I framed Anna Sorokin while she was under house arrest

• Ryan Healy is a fashion stylist and founder of The Gays Closet.
• He styled Anna Sorokin for an interview from her home, where she is under house arrest.
• Healy says she thinks Sorokin will continue to have a big influence on pop culture and fashion.

This narrative essay is based on a conversation with Ryan Healy. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Anna Sorokin, or Anna Delvey as she was known in her con days, is different from the character in The Invention of Anna.

She was much nicer and more personable than what she was portrayed on the show. She was also attractive and funny – I don’t know if I expected her to crack jokes.

Her apartment is too really OK. There is artwork all over the walls – some of it was her own, but there was also some from a great art gallery in New York called The Locker Room. You can tell she really cares about art.

Anna’s personal art has a unique perspective. You don’t often see art like hers anymore. I think when she was in prison she had time to create something intriguing. The parts are done in pencil, which is such an interesting medium. The ones I saw were copies of some she had auctioned off.

I was immediately excited to work with Anna

Kenneth Pabon, creator of TikTok with around 542,000 followers, interviewed Anna about his platform and hired me to style her. This would be her first social media interview since prison and she was under house arrest. Anna is not allowed on any social media platforms so this interview was special.

In my last few years of college, I did a few virtual styles, got involved with some cool clients, and have been styling ever since with my business, The Gays Closet. I recently did a campaign for Adidas and Major League Soccer. All the jerseys were made from recycled plastic, which was right up my alley because I like to strive for sustainability with The Gays Closet.

I don’t think that’s exactly why I was hired to style Anna—I’ve worked with Kenneth for a long time on all sorts of projects—but I think he and Anna appreciated my commitment to sustainability after the fact.

In the first few days of the concert, I just found some pieces for her. I knew Anna wanted a classic New York chic vibe and I wanted to elevate that and bring her into something more artistic.

At the time, I had only seen the first half of The Invention of Anna—just bits and pieces here and there. Even though I had an idea of ​​her background and what she does, I had no reservations about working with her and was excited to work with someone so prominent in pop culture.

I also thought that giving creative input on how she wanted to present herself for this re-entry into the world was a cool challenge.

We started filming like anyone else

Kenneth and I arrived early. When we got there, there was a whole adorable team of makeup artists and hair stylists working on Anna and Kenneth. I then brought in the clothes and laid them out to see what Anna gravitated towards.

I put all the clothes in her closet and she was able to go shopping, which I guess was relatively fun since she couldn’t go out and shop. Going from a prison uniform to full-on glamor and designer clothes is perhaps the most iconic way to be under house arrest.

I was surprised by the pieces she chose

Courtesy of Dani Parkes

I put her in a piece from Jessica Jade’s last show. It was this hand-sequined dress in the design of New York subway signs. Anna has said in interviews that she doesn’t take the subway — and then she recently had to take the subway to a parole appointment. What’s more campy than wearing a dress with subway signs on it when you said you’d never wear it? She paired it with Gucci heels.

The other outfit was a vintage Ferragamo dress from my archive at The Gays Closet with this giant Proenza coat that she said made her feel like Cruella de Vil.

The only problem we ran into was her ankle monitor – we wanted her to wear a specific pair of boots but had to scratch that idea because they couldn’t fit over it.

Some brands didn’t want to be styled on Anna, saying she was too polarizing

Many brands I tried to find for the shoot felt that working with Anna was too polarizing for them and turned down my requests – which I felt was a missed opportunity. Pop culture has the ability to turn anyone into an entire brand, and Anna is getting pop culture attention.

A curated image from her will be connected and have an organic feel that works in the fashion world. The wearable art direction she is heading in is the perfect opportunity for her to stay relevant in fashion and her growing art career.

It was interesting to see how she wanted to be perceived – she has the ability to quickly make a mark in the world of art and fashion.

If you work in Hollywood and would like to share your story, email Eboni Boykin-Patterson at eboykinpatterson@insider.com.