We recently connected with Bria Blunt and have shared our conversation below.
Bria, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome is tricky because it’s like your heart saying, “I don’t want to lie,” or “Is this fair?”—both of which are totally valid feelings. I felt that a lot when I was first finding my way in the creative industry. People love to tout, “Fake it until you make it,” but that advice honestly misses some nuance. Sure, push forward despite fear and the confidence will come, but just as important is being real about where you’re at.
I once applied for a job as an assistant to this wedding photographer I found online. She seemed incredibly cool and down to earth. Even though I didn’t know much about wedding photography, I figured I’d be motivated by working with someone I liked and could figure out the technical stuff as I went. I didn’t try to position myself as some kind of photo guru—I wasn’t. Instead, I leaned into what I knew: dreaming, casting vision, and creativity. For my application, I put together this mock planner full of hypothetical appointments, schedules, tasks, and even receipts—basically what I imagined a photographer’s assistant would handle.
I was worried it might come off as weird, but to my surprise, she called me herself and said she was impressed by how much thought I’d put into it. She was like, “You’re too talented for this job—you should aim higher.” At the time, I was frustrated because I needed a job. But later, I realized her words were a gift. They motivated me to pursue a path where my talents would be valued for the right reasons. If I’d tried to fake my way in with photography skills I didn’t have, that imposter syndrome would’ve stuck around, just in a different form.
I had a similar experience during my internship with designer Tracy Reese. My teacher recommended me for the internship, and I was stoked to stand out among my classmates. But when Tracy called me in for a senior design position interview months later, I was wildly confused. I was still two years away from graduating, and there were actual adults in that office who had way more experience and deserved the opportunity more than some summer intern.
I hadn’t even learned how to pattern pants from scratch yet, so I was super nervous about showing my portfolio. My market design experience was vague, and I knew next to nothing about production costs or sourcing prints and embroideries. After the interview, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d brought me in just to humiliate me.
But looking back, I think she just wanted to give me a chance. It wasn’t about being the most skilled person in the room—it was about the sincerity and dedication I brought to the table. Tracy, as a black female designer, probably empathized with how rare it is to see people like us in the industry and wanted to use her influence to lift me up. Success isn’t always about earning it in the traditional sense; sometimes, it’s about being open to the opportunities that come your way, even if they don’t feel fair or deserved at the time.
Every day, people wrestle with what they can or can’t achieve—sometimes in completely delusional ways. Imposter syndrome loves to show up when you’re stepping into something new, but I believe a little bit of “delusion” in the right direction, paired with staying true to yourself, will guide you to where you need to be. It’s all about balancing that push through fear with being authentic.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a fashion designer. I help brands bring their creative visions to life through design and technical work. I also recently have been building my own clothing brand.
It’s great because fashion design has been a thread in my life since I was a child, and I get to help people tell their stories through clothes. And starting my own brand has been particularly exciting, as there’s been a lifetime of anticipation toward it. I’m still figuring out the kinks of what makes the most sense for me as a sustainable business model, but a swarm of ideas I’ve been sitting on forever is finally getting out of my brain and I get to exercise a lot of my multi-passionate tendencies through fashion: learning, illustration, embroidery, creative direction, world-building, storytelling. I’m definitely having a lot of fun finding my voice too. I have a new look that will be shown first September 18th at the Copenhagen Pret-a-Mode fashion show for Green Living Magazine. And sometime in November, I’m supposed to be showing some new pieces with Atlas Handcrafted.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three major things that helped me in my creative career have been hard work, humble persistence, and always trying to stand out. Opportunities have a way of creating themselves when you simply work hard or set yourself apart by either being distinctly different or asking for exactly what you want.
If you’re just starting your journey, try to stay loose in your expectations and pursuits. Try to see life as more of a dance, experiment, or discovery, rather than a map where there’s always a clear destination. This makes it easier to be authentic when interrogating your motives and figuring out what you want, so you can make sure you’re always leading with joy and sincerity.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
As someone who has always had multiple interests, it’s hard to choose either one.
I think it’s important to always be absorbing and improving in some way. At a minimum, pay attention to the world and yourself – and ask how can you be a better version of yourself through hard or soft skills. With technical skills, it’s often enough to learn enough to do the bare minimum, or at least find the lowest-hanging fruit that helps you navigate new territory. But simultaneously be honest with yourself. Don’t spend too much time forcing something that you’re not wired for. Know when to ask for help.
I once took a class that taught Python coding to generate parametric designs I could use in fashion. Iris Van Herpen is one of my favorite designers and I’ve seen studio clips of her team using this technology to make some of those insane designs. The class was incredibly difficult for me. And while I certainly was motivated, I know languages and memory-based type learning is a strain for me – programming languages included. Even now as a new business owner wearing many hats, I’ve re-remembered that there’s a reason I wasn’t great at things like sales and customer service when I was younger doing retail and such. I can pull it off but I’m an introvert at heart and it drains me so fast. I feel like there are enough things in life we have to do no matter how much we don’t like it. So if you can get away with not having to force yourself to do things you’re not good at, absolutely do so.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gatheringbleu.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gatheringbleu/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briablunt/
- Other: https://www.briaalebleu.com
Image Credits
BBlunt-5 – by Trent Brown, https://trentsphotography.pixieset.com
BBlunt-6,7,8 – by Jenny Kaufman, https://www.xposedcapture.com/blank-mpvle
Blunt-2,4 – by Langston Cavin, https://www.instagram.com/2000blazerls
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
