They say if you pronounce the “t” in Baltimore, you aren’t really from there. James Carroll passes the test. James, who is of African American and Blackfoot Cherokee descent, grew up with little interest in fashion. He was a lifeguard, worked at the YMCA, sold HVACs at Home Depot and life insurances. Life changed when he moved to New York City in 2011 to attend LIM College for a Bachelor’s in Marketing. His roommate was Shean England, now a seasoned publicist who was assisting Solange Knowles at the time. Carroll got an opportunity to intern for the singer’s team and he admits Solange taught him what fashion was, and introduced him to brands like Marni.

James’s story wasn’t always sweet; it includes a brief period of homelessness. When he switched coasts about five years ago and moved to Los Angeles; his luck snowballed into work with even more prominent clients and larger productions like Beyoncé’s Lemonade and Formation World Tour.

The stylist who vowed to never experience homelessness or to live paycheck to paycheck again has since worked with the Kardashians, Tracy Morgan, Nike, Clinique, H&M, Kalen Allen, and Bron Studios, which is where and how he earned his producer credits. He also plans to introduce a jewelry line soon.

Your Instagram bio reads Producer, Image Architect, and Creative. Explain that to me.

My producer title stems from the work I’ve produced with Bron Studios; they’re responsible for films like House of Gucci, Candyman, Queen & Slim, Aretha, Greyhound, Judas, The Black Messiah, and Joker. Over the pandemic, they hired me to produce original long-form and short-form content where I was able to utilize Brons platforms to highlight and amplify content creators of color. Chavez Brown, a filmmaker and friend of mine from Baltimore, made a short form piece of video content for the studio that he was able to take to a few film festivals, and it won awards.

I’m more than a stylist. I’m not just thinking, “here’s a cute outfit,” it flows much deeper than that.  I’m also thinking about the marketing that comes into play and what it says for your brand. The creative aspect combines it all as things start to jell together. For example, I worked with a chef named Fiona Afshar (@cookingwithfiona), who creates pasta from scratch in colors and stripes. I came across her via an SSENSE.com article where she was developing pasta inspired by prints from a fashion show. I reached out and asked her to make a reel of her creating pasta inspired by the film House of Gucci, which turned into a limited edition set.

Is there a defining moment that made you realize you wanted to pursue a career in fashion?

It was 100 percent my time with Solange that shifted everything. After I left H&M and Gilt Groupe, I had already proclaimed that I was not going back. Back to what? Back to the 9-5, to a sales associate or any of that. I learned that my brain isn’t wired that way, and there’s more going on in there than working at a mundane 9-5. It wasn’t a cakewalk; I endured countless challenges and had many broke days where I was waiting on invoices. I did a lot of free work so I could get the experience I needed, and it paid off in the end.

Why styling?

It excites me, being able to put pieces together and create final moments. The plug and play and picking from here and from there felt and feels good. I get a rush when jobs are executed, and the looks come together as I dreamed they would. It’s that moment of “I did that.” Seeing the images, whether celebrity or editorial, gives me this sense of hope that they will one day become historic moments that I can look back on, and that brings me joy. Styling and my clients are like therapy for me. It feels good knowing I’m making someone see the beauty in themselves when they may be having a bad day or just can’t see their potential.

Talk about your first big solo project and what that moment signified for you.

Picture it—2020 pre-covid, I’m on a Megabus of some sort leaving New York to head home to family. I received a phone call from a friend who works at a creative agency on 19th and Park while I was en route to Baltimore. She told me there’s this job she has coming up in New York with Nike for a Black History Campaign and asked if I would be interested. I’m like, “I’m coming back; let me see what I can do.” I wasn’t given much information, so I thought it would be a relatively small campaign, but it turned out to be a Global Black History Month campaign. I honestly was stumped that someone believed in me enough that when an opportunity like this came about, they thought of me and blessed me with the chance to work with Nike, a multi-billion-dollar company. Don’t get me wrong, I had worked and assisted with other projects and world tours, but this was me by myself, and I’ve been working with Nike on their campaigns ever since.

Between all of your work, would you say you’re more of a personal stylist or project stylist, or is it a mix of both? Where do you categorize yourself?

It’s a mix of both. It’s street style, performance, advertisement, and editorial; I’m good across the board.

Now to the part, everyone is dying to know about. Queen Bee…as far as you can go. Tell us about that experience and how you found yourself working with Beyoncé and Parkwood Entertainment.

It’s a chain of events. I was working with Eric Archibald and Bobby Wesley before Lemonade came out. I had been trying to connect with Marni’s team for some time, but schedules never matched up, and I was also helping with Fifth Harmony. One day, I received a call from Bobby asking me if I could go to Mahna Showroom to look for a particular piece of clothing. I had no idea what any of this was for, but I went and ended up finding the item. From there, it was like, “we need you to bring that and a few other pieces to New Orleans; your flight leaves in a few hours.” This was the first time in my life that anything of the sort had happened to me. I had no clue what any of this was for until I met with another assistant to grab a few more things because he couldn’t fly due to injury. He sparely filled me in that everything I was transporting was for Beyoncé.

I was shook. When I arrived in New Orleans, I checked into the hotel booked for me and went straight to where everything was being housed. It was about nine or 10 assistants, and we all had individual jobs. It felt amazing to be a creative on such a massive project. At first, I was just hands – there to help anyone who needed helping, but it eventually turned into me having to use my creative juices to help solve problems along with having actual input.

Where do your hands come into play when styling and working on projects with Mrs. Carter? Because I’m told, she has multiple stylists working with her.

During the Lemonade era, I came in very last minute, so my role was to do what was asked of me. I was still learning, and it was my first-time meeting any of the other people on her team. I had to learn personalities and hierarchy. I believe my character just kicked in because when I was supposed to just be doing one thing, I would sneak in a little bit of an opinion or problem-solving. I like to believe Marni saw something in me, which may be a testament to why I’ve worked with her so long.

Outside of Beyoncé, you’ve worked with the Kardashians, Tracy Morgan, Solange, Christina Milian, Kalen Allen, Elle Varner, and brands like Nike, Clinique, H&M. How did you build up such a portfolio? Are you signed to a talent agency?

It’s my maneuvering and being my authentic self. I found that the clients I’ve worked with appreciate my personality and my problem-solving ability, along with not getting flustered or worked up. I’m usually the calm voice in moments of chaos. With Kalen Allen, we met on Twitter. We were friends before working together; all this started during the pandemic when everyone was stressed. He told me he was going on Ellen and asked if I’d be interested in styling him as he had seen my work. I also must credit him for pushing me to showcase more of my projects on Instagram, which has increased my digital presence.

I’m not signed to anyone. I’m not sure if I should be approaching an agency or if they should be coming after me. I’m not too familiar with that process, and I also think about that agency fee, not to sound greedy, ha-ha. I’m not opposed to it; it just has to make sense.

IG: @svint.jvmes

IG (Bron Studios): @BRONStudios