'Straight Outta Compton' Dr. Dre's, Ice Cube's Costume Designer, Kelli Jones Dishes All!

Rapper Ice Cube and Dr. Dre celebrate their "Straight Outta Compton" box office success by bringing N.W.A's story to life with director, F. Gary Gray. However, those who watched the film raved about the uncanny resemblance of the main characters to the actual stars and it all couldn't have been possible without the help of costume designer, Kelli Jones.

MStars News spoke exclusively to the woman who is responsible for bringing life to hit shows and movies such as, "Sons of Anarchy," "Parks and Recreations," "Chrystal," as well as her latest success "Straight Outta Compton." While making a name for herself in Hollywood, the humble costume designer explains how she's put her own touches on some big projects.

MStars News:  How does one get into costume designing?

Kelli Jones: Well I lived in LA, been there for about 15 years and I just knew when I moved there I'd always wanted to work in fashion in some aspect or another. There's like 2 avenues you can go. You can go and do wholesale designing or you can do costume design for television and movies, or styling, I guess 3 ways. I was more drawn to costume designing, creating characters and stuff, and because you're in LA your surrounded by that sort of world. I started bare bone, in my early 20's and I was like, Okay, I'm going to work for free basically and live off of nothing. So I did that for a couple years and then I got into the union and met people.  The trippy thing about LA is a lot of people come, stay for a couple years and if they don't make it big they leave. It takes a minute sometimes to get a network around and now some of the people I'm working with and hire me, they were the directors or producers or actors that I worked with years ago that we were all doing the same shit, we were just doing stuff for free. So it's kind of cool to see everyone come up like that. So that's how I got into costume design in general.

MN: Can you tell me about your first gig and what did you learn from that experience moving forward?

KJ: Well, the first paid gig that I did, I was like 25 and I worked on the "Shield". I had just gotten into the union, and getting into the union basically means you make minimum wage for 30 days working in a costume house. I worked my way doing that, got on set and saw how the wheels went round when it came to costuming, like talking to the designer and the supervisor. So that was like my first job and from there I was okay I'm ready to take it to the next level and design some actually things that are big, or bigger. So my first job after that was designing a movie called "Crystal" with Billy Bob Thornton down in Arkansas. It was only $3million and it was basically me and someone I hired to be an assistant and we just did everything. It was awesome because at the time I didn't know any better so I was like okay, so you just slave away. I was at the laundromat all weekend long washing clothes, it was in a small town, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. So that was my first like, this is exactly what I want to be doing. I love how I created the characters and all that jazz. So that was my stepping stone.

MN: What's the process like designing for different shows and different movies? Is it stressful?

KJ: It's very stressful. It's stressful cause you're in charge of so many different aspects and pieces, from the earring down to the shoelace. It's stressful but you know after I did that movie then I started working on network television and cable television shows and I would have a big crew of people. So I had people that instead of myself filling things I had tailors and seamstresses and set costumes who were on set all day so that I could go off and do either the next episode or do another project. I had a wardrobe supervisor who just takes care of the budget. So I was glad that I worked my way up because I know how to do all of it but now I can delegate, I don't do my budget and I don't set the clothes in the morning and wrap the clothes. I have costumers who can do that so that I can focus on just designing the look.

MN: Which character was the hardest to style?

KJ: All those guys had different body types than the real guys, like Dre and Cube and Eazy and Suge. And because we were shooting in the summer time where it was really hot and the guys where working 18hrs a day, their bodies fluctuated up and down. So where as in the beginning everyone had to beef up or trim down to get into character, like Marcus who played Suge needed to gain weight and he did it in the beginning. Then towards the shooting, it took almost 3 months to shoot that so he would lose weight so I had to build body pads for them. A lot of times underneath those clothes are body pads. Just because within a week of not eating and it being so hot and so busy, these guys would drop like 5-10lbs. So in order to get the continuity right, especially with Suge who had to be such a big presence. He's not that much taller than Cory so when he would drop weight it's like I needed to make sure that I padded him back up. The thing is that if the guys do lose weight and they did get smaller than their counterparts, they wouldn't look the same in the same clothes. Like if Cory lost some weight he wouldn't look the same in a t-shirt and jeans as Dre would look in a t-shirt and jeans. Dre was pretty yoked and he had this stature about him, so when Cory was just working like crazy and didn't have time to eat he would drop a little weight it wouldn't be the same vibe. So that was the challenge throughout, making sure the guys looked the part when they had the clothes on and a lot of it had to do with how they wore the clothes.

MN: Did Ice Cube and Dre offer any particular advice on what they would wear during that time?

