We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyrstin Inman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyrstin, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

clothing and make believe was something that always spoke to me whether that being me dressing up in costumes or dressing up my polly pockets, barbies or my stuffed animals. I was constantly using the “Barbie Fashion Plate sketch book” to draw up outfits. Growing up My mom always let me express myself though clothing because she loved fashion and was a personal stylist running a boutique as her job. In middle school I joined theatre and at the time I wanted to try acting but had so much stage freight that I decided to join costume crew be cause I have always had in interest in clothes and so I could still be apart of the production in some way. This ended up being the best thing that happened to me. Going forward into high school I spent all four years in theatre and got inducted into the theatre troupe as a thespian. I was apart of 8 productions and every single one I was apart of costume crew. I became assistant head costume mistress my junior year, then head costume mistress my senior year. after graduating high school I took a three year gap from going to college because I had no idea what I wanted to pursue and even though I loved costumes I knew didn’t want to stay the theatre long term. And its funny because whenever I would hang out with my bestie Daniela we would talk about doing photoshoots but it was always a what if. So honestly I predicted my life but yea anyway. Fast forward to 2021 I decided to move to Austin Texas because I needed a change of scenery and had made the decision to go to Austin Community College for graphic design. Two months into moving I was invited to go to a magazine release party for University of Texas’s fashion club and while I was there my friend told about a different magazine called “A La Moda”. which is an independent org. that doesn’t require being apart of a school. My friend told told me to submit an application for styling and that’s what I did. I was accepted and that was the beginning of my life as a stylist and creative director.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

over the past year I have began to make a name for myself in the photography and fashion scene in austin Texas. in 2022 i Joined a magazine called A la Moda where I was put into selected teams that consisted of a photographer, models, make up artists and stylists. we were giving a theme and had to work together to come off with a concept based off the theme and then bring it to life through an editorial photoshoot. after finishing my first issue of the magazine I knew that it was something I wanted to pursue full time. so a few months later I applied to a second magazine as a stylist and got in. I organized outfits for 5 different photoshoots at the same time for two different magazines and even though it was overwhelming at times I knew it would be worth it at the end. I started posting my photoshoots on instagram and began to meet people through social media. I then began to do photoshoots for fun with my very close friends Julianna who was a model I met in a shoot I got asked to style for that was for an independent project. we would style together and I would take the photos and she would model. At the release party for A la Moda I met a fellow stylist named Kamdin Montagne who was starting a clothing brand. We became instant best friends and I began to help her with her brand. We started doing little promo shoots of her pieces. She began to mention the fact that she wanted to do a rebrand and since I’m in school for graphic design she asked me to help her do it. I designed her logo and helped her come up with the brand’s new aesthetic. We came up with the name Prior Waste and the rest was history. fast forward a month later we decided to take on a massive project for Prior waste and that solidified me as the assistant visual director of the brand. I cant say what it is yet but follow Prior Waste on instagram to stay tuned for that. After completing my third issue apart of A la Moda my team got the cover of the magazine which was one of the happiest moments of my life. it truly solidified that I am doing the right thing with my life. I continue to do photoshoots every few weeks either just for fun or for a specific purpose. It brings me so much joy and now Ive made a whole network of creators who I work with and who support me which keeps me motivated.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of creating for me is that it brings me the drive and motivation to keep going. I went through a period where I had no idea what my purpose in life was but when I realized that I’m actually good at this it made me less scared of the future and made me want to push my self to create as much as I can. I will forever be grateful for each person and opportunity I’ve been given because people trust my vision and that makes me confident in myself.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In high school my sophomore year I was diagnosed with celiac disease. which was very debilitating and i was constantly in so much pain that I had to miss a lot of school. at the time no one had even heard of that, including me. It had a lot of side effects like chronic migraines, stomach pain that made it hard to move, depression and anxiety. I had to go through the government to join the 504 program so that I’d have the proper resources from my school and so i wouldn’t be penalized for missing school 2-3 times a week. It took all of high school and a few years after that to recover and heal my body to a point where I could manage my diet and not be in pain everyday. I constantly had to advocate for myself and do a lot of things even while being pain. Ive been diagnosed with celiac now for 6 years and even though it makes me different I think it’s made me stronger and I’m grateful for all of the people in my life that have ben accommodating and understanding of it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orphic.facility/

Image Credits
image 1: me (Kyrstin Inman) image 2: me (Kyrstin Inman) image 3 ; Preston Rolls image 4: me (Kyrstin Inman) image 5; Rachel Aquino image 6: 512cowboy image 7: Daniela Maureira