In fashion, there are writers, editors, models, stylists, publicists, buyers, influencers, and more - and then there's Shiona Turini. Turini, a Bermuda native, has found success in nearly every facet of the fashion industry, from editorial to PR to influencing. And recently, she added costume designing to that list, creating the wardrobes for the third season of HBO's Insecure and the 2019 critically acclaimed film - which was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who Turini also worked with on Beyoncé's "Formation" video (casual).
Now that both are over, though, Turini is finally taking a break. "I'm just kind of refocusing and seeing what projects come my way," she says, while spending a welcome few days in LA doing press as a spokesperson for La Mer's new Eye Concentrate. "I'm ready to reset." Ask anyone who knows her, though, and they'll tell you that a break for Shiona Turini won't last long.
But the fashion landscape has changed a lot since her early days in editorial. It was when she was at Cosmopolitan, where Turini was the fashion market director after stints at Teen Vogue and CR Fashion Book (a publication that she helped to launch alongside the former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld), that the hub system was implemented at Hearst, with editors working on multiple books at once. At the same time, the print world was turning on its axis due to the rise of digital media, a move that sped up the entire process and forced editors to write, style, and edit in a completely new way. "Fashion in general is always evolving and so our industry had to evolve to kind of keep up and stay fresh," Turini says. "Change is good. I'm open to it. It's allowed me to step into different roles that may not have been available to me in the beginning."
The main piece of advice she has for others who dream of working their way to the top of the fashion food chain is this: Don't be afraid of change. "If I'd have said no to Beyoncé because I'd never done a music video and was intimidated, my career would have taken a very different turn," Turini says. "Stepping outside of that fear and just being open to constantly learning, changing, and going wherever your path might take you instead of being like, no, I'm just a writer, and staying in that safe space, that would be the advice that I give anyone."
Moving into the world of costume designing wasn't easy. A far cry from styling one-off shoots or red carpet events, designing an entire wardrobe for a huge production meant long hours, strange locations, multiple samples, and figuring out how to develop a sense of style for a fictional character.
"With Insecure, I put my own twist on something that I'd inherited. Queen & Slim was the first time that I got to actually build the entity of these characters from scratch," she says. "I'm proud of all of the costumes that are in that movie from Slim's velour tracksuit to, of course, Queen's costume, with the snakeskin boots, collaborating with Brother Vellies. I was really proud of that."
Now, Turini is taking a break. "I know that self-care is such an overly discussed topic at the moment, but it really is so important - I've never thought it was more important than right now in my life," she says. After Queen & Slim' s run at award season - events which she also styled plenty of celebrities for - it was time for the Jane-of-all-trades to take a step back from working for others and finally think about herself.
It's there that she plans to figure out her next move, whether it be another film, a photoshoot, a TV show, or another go at editorial. "I'm just going to see what projects come my way," she explains. Whatever that may be, if we've learned anything from this renaissance woman, it's bound to be big.
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