KJ: Every single outfit, when I got hired I met with Dre and Cube at Dre's studio. The VP was there and the production designer and it was kind of like a Q&A with some of the producers and the questions we had were specific. Dre the first time I met him looks at me, shook my hand and said you got a lot of work ahead of you. And I was like I know I got this. I'll make this happen. And then Cube was basically like hey I know this was the 80's and the 90's but how these guys dress in this movie, I want people to want to dress like this now. And I'm like okay cool. So it started with that bassline. And then each one of the guys had over 60 changes. And every single change, it was either Dre on set or Cube on set, they were all on set. So every day one of them was on set and sometimes those guys had about 5 changes per day depending on what they were doing. Some of the stuff got cut out of the movie, cause there was just so much to film. I would send pics around and I'd go up to Dre and Cube and Gary and be like okay here's an option for this scene for Shae, and cube would say I like this. We just kind of ran it that way. They had the final approval process for every single look nothing ever went on camera without them being like yes that's cool.

MN: What trend do you see coming from that movie that might stick today?

KJ: Personally like the baggy jeans and the Air force 1s and I know people are still wearing chucks. I liked the simplicity of how they dressed, now people dress a little bit flashier but the cool thing about NWA, it didn't matter how much they ended up making how much they got they stayed true to their own style. they had a really strong style. So I think that just the way they wore it, The way they bagged their pants the way they wore dickie shirts and their sweat shirts, just the simplicity of it. And I definitely see already everywhere I look people wearing Raiders' hats so I'm pretty sure the Raiders' gear is in full affect from now to the immediate future. The way these guys wore things, or wear things are sometimes a little bit more tapered with like the flashier kind of shoes so I'm hoping that it goes back to that style. Its strong, it's simple and it's a cool style. Real basic but its real strong.

MN: When you're on set for any of these shows or movies do you ever find yourself taking a little bit of what they wore and putting it into your everyday wardrobe?

KJ: Not so much this movie, because these were guys so I don't really dress in that style. And the girls besides the Tameka and Nicole had to stay pretty period. So the girls was just like the bike shorts and cute tops. For my work I can't really rock stuff like that. I did incorporate stuff from "Sons of Anarchy" which I also designed, people would say I kind of dressed Katy like me like I started dressing with like the belts and the boots and the skinny jeans. So yeah sometimes depending on the show. If there are more women on the show because that's the vibe that I'm around and it's the look that I'm creating I definitely start dressing in that sort of vibe. But this, it was just so guy heavy that even the women that were in it were just 2 or 3 scenes.

MN: Do you ever plan on starting your own line just based off so much experience in fashion in Hollywood?

KJ: I had my own line for "Sons of Anarchy" and that sold through the website and it was great. I want to do that it would just be dependent on the project and what I feel could appeal to the masses for an extended period of time because doing the line that I did for SOA and doing the mass manufacturing it's a whole different muscle. It's like if I have to make multiples of 5 now I'm making 500. It's a different muscle and to have a good infrastructure of people to do, that I'm starting to build that now. I do have a manufacturing house so I guess now it's going to depend on the project and just supply and demand, who's wanting what and see which gap I can fill.

MN: Is it easier to design for women or men?

KJ: It's easier for me to design for men. Design for women is subjective, I'm a woman and a lot of the women I've dressed have the same vibe as me before I even meet them. The characters that I work with just depending on the show I'm doing or the movie. So that's always fun. I think because I'm not a guy I can look at men from a wider scope and really study how each man dresses in the scene they're in and just hone in on that. I can do both very well. I like dressing men. Women are fun too, it's just both sides of the coin. But oddly for the last 8 years it's been very heavy men shows.

MN: Any eras you favor the most for style?

KJ: You know I actually like the 60's and I like the 70's. I actually haven't done a 70's film but I like that disco vibe from the 60's and 70's. I think it's fun and it's a very fun look and a lot of room for creatively when it comes to recreating that sort of look. It's shocking when I started doing Straight Outta Compton how the 80's and 90's have come back so much in the last year. I'd walk into Wet Seal and the entire wall is high-waisted acid wash, it's crazy. I do think the 70's and late 60's is a really cool time in fashion.

MN: Best memory working on set of "Straight Outta Compton"?

KJ: I think it's when we were doing the concerts, I think it was when we were filming the Detroit concert and there was like 2500 extras and the guys were on stage performing and Cube was there the whole time watching from behind the monitors. And these extras are tired you know, there's so many and they are not getting a lot of money and they are there cause they want to work and they probably also like the project, but it's a night shoot and you're working late and Cube just got up on stage and started performing with Shae and I was like wow is this happening!? It was beyond! And I think cube posted some of the scenes to Instagram so that was an experience. I don't know if anyone from any other movie ever can say they had an experience like that. Most of the biopics that people do, the guys are no longer living, so to have them there on set every day and being so involved there are just no words for how awesome that was. That's I think why the movie got to be a massive success because there was no option that it was going to be for them because they were like we are going to get this right.  

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