4 Expert Tricks for Maximizing Your Creativity

In December 2023, Biles rocked a custom puffer jacket with her husband’s (former Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens) number on it, handmade and shipped by Juszcyzk herself. It’s still a pinch-me moment for the fashion designer. “I’m pretty sure Simone was the first person to ever wear any of my designs. I DM’ed her and was like, ‘Please, let me make you something!’” Juszczyk says in an exclusive interview with Brit + Co. “She is so incredible and so sweet, and she was so great in the process. She trusted me with a ton of creative freedom.”

Like her husband, San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, Kristin crushed the 2023 football season. Niners fans have been familiar with her style game for years, but when Taylor Swift sported a custom 87 jacket to Travis Kelce’s game on Jan. 13, Juszczyk’s fashion career skyrocketed into a brand new era.

Juszcyzk’s lifelong love of fashion first manifested itself in 2018. The budding designer founded an online clothing boutique called Origin, which sold everything from knitted sets to hoop earrings to studded jeans. (If 2018 were a brand, it’d be Origin.) “That was where I got my feet wet. I really enjoyed every second of it, but it got to a point where I felt like I lacked the ability to be creative,” Juszczyk reflects. The brand’s Instagram account and website went quiet in late 2021.

But just because Origin shut down doesn’t mean that Juszcyzk’s drive to design did. As she searched for her next venture, she started DIY-ing her own NFL merch to wear to her husband’s games. We’re not talking about screen-printed tees here. Juszcyzk’s rocked up to Levi’s Stadium in custom leather jackets, a jersey reworked into a cropped corset, and a red-hot blazer/skirt combo. Her unique designs caught Biles’s and Swift’s attention, as well as that of Brittany Mahomes, Taylor Lautner, and Olivia Culpo, just to name a few of Juszcyzk’s celebrity clients.

Every piece Juszcyzk designs is completely personalized to its owner. “I always take a look at the person’s Instagram and what they like to wear. I want to make sure I follow their vibe so that they feel confident in my design,” she reveals.

She also considers the weather the piece will be worn in — a lesson she learned the hard way. “When I made that puffer vest for Simone, I didn’t even put two and two together that it was gonna be 30 degrees and snowing. I should have put sleeves on it! I’m still learning,” she says. (Not that Simone minded. On the day of Super Bowl LVIII, the gold medalist tweeted, “I want the 49ers to win just because it’s Kristin Juszczyk’s birthday.”)

Juszcyzk is now an official licensee of the NFL, which means that she’s one step closer to working with her dream clients: the fans. She says, “One-off pieces are obviously not accessible to people, and making them is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. I want my designs to be more accessible to everybody, you know? There’s a huge demand for fresh designs, especially for girls, and I want the fans to have them.”

Before football starts back up in September, Kristin and Kyle have been making the most of the off-season at home with their adorable Samoyeds, Mozzarella and Pierogi. In between competing for Purina treats, Mozzie and Rogi are keeping their mom company as she gathers inspiration for her Fall ‘24 designs. She shares, “I’m so excited to show people some new silhouettes and also to push my boundaries and come up with something new every week.”

As for whether we’re going to see another Simone Biles and KJD collab soon? “Her husband’s on a different team now, so I’ll have to make her something new!” Juszczyk says.

How To End A Love Story follows Helen Zhang and Grant Shepard, who reconnect after a tragic accident 13 years ago changed their lives forever. In honor of Yulin's partnership with Maison Louis Jadot, I sat down to talk about the author, screenwriter, and director's favorite book & wine pairings (like Natalie Sue's I Hope This Finds You Well & Pouilly-Fuissé and Betty Corrello's Summertime Punchline & Bourgogne Blanc). And that includes the drinks her characters would go for.

According to Yulin, Helen would love the Beaujolais-Villages ("She's a little bit formal, she talks about how she feels like she was raised by old Victorian Ghosts"), while Grant would gravitate to the Macon-Villages, a personal favorite of Yulin's.

"My friends came over and we poured it and we were just having our own little wine sampling, which I do recommend," she says. "I feel like it's fun to have two different wines, and instantly you've elevated your gathering."

No dinner party is complete without a charcuterie board, and Yulin's perfect spread includes nuts, meats, and cheeses. "Something with rosemary and salt," she says after thinking for a moment. "I love a truffle nut. It's a good source of flavors and kind of a light protein so it feels kind of healthy. Apricots are great. And then I love a meat spread as well. So any kind of pepperoni, salami. And then yeah, I love any kind of cheese that has a hint of garlic, which I know makes me like less kissable."

In addition to creating the ultimate book and wine list, Yulin has been diving into hobbies that cultivate her creativity. Bridgerton reminded her how much she loves to embroider, while she's also found time to figure skate. She's been revisiting classic novels, old movies, and just "going back to the things that first made me fall in love with romance."

"I started subscribing to magazines because I found that everything that was coming to me was coming to me through an algorithm and I didn't mind that it was curated, but I wanted it to be curated by a human," she continues. "So sometimes when I feel like I've been staring at screens for too long, I shut everything off and then I start painting and I just paint using references from magazines."

While the celebration for her first novel is far from over, Yulin Kuang is also looking to the future — and the two Emily Henry books she's adapting: Beach Read (on which she's writer and director) and People We Meet On Vacation (which she wrote the screenplay for).

"I am pretty focused on Beach Read at the moment," she says. "I truly believe that art belongs to the audience once it's out in the world. And so saying too much, it feels prescriptive, you know? So I hope they enjoy it. I hope that they know that a lot of care is going into the adaptations. I remember what it's like to be watching with anxious hearts about the announcements of all my favorite adaptations. And so that's the main thing. I hope they know that I really, really care."

