Milwaukee-born celebrity stylist Quintin Lamarr on ‘Chasing: Atlanta’

Quintin Lamarr always watched red-carpet shows as a kid, wanting to see who was wearing what and who wore it best.

“I’ve always just loved the glitz and glam. That’s always been my thing,” said Lamarr, a Milwaukee native.

Hollywood. The gowns. The jewelry. He soaked it all in on the small screen.

Fast-forward to today, 30-year-old Lamarr is now the one dressing people for red carpets and events – even the Emmys.

Recently, the now-Atlanta-based wardrobe stylist walked a red carpet himself – as one of the stars of the reality series “Chasing: Atlanta” Season 7, which had its premiere event last week and hits YouTube Jan. 28.

The show follows rising stars in the A’s LGBTQ community as they chase success, love and legacy, according to the series’ website.

“Representation: It does matter,” Lamarr, born Quintin Lamar Smith, told the Journal Sentinel. “I think a lot of times, we don’t see a lot of people from Milwaukee on platforms like this, especially those who are a part of the LGBTQ community. So, I definitely wanted to do that.”

It’s a full-circle moment for Lamarr – in more ways than one. He actually auditioned for “Chasing” a few years ago, but didn’t get cast. This time around, he said, he was approached to do the show.

“Everything happens the way it’s supposed to happen – and how it’s supposed to happen, when it’s supposed to happen,” Lamarr said. “I’m a firm believer of that.”

Besides fashion, another pillar of Lamarr’s life has been fortitude – and lots of it. Having to navigate the loss of his father and a father figure to gun violence as a young child, facing ridicule for being true to himself, and hitting what he previously called his lowest of lows.

But, he got his footing and got into the business of giving back in Milwaukee – before going full-throttle with fashion.

Here’s a look at who Lamarr is, was, what he does and how to catch him on the upcoming season of “Chasing: Atlanta”:

This Leo turned his lifelong love of fashion into a career

“First and foremost, I’ve always been pretty much enthused with the world of fashion,” Lamarr said.

By the time he was around 10 years old, he said, he knew he wanted to be in the entertainment industry, loving pop culture, movies, theater and big productions.

“It could be the fact that I’m a Leo and I love the drama,” he said. “I love everything eccentric. I love everything over-the-top.”

It could be “a bloodline thing,” too, he said, noting his late father had an eccentric personal style and wore lots of furs.

Lamarr’s mother’s “clean” aesthetic helped shape not only his own, but the way he styles others. He goes for clean, head-to-toe put-together, and sometimes “matchy.”

“I think my parents have influenced me as well through their personal styles and the way that they are as people,” he said. “And then, you just add that glitz and that glam – and then here I am.”

In young adulthood, Lamarr moved to Dallas for a stint, where he closet-organized for his aunt – who had her own office there – and would plan her outfits for her daily.

“That’s what really sparked it for me,” Lamarr said. “It was my aha moment that that’s what I needed to be doing – forever.”

Another one of those pivotal moments came when he planned a photoshoot for his 20th birthday in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Always picking a birthday theme, he went with “all white,” pulling coordinating looks for his cousin, best friend and himself from his cousin’s former Milwaukee-area boutique.

He credits that experience with kick-starting “everything” for him. He’d end up interning at his cousin’s boutique, he said, then did in-store personal styling at Bayshore mall’s Akira, which has since closed.

Once Lamarr got bit by the styling bug, he said, he knew he needed to go somewhere bigger. When he landed a photoshoot in Chicago and saw how much he got paid for his styling services, he said, he was off to Atlanta.

Lamarr interned for his photographer cousin, a Milwaukee transplant who lived there. He reminisced about making the 13-hour drive with a U-Haul and going straight to the studio to style someone.

“I was just so hungry,” he said. “I was so hungry for it and so ready to just be and do this thing.”

He’d often be styling “the everyday woman,” as well as models for their comp cards, he said. He learned lighting, posing and how to work around photographers.

Lamarr said his first celebrity styling came when his cousin photographed entrepreneur, real estate broker and philanthropist Stephanie Jester, aka the mom of rapper Future, for Forbes.

Whenever Lamarr needed to pull clothes for a shoot, he said, he would go to The Ivy Showroom. The showroom’s website describes it as a “fashion wonderland,” where celebrities, stylists, industry professionals and the fashionably curious can rent curated garments and accessories, from emerging international brands to high-end designers.

As a “struggling artist” just starting out, Lamarr said the showroom’s proprietor, celebrity stylist Fiskani Kaira, helped him out by letting him rent pieces for just the cost of the cleaning fee.

He’s since become one of the showroom’s stylists.

