The Closet Confessional: Charlotte’s New Podcast Turning Fashion Into Conversations
Kimberly Powell thought she was creating a podcast about closets, but it turns out she was creating one about people.
After years of working as a personal stylist, Kimberly had become accustomed to stepping inside other people’s closets. But somewhere between helping clients decide what stayed and what went, she began noticing something far more interesting than what was hanging on the racks. It was the stories behind it all.
A jacket wasn’t always just a jacket. It could be the one someone wore to their first interview. A dress could represent the version of themselves they were trying to become after a difficult season. Piece by piece, Kimberly began to realize that the clothes filling our closets can also hold our memories, milestones, heartbreaks, celebrations and reinventions.
“The more time I spent inside people’s closets, the more I realized I wasn’t discovering their style,” Kimberly said. “I was discovering their stories.”
When I first learned about The Closet Confessional, I knew I wanted to chat with Kimberly about the idea behind it. Upon first hearing the name, I imagined the typical fashion podcast, filled with conversations about designer labels, personal style and the most coveted pieces hanging in someone’s closet. And while I’d certainly tune in for that too, it’s a concept we’ve seen before.
As I’d eventually learn, that’s not quite the story here.
Instead, Kimberly is using fashion to start conversations that have very little to do with fashion at all.
The idea had been sitting with her for some time. Originally, she imagined The Closet Confessional as an Instagram series where she would step inside someone’s closet and ask about the stories behind the pieces hanging there. But the more she thought about it, the more she felt those conversations deserved more than a few minutes on social media.
“What surprised me wasn’t what people owned,” Kimberly said of her experiences as a stylist. “It was the stories they told as they pulled each piece off the hanger. Sometimes those were stories they had only ever told themselves.”
Those experiences helped shape The Closet Confessional into what it is today, a podcast that Kimberly describes as storytelling disguised as fashion.
Guests are asked to bring meaningful pieces from their closets to their conversations with Kimberly. The storytelling begins before they ever sit down to record as they decide what to bring and revisit the memories, people and different chapters of their lives attached to those pieces.
Once the conversation begins, something as simple as a sweater can lead somewhere unexpected.
“There’s something incredibly disarming about asking someone to tell you about a sweater instead of asking them to tell you about their life,” Kimberly said. “It lowers the walls. Before they know it, they’re sharing memories they may not have thought about in years.”
Those conversations can touch on identity, family, confidence, grief, joy, career changes, motherhood and relationships.
“The clothes are the entry point, but the conversation can take us almost anywhere,” she said. “The closet is just the doorway. The conversation is about being human.”
More Than What We Wear
For Kimberly, clothing has long been a way to connect with people.
When she moved to Charlotte about 12 years ago, she found herself in a new city where she didn’t know many people. She began noticing how often an interaction over something she or someone else was wearing could turn into a conversation.
“Clothing gave us a shared point of connection before we knew anything else about each other,” she said.
Some of those small conversations eventually became relationships and real bonds. They also helped Kimberly recognize that clothing could reveal something about a person before she ever knew their story.
It’s an idea that makes The Closet Confessional relatable even for those who wouldn't necessarily consider themselves fashionable.
Everyone has something.
It could be an old concert T-shirt, a grandmother’s scarf, a wedding dress, a pair of work boots or the outfit worn on a day that changed everything.
“Everyone has something in their closet that means something to them,” Kimberly said.
That same thinking extends to the people Kimberly plans to bring onto the podcast. While some guests may be recognizable names within Charlotte’s creative community, others may not have a public platform at all.
For Kimberly, that distinction doesn't really matter.
“I’m less interested in someone’s following than I am in their willingness to be open, curious, and real,” she said. “The best conversations happen when someone is willing to let us see the person behind the accomplishments, the title, or whatever we may think we already know about them.”
Throughout the first season, listeners can expect to hear stories involving career pivots, creativity, confidence, motherhood, personal loss, entrepreneurship and identity.
Where those conversations ultimately end up is another matter.
A piece of clothing could begin a discussion about someone’s career and somehow lead to their grandmother, a first love or a version of themselves they haven’t thought about in years.
“It’s relaxed, it’s unscripted, and it’s intentionally human,” Kimberly said. “I’m not looking for a perfect story or a polished version of someone’s life. I’m interested in the real one.”
Beyond the Closet
As The Closet Confessional grows, Kimberly hopes to continue featuring voices from Charlotte while eventually expanding beyond the city.
She’s already exploring some of the same ideas through The Story Edit, a community series she hosts at DUPP&SWAT in Charlotte, where people gather around different themes and use clothing to share memories and experiences.
In many ways, the podcast is another extension of Kimberly’s belief that everyone has a story worth hearing.
Of course, like most podcast hosts, Kimberly has her share of dream guests and people she would be honored to sit down with in the future. But landing the biggest name isn’t necessarily what she’s aiming for.
“The mission isn’t to chase celebrity,” Kimberly said. “It’s to uncover the stories that remind us we’re more alike than different.”
In fact, some of the conversations she finds most compelling are the ones no one sees coming. Whether her guest is someone well known or someone listeners are meeting for the first time, Kimberly is ultimately more interested in the story they have to tell than the status attached to their name.
What she does hope is that listeners finish an episode feeling a little more connected. Maybe they’ll look at something hanging in their own closet and remember a chapter of their life they haven’t thought about in years. Maybe they’ll become curious about the stories carried by the people around them.
“I want people to remember that our stories matter, even the ordinary ones,” Kimberly said. “That the things we wear can hold pieces of who we’ve been, who we are, and who we’re becoming.”
Ultimately, Kimberly hopes The Closet Confessional can become more than a podcast and grow into a platform for connection, curiosity and storytelling.
And if she succeeds, perhaps the next time you open your own closet, you’ll think a little less about what you have to wear and a little more about the stories hanging in front of you.
