RLT Interview #2: Dione Davis, Stylist
On Candace Bushnell, ballet, and the desire to be seen.
The RLT Interview explores all the things, people, and places that have informed a person's taste and, more importantly, sense of self.
This week, I chat with New York City-based stylist and creative director Dione Davis, who’s worked with brands like The Real Real, Agmes, Kallmeyer, and Tibi and publications like Numéro, Sleek and InStyle Mexico. She is also the fashion and beauty editor at LoveWant.
Get to know Dione as she muses about her encounter with Candace Bushnell, professional ballet dancing, and the desire and romance in being seen.
On Taste
I’m from Alabama, and I’ve always lived in places where people typically dress down. I didn’t have access to seeing beautiful luxury clothing; it made me look elsewhere and really dream. Everyone is quite conformist where I'm from. Everyone dressed to fit in; they didn't really dress to evoke or have their outsides match their insides. Clothing was functional. So for me, dressing was always about creative expression, and both of my parents are great examples of that.
My dad, by the time I was born, was 40, and he had done his hot boy era and wore all the cool outfits in the seventies; he was fully in dad mode. All he does now is garden, beekeep, and go on fishing trips; the suits have been replaced with Merrill, Carhartt, and Barbour. His lifestyle has changed, but his sensibility is still the same: if you're going to dress up, dress clean. He's not a blazer, jeans, and sneaker guy. He's like, if I'm wearing a blazer, there's going to be a tie, there's going to be a button-up shirt, there's going to be a two-tone wingtip shoe or a loafer. They used to call my dad Mr. Clean.
My mother is very elegant. She would always go to school pick-up in a really beautiful high-waisted trouser and an elegant blouse, and people were like, “You have two young kids running around. Why are you dressed like that?” and she's like, “It's for me.” She’s also like, “Why are your kids messy? My kids aren't going to jam all over my clothes. I taught them not to do that.” She always had her hair slicked back in a low bun or low pony. I think the clean girl aesthetic was always the go-to for my mother especially when we were in South Florida and there was only one other black family in the neighborhood. She didn’t want to blend or assimilate or look like the other moms in their shorts and T-shirts and Keds. My mom went to an HBCU, and she was very much all about making sure that even if we're wearing jeans, put on an earring, make up your face, do your hair. She taught me how to balance dressing down, and it really shaped how I dress.
My parents always had such a good balance of being appropriate in every setting, but still looking like themselves. That's where I've gotten my all-encompassing taste from, but I have a little bit more of a flair for the dramatic. I like for my clothes to take up space. I love volume in the right places. I love a big shoulder. I danced ballet from age three until 23, and I danced professionally. I was in the corps de ballet at a company, then I hurt my hip and quit.
At my dance school, my ballet trainer trained under Rudolph Nureyev and had good connections so we would have guest artists coming in from the New York City Ballet and ABT. So, for the cast parties, I knew I needed to be in the sickest look as the only black girl who was constantly overlooked. I wasn’t getting the roles I wanted, but I thought that if I just showed up as myself, I would attract the right things. I mean, this is crazy strategic for a 14-year-old girl, but that's just who I was. One guest artist we had was this dancer from City Ballet named Charles Asgard. He was married to Candace Bushnell, the creator of Sex and the City. I was like “This is the real Carrie Bradshaw, my outfit has to be on point.” I wore this rhinestone choker, a houndstooth skirt suit, and then a band tee with some kitten heels. This was 2000, so it was super chaotic. She came up to me, and she was like, “Wow, I love your outfit.” You could not tell me anything for six months.
On Discovery
Interior design, I wish I were good at that. I just don't have that flair. I never have, but I know what I like. I wouldn't say that I used to be, but now I'm just kind of boring and neutral when it comes to interior design because I have so much clothing and I need less to look at. But then I have pops of color. That's kind of how I style clothing as well. I always want the eye to travel to something. I like to add one thing, one element that is a point of tension.