I got to sit down with Emily Henry ahead of the release of her 2023 hit Happy Place, and was immediately enchanted by the author. "She really is that person," Yulin says about Emily. "She is so warm and charming and wonderful. And she's the dream collaborator when it comes to this because you kind of want somebody who understands the art and understands that the book is a book and the movie is a movie."

"When you transport art into another medium, it has to be able to take root in the soil and bloom into its own thing," she continues. "We're creating different vineyards. And so I think there's some natural anxiety going into that for the first time because it's like, 'Oh, well, is this gonna go well? Will they like what we've done?' And Emily has just been such a fantastic collaborator in that regard."

But Beach Read and People We Meet On Vacation aren't the only projects we'll see from Yulin Kuang in the future. "I do have another indie feature that I'm currently working on," Yulin shares. "It's called Filthy and it's with Adam Scott and Naomi Scott's production company. I'm very excited about that one. It's set in the world of audio porn and it's about a couple that's trying to decide if they're ready to have kids. And then the wife discovers that her husband is secretly an audio porn star, and they have like a sexy little affair."

"In the book space, I've been working on book two," she continues. "What I can say is book two has proved so much harder to write than book one. And I kind of have a mistress book too. I do this thing where, for some reason, I need to have a main project and then eventually a mistress will develop and then I'll kind of work on the two and see which one is gonna actually make it across the finish line. It keeps things exciting for me."

But even Larson has days she feels off, saying she knows that feeling "very well," and whether it's seasonal blues or mental health days, she knows routine is where she thrives — and seasonal affective disorder lamps. "Light is a big game changer for me because I grew up in California," she says.

To engage her other senses, she relies on movement, breathing techniques, and temperature changes to keep in touch with her body. "A hot bath, a cold shower, both — anything that sort of wakes your brain up and kind of jolts it," she says. "I have a pretty demanding schedule and I truly don't have room to not feel like I'm present in my life. And so you come up with ways to figure out how to do that."

That includes everything from drinking plenty of water and prioritizing sleep to packing foam rollers and bands in her carry on. "It looks like a clown bag!" she says. "I always do [those exercises] every morning because even if I don't want to do it, which I always don't want to do it, I feel a lot better after I do it."

Admittedly, that's exactly how I feel some days about making breakfast — but a powerhouse like Larson knows how important fueling our bodies is. "Pretty consistently I'm having an egg, like a breakfast sandwich, egg on toast first thing in the morning," she says. "I can't think beyond that for breakfast because I wake up so early. It's like there's no creativity happening in the morning. I'm sorry. No."

And while her mornings are all about wellness, her evenings are all about getting cozy, and she tells me her dream night in includes playing a new video game, wearing Gelato Pique sweatpants, and ordering Thai food. But when she's in the kitchen? "I've been making pasta and sausage quite a bit and I make tacos quite a bit. I mean, I kind of just do like protein and veggies and a little bit of a carb," she says.

Cozy nights in wouldn't be the same without a movie, and there's a very good chance you've seen Larson on your screen recently, whether you're rewatching Captain Marvel, 13 Going on 30, or Lessons in Chemistry. But how does the actress consistently choose such beautiful, inspiring pieces to work on? She equates the feeling to having a crush.

"When I feel like [a story] hits something that lives so truthfully in me that I just want to know if it's true to other people," she says. "I just know that we all have more that's the same than different...Film and television, it lives in a way that is beyond me physically. So I'm here talking to you, but anybody can be watching whatever they want. And so I try my best to think through what the pieces are saying so that they go out in the world and I don't get to be at the end of it and explain it or tell people what to feel or what to take from it. It lives a life outside of me. So I try and make sure that it has a complete message in it that I feel like I'll be able to live with for the rest of my life."

Just like Carol Danvers and Elizabeth Zott empower so many viewers, Brie Larson says she feels empowered by her own Hollywood heroes. "Earlier in my career, like when I was trying to visualize what kind of career I wanted, it was Toni Colette and she's still a hero of mine, but she was truly the one that I was like, 'I want to disappear into characters the way she does.'"

"There's so many incredible [actors]," she continues. "Some of them are people that are more my age and some are older than me. But that's the fun part of my job is that there's so many good people and so many things that are getting made. And so it just feels like we're constantly kind of maneuvering, and when they take on certain roles and represent certain things, it frees up for other people to do other things. And so we kind of all work as a unit."

One movie on the horizon that I'm excited for is Mattel's new American Girl movie. Like many 80s and 90s kids, Brie Larson loved American Girl dolls — and borrowed her stage name from pioneer Kirsten Larson! And just like the rest of us AG kids, she tells me she can't wait for the movie. "I've also seen that there's going to be adult Halloween costumes, which I'm also very excited about," she says. Will she be grabbing a Kirsten one for herself? "I just might!"

Q+A With Brie Larson

What's the first thing you did after you won your Oscar?

I probably drank champagne...I drank champagne and I put sneakers on, and then I went to the airport.

What's the best piece of advice you've received?

"When I think I know, I miss so much." We all get stuck in these things — I think an easy one to think about is like, you're in a fight with your sibling or your partner, and you are just so right in how angry you are. And then maybe the next day you wake up and you're like, "Maybe there was another side to that." And so we miss things when we're in a space where we believe that we know. Having an openness to what something can be or that things can be different than what you think makes things easier.

What's on your holiday bucket list?

I love the holidays. Because I'm in California, I really am looking forward to this year having a chilly winter. I love a cold winter, cozy winter. I love Christmas markets, so I'll definitely hit things like that. All the little holiday markets pop up around, yeah, it's just like a rare time when everybody is resting at the same time.

What are you watching, reading and listening to right now?

Okay. I am reading a book called Patricia Wants To Cuddle. I am watching Love is Blind season 7 because I am not silly. And listening to Chappell Roan, obviously.