Wake Up & Rock Interview Series: Dawn Bell

Dawn Bell — Owner of Coronation Vintage and Fashion Stylist for Gloss Magazine

Written By Jessica Ingles ::: Edited By Rachel Ingles

I cannot even tell you how honored I was to be able to interview Dawn Bell from Gloss magazine. She has always been nothing less than wonderful to me, and in getting to know more about her, I love her even more. Dawn definitely belongs in the Wake Up & Rock interview series.

When I arrived at her warehouse—yes, a real warehouse, bigger than my last apartment—I was in awe of just how much vintage clothing she actually owns. There are racks of clothing, bins full of shoes, hats and scarves. Dawn’s place is awesome, complete with a chic vintage-styled living room area. If you worship vintage, Dawn’s warehouse is where you go when you die.

Where It All Began

Originally from New Orleans, Dawn began modeling at Saks Fifth Avenue there when she was 17. After a while she became more interested in what was going on backstage and volunteered to help at shows as a flier. “When there would be big events I’d have to work, I’d try my very best to come up with the most unusual, beautiful outfit to wear and so I’d always stop people dead in their tracks with my outfits. That’s when I started collecting vintage, just to have something to wear to the events that I was going to.” Her vintage style was so particular and unique that she caught the eye of Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta backstage, and they’d ask about her clothes. She’d reply,”Oh it’s just vintage!” Her love for the clothes really started to develop, and she began to re-create the vintage pieces she already owned.

Fast forward just a little bit….Dawn fell blissfully in love and got married. Her husband was in the oil industry, thus the bringing them to Houston. “I met my husband and he whisked me away from everything, and I just forgot about all that [fashion] for a really long time.” Her life took a different focus towards family and she had two daughters. The next several years found her living in Houston and Scotland, traveling often in support of her husband’s career. During this time, she continued collecting vintage,”Where ever I’d go I would find vintage pieces, so I had been accumulating a lot of stuff and just didn’t even know what I’d ever do with it. I would buy stuff that didn’t even fit me; it didn’t matter if it was something I loved.”

Dawn and her family eventually made their way back to Houston to settle from the years of traveling. Sadly, her husband passed away after suffering a heart attack. Before his heart attack, Dawn’s husband had recently become self employed as a consultant and had yet to obtain a life insurance policy. With his income gone, Dawn needed to make the shift from stay-at-home mom to being the sole bread-winner in order to support her young family. “I was looking at my life and saying ‘What am I going to do?’ What’s for me? I had always supported his career…So it was a big job for me.”

Eventually,”What do I love?” came to mind. The answer was simple: her clothes. And you just have to hear her talk about her clothes. They are an extentsion of herself, yet they are their own entities. And I don’t mean in the way that someone loves their Manolos because they’re pretty. You can sense Dawn pulls her super-woman strength from spending creative time at her warehouse. Unique and fashionable clothing is her art and as so many other artists know, working on your craft brings peace.

 With the vintage fashions she had been collecting for years, Dawn decided to open a shop. “I thought I’ll just do something with my clothes. It had always been a passion… this is my calling, and I know I wouldn’t want to do anything else.” She jokingly adds,”Actually, I didn’t think I knew how to do anything else!” Thus, Coronation Vintage was born.

Finding Personal Success

Dawn’s shop was a success at a critical time in her life. Houston loved what she was doing. “I started getting opportunities from having the shop. Molly Glentzer from The Chronicle came in and loved it ‘cause I styled everything, I didn’t just put things on a rack, I had everything put together as outfits. And Molly said, ‘You really should be styling, that seems to be your talent.’ And I thought, you know, yeah maybe I would do something like that, and (Molly) goes,’I'd hire you.’ She gave me my first actual paying style job at Gloss Magazine.”

Dawn has worked with Gloss magazine as a designer for the past three years, but she didn’t exactly feel like a professional in the beginning. “Suddenly my credentials went up because I was styling for one of the top magazines in Houston. I’d get people calling and asking me questions and inside I’d think I’m not qualified for this! I’m not used to this. I’m used to being on my own, being a loner with my clothes, doing whatever I want and suddenly I had this [professional] image.” Eventually Dawn eased into her new, well deserved role,”…after a couple of the Gloss jobs that I did, I was introduced as Gloss Fashion Stylist, and it just hit me, I was like,’Oh ok.’ I just went with it. I thought, ‘Ok, I’m a fashion stylist, that’s cool.’” Um, yes it’s very cool! Anyone can see Dawn is genuinely humbled and proud to be a part of the magazine. As a matter of fact, when I asked her to tell me what an average day is like her eyes lit up. She smiled and said,”Oh I love my job at Gloss!”

So what is an average day in the life of a fashion stylist like? Dawn is given the concept of the photo-shoot. She scours sources to select the clothing that will be used for the magazine’s spread. She makes appointments with stores Tootsies and Niemens and goes to select (aka ‘pulling’) all clothing and shoes that may or may not be chosen to be worn for photos. This is the hard labor of a stylist. “Some days I’m pulling from ten in the morning to sometimes six at night. Sometimes two days I’m pulling. It’s a real kind of hard physical job.”

Though being a fashion stylist sounds like a glamorous career to have, it is, after all, a job of hard work and one Dawn works hard at. There is also a great amount of responsibility that a stylist must carry. Thousands of dollars in clothing and accessories are hauled around from store to photo-shoot, and Dawn must account for every earring, every shoe, every thread. “One of the big parts of being a stylist is being a very responsible person, because I’m pulling sometimes more than $60,000 worth of merchandise.”

“We are responsible for everything. If we don’t bring things back exactly the way they were, The Chronicle would be charged, and if The Chronicle got charged for anything I wouldn’t look like that good of a stylist; I wouldn’t be doing my job well. My job is to protect the clothing.”

As far as a process for organizing the looks she chooses Dawn has a somewhat usual way of doing things. “I never really put together looks in my head when I’m pulling. I just pull things that I know will work for our shoot. I fit the theme, and then when I get home, I spread everything out and then I start putting them together as outfits.”

When thinking of her greatest achievement to date, Dawn can’t help but to go back to the pivotal moments that changed her life forever. “When my husband passed away (I was) able to reinvent myself from nothing. I was just left there devastated, my daughters and I. I suddenly became a single parent…after 20 years, I lost basically everything…and didn’t know what to do. I had to invent myself. Of course I went back to that starting point, to what I love to do, and so I think that I’m most proud of being able to pick myself up and take care of my girls…and do something that I enjoy doing. That’s really the thing I’m most proud of.”

Dawn Bell is nowhere near stopping. She still has a few goals set for herself to accomplish, one of which is to work for Vogue magazine no mattering in what capacity she is included. “I’m a real strong believer that if you see something for yourself, you can make it happen. I’ve always been the kind of person that sits out on a dream somewhere you know. If it’s something I want to do, why can’t I try?” Dawn encourages that advice for anyone who wants to achieve the kind of success she’s found: “Dream. Don’t stop dreaming. If you’re doing something you love to do every day, how precious is that? That’s such a reward in itself.” Amen Sister!