“I think that I have been blessed to bring a sophisticated, distinguished, yet sexy, glamorous edge to each of my clients,” says celebrity stylist Daniel Hawkins. Most recently, he has been providing excellent looks for Fantasia. The ensembles he’s been executing for the singer and actress during her The Color Purple press events have been dynamic. Hawkins has carefully packaged her as a modern Hollywood starlet–ladylike nods to stars of the past like Audrey Hepburn and Dorothy Dandridge have been showcased too. The image architect has references these iconic women in hopes of presenting Fantasia as a woman of the moment.
For this feat, he outfitted the multi-talented Fantasia in unforgettable pieces by Sergio Hudson, LaQuan Smith, and Dolce & Gabbana. For events stateside and in Europe she donned tailored suits, patterned catsuits, and even polka-dotted garments. This foray into experimental territory signaled that she was willing to go to great lengths to shake up her previous style eras. And for good reason, this era was applauded by countless fashion connoisseurs including myself. If anything, the distinct moments Hawkins created pushed the barometer, Fantasia wasn’t just seen as an actress. She was also viewed as a style icon, her stylist tells me this was his goal.
“She started out saying she wanted to be this super conservative person” during her press run, Hawkins said. But what ensued was a master class in elevation while staying true to one’s femininity. He notes that he kept the conservative idea in the back of his mind but decided to key in on exuding sexiness in tiny ways: a little bit of cleavage, or garments fitting perfectly. What this led to were looks that stood out such as a leopard print Dolce & Gabbana catsuit for one press event. For a significant The Color Purple premiere she wore a sensual and punchy LaQuan Smith gown with a keyhole detail in purple. Both of these moments are proof that she’s equipped to take on her most stylish era yet. “I think people realized and saw, that it was a different girl, like although it was the same girl Fantasia they really paid attention,” he adds.
Below we catch up with Daniel Hawkins and discuss Fantasia’s transformative The Color Purple press looks, his career as a stylist, and more.
If fashion lovers aren’t familiar with your work in the past, how can they catch up?
I’ve been with Fantasia for quite a while now, for goodness, seven or eight years off and on. Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize that, but I started my career in reality TV back in 2008 with Marlo Hampton from Atlanta Housewives. And I went on to do NeNe Leakes from Atlanta Housewives, also did Porsha Williams. Then I decided that I didn’t want to do reality television anymore, so I moved from Atlanta to New York in 2014. And since then I’ve had Tamar Braxton, I’ve had Lil’ Kim, I’ve had Remy Ma. I’ve also done some work with Law Roach, [I’ve] worked on a few clients with him. He’s been such a, like a fairy godfather in this industry for me. So I’ve been very, very blessed. I know I’m missing a few, but those are the ones that come to mind.
Can you share what cues or codes that you feel are unique to you as a stylist?
I would have to say some of my style codes that I kind of carry across the board from client to client would have to be, I love glam. So I think when people see my work, they’re going to always catch some element of glam no matter what client it is. And I’ve also think that I’ve been blessed to find a way to, and when I say this, I don’t mean it in any way to be mean or mean-hearted, but I think that I have been blessed with a gift to kind of clean a girl up, for a lack of better term or phrase.
What was particularly important to you to convey through Fantasia’s red carpet clothing and her countless looks?
In the beginning, I did have a slightly different vision for her, which ultimately ended up [turning] into what [ensued] during the press run and even what you are going to continue seeing from Fantasia on the actress side. Now what I did, I told her that I see this being, although you are one person, I see us breaking this [all] up into Fantasia, the actress, and then we also have Fantasia, the singer, the music artist. And of course, tapping into Fantasia, the actress was going to be much more tailored clothing, very shape-conscious silhouettes without being bodycon, suiting, fun colors, still relying on black as well because I think black is classic, but playing in colors, blacks, also just really tightening up her overall image and bringing back the element of class, bringing back the element of sexy, but not having to be naked and not saying that that version of sexy, that’s appreciated as well.
I think that when you’re dealing with a curvy girl, when you’re dealing with a woman of color [who is a] brown-skinned woman, plus a woman that does have tattoos, it is important to really take the focus away from those elements and just basically have [people] look at [her] for just being undeniably fashionable.
I am thankful for this opportunity from The Color Purple because it did put her on a platform for the world to really see. But in all actuality, we’ve been doing this for seven years. You know what I mean? It’s just fine-tuning it for this moment and allowing people to see it from the platform that was in front of us.
