I had just returned from South Africa to New York. I was catching up with a barista I knew at a Starbucks in the West Village. We were chatting about actor Samuel Jackson. A fellow on the line interrupted me and said,  “I discovered Samuel Jackson.” My response was that “You don’t look like Spike Lee.”

This fellow was Quentin Tarantino, aka Q.T., and we immediately and surprisingly became friends. Q.T. and I spent a few weeks looking at Martial Art movies and discussing various comic books. Quentin was working on  Kill Bill and the first draft of Inglorious Bastard. I remember that he would read the scripts while wearing a vintage black leather Trench Coat.  Then summer ended, and I went to work and never heard from or contacted him again.

A year later, I got a call asking me to contribute to the film Kill Bill.  Although it was eventually costumed by Catherine Marie Thomas and Kumiko Ogawa, the work I conceptualized was kept in the movie.

The Asics company didn’t want to participate in the film. I took a car to their California office and convinced them this would be a good idea. They agreed after I gave them a tour of the film’s production office called “Fu Manchu” Productions. The rest is history.

There is more about it on Medium: Coffee and Kill Bill and A Feminist Allegory. 

Tags

• Costume Design |
• Creative Direction |
• Styling |