THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL ISSUE

For 10 months out of the year, Alayna Bell-Price is surrounded by clothes she’s curated with the help of her assistant costume team for ABC’s “9-1-1” in Los Angeles, a career journey that began in the suburbs of Chicago where Bell-Price grew up. 

Bell-Price, a 2014 alum who studied fashion, never thought a career in the fashion industry was an option for her. But through her teenage years, she watched reality shows that dissected careers in the fashion industry on channels such as MTV and Bravo. They turned out to be the start of her journey to her current career. 

From shopping with her mother to bonding with her aunt about fashion, Bell-Price fell in love with clothing as a child. It stuck as she got older, helping those around her feel their best, like helping her grandmother get ready for Sunday church.

“I used to be a caregiver for her as well, and whenever I had to lay her clothes out for church, I was always like, the hat, the shoes, everything had to be perfect,” Bell-Price said. “So yeah, my relationship with clothes started quite young.”

Bell-Price decided her senior year of high school to attend Clark Atlanta University for fashion merchandising. After two years of studying at CAU, Bell-Price had started to miss Chicago, craving to be around other creatives, and decided to transfer to Columbia.

While majoring in fashion business, Bell-Price found opportunities to form relationships outside of school, like becoming president of Columbia’s Black Student Union. She also took part in student film projects, learning what it meant to tell a story through clothing. 

In her final semester, Bell-Price continued exploring her craft by taking part in the Semester in LA program, which offers students a hands-on experience of what it’s like to be part of the entertainment industry.

Through the program, Bell-Price met lead instructor and Columbia alum Maria Lorenzana, who graduated with a fashion design degree and also participated in Semester in LA. The experience gave Bell-Price an opportunity to learn from someone who had already built a career in the industry she hoped to enter.

“I taught her the basics of being a customer and a costume designer. She taught me to trust my gut when I meet someone. I knew she was destined to make her mark in this industry, and I love that I was right,” Lorenzana said.

Bell-Price also met Columbia alum Tina Zepeda, who spoke during Semester in LA. After Bell-Price expressed interest in working with her, Zepeda brought her onto a small movie she was designing and stayed in contact with her. That relationship eventually led to Bell-Price working with Zepeda on the first season of “9-1-1.”

“I think when you work with people in this business, you are learning things no matter what,” Zepeda said. “When I go over to good ol’ ‘9-1-1’ and work for Alayna, she’s always teaching me new things, especially with how complex her show is and all the moving pieces.”

After graduation, Zepeda hired Bell-Price to work on season seven of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” as a costumer.

Bell-Price’s work across internships, short films and personal styling jobs helped her understand the difference between styling and costume design. Rather than simply creating a particular look, costume designers have to consider the character, the story and the circumstances surrounding each scene.

“Designing a costume, per se, is a lot more thought. You really have to think about all of the things and who the person is,” Bell-Price said. “Whereas in styling, a lot of times you get a subject, a background, a mood board and you have to make them look great in this setting.” 

After working on “American Horror Story,” the designers were transferred to work on Murphy’s brand-new drama “9-1-1,” which depicts the fictional lives of first responders in Los Angeles. Bell-Price worked on season one as a trailer customer, preparing costumes to be ready on set and making sure everything is where it needs to be.

By season two, she became an assistant designer, and in season three, Bell-Price became the main costume designer.

Bell-Price’s first season as main costume designer brought one of the show’s most ambitious storylines: a tsunami that overwhelmed the Santa Monica Pier and other parts of Los Angeles.

The scale of the storyline meant Bell-Price was responsible for managing crews in both Mexico and Los Angeles. She had never managed a production of that size on her own, and the responsibility came with pressure despite having spent the previous season learning the job as an assistant designer.

“I didn’t really know where to start. I had never managed a crew like that. I did a whole season as an assistant designer, so I knew the steps, but there was just a lot of pressure on me. And this was the biggest thing we have ever done,” Bell-Price said.

The production required Bell-Price to coordinate two separate crews speaking two different languages while making sure the costumes supported the show’s increasingly complicated action.

“When I watched the episode, I was like, ‘Holy moly, this is good.’ You don’t think about it while we’re shooting, and then you watch it. You’re like, this is so good,” Bell-Price said. “I mean, it takes one of the most talented crews in the business to try to pull off all of the crazy things that we pull off, and especially the amount of time that we’re given and all the things. I’ve been so fortunate.”

Since then, Bell-Price has been approaching 10 years on the show, recently wrapping up with the ninth season of the show this spring and returning for season 10 in October. 

Through close relationships with her crew, cast, directors and everyone involved in making the series, Bell-Price has built a family she keeps close.

Bell-Price has worked with Corinne Massiah and Gavin McHugh, who play May Grant and Christopher Diaz, since they were children.

“We’re such a big family. I’m always calling the kids my babies, even though they’re not,” Bell-Price said. “Corinne, who plays May, I’ve known since she was 13. Gavin went to prom, and I helped him with his prom outfit. I met him when he was 5. The tsunami was kind of our first big interaction together. I mean, they’re all family.”

Copy edited by Katie Peters

This story also appears in the Chronicle’s back-to-school issue.