Through styling, Lamarr said, he can help give clients that extra pep in their step, a boost of confidence or an energy or personality they may not typically have. The right outfit can brighten someone’s day, light up their face and make them smile bigger, he said.

“What people don’t understand about fashion is that it can really move mountains,” Lamarr said. “It can really open you up to new opportunities … It really is a big deal what you wear and how you present to the world. And, it really can change your life. That’s what we try to do for people. We try to change their lives – and for the better.”

After someone inquires about styling with Lamarr, he said, he has a consultation to get to know them and determine what they’ll need for what they’re doing, from award shows to engagement shoots.

When the client arrives to the showroom, Lamarr said, he has champagne and fruit awaiting them, gives them a tour and explains the rental process.

To avoid overwhelming the client, he starts by pulling three and six pieces for them to try on. Often, he said he nails it on the first try. Other times, it takes about three.

“A lot of times, my goal is to try to push people into new territory while still staying true to who they are as a person and an essence without taking them too far,” he said.

Depending on the circumstance, Lamarr will sometimes deliver the pieces to his client and help the client get into them.

Over the years, Lamarr has styled Sukihana, Beverly Peele, husband and wife Mike Jackson and Egypt Sherrod, Tia Kemp, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Dreezy, Diamond The Body, Lee Vasi, several “Love & Hip Hop” cast members, among others, he said.

He’s styled clients for events like the BET Hip-Hop Awards, the Dove Awards, the Vanity Fair Oscars Party, The Headies, the “Tamron Hall Show,” and currently, The Grammys.

His biggest goal, though: The Oscars.

“Hopefully, maybe this year,” he said. “Maybe we’ll get there. ‘Cause we’re getting closer and closer.”

Being a stylist isn’t always “a walk in the park,” though, Lamarr said. It’s a fickle industry that can be challenging, especially when events get canceled, clients weigh on you and you always have to be on the go.

That all impacts other areas of a stylist’s life, too, from relationships to their livelihood.

Being a stylist has taught Lamarr a lot about life, whether it’s how to work with people or handle situations.

“Opportunities come and go,” he said. “But, you have to stay focused, you have to stay in it, you have to stay strong, you have to keep your vision clear. Stay a student, stay learning.”

For Lamarr, it’s also a way he can honor his dad and carry the torch.

“I think he would probably be very proud,” Lamarr said.

After hardships and crisis, Quintin Lamarr got into giving back

“Growing up in Milwaukee was so interesting,” Lamarr said. “You have so much talent in Milwaukee, but it’s such a difficult city to navigate because there’s a lot of violence. There’s a lot of stress factors.”

By age 10, Lamarr lost both his biological father and his mom’s boyfriend, who was like a stepdad to him, to gun violence.

That pain was paired with the verbal and physical abuse he encountered – for being himself, being different, being utterly polite, being Black, being gay.

By the time he got to high school, he had become toughened, defiant and acted out. After getting kicked out of Messmer High School, he bounced from one school to the next.

Feeling alone and like no one cared, he started contemplating suicide. In 2012, he threatened to hurt himself with a knife. Lamarr’s mom made a phone call that landed him in the county mental complex for two nights.

That would end up being a chance for him to start over. And, start over, he did.

“Navigating life just kind of by yourself and not having many figures to look up to, it can make you feel alone. It can make you feel ostracized. So, I’ve always had that feeling,” Lamarr said, looking back. “I’ve had to learn how to fight that, combat that and realize that I have been in spaces where I have felt community, I have felt like home. And I now can create those spaces for other people.”

As a senior at Pulaski High, that looked like Lamarr organizing the school’s first gay-straight alliance club.

“To come up at a time where you had to kind of make space for yourself and others to be safe, to feel comfortable, to just be, I thought that was a pretty big deal,” he said.

Lamarr was also Pulaski’s first openly gay male cheerleader, directed a Black History Month performance for the school, and was nominated for prom prince.

Lamarr got involved with both Urban Underground, a youth leadership program, and Diverse & Resilient, a local LGBTQ+ advocacy group. He said those organizations helped him think about disparities “without too much emotion,” taught him how to be professional and showed him what was possible for his life.

After graduating in 2014, Lamarr worked with City Year AmeriCorps, then the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center through Public Allies, and later on, what was formerly called the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin.

While Milwaukee has its flaws, Lamarr credited its spaces “where we could show up and be ourselves and make a change and make a difference.” And, for how there was “always room to show your talent.”

“You don’t really find that in many places,” he said. “That’s one thing about Milwaukee I have to say is such a big positive and big plus that I love.”

