Today we’d like to introduce you to Cici Hoggard.
Hi Cici, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in Potomac, MD (30 minutes outside of Washington D.C.), the daughter of immigrants from Liberia and the oldest of three kids. It was your average childhood growing up in the suburbs. After I graduated from college – I moved back home and lived with my parents for two years. I also ended up getting a job working at a charter school in Northeast Washington through one of my father’s former colleagues.
I wasn’t appreciative of it at the time, but I graduated right at the height of the recession in 2009. I was very lucky to have been able to get a salaried full-time job at a time where there were so many hiring freezes. Unfortunately, I was impatient and feeling very frustrated with office politics, work culture, commuting, and just having a 9 to 5 in general. I once intended to go to law school or work at a non-profit but decided that was not right for me. To me, I’d like to think my creativity was itching to come out at a time where I was feeling stifled. Then, I thought back to what I had originally wanted to be when I was a child – a fashion designer. My parents steered me away from that idea on the grounds that I should go into something “practical”. However, Rachel Zoe’s show had come out and I was a big fan of The Hills and watching Lauren Conrad’s adventures in fashion. I religiously watched both and I loved every minute of it. I went to visit a friend who lived in LA shortly afterwards and I fell in love with the city – I knew I wanted to live in LA. I had mentioned to a former coworker of mine, Ebony McMillian (@btvintageclothes), that I wanted to move to LA and be a stylist. She was really the first person who supported my dream. She even set me up with a local fashion designer in DC and I ended up assisting on one of the designer’s photo shoots. That’s when I really decided to make moves. I applied to FIDM right after and they were very supportive of my career change. I got in, quit my job, and moved to LA in June of 2011.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are just too many to count! When I was just starting out, I worked at the GAP in Century City while attending school full time AND trying to juggle internships. I ended up losing two prestigious internships (one working for a styling duo that was big at the time, one being a reality show) simply because I was spread too thin and wasn’t careful. One costume designer told my guidance counselor at FIDM, “she wouldn’t last a week in the industry”. That’s funny to look back at now because June of 2021 will make it ten years since I was a bright-eyed 24 year old moving to LA on my own. As far as I know, that woman isn’t working in the industry anymore. Aside from that, money troubles plagued me. I had to borrow from my parents in the beginning. I even moved in with a friend and we split a studio in Koreatown so we could save on costs. I had one foot in styling and one foot in film/TV because I loved both – but the pay for non union work was so abysmal – I can’t even believe I took those jobs for “exposure”. I’m talking 50/day for 16-18 hour days.
Sometimes for styling jobs, I wouldn’t get paid until 3-4 months after the fact and by then, the money was already spent because I was behind on bills. I even took a break from the industry in 2015 and got a full-time job because I just wanted a consistent paycheck. But I loved every moment of being on set. In early 2016 – I got back in contact with a stylist who referred me to a costume designer who was designing a FOX pilot. After about a week at the pilot working as her PA, she asked me to move on with her to an MTV show that ended up lasting four months. Within a year of a half after working on that pilot, I had gotten enough days to join IATSE 705, one of the two costume unions in LA. It hasn’t been easy and even with having ten years in the business, sometimes I wonder if any of this is worth it. But the answer is always yes.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a costumer – I basically help make the costume designer’s vision come to fruition on set. As a set costumer, you make sure everything on the actor looks right in terms of continuity and what makes sense according to the script. In my opinion, I love working with background actors – you help create the world in which the story takes place. For example, if you’re doing a 70’s show, and your principal actors are wearing 70’s attire, but the background actors are wearing contemporary clothing, the story wouldn’t make sense. Or if the story is set at the beach in Southern California but people are wearing coats and winter attire – it wouldn’t translate in the eyes of the viewer. After working on a show set in the 30’s last fall, I realized how much I love working on period shows. I think my background in American Studies brings out the history nerd in me, but it’s really fascinating to me to see how and why people wore what they wore in a time where there wasn’t fast fashion. And they were always impeccably dressed. That’s hard to come by these days. I always keep one foot in the styling world as well when I become overwhelmed with working on television. I have done some of my own projects – music videos, photoshoots, etc. I hope I can do more of that in 2021. My main goal is to become a costume designer and have a few clients that I style (personal and celebrity). I’m still working on it, but I will get there.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I don’t think I have a specific childhood memory but my generation (millennial just always sounds like a dirty word so I hate using it) is the last generation who remembers life without social media. I was a kid in the 90’s and was a teenager in the early 2000’s. Hip hop was king and watching music videos on MTV was still a thing. Playing outside all day in the summertime and not coming home until the street lights came on. Riding my bike or rollerblading to the park. Watching TRL right after I came home from school. Going to concerts and annual parades in D.C. Having to memorize your friend’s phone numbers so you could call them from the landline. I didn’t even have my first cell phone until I was 18 and getting ready to go to college! I even remember when you needed to have a college email address from certain schools in order to get on (the)Facebook. Life was all really simple, or at least, simpler than it is now. I didn’t appreciate it then but I realized the Washington D.C. area is so diverse so I had friends who were black, white, Chinese, Korean, African, South/ Central American etc., etc. All different walks of life. I remember showing one of my college roommates my prom photos and she said, “wow, y’all are so multicultural”, referring to my prom group. I was very fortunate to grow up in a melting pot.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @seecsawthat
Image Credits
Mariel Garcia – @marielgphotography