What I've really been consuming for inspiration have been things that are perfectly imperfect. I like to look at films that have issues with continuity, but still work. For instance, to me, Sofia Coppola is more of a visual artist than she is a storyteller. In Marie Antoinette, she had a random pair of Converse with all the period clothing; I like that kind of contrast. I'm always looking for things like that where something is just a little bit off or when things are too perfect, and that's used as a device in character building or creating a mood. American Psycho is a perfect example. Someone who's essentially a psychopath having perfect appearance and a perfect morning routine. Patrick Bateman would've been the peak male influencer if he were around today. If they did a reboot, he would be a TikTok star who was a full clean boy, showing you how he's steaming his bed, doing his crunches, doing a sheet mask and being like, I'm a high-value man. I love characters like that. I love Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction because she's very visibly put together, but she’s a lunatic.
On Desire
Everything can be tied back to romance, and for me, the key to romance in all areas of life is context. You need information, and you need to feel seen. I think about the romance of love. I feel like most of the driving forces in my life are feeling seen and understood. The way that I move about the world is all about not just creating for the sake of creating, but also attracting the community and the life that I want to be in. And so for me, I feel like my driving force is styling; sure, I love what I do, but more importantly, I am trying to tell stories and essentially build stories through visuals. I want people who don't feel seen to feel seen. I also want to be seen in a way where people can see the thought process and are like, “Oh, okay, cool, we're the same,” or “Oh, cool, we're not the same. I respect it.”
It always makes me feel very seen when someone is like, “I understand why you made the decisions you made in the shoot.” It’s not about validation; it's about people understanding how much I care and how much attention I put into things, and how I do everything creatively with a purpose, with an objective in mind that is either like, “Oh, I want this brand to be in a different positioning,” or “I want to portray this group of people in a certain way that hasn't been portrayed before.” I think it's important. The more that I can have imagery out there that reflects the life that I want, the more I will be able to have the life that I want and the more that I can inspire black women to have the life that they want. That's my main focus, because I am in certain rooms where they're like, “Oh, let's get this model. She's got a shaved head, she's super tall, she's from Africa, it can make the clothes look edgy.” I'm like, I want black women to look like Zeba Blay mood boards, period. No edge. Pure softness and light, no struggle. Those are the things that I think about when I want to say something. It's just me trying to find ways to shoot women that feel empowered, but also allowing for space to be soft.
On Pleasure
The thing that brings me the most pleasure is collaborating with people that I’m really inspired by and seeing how I can add to what they're doing and seeing how they can add to what I'm doing, making this perfect marriage creatively. I love talking to people. I love exchanging ideas. I want to know who you are, how you became who you are, how you got here, what happened. I want all the tea on people's lives because I want to understand people because I want to be understood.
When I'm meeting someone and deciding if this is someone I'm going to hang out with regularly, I'm like, okay, if this person is not bored and we have sat in this coffee shop talking for three hours? Friends. I need to be around talkers. Humor brings me so much pleasure. I used to do stand-up comedy, and I enjoy storytelling in that way where pretty much any story can be a funny story depending on the right audience. I think humor is everything, and laughter is everything. It's like if I don't laugh for a week, something is horribly wrong in my life, probably means I'm working too much. But even then, if I'm on set and I'm not cracking jokes, I am in the dark night of the soul. That lightness, it's something that I crave in my life.
What was the last thing you did for pleasure?
I got a two hour massage and just turned my brain off.
What's the last thing you bought?
I did a closet sale and I bought this beautiful Comme des Garçons skirt that I’ve always wanted from one of the sellers.
What was the last thing you discovered?
This guy was telling me about this musical figure and political figure in Portugal, and that I’d really like their style. I had never heard of this person in my life and so now I'm on an internet deep dive on António Variações.
I've also been really studying up on physics and trying to read more about science and the universe and how things work. I've been doing this thing where I read up on who won the Nobel Prize and what year and what it was for. I've been going on this deep dive on the notion of quantum entanglement, which I think is really fascinating because it technically proves a multiverse theory. I like the idea that maybe there's another universe where I'm doing a completely different thing and I hope she's happy.
