Local wardrobe designer works on Hollywood films
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Wardrobe Designer Couni Young embraces local talent, Hollywood films
Feb. 12, 2010, Commerce Township, MICHIGAN – Couni Young has crafted costume designs for Six Feet Under’sFreddie Rodriguez and Hollywood icons like Faye Dunaway, but she’ll never lose sight of the talent that surrounds her in metro Detroit. “My energy comes from the beauty around me,” said Young, wardrobe designer and owner of Go Go Wardrobe Pro.
When designing for a movie, she’s been known to go to local sources for clothing and materials. Young loves scouting out independent shops and small boutiques around the Detroit area. “I thrive on the raw, untapped talent found here in my hometown,” said Young.
She took a winding path to her current career in the film industry. A native of Bucktown, an artsy and soulful multicultural pocket on the north end of Chicago, Young moved to Michigan while working as a nurse. “I started making may own scrubs because I couldn’t bring myself to wear the floral print smocks,” said Young. Her designs appealed to her fellow medical professionals and she developed a successful business.
It wasn’t until a fateful meeting with LA costume designer Roemehl Hawkins, whose credits include hit shows like Desperate Housewives and Entourage, that Young began taking her talent more seriously. Introduced through Los Angeles-based comedian Mike Young, the two became fast friends.
One day while visiting Hawkins on the set of a movie, the seamstress was fired. Young mentioned she could sew and offered to fill in until they hired a replacement. That sealed her fate. Hawkins invited Young to Los Angeles for training. “The first time I walked into the wardrobe department at Universal Studios, I was in awe,” recalled Young.
She learned from Hawkins while working on projects like the comedy Labor Painswith Lindsay Lohan and the drama What Doesn’t Kill You, starring Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke. Much like her mentor, Young learned she too thrives under pressure. The fast-paced, constantly changing nature of a movie set felt comfortable from the start.
Detroit-based Producer and Director Marvin Towns Jr. gave Young her first shot at flying solo. “He believed in me,” said Young. “When that door opened up, I knew I had to come with the goods and that is what I did.”
Young earned the coveted position as Faye Dunaway’s costume designer and personal wardrobe designer. “Faye demands perfection and believe me, I figured out a way to give it her,” said Young.
When working on a film, she loves to incorporate Gucci and Chanel, but she also embraces work by local designers, like Troy’s own Joe Faris.
Young said she is constantly impressed by the creativity that surrounds her. She gushes over a seamstress she discovered in a Waterford costume shop who could re-create vintage Balenciaga overnight, or the way Douglas Hoffman at L’Umo Vogue in Bloomfield Hills always recommends just right suit for the right actor. She recalled how Detroit’s Dittrich Furs manages to turn her sketches into walking art. “Detroit is just as funky as New York or L.A.,” Young insisted. “You just need to know where to go.”
To learn more about the film business while standing fashionably behind-the-scenes, schedule an interview with Couni Young of Go Go Wardrobe Pro by contacting Jim Miller at millerj@publicityworkspr.comor Stephanie A. Casola at scasola@publicityworkspr.com or call Publicity Works at (248) 691-4466.
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