‘Fashion is all about experimenting’
Fashion-forward intern explores the world of costuming
As the description of the show’s next guest appears before her, Luna Vincent ventures through the seemingly endless rows of clothing racks, looking for the right outfit to suit her subject. Each rack is stuffed to the last possible space with numerous styles, and creating five unique, yet similar, looks based on her subject’s size and preferences is a fun challenge.
Guests are instructed prior to arriving to wear their best outfit from their closest, yet many fail to meet the TV standard met by guests appearing on the “Dr. Phil” show. As the next guest arrives and stands before Vincent and her boss, Elizabeth Bowen, the costume department only has 10 minutes before the subject is moved to makeup and then out for the taping. With some tending to lie about their sizes when they fill out the description form, within those 10 minutes, the costume team is back venturing through the clothes to meet the look requirements as well as the time requirement.
As early as first grade, when she was about 6, Vincent had already developed an enthusiasm for fashion, starting with shopping with her dad and other influences like the media and movies. Eventually she’d even attempt to imitate looks from celebrities she looked up to at the time.
“I wanted to be Selena Gomez from Wizards of Waverly Place,” she said.
Always keeping her passion with her, Vincent eventually landed her first job that related to what she loved. She got hired at Buffalo Exchange, a privately owned fashion seller and retailer, buying and selling clothes. With employees not having a strict dress code, this allowed the workers to have unlimited ways of expressing themselves. A freedom that allowed Vincent to explore new styles with her newly acquired job. With a majority of her coworkers already dressing in unique ways to their own style, Vincent stated, “It was a judgement free zone.”
“Fashion is all about experimenting,” she said. “It’s an artistic process.”
Buffalo Exchange also taught Vincent about brands, how to sell certain ones and the ability to look at something and know its value.
After working at Buffalo Exchange, Vincent then set her determination on working at Nordstrom. After applying at different stores for almost a year she was able to get an interview at the Brea Mall in Brea, California and was rejected because the store was overstaffed. After Vincent received an interview at the Cerritos Mall in Cerritos, California, she was hired for retail sales at Topshop inside of Nordstrom.
The environment of Nordstrom was completely different from the environment of Buffalo Exchange.
“It was crazy going from people with like a million tattoos and piercings to people in suits,” she said.
With the drastic change of environment, it offered Vincent a chance to broaden her fashion sense and she did just that.
Nordstrom allows their employees to overall wear what they like, but they’re expected to meet a certain style standard with their outfits. Along with the pressure of “keeping up to style” with coworkers, it created a more sophisticated dressing environment. During her time at Nordstrom, Vincent was the top stylist at the store and first in sales.
While working there, Vincent was able to meet many different types of personalities while assisting them with shopping, from randoms to teachers to even the one who would be her future mentor/boss.
Bowen works on behalf of the Dr. Phil show and would commonly visit Nordstrom on her way home from the studio to pick up different clothes. Bowen caught Vincent’s attention with her shopping habits.
“She’d shop for 10 minutes and spend $2,000.”
As Bowen began to catch Vincent’s attention with her recurring visits, Vincent would attempt to help and talk to her, each time asking her more detailed questions pertaining to her job. Eventually, she asked Bowen if she takes interns.
Bowen typically only hires fashion students who are majoring in the degree or attending a specific fashion school. Still, despite Vincent having no background experience in fashion other than her passion and previous jobs, she figured it was at least worth a shot.
Soon after the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, Bowen’s previous intern had traveled to Europe and was no longer able to continue for the season. With an empty position needing to be filled, Bowen called Vincent early one morning asking if Vincent would come work for her the following day and she accepted.
Vincent was only able to work for two weeks before the stay-at-home orders were enforced throughout the country. With Nordstrom having to close temporarily and the Dr. Phil studio only allowed a certain number of employees at the studio at a time, there was nowhere for Vincent to work for the time being.
After two months into production, some of the team at Dr. Phil were allowed to bring back interns to the studio and Vincent was again offered her internship position and took it.
Working as an intern in costuming was a different challenge than the retail gigs she’d had previously.
With Dr. Phil being considered a reality show opposed to a scripted show, guests are asked to come with their best outfit. In the case that the outfit doesn’t fit the subject, it’s the costumers who are tasked with dressing the guest. They prep six different styles of potential outfits curated through descriptions received of the guest prior to their arrival.
At the beginning of the job it was mostly observation of what everyone was doing, along with sorting the daily dry cleaning and putting them away in the dozens of stuffed clothing racks organized between styles, colors and other categories.
As time passed Vincent was then incharge of pulling different looks for “the weekend” shots of the show that take place in “the loft.”
“Not a stylist mentality but a costumer… we’re creating a character.”
The weekend shot is the scenes in the episodes where the subjects record what it would be like in their home environment. To give the illusion of the recording taking place on a different day, the subjects must change outfits.
Vincent’s schedule consists of going to work Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a full time school schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Aside from one week out of the month where the Dr. Phil production staff take a “hiatus week.”
The idea of an outfit that won’t work doesn’t cross Vincent’s mind as she has full confidence in her styling.
“Sometimes the people won’t look that great, but then they’ll sit down and it looks amazing,” she said.
But the job isn’t all fun and games as Vincent has found cons in the job so far, such as the need for a wrist brace from trying to move clothes back on the rack. Followed with assessing someone’s style based around their age.
“Dressing a 70-year-old man, look at the color and be like ‘that’s too dark for his age,’” she said.
Through her experiences interning for the Dr. Phil show, Vincent has learned she doesn’t want to further a career in costuming. She wants to try becoming a stylist assistance next or something along the lines of “Fashion Police” on E! News if that still existed.
“I want to be in the scenes, not behind the scenes.”