What was the last thing you read?
I was reading up on quantum entanglement and how they proved it. It was actually the Nobel Prize winners [Alain Aspect, John Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger] in 2022. I also did a reread of my favorite nonfiction book, it's called, That's Not What I Meant by Deborah Tanon. It's a breakdown of communication style, effective communication, and it applies to everything, work, romantic relationships, friendships, familial dynamics. I started reading this every year and it has really helped me understand people, meet people with grace, say what I need to say and respect everyone around me and maintain my own personal respect when I need to say my peace. It's really helped me with conflict.
What was the last thing you watched or watched or saw?
I rewatched Persona. I love the camera angles in that. Then, I've been watching True Detective: Night Country.
What was the last thing you disliked?
Every single red carpet looked from the Grammys. I couldn't get through the first five minutes of the Barbie film.
What are some cultural things that have informed who you are today?
Charade with Audrey Hepburn because I really, really love the costume design. It's Edith Head. Funny Face is also Edith Head and was my intro into the fashion industry and how it operated. I pretty much love anything Kubrick because I just love an auteur. I love somebody who has every hand in every area to make it translate exactly from their brain to the finished product. I love 2001: Space Odyssey.
Music wise. I'm a big fan of Pharaoh Sanders. I've always loved jazz. My grandpa was a jazz musician. I love Miles Davis. I listened to a lot of Bach, a lot of Ravel. I listen to a lot of music with no lyrics because it allows my mind to wander to places that they can't when I have lyrics.
For books, All About Love by bell hooks. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I recently reread it because I was having fears surrounding AI and I really wanted to read something about someone who creates something and it spins out of control. It's also just so beautifully written. Oh, Luster by Raven Lelani is also fantastic.
What do you smell like?
White lilies and sandalwood. I was wearing D.S. and Durga’s White Peacock Lily, but they discontinued it.
What's one thing in your closet that you'll never get rid of?
I have a pair of 90s Prada Mary Janes. They've had a hundred lives and I will re-sole them until I can't do it anymore. They're just the perfect shape. No one has ever made a shape like that again. I got them for $50 on Etsy.
What’s something you spent a lot of money on that was worth it?
My endometriosis surgery.
What’s something that you spent a lot of money on that wasn't worth it?
Paris Fashion Week. The ROI is not there. I don't understand why as a stylist I need to be going to fashion shows. I can go to the showroom, look at the clothes and touch them, not watch them walk for 10 minutes. I'd rather style the show than attend one. Fashion shows are different now; fashion became entertainment in a way that I just don't care about.
Describe the last good meal you had actually.
I went to SAA, which is part of the company that owns Habibi and Palm Heights. It was a literal feast. It was so delicious. Every bite was interesting. It was great because a lot of the time when I go to these fashion dinners and go home hungry. And, we got to try the whole menu.
What's one thing you always either recommend or gift?
Skincare routines and spa treatments.
I like to go to K Skincare in Park Slope for my general skin deep cleaning. It feels more like you're at a dermatologist. If you want something that's a little bit more of a traditional spa where it's like you go in, you're in the robe, you get the massage, the lights are dim, someone brings you some warm tea, I like Glo Boutique Spa in Williamsburg for hydrafacials and massages. It's run by these Polish ladies and I have no idea how old these women are, their skin looks perfect. Their masseuse is insane. He used to be a sports medicine masseuse specifically for athletes. I also love Brooklyn Face & Eye, I love their Epi.Logic products.
What does it mean to have taste?
Taste is subjective, but I think having great taste is transcendent. If you have great taste, it doesn't matter what city you're in, it doesn't matter what age group you're around, people acknowledge it and respect it. Great taste is something that can be acknowledged by people who don't even subscribe to your style.
Convinced you know the most interesting people?! Loved this one too <3
Dione is one of my favorite Instagram follows—she's got the best best best style. Excited to read more of these!