Who Is Marni Senofonte? New Details About The 'Project Runway' Guest Judge
She hasn't worn black in 20 years.
Instagram Our favorite fashion guilty pleasure Project Runway is back, and with it comes all the style and surprises you're used to seeing. While the challenges are always fun to watch from the comfort of your couch, the one in last week's episode was especially interesting because of the celebrity stylist who made an appearance.
Fashion designer Christian Siriano introduced Marni Senofonte to the group who challenged the contestants to create a printed head-to-toe ensemble.
“I am fangirling hard standing in front of Marni right now,” said designer Bishme Cromartie in a teaser for the show.
Senofonte — who has worked for the likes of Kendall Jenner and Beyoncé — gave the contestants some advice.
“It’s not just about the garment — it’s about everything,” she said. “It’s the entire visual. It’s what they see from top to bottom. You have to be very conscious of an accessory not being an accessory. It’s actually part of the garment. It just has to be seamless.”
“Head-to-toe looks have such a greater impact when they’re styled correctly, and getting your work in front of a stylist like this is even more important than anything now.”
So who is Marni Senofonte? Here's everything we know.
1. She's from Pennsylvania.
Senofonte was born and grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She told WWD that she always wanted to leave her small town and was thrilled when she got into Emerson College in Boston.
After graduating, she took her first job with designer Norma Kamali in New York. Eventually, she worked her way up from a sales associate to the public relations director to Kamali's assistant.
“For someone who didn’t even know what the hell they were doing, it was a huge job."
She credits Kamali with giving her her first styling opportunity.
“When I was working in the PR department, a publicist came in for Salt-N-Pepa,” she said. “I was begging Norma, like, ‘Norma can I please bring them something to wear?’ She’s like, ‘Go ahead.’ So I just put one outfit together for each of the girls, not even knowing what racks of clothing you need — and they loved it.”
Marni Senofonte was featured on a recent episode of Project Runway.
2. She hasn't worn black in 20 years.
Known for her colorful style — and equally colorful Instagram — Senofonte said she was against uniforms since she attended Catholic school as a child, and that includes New York's officially unofficial all-black code.
She says she hasn't worn the color black in two decades.
“That started with Norma Kamali,” she said. “She did a ban on black for one season and since then, I’ve never purchased anything black for myself — underwear, socks, pantyhose, anything.”
Marni Senofonte is known for her colorful Instagram page.
3. She styles tons of celebrities.
Senofonte's career took off after that. Lauryn Hill saw some of her work and asked her to come on her "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" tour to style her. She's since styled Diddy, Jay and Beyoncé — iconically styling her video album Lemonade — and even their fashionable young daughter, Blue Ivy.
And if you didn't envy her already, you will when you learn that she's not only Queen B's client, she's her friend. She took over the singer's longtime stylist.
I would always see Ty [Hunter], a stylist that [Beyoncé] had for years and years, and her mom,” she says, adding that she would occasionally be asked to assist with one-off projects. “If they had, like, an American Express commercial, they’d call me. Or if they needed a video, they would call me.”
Of course, working for B is a dream, she says.
"She’ll ask for the moon ’cause it’s possible — in her world, it’s possible. And I’m like, ‘You know what, it is possible. I can get this, I can make this happen.’”
Marni Senofonte is best known for styling Beyonce for her visual album Lemonade.
4. She says her job isn't as glamorous as it looks.
Even though she's wearing awesome clothes and styling beautiful A-list celebrities, her job is still that: a job.
“People see this career and this job and they see the smiles and they see the happy-go-lucky,” she said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re at the gym and you drive a cool car and you have these cool clothes.’ The grind is real.”
Marni Senofonte works as a celebrity stylist.
5. She lives in New York.
Senofonte remains in New York. Even though she loves the big city life she dreamed about for so long, she travels back to her small town pretty often.
“I appreciate small-town life so much more now than I did then,” she said “[The people are] just salt-of-the-earth kind of people and just normal. You can get cereal for, like, two dollars.”
And even though she's got a killer sense of confidence, she stays humble.
“There’s no reason on God’s earth that a girl from Scranton, Pa., should be working with the biggest star in the world.”
Marni Senofonte has almost 300,000 followers on her Instagram.
Emily Blackwood is a writer and editor living in California. She covers all things news, pop culture and true crime.