The Mojo of Music featuring Christy Costello
In the evolving landscape of independent music, where authenticity carries more weight than perfection, Christy Costello has created a space that feels personal, both sonically and visually. Her mojo is not one of trend-chasing or style reinvention for its own sake, but rather an extension of the same instinct that drives her songwriting: curiosity, emotion, and a willingness to explore identity without apology.
The connection between fashion and music begins long before the stage and is planted in childhood moments of observation, imagination, and quiet rebellion. In her formative years, before music videos and the internet, her parents' records provided that first insight to how music and fashion can align.
“I remember sifting through the records and opening up the gatefolds and looking at bands and being in awe. Everybody looked so crazy in my perspective as a little kid. I think some of the earliest record covers that attracted me the most were the Blondie ones. My parents somehow had a New York Dolls record in their collection and I remember staring at that profoundly because I knew they were dudes, but that was okay. It was cool.”
-Christy Costello
Growing up on Minnesota’s Iron Range, Christy’s early exposure to music wasn’t shaped by live scenes or urban culture, but by these artifacts like vinyl records, album art, and eventually the explosion of MTV. These visual moments became her first introduction to the idea that music wasn’t just something you heard, it was something you could see, and something you could become.
Christy’s parents were both young (17 and 18) when they had her, which lead to family members jumping in to help raise her. They all brought different folk influences into the home, from Cat Stevens to Peter, Paul, and Mary, but it wasn’t until her teenage years hanging out with all her skateboarding cousins that artists like Iron Maiden and Metallica came into play. Her cousins built a half-pipe and lured in all the kids from surrounding cities. A boombox would be playing everything from Anthrax to Ramones to The Cramps and Subhumans as they skated.
As MTV entered her world, fashion became louder and more animated, and even more accessible. She recalls the ritual of playing dress-up with friends by raiding her parents' closets and layering 80’s bangles and weird earrings, mimicking being rock stars on the coffee table and furniture like they were stages. This early confrontation with androgyny, performance, and visual identity would slowly influence Christy’s understanding of music fashion. Fashion was slowly merging with music, all part of the same language.
Another key element in this exploration was her parents' membership to Columbia House. Instead of getting an allowance, she would pick 10 records a month. Her parents would then send back anything she didn’t like. She was discovering bands like Devo that carried an unique aesthetic and alignment with their music.
Being raised in Northern Minnesota also meant navigating a certain isolation. Unlike being raised in densely populated cultural hubs, Christy didn’t have immediate access to diverse scenes or fashion subcultures. Instead, her influences were filtered, arriving through media, secondhand objects, and imagination. This distance created a kind of creative independence. Without constant exposure to what was “current,” she developed a style that wasn’t dictated by trends, but by instinct. She wasn’t reacting to a scene, but building her own internal one.
That sense of self-directed exploration mirrors her approach to songwriting. Just as her music resists easy categorization, her fashion choices feel intuitive rather than calculated. There’s a throughline of honesty in both and an unwillingness to perform something that doesn’t feel real.
As the musical landscape was being explored, Christy had her first big shift in fashion.
“I got into skateboarding. There was a degree of style in that. At the time, I feel like everybody was wearing Vision Street Wear and getting their hair shaved. There were the Zorlac skateboarders and the Heshers wearing mullets and a few stripes shaved into the side of their heads. Acid washed jeans pinned up on the sides with big white Reebok sneakers with the tongue pulled out were all over.”
-Christy Costello
It wasn’t until she was 15 when she got her first guitar, an Epiphone that was a mock off Gibson guitar. It had a slant neck and was made for metal players. She started taking lessons, learning Rush. She found herself discovering Siouxsie and the Banshees, Lush, and lots of female-fronted bands that were more shoegazer, esoteric, and punk. It was this shift that evolved her fashion even further.
Christy stepped out in her band Ouija Radio in the late 90’s and for 13 years, she kept developing her own pageantry to performance. There was a lot of the kinderwhore aesthetics, like velvet dresses, army boots, retro 70’s shirts, with rhinestone necklaces over it. Her approach to clothes became one of rediscovering them to find new ways to reuse them. She buys tights all the time and has a dresser drawer dedicated to them. Clothes are worn to the bitter end as she finds creative ways to cut stuff up and rework them. She works with Thread Finds for her merch, cutting old t-shirts up and adding patches, sewing on grommets and studs, to extend the life of unique articles of clothes.
