At the age of 14, Michael Costello was named one of Vogue magazine's hidden talents in Los Angeles. Safe to say that his talents are not so hidden anymore, as you can see some of his designs on the likes of Katy Perry, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga. We're here today at his studio downtown, talking to the man behind the perfect silhouette. Thank you so much for joining us, Michael.

Thank you for having me.

I am like in dress heaven right now. This is dress heaven.

This is dress heaven. And yes, welcome to dress heaven, everyone.

Um, Michael, tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you get to dress heaven?

Um, dress heaven wasn't easy to get to. I mean, you have to break a few rules and uh sin a little bit in order to get here, but uh no. Um, it took a long while for my company to see the wonderful, God-given success that it's seeing right now. This is definitely not something that was a success overnight. I have an incredible team behind me and um an incredible family behind me that, you know, pushed me and inspired me and made me to work hard to get to this wonderful level. But it all started out when I was about, oh, I'd have to say, maybe 2 or 3 years old. I started at a really young age and playing with my sister's clothes and cutting them up and making dresses and then that led on to me doing my first fashion show when I was 14. And then I opened up my first boutique in Palm Springs when I was 15 years old. And um ever since then it's just been, you know, it's been non-stop.

Who would you say that you design for? Like who is your ideal woman when that you have in mind?

The woman I have in mind, she's definitely a jet-setter. She's a woman who travels a lot. She's elegant, she's sophisticated, she knows what she wants. And um she knows exactly where she's going to wear her Michael Costello dress to. But um you know, she's not just the woman with a disposable income who can spend thousands of dollars of dresses. She's more of like a very well put together woman who appreciates, you know, fine couture, fine things, fine fabrics. And um she loves to play dress-up. Sometimes I walk down to the fabric district and I see these girls with big, huge curls and I'm like, oh my God, that makes me want to make a big flowy dress. Or sometimes I could be like, you know, in the office and see a girl running errands and she's got her glasses on and her little, you know, haircut and she looks kind of nerdy, preppy and I'm inspired to do something like that too. So inspiration comes from everywhere.

To you, what is the most important element of your designs?

One of the most important elements I think um that I have to stay true to is complimenting a woman's body. And I think that's one of the reasons our business has become so successful cuz each season, we try to design things that, you know, that are not just great sellers or wonderful to pick up at a department store, but stuff that a woman wants to go back to and put in her closet because it's a timeless piece and we always try to stay true to like a classic silhouette and redevelop that silhouette each year and each season so that the woman keeps coming back for it.

When women are dressing for their body, what should they look for?

You should take a friend with you. When you are shopping or you're trying on dresses, it's always good to take a friend or someone who has like the same body type as you and someone that's dead honest with you because if you take some, you know, skinny little bitch that looks better with then you shopping, she's going to point you in the wrong direction and tell you what don't look good on you. But you take a friend with you and try things on. And see what looks good on you. Most women when they're shopping, they'll just buy things either for the price tag or because it's black or they think it's cute. But um you get home it stays in your closet and you never wore it because you never tried it on. So that's like one key thing that you should always do.

And you have so many amazing clients too. And you just actually worked with Katy Perry right for her designs that she was wearing like custom Hillary Clinton dresses. I know. Those are so cool. What is it like to do something like that?

It's incredible. She walks into my showroom and she kind of knew like what where everything was and it was her first visit. And she's like looking for red chiffon and red silks and I'm like, how does this woman know my own place before, you know, I know where anything is. And we had concepts, I stood up all night making sketches. And um when I heard back that she that Katy loved both of the sketches and that I was the only option that they wanted to go with, we all went to saddle ranch just to like celebrate that right there.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Where do you see Michael Costello?

Oh, definitely working at Dairy Queen. I love Dairy Queen. Their soft serve and their crunch. Dairy Queen, if you're hiring, please. Uh, you know what I really want to do. I never wanted to do it before, but I really want to get into costume designing for movies. And I want to put that out there in the universe and see what happens because I'm a big fan of uh Sandy Powell. And um I'm a little jealous because she gets booked for all the movies and all of that. But you know, I just recently tried out for the costuming for American Horror Story. And I created about maybe 10 looks and I think six pieces from the 10 looks that I've created were used in the American Horror Story costuming um with their costume designer uh Lou and um Ryan Murphy. So, that was really fun. And I I kind of want to get into that. Still in fashion though.

And if you end up working at the Dairy Queen, I'm into that too. As long as I will hook you up at Dairy Queen. I got you. I'm going to take you up on that. I got you. But in the meantime, I I'll just enjoy all your beautiful creations in dress heaven.