Celebrity Stylist Kithe Brewster Dies at 60

Celebrity stylist, fashion editor and designer Kithe Brewster died on May 3 in Dubai, where he had been living in recent years.

His notable clientele included Julianne Moore, model and “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey, Janelle Monáe, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Adrien Brody, Cate Blanchett, Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek and Winona Ryder, among others. The 60-year-old, self-made creative, who had suffered a stroke in recent years, died of a heart attack while en route to the hospital after having respiratory difficulties, according to his longtime friend Kacy Duke, a celebrity trainer and wellness coach.

A memorial service is being planned at New York City’s Casa La Femme, a restaurant he helped design and the site of his 2012 wedding to Ryan Singleton.

Known to be somewhat of a fashion chameleon, Brewster worked in different fashion fields and regions including Paris, London, Los Angeles and New York at different stages of his life, before settling in Dubai. While red-carpet dressing is now a highly calculated business strategy for designers, brands and stylists, Brewster created his celebrity roster a few decades ago in more of a word-of-mouth way. In 2013, he rounded out his skill set with the introduction of Maison Kithe Brewster, a label that played up timelessness, fluidity and sophistication and was designed for all body types.

The forward-thinking creative participated in the first Dubai Fashion Week and chose some unexpected settings for his runway shows including unveiling his spring 2014 line in the Maserati showroom, during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. He also participated in the Syndicale de la Couture in Paris, having been among the first handful of Americans to do so. By his own account, he was somewhat overlooked by the media. In a 2020 interview with WWD, he said that his “forward, innovative designs were completely ignored by Vogue and Bazaar, and the other mainstream publications in America,” aside from coverage by WWD and The Washington Post.

People’s Revolution founder Kelly Cutrone described Brewster as having been “unsung” in the way that stylist Patti Wilson and the late fashion journalist André Leon Talley were. “Kithe was a trailblazer. He was one of the most underestimated, unsung heroes infashion,” Cutrone said.

Noting how Brewster’s vision, creativity and philanthropy inspired people, Duke speculated how he would have appreciated the outpouring in response to his death. “He loved to be loved, but who doesn’t?” she said with a laugh. “He really was a legend because he did it effortlessly.” 

Born in East Saint Louis, Brewster’s interest in fashion started early on as a youngster, who loved thrifting and redesigning and deconstructing his finds. Before diving into fashion as a career, he studied acting under Katherine Dunham and first moved to New York City at the age of 16 to audition as an actor, dancer and singer for “Broadway” shows. Brewster also moonlighted with a part-time job at his uncle Robert’s showroom, which specialized in couture. Through that experience he got to know top fashion editors from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, who saw firsthand how he gamely put together different styles in his uncle’s showroom. Brewster then decided to pursue a career as a fashion editor. 

Having met Brewster when he first moved to New York and lived with her family for a period of time, Duke said, “You know how when something is really for you, the universe will bring it to you? He got the opportunity and with his personality, he was able to meet people and started doing fashion shoots and styling celebrities for the red carpet and photo shoots. He found a way to get in with these different houses and he knew how to select clothing that really worked for a certain celebrity.” 

In an online interview with Mister Levius, Brewster said he moved to Paris at the age of 19 with $500 and stayed with a female model friend, who was not supposed to have guests. She offered him a one-week stay until he found his own place to live. Despite not speaking French, nor having an agent, Brewster found his footing. In a 2020 interview, Brewster said he moved to Paris in order to be judged solely for his talent. Brewster told WWD that having looked at the careers of Josephine Baker and many other African Americans, “I knew that in my own country, I would not be given a fair chance.”

As a fashion editor, Brewster worked for Flaunt, Russian Vogue, Vanity Fair, Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Chiq and other publications. He also worked as a stylist for musicians like Eve and the English band bewitched. His alliance with Moore was years in the making. In a 2000 interview with WWD, Brewster said, “I don’t want to be confused with a personal shopper. If I shop with a client, it’s one who has become a friend.”

More than just selecting the clothes that helped to define a person’s style, Brewster was said to have encouraged clients and collaborators to consider the emotions they relayed and how they wore them. 

Before Moore’s trip to the Golden Globe Awards in 2000, he and the actress paid a visit to Ralph Lauren, where Brewster presented a photo of a 1970s dress, and the designer came up with a low-backed purple halter gown that was accessorized with a black leather fringed shawl. That exchange also led to Brewster acting as the first freelance stylist to advise Ralph Lauren on one of its collections shows for fall 2000. After the casting team had confirmed two other African American models, Brewster said he fought for the then-unknown model Liya Kebede to be included on the runway by appealing to the designer, who agreed with him.

In 2000, Moore, an Oscar nominee for “The End of the Affair” was so in demand that on the day the Oscar nominations were announced, Brewster received 32 messages from designer houses that were looking to dress her. The pair got the gold-star treatment from some European designers, with Chanel flying them over to attend the fall show and to dine privately with Karl Lagerfeld. There was also a private dinner with Valentino at his chateau outside of Paris, fittings with Jean Paul Gaultier, a meeting with Tom Ford and a trove of Prada dresses, shoes and bags. In-demand as Moore was at that time, Brewster’s previous connections to designers didn’t hurt. “’Absolutely,’ all the designers said, ‘no pressure,’” Brewster told WWD at that time.

Describing Moore as his “muse,” Brewster said she inspired all of the editorials that he did at that time, “because she’s such a real woman. It’s so great to be able to make fashion work on a real woman. This relationship is most memorable for the things I’ve learned.”

Following the Black Lives Matter movement, Brewster said, “What’s important is, how do you move forward? How can we bring about a solution? We must start with the basics, improve the living conditions and basic economic situations across America.”

Brewster suggested that brands improve inclusion by “seeing us — and seeing all races — is a great start. One thing that bothered me in my career as a stylist was the cliché that the inspiration of the show is a certain period, and the designer did not see certain races in the casting. Whether it’s historically accurate or not, we have the power to rewrite history and envision a casting where everyone is reflected.”

He added that companies need to hire “more designers and creatives of African descent and other races that are not represented. It’s time to present a world view.”

In December 2012, Brewster and Singleton married, but the couple reportedly separated months later. After leaving New York and returning to his mother’s home in Atlanta, Singleton flew to Los Angeles in July 2013 and later told a friend he was driving to Las Vegas. After being picked up by a California Highway Patrol officer after being found wandering along the interstate, Singleton was dropped off at a gas station where he phoned a friend to pick him up, according to an autopsy report filed with the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department. A few months later in September 2013, Singleton’s body was found with the organs removed. A spokesperson for the SBCSD was checking on the status of that investigation Monday afternoon.

The names of Brewster’s immediate relatives, who survive him, were not immediately known.