Marko Monroe is the go-to costume designer and stylist for Lizzo. The Arkansas native grew up crafting clothing for his friends.
Everything began with house parties. It was around 2012, and Monroe, his boyfriend and their friends were throwing elaborate themed house parties and needed looks that corresponded to their theme. With no formal training in design—with a BFA in sculpture, in fact—Monroe started making stuff.
That group came to be called the House of Avalon. In the group, Marko is the ‘maker,’ so anything that deals with set design, costuming, or any of the physical reality. His boyfriend Hunter is the graphic designer and House mother, while Grant the visionary. But all together they have a balance of ideas and everything kind of flows in between.
Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, with only designs for friends and a few items sent to Miley Cyrus under his belt, he was asked by Brooke Candy’s costume designer Seth Pratt—also from Arkansas—to create a last-minute white two-piece for Lizzo’s “Water Me” video.
Monroe was then enlisted by Lizzo and then-stylist Candy to craft a DragCon look for the singer-flutist, and then an all-leopard outfit for her guest slot on Haim’s spring 2018 tour. The success of those three outfits was all it took for Monroe to earn his first official styling gig: working full-time with who was soon to become one of the biggest pop stars of 2019.