What references were you keying in on as your prepped looks to bring out the actress side of Fantasia during the press run?
Audrey Hepburn, Diana Ross. These were all style points to where when I was creating what I thought of Fantasia for this press run, those were all, some of the ladies, not all of them, but some of the ladies that I really tapped into, because I feel like Audrey Hepburn, that era just in general spoke to very, very fine tailoring, tailoring built around corsets. It doesn’t get any more tailored than that.
The glamour of Marilyn Monroe and the super glamour of Diana Ross, Lady Sings the Blues, like all of these moments were things that I envisioned for Fantasia, while still keeping them current because Fantasia is 39 years old. So I don’t want her walking around looking like, shout out to everyone’s age, but I don’t want her to look super, super mature when she is 39 years old because I think a lot of people forget that.
So it was important for me to make sure that I was still making her feel youthful and like she was a style icon in the eyes of many different people, many different age groups where people in their 20s could look and say, okay, I see how I could do that.
You previously touched on the notion of elevating Black women’s looks and coaching them to be their best selves through your work. Can you expand on that?
I’ll be honest with you, the level of sophistication has been something that, my mother is my best friend. Shout out to my mom. She is one of the reasons that I am in this industry. My mother has always been a glamorous woman, and I think that I have always wanted that for every one of my clients. It started out with Marlo Hampton as far as her allowing me to take her there, because a lot of it depends on the client too. You have to find a way to, if that client is open to being, to this level of sophistication, and if she is not, just meeting them where they are at.
I think that sometimes it’s almost easy a lot of times for black women to go sexy or either, excuse me, I’ll say this. It’s on trend for this ultimate naked sex appeal. I think that sometimes going against the grain and bringing in these more covered but still sexy silhouettes, it almost is empowering. Because it is showing a world that doesn’t typically think of black women as such that, okay, yes, we can be sexy, but we also can be ‘50s sex appeal. We can also, which holds a different power to me than a naked sex appeal, equal as much, equally both powerful, but it’s a difference. It garners a different respect, or it should garner a different respect.
You honed in on looks by Dolce & Gabbana despite many feeling the brand is canceled, why?
I chose to do a lot of Dolce & Gabbana and I know their past. But I also know that I’m a Christian and I believe the God that I serve is a God of chances, and we all do make mistakes. I do not believe in damning someone eternally for mistakes that they’ve made in the past, so. Plus the collection at the time was exactly what I was looking for. [At] that time, they came back into their suiting, they came back into these structured silhouettes. I’m like, well, goodness. I mean, how can I not?
We built a beautiful relationship over with the house, and they’ve been such a joy to work with, and everything just kind of lined up. So it was a pleasure working with them, and it’s been a pleasure working with all the brands.
The LaQuan Smith gown she wore for The Color Purple premiere was excellent, what led to this moment?
We realized that we hadn’t had a purple moment, and that was kind of strategic because we didn’t want to do a lot of purple. We really thought that the castmates on the press run, we’re just going to eat up purple, we did kind of want to be a little bit different. But at that point we realized that, you know what? We have to do some type of nod to The Color Purple. So when I thought about that, I realized that, okay, we have one more premiere left, and that is the Charlotte premiere, so let’s do this purple moment. So when looking for purple dresses, I just saw it and I saw it on the runway, and once I tried it on her, it was just like, yes. To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, I’ll be honest with you, because it was a little bit sexier than we had been doing. So I was like, you know what? I don’t know if it’s right. I don’t know if it’s going to work, but when I put it on her, it fit like a glove.
I had our tailor add just like a little stitch in the keyhole because it originally had a keyhole that came from top down past the belly button. But for her, that was a bit much. So once I had him put that little stitch in there, it was like, okay, it’s undeniably yes. So it was a perfect way to give a nod to The Color Purple, and also to give something to people. If anyone was saying that during the other looks, that it was a little too conservative, this was a moment to say, Hey, look, here we go. You can still be sexy and current in a different way.
How does all of this feel for you?
I don’t do this to be recognized. However, it feels darn good because I have been doing this for a long time, and a lot of people don’t even realize it, but I’ve been in this industry for a very, very long time, since like I said, 2007 or 2008, so it’s been a long time. So it does feel good that I’m finally getting some type of recognition. I remember praying to God and asking, like or wondering, am I ever going to get the moment that I see my peers getting? And I didn’t know. But all I could do is I could trust God and know that if it’s meant to happen, it’s going to happen and it will happen at the time that it is supposed to happen.