The first outfit showcases the most quintessential Christy Costello clothing item in her closet, the velvet booty shorts with velvet top. Paired with a red disco belt from the 80’s with interlocking clasps, the outfit blends a fitted comfortable look with these nostalgic details. Her dark Mary Jane shoes feature a low heel and gold embellishments offer a mod spin that fits perfectly in the completed look.
Her wrists feature a collection of bangles, which she loves to collect from reuse shops. There’s also a bracelet from a band called Dog Party from Sacramento. They make dog collars and bracelets, this one says “shit” and was gifted to her by Monica LaPlante.
Christy wears the earrings frequently, always switching out what to hang in the middle of them. Sometimes it’s hotdogs, but this time it was red cherries. Her necklace came from Patina and features a simple “C” on it.
The second outfit features a black all lace dress that was found at Opitz Outlet, which carries higher end clothing at discounted prices. The dress was 90% off and after trying it on, knew that it needed to be worn somewhere. At some point, for the right gig, she can’t wait to wear it on stage.
A statement piece is one that stands out without needing to be flashy. The lace dress feels like it’s glued to Christy, contorting with her moves, and being that veil of intrigue. It’s dark with a hint of goth. There’s space in the voids of lace.
“‘From the Dark' is a gentle reminder of the paths we take and our own personal hells. The scary places, the voids, negative space, and then the break throughs. It's the balancing act of the polars. The everlasting cycle of destruction and rebirth. Ya know, the snake that eats its own tail.”
-Christy Costello
For Christy, clothing is less about spectacle and more about resonance. Much like her songwriting, which often explores vulnerability and introspection, her fashion choices tend to support the emotional core of her performance rather than overpower it. By no means does this mean her style is static. It’s evolved alongside her music with intentionality always being consistent. Each outfit becomes a visual shorthand for the feelings she’s trying to convey.
Christy’s debut solo artist album From the Dark is a prime example of this. Songs like “Campbell’s Soup Kids” and “Need You Around” provide that touch of power pop, 70’s punk vibe, like a Joe Jackson record, but then a song like “Pulse” offers a more mod little suit jacket, little tie, bunches pins feel.
There are songs like “Uranium Baby”, that channel a ripped up fuzzy sweater with Mary Jane shoes and tights. The title track “From the Dark” then feels like a bit more goth in a little black dress. While “Can’t Stand Up” sways a bit more country.
From the Dark has dashes of punk, post punk, garage, psych rock, art rock, new wave, goth, and grunge. In many ways, the album still echoes those childhood moments of dress-up and imagination, blending pieces together. The scale may have changed, but the impulse remains the same, to step into a feeling fully and to embody it. Clothes can help carry the weight of expression.
Where the child version of Christy toyed with being a rock star, the artist version understands the responsibility of that role. Fashion is no longer just play, it’s communication. It signals tone, invites interpretation, and sets the emotional stage. Her early sense of freedom hasn’t disappeared. If anything, it’s what keeps her work from feeling overly constructed. There’s still a bit of that kid on the coffee table, still experimenting, still curious, still unafraid to blur lines.
When stepping onstage, Christy understands the importance of that first impression with a crowd that may not know her music. All eyes shift to her outfit and demeanor before a note is even played.
“If I’m comfortable, usually the audience is as well. You can always feel a room too. You can get into a room and you just kind of know. Start to feel the energy. More than anything, when you're playing a venue, you know who you are and it's up to you to feel them out. And as long as you're confident with what you're wearing and doing or saying, you can absolutely connect. It's just about connecting.”
What makes Christy Costello’s fashion journey particularly compelling is that it doesn’t seek attention for its own sake. Instead, it listens to her music, to her history, and to the emotional landscape she’s navigating in any given moment. Her style isn’t fixed, but responsive. It shifts as her songwriting shifts. And in that way, it becomes inseparable from the music itself. Fashion isn’t about being seen, it’s about being understood.
And like her songs, it invites you to look a little closer.
Check out the links below for ways to follow Christy Costello and all the topics we mentioned above.
Christy Costello website - Ouija Radio - Thread Finds - Opitz Outlet - Heshers - Kinderwhore
