We were lucky to catch up with Carole Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Carole, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Artists are born and then they are made. Two halves of a whole. Born with the gift and then honing that talent through training and directing that gift into something that is called “Art”.

From a young age I was always attracted to the fine arts. Whether I was drawing, painting, building with clay or practicing hand embroidery, I was always in the midst of creating something with my hands. My first entrepreneurial endeavor as a child artist was creating a series of drawings and taping them to the living room mantel as my art exhibition. I would push my family to come through my makeshift art gallery and purchase one or more of my drawings. However, I always felt frustrated that I didn’t have enough patrons. I needed to grow my market beyond the living room.

My stand out class in school was always art, my steady A+ all throughout elementary and high school. So by the time I was ready to start applying for higher education, I knew my focus would be a degree in Art.

Carole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I work as a Costume Designer for Film, TV, Music Videos and Commercials. My entry into costume design began with the study of fashion design in college, a form of artistic expression that creates many different kinds of identities for people. It is a people art, but ultimately utilizing costume design for the creation of a character in a story has the most appeal for me.

Designing for fashion is an endeavor that ends with the sale of the clothes. We only guess at the how the clothes serve the wearer’s life. But with costume design the garments take on life with the actor, that is the costume becomes the living character. The costume evolves as the story evolves. It conveys to the audience the historical time and place, personality and goals of a character. This is a thrill for me—to see my artistic creation come alive on camera.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I grew up influenced by my creative family—a writer, photographer, portrait artist, cartoon illustrator and master cabinet maker. Movies brought my family together for movie nights after dinner, and special Mom and daughters outings to the cinema.

However the road to becoming a Costume Designer was not a linear one. I first pursued a degree in fashion design obtaining my B.F.A., but during my senior year of college I began to become more exposed to the world of theater and I costumed two plays at local theaters.

After graduation I had applied to both fashion and costume roles in NYC, Chicago and Los Angeles. I got a bite for a job interview in Los Angeles which eventually led me to my first role as an Assistant Designer for a major retail fashion label. I stayed in the fashion industry as a Designer working for a few different brands for about a decade. Feeling a bit stagnated with mass market fashion, I was ready to spread my creative wings and really pursue the art of storytelling through costume design.

I was looking for new growth, something that allowed me to collaborate with all kinds of artists in different mediums within film production. I wanted to move beyond apparel design to design in an arena where there is no limit on imagination, where entire worlds could be created and stories could be told. Where I could follow the clothing through its life and what it does for its wearer.

I had a solid foundation of transferable work experience and I felt ready to make that jump to get into the film business. I haven’t looked back since. I now know that costuming is where I was always supposed to be, but I don’t regret the journey it took to get here. Everything I’ve learned along the way has allowed me to be here, serving me in each new creative project. Now, as a Costume Designer I’m able to contribute to film’s influence on modern culture.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission in costume design is to present authentic “characters” as truthfully as the writer and director intend. Whether the story is comic or tragic I want my costumes to drive that narrative and inspire the audience to feel a world of wonder and escapism. To experience lives unlike their own.

This can happen through clothing silhouette and proportion that provide the personality for a character, such as the baggy clothes and oversized shoes of a clown or the uptight suiting of a stiff no-nonsense authoritarian. Selections of colors, whether moody and dark or bright and clear, can invoke desired responses from viewers. For example, orange conveys fun and adventure while purple promotes luxury.

I want my costume designs to propel the story and to reflect the best in the psychology of the characters’ experience and the best of the art of costume design.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carolejonesdesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolejonesdesign/
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/carole-jones
• Other: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm12286705?s=bcc6860e-a103-0dfc-fb49-ab5abe4ef4c6&site_preference=normal

Image Credits
Carole Academy Gold Rising photo (Carole with Oscar Statue) – photo credit can be given to Richard Harbaugh.