00:00Hi, I'm Celia Smith, fashion editor at Essence.com, and today we have the fierce, fun, and fabulous June Ambrose here to be interviewed for her VH1, Styled by June show. Let's go. Let's go, darling. That was good.
00:21It's lights, carbon, action!
00:25I'm June Ambrose, fashion stylist to the stars.
00:27Well, many don't know that I was, I was born in Antigua in the West Indies, and then I was moved to the Bronx. I was migrated to the Bronx at the age of three years old.
00:36But I always kind of, there's something about the Bronx that, you know, it was like the energy, the grittiness, that concrete jungle kind of prepared me, I think, for bigger and better things.
00:45I studied drama and arts in high school, and so I was always behind, I was behind the scenes and in front of the scenes.
00:52After high school, I was so fortunate enough to get an investment banking job while I was taking college courses at New York College, and the investment banking job, I was in the research department.
01:04It really kind of helped me understand business, financing in so many ways. I was a sponge. I made great friends. I made solid investments.
01:11So I think it was really in the cards. It was by design that I ended up there. It's very weird. It's very soon.
01:18So I spent two years at the firm, two and a half years at the firm, when I decided one day I just, you know, high school people of mine was working at Uptown MCA Records,
01:27and I took an internship at the record company. Someone came into the office one day, a manager, and said he was looking for a stylist, one of his artists.
01:33And I, you know, always ears to the wall. I said, that sounds like me.
01:40The groundwork is, you know, testing, building a really solid portfolio, understanding the dynamics of the industry, how does one acquire fashion, where the fashion house is, who are your contacts, understanding brand building.
01:52I mean, there's so many little logistics to sustaining yourself as a stylist in the business or establishing yourself as a stylist in the business.
02:01I was really fortunate. At the time when I started styling, there were no stylists in kind of, honestly, there were very few stylists.
02:09Everyone was editorial driven from inception, when I was designing. I mean, I started designing. I honed into all my skills. I studied costume design.
02:16I mean, that's what I was interested in. I was like, I want to know what they do in the movies.
02:20I didn't want to know what they did in the windows of a department store. I never worked retail.
02:24So I, I was in love with the idea of costume design. And I brought that aesthetic and that high fashion editorial aesthetic to Urban Newsday.
02:31I'm going to take you to who's my first kind of established one. It was Ultra Magnetic MCs.
02:36And that's a Bronx group, you know, so it kind of made sense.
02:39And I think Billy Widget was directing at the time. If anyone remembers, you know, I'm giving you old school names. I'm talking 19 years ago, 20 years this year.
02:49So doing Missy Elliott, the Backstreet Boys, Dave Matthews Band, High Five, which again is another throwback boy band.
02:57I did all of R. Kelly's early stuff from You Remind Me of My Jeep to Down Low, which was the most infamous, rememberable R&B long form music video.
03:07It was the first of its time. And this was like, you know, I was at the era that music hip hop became hip pop music.
03:14Some of my most iconic videos I'm really proud of would be the Missy Elliott blow up suit.
03:20I did all of Missy's videos in her career, which is a huge accomplishment for me. She was such a great muse.
03:26And she was so open and, you know, she just allowed me to create a freedom at times.
03:31And when she was ready to collaborate, we did. And the energy was so wonderful.
03:35And Puffy, more money, more problems. You know, he took a chance. He gave me, you know, it wasn't easy talking him into a shiny red suit.
03:42But he allowed me the opportunity to take advantage of it. I did. That era was just a good time.
03:49Call me a stylologist. I've been doing this for the past 20 years and I've worked with all the best.
03:54Jason, darling!
03:56From Mariah Carey to Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige and Jamie Foxx.
04:01You're walking to set with Jason Derula. Am I the coolest mom?
04:05Yes!
04:07Style But June, it's, wow, it's kind of like the chronicles of, you know, if I've been chronicling my life on Twitter, this makes it all just really, um, it comes to life on the show.
04:18You really, you get to see a behind-the-scenes, a bird's-eye view of what goes into the psychology, the stylology, I call it, of how an artist is emancipated.
04:31How they are by design. You know, it's not just plain dress-up.
04:36Um, it's such a vulnerable show because I'm vulnerable in it. Every, you know, every episode, the talent renders themselves to me. They become very vulnerable. And what happens in the course of that is just so mind-blowing.
04:49I'm thinking a mohawk down to your butt.
04:52No, no, no, wait, wait.
04:53I take celebrities who have been in a style tailspin.
04:56Just met with Misha Barton.
04:58We're going to resurrect.
04:59To breath!
05:00And transform them into tomorrow's trendsetters.
05:03I feel like I'm breaking out one of the girls in the Supremes.
05:06It's liberating. You know, every moment is liberating along the way. I mean, it's a journey, you know, becoming an icon.
05:12It's a journey, re-establishing yourself in the marketplace. But it's also a very scary place.
05:18And the show allows the artist to kind of, the actress or the singer, to really be heard.
05:24And you don't get that opportunity. It's about second chances.
05:27Style by June is truly about second chances.
05:29The high-profile celebrities, they're done.
05:32They, you know, that work is done.
05:35So it becomes the service of that.
05:37I think for the audience, I think it's more compelling for them to see what it is to rise.
05:42More so than to be here.
05:44You want to see the manifestation.
05:46You want to see the process of how an icon is made.
05:49More so than, you know, me running around servicing what's already established.
05:54I challenge their fashion style.
05:56Right now, you're telling me one story that's so predictable.
05:59And you know I'm right.
06:00Give them new confidence.
06:02This is your moment to reinvent your brand.
06:04Own it!
06:05And a total re-image.
06:06Love that.
06:09Keep it straight. Keep it tall.
06:11Are you proud of me?
06:14In this show, it's about building.
06:16We break you, I break you down.
06:18Don't get me wrong.
06:19But I build you back up quick enough for people to recognize why you are a superstar.
06:23But let me tell you, achieving a head-to-toe makeover doesn't come easy.
06:28Oh my God, I hate this.
06:29How am I going to get you out of the t-shirt without messing up the hairdo?
06:31You're not cutting my t-shirt, dog.
06:33Oh wow, here goes the press line.
06:35Oh my God!
06:36This is your moment.
06:38Shut up, Julie.
06:39It is.
06:40Help me, Jesus.
06:41Step in the room.
06:45What did I get myself into?
Comments