We recently connected with Serrita Coleman and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Serrita, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
This is a great question. Resilience for me is multi-faceted. It comes from my strong belief in God and it’s also partly inherited by learning the history of my family and culture. Then, there’s the lesson you receive from living life, right?
I learned my first lesson in resiliency when I was a child learning about African American history. For every person who survived such inhumane conditions and made it through the horrors of being enslaved, there is a tremendous amount of resilience that has been carried and passed on to all of us. This had a huge impact on my understanding of my heritage.
From there, I have been able to understand the strength and resolve that it must take to carry on and to have faith in what is unseen. At the age of 19, my grandmother moved from Mississippi to Chicago, leaving behind her experiences of the South. My grandfather was a WWII veteran, after the war he came to Chicago and married my grandmother. The stories that she told me of her and my grandfather building a life together, while defying racism and stereotypes have instilled in me the belief that I can achieve anything and their example of resilience, kindness, and love will forever be my north star.
That belief has been put to the test by the trials of life. In 2021, my husband and I had to evacuate our home and start over. Only to start over again, now after the strikes. It’s been challenging, to say the least. So, leaning into my faith and going back to the stories of my ancestors and the stories of my grandparents successfully adapting to difficult life experiences, has given me the ability to do the same. Embody resilience.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an image designer and member of the Costume Designer Guild 892, with experience on Emmy-nominated shows, and over 15 years in the entertainment industry. Recently, I completed the Inside LVMH Certificate in the luxury industry.
My joy and purpose is to exemplify intrinsic beauty through the art of storytelling and showing the human experience. Through my work as a costume designer, my mission is to bring characters to life through having a strong ability to analyze scripts and develop unique costume designs that align with the production’s vision. I love to work through who a character is by diving into clues from the script and talking it out with the director. Finding certain elements that convey the essence of what is being depicted.
I’ve recently expanded my offerings to include personal styling for business professionals and actors seeking to make an impactful impression. This includes services for on-set styling on photo shoots or corporate videos, special events, virtual styling, and complete image makeovers. Helping each person tap into a deep sense of their identity and highlighting those attributes for clear and confident non-verbal communication.
Perhaps, a few of the best reasons to have an image designer are to save time, and confusion, and increase income potential by presenting a confident, impactful, curated self-image.
The first step to working with me is to fill out the client questionnaire, where I can get to know the needs and desires of a potential client. From there, we have a consultation to determine if we are a good fit for each other and what service would be best.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
There are three skills that have come to be very important. I’ll never forget the three D’s. This was my dad’s go to when motivating me to be the best and to do my best. I bet you all can guess what they are.
Drive. Determination. Discipline.
Basically, it is to do continuous audits on your motives and values. Your inner code for success. Does your goal need you to focus on these factors? I’ve found the my drive came from the goals that I wanted to achieve and this sense of embodying excellence as a representation of my family. Determination comes from my inner guide wanting to overcome any obstacle because it is only temporary. Discipline comes from the action of continuing despite my feelings and keeping the collective benefit at the forefront.
My advice would be to ask yourself, “What do these three words mean to me and do they represent me in any way?” If you want to improve on any of these skills start small and take it one day at a time. Make a vision board or write out what that looks like for you. Do something each day that will help you embody your drive, determination, and discipline.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am looking to collaborate with photographers, producers, directors, and fellow stylists who would like to build a solid network or community of creatives. I would also like to partner with corporations for speaking opportunities regarding professional image.
If you’re reading this and have found value in my story, you can reach me in the following ways:
[email protected]
www.serritacoleman.com
IG: @serritastyles
Contact Info:
- Website: www.serritacoleman.com
- Instagram: @serritastyles
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serrita-coleman-3
Image Credits
El Arthur Bey Kaira Peyton Eve Daher Kinsella
