that the audience can relate to the character, understand the storyline, but also like the clothing,” Bounds says.
