Welcome to Creative Closeup, an ongoing series where we spend time with inspiring women learning about their creative practices.
This month, we spent time with singer Sarah Kinsley, who not only has two EPs under her belt but, is also a recent graduate of Columbia University with a degree in music theory. The multi-hyphenate talent took a break from producing, writing, recording and touring to talk to us about the world-building of her music videos and how music is intertwined with fashion.
Q: How would you say your style is different in your personal life than on-stage?
A: On stage, I think my style and the clothing I choose all facilitate the creation of me, an artist, a performer. I really feel like I come into some higher self when I perform: my style is much more decorated, more embellished, more detailed than the clothing I wear throughout the beautiful mundane of day to day life. It might be the exaggerated flair of a dress, or heavier boots to run around a stage in, or the shimmery reflections of a fabric in the light. Dressing for the stage is an art in itself.
Q: What goes into choosing what you wear in videos?
A: It’s really a connection inherently set within the music - my songs have color, they have auras, they hold distilled meaning. Especially with my most recent record, Cypress, we wanted to create a video that followed the classical/electronic trajectory of the music. The song begins with thirty violins. This softness and grandeur almost instinctively pushed us towards this Alice-in-Wonderland-meets-Pride-& Prejudice-meets-Midsommar style. We wanted to create a timeless space, one in which I would meet my past self. Both characters, this future self and past self, were both dressed in Victorian-esque clothing, including a pair of matching Merlette dresses (lavender and light blue). We danced through fields in these loose dresses and in boots. There was something utterly playful, and yet eerie in these choices. That choice of clothing really defined the heart of the video. It was the perfect fit to shape us beyond the music, to create this creepy, polished world our characters existed in.
Q: How do you approach working with a stylist?
A: It’s very similar to the approach when it comes to creating music videos with directors and other collaborators. On any project, we’re attempting to visually express intangible things. Music is really also an attempt to express the intangible. We attempt to express my artistry through the clothing. Bold. Feminine. Intimate and light. Loose. Comfortable. I’ve recently been working with stylist Meg Galvin, who styled me throughout SXSW, my US headline tour, and music videos. I adore her. It’s an exciting endeavor to see how our conceptions of who I am as an artist merge through the clothing, as a means of redefining the music, creating another layer of my expression.
Q: Music and fashion are so intertwined. How do you view the relationship between them?
A: They exist for me as means towards the same end. To become vessels of these ideas. My music is a sonic exploration into my beliefs, themes of existence, the properties of how I exist. I like to think of fashion as a visual, kinetic, felt one. Another mode of letting my identity come alive.
Q: As a young female artist, do you feel any pressure about your appearance or how you dress — and how do you combat that?
A: Sometimes. I think the pressure to be presentable - whatever that means - is a bit antiquated now. For me, femininity is inherently very powerful, independent, it’s the heart, the core of indie, rock music, pop. The roar of drums, flying synths, growling of guitars - all of that is central to my ideas of womanhood, my conceptions of independence, of beautiful rebellion against the norm. So the clothes are an extension of my beliefs. There’s a wonderful freedom, in pop or rock music especially, to dance between different ways of dressing. There’s something very liberating about being in combat boots, a massive dress, with my guitar in hand. That crushes any bit of pressure I might feel at all.
Q: What appeals to you about wearing Merlette?
A: I find when I wear Merlette that I step into not just really incredible, striking, well-made clothing — but I also step into feeling suddenly adorned with confidence, with great force. The clothing is both light and full of texture and pattern — it shapes me whenever I wear it. It’s also incredibly comfortable.
Q: What does it mean to you to work with a female-founded brand? Is it important to you to wear ethical or sustainable brands?
A: It’s as important to me as it is to be a musician who’s recorded, engineered, and produced her own records. It’s very central to the ideas — visually, sonically — we’re creating on stage. In the same way that I feel more connected to the music that’s come entirely from me, there’s something very special about knowing where the clothes come from, the women who have designed and shaped them, their line of coming into being. This metaphor is the same for me when it comes to wearing sustainable brands. Knowing where the material comes from, how it’s come to us, shapes every fiber of who I become on stage, and what I believe in beyond it.
Photographed by: Shana Trajanoska
Styled by: Meg Galvin
