We recently connected with Scarlett Dyer and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Scarlett, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I was recently in a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Being a part of this project was incredibly meaningful to me in so many different ways. I discovered my love for Shakespeare during a summer theater camp in high school – we were performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I was cast as Titania. At first the language scared me, but then then I realized how alive I felt while speaking it.

Romeo & Juliet has always been my favorite and playing Juliet has been a dream of mine. I also did the costumes and served as co-producer – our brilliant director, Emilia Ray and I were on the same page about modernizing it by setting it at Coachella Music Festival. It was so much fun! To get started, we put the show up as a workshop production through our beloved acting studio, Crash Acting – all members of the cast & crew are students there. We became a family and all had so much love for our vibrant show. Taking it to Hollywood Fringe this past summer allowed for the production to flourish and grow in a different space which was so incredible to be a part of.

Being an extension of Juliet’s ancient lineage really means the world to me. As an actress who uses a wheelchair, there has been a lack of representation for the differently-abled community in our industry. Or, in some cases when we are represented, the result is tokenized. Presenting the iconic Juliet as a powerful, desirable young woman in a wheelchair (without the show being all about that) was really special to me. This is how I want to show up in the world and model how the differently-abled community can be represented in the industry.

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?

I’m an actress, fashion/costume designer and illustrator based in L.A. In a way, I fell in love with all of these art forms at once. All through growing up, I was drawn to the stage and acted in as many shows as possible. I was a visual artist in high school and through this I discovered fashion illustration. In the beginning I sketched all day, everyday – mostly my favorite characters from movies or books and what I would dress them in. This led me to costume design. My favorite costumes were from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Trish Summerville) and Moulin Rouge (Catherine Martin).

After meeting with performing art schools for the costume design programs, I realized my drawings and ideas were more suited for fashion. So in 2017, I left Upstate NY and moved to L.A. to attend The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM). I graduated in 2021 with a B.A. in Fashion Design – I also had the chance to be a part of FIDM’s debut program, where 10 students are chosen to create their own collection to be shown at the annual runway show. This is something I’m so proud of – it was an extreme honor and really helped me grow as a designer.

Since graduating, I’ve started my own brand – house of scarlett (HOS). My services include: custom couture design, costume design, custom fashion illustrations, and personal styling for photoshoots, productions, special events, or building new wardrobes with clients. I’m currently working on a collection of prints featuring some of my illustrations. These are a perfect gift for fashion lovers and can brighten any room! One of my goals as an artist is to incorporate inclusion and sustainability into all of my work. I want to represent communities that are over-looked in a beautiful, powerful, sexy way while remaining true to my passion for environmental, human and animal rights.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, one of the most rewarding aspects is seeing a vision come to life and sharing it with others. This happens in both my acting and fashion work and it brings me so much joy. Delivering a custom piece to a client and hearing about how much they love it or how it makes them feel is one of my favorite things. Sharing an experience with an audience and telling them stories through acting is also so rewarding. During Romeo & Juliet, I learned that each audience is different – they laugh at different things, cry at different things and respond to everything in a unique way each night. I found this so interesting and I think it really helped me evolve as an actor.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As mentioned above, I’m extremely passionate about creating a space for the differently-abled community in all aspects of the entertainment industry. I want to tell stories and share with the world that being in a wheelchair or having a different-ability isn’t a defining factor of who you are. In my acting work, I would love to play characters that reflect this. In my fashion work, I would love to create beautiful couture designs that can be worn by any body.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.houseofscarlettdesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scarlett.dyer/