Keia Bounds Brings Fashion To Life On Netflix’s “Survival Of The Thickest” & Starz “BMF”

Viewers don’t often think about the work that happens behind the scenes to put popular TV shows together. The planning and particulars required to take a project from script to video and make it look authentic is unknown to the consumer. Shooting, lighting, location, props, staging and permits are all the things that need to be considered to make these scripts come to life, and per Keia Bounds, costume design is equally important.

“A costume designer gets a script, they break the script down and then they create the characters based on what’s on the page,” Bounds explains. “Then when it gets to set, the wardrobe team, which are often seen as other stylists, manage the vision of the costume designer.”

The Philadelphia native is a Film and TV Costume Designer currently working behind the scenes on Starz’s “BMF” and Netflix’s “Survival Of The Thickest.” Her job is to make sure the clothes is reflective not only of the time period, but also matches the personality and aesthetic of the character. She says it’s a collaborative effort.

“Both of my current shows, I work very closely with the producers, directors, writers and the talent,” Bounds says. “I come up with the look that I think I’m interpreting from the script and I show them my visuals, and we kind of come to a meeting point. We collaborate, then I bring those pieces to the table, whether I’m building them from scratch or shopping them in a store.”

Working on these very distinctive shows allows Bounds to display different sides of her talent. “BMF” follows the Black Mafia Family criminal organization and takes place in the late 1980s and ’90s in Detroit, a time when urban fashion really started to flourish. Brands like FUBU, Boss, Phat Farm, Karl Kani, Iceberg, Girbaud, Mecca, Baby Phat and Kangol emerged as part of urban culture, and it’s Bound’s job to track down these period fashion pieces or to make them.

“So for ‘BMF’ specifically, I can do anything from thrifting to finding specialty vintage places, collectors,” she said. “I love to find and go into these homes where people have held on to things since 1995 and I get to pick through and find the really good stuff they were smart enough to hold on to.

“I love to just dig,” Bounds adds. “I love to go to a thrift store and just find random things that other people don’t know to look for.”

For “Survival Of The Thickest,” the approach is a bit different. The show is set in present day and the protagonist is actress Michelle Buteau, whose character is a curvy woman working in high fashion as a stylist. Bounds says the availability of well-fitting clothing for curvy girls can be difficult to find.

“It’s different in the sense that, like, there’s not as many options,” she shares. “There may be options out there, but they’re not options that everybody wants to wear, right? So I feel like women of all shapes and sizes just want to be fly and they want to be chic. It’s just limited out there still today.”

A Philly girl at heart, Bounds was born at Penn Hospital and grew up between West Philadelphia, Cheltenham and Chestnut Hill. Her love for sewing and clothes began at just 8 years old as she made doll clothes with her mom. She sketched out her designs and would cut out the fabric, beginning her designer journey at a young age.

After graduating high school, Bounds went on to study fashion design at Philadelphia University (now Thomas Jefferson University). Her first internship was at Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia, and she went on to become a senior designer at Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.

Bounds says her first television gig as a set costumer came through a friend working on “Chappelle’s Show.” “She asked me if I wanted to come and work for her over at ‘Chappelle’s Show,’ and so I did,” she recalls. “That was the beginning of my television career.”

Not only did Bounds work on the costumes for the show, but she eventually became comedian Dave Chappelle’s stylist. She has previously styled artist John Legend, and is currently Buteau’s stylist. She also has a long list of shows she’s worked, including “Law & Order,” “Nurse Jackie,” “What Not To Wear,” “The Get Down,” “Blindspot,” “Rap Sh!t,” “White Collar,” and many more.

No matter where Bounds is working, she has a simple styling philosophy.

“A lot of dressing is psychology, so if you don’t feel good, you’re not going to look good,” she shares. “It really does come from the inside out. But you have to feel like you’re worthy of having these things. So I find joy in making people feel their worth.”