A few years ago, Lamarr got into mental health advocacy by sharing his story for a NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) campaign, which was highlighted by ABC News.

“Life be life-ing, as they say. It’s stressful, especially now,” Lamarr said, calling out the Trump administration for what he called an “attack” on a number of marginalized groups and their rights, and how that can impact mental health.

The weight of life, “period,” or what we’re experiencing can sometimes feel too much, he said.

“It’s always good to be able to be a voice for somebody and let them know that it’s OK.

“Sometimes, things are a breakthrough so that you can know that, ‘Hey, I am stronger than my circumstances. I am not what I’m not going through. But, I am a survivor and I can come out the other side happy, healthy and whole.'”

Quintin Lamarr on ‘Chasing: Atlanta,’ what to expect from Season 7

In late winter/early spring 2025, Lamarr said an industry friend approached him about doing the show.

Lamarr had auditioned for it a few years back, but didn’t get cast. But now, “Chasing: Atlanta” was being reimagined and returning after two years with mostly new faces.

Lamarr said the production team met with him at the showroom. About a month later, he was filming.

“It felt kind of validating in a way, because it’s like, clearly, I’m doing something right. The timing is right, I’m in the right place, I’m doing the right thing. It makes sense,” Lamarr said.

He and his nine fellow cast members are each chasing a dream or goal that’s “superior to their circumstances,” Lamarr explained, whether they’re a stylist, a rapper, a poet, a producer – or a cisgender straight black single mom, a first for the show.

Styling at the showroom, behind-the-scenes prep for events and a “real and honest” look at what it takes to be a stylist will all be on display on the upcoming season, he said.

Once filming began, Lamarr said, “you can not write or make up the things that started happening” in his life, from the clientele he started working with to the opportunities he had, like styling someone for the Emmys for the first time.

“It’s like all the cards, just everything, lined up perfectly,” he said.

Lamarr estimated that about 85% of his life was filmed from April into early December.

He was going through a lot in his life while filming, he said, but he didn’t shy away from showing real human emotions and continuing to work on the art of saying “no,” which he noted is a complete sentence.

While the crew sets up the scene, Lamarr said, there’s no script or pre-planning, and they let cast members just be themselves.

“What you see is really what you get because they want genuine energy, genuine emotion,” he said, adding that there’s so much action, excitement and entertainment this season.

One of the things Lamarr loved most about filming was how members of the cast went from being strangers to family. He said he even invited about half of them to the Thanksgiving he hosted.

The show shows the importance of camaraderie in the industry, especially as people working toward their goals of achieving something bigger than themselves, he said.

From different walks of life, they came together this season, learned about each other, grew and bonded, Lamarr said. Some got along, others didn’t – and some did, but don’t anymore.

“Chasing” hits close to home, reminding Lamarr of the groups he felt community with back in his Milwaukee days. People with different personalities, experiences and challenges, all brought together.

“This is my fraternity. This is my version of college, of life,” he said. “To learn, to love, to fight, to conflict and resolve it. All of those things that are important in life, so that you can grow as a person. I’ve learned all of that from my time growing up and living in Milwaukee.”

How to watch ‘Chasing: Atlanta’ Season 7

It premieres Jan. 28 on YouTube at youtube.com/ChasingReality.

“I think it’s pretty iconic,” Lamarr said. “I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Mental health resources in Wisconsin

With this story touching on mental health, here are some resources in the Milwaukee area and Wisconsin:

988 Wisconsin Lifeline connects residents experiencing a crisis to a trained in-state or national counselor. Call or text 988, or chat through the Lifeline’s website. For veteran support, call 988 and then press 1, or text 838255 or chat via the Veterans Crisis Line website. To be connected with LGBTQ+ supports, call 988, then press 3, or text the word “PRIDE” to 988.

Prevent Suicide Wisconsin connects residents to county crisis lines, which provide supports and assessments, link people to resources within the community, and, when needed, send mobile crisis response teams to provide in-person support.

The Center for Suicide Awareness allows residents to communicate by text only. Text “Hopeline” to 741741 to be connected with a trained, in-state counselor for any issue.

211 Wisconsin is a free and confidential three-digit line that connects callers to local mental health programs and services. Call 211, text your ZIP code to 898211, chat now, or search the site for services.

Uplift Wisconsin, a peer-support service operated through Mental Health America of Wisconsin, connects Wisconsin residents with certified peer specialists, those with lived experiences mental health, substance use and other related life experiences between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Call Uplift Wisconsin at 534-202-5438.

LGTBQ youth can call 866-488-7386, text “START” to 678678, or chat at TheTrevorProject.org to speak with a trained counselor for any issue.