Jerry Lorenzo didn’t know if he would participate in this year’s Met Gala. The word “dandy” didn’t resonate with him, and he was cautious about the theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.”
“I never heard of the word ‘dandy,’ to be honest. What is Black style? To me, it means everything. But a dandy, I don’t know. I’ve never heard anyone speak to our culture in the way that we influenced style through that term,” Lorenzo says, the day before the Met Gala from his room at the Aman hotel.
“I feel it’s tricky if the story is told by someone that’s not of that history. And so for me, I toyed with whether I’m a part of this or not, but then I also feel a responsibility to show up in the way that we would show up to something as if we did it on our own,” Lorenzo continued. “And there’s a responsibility of being in this space of fashion.”
Jerry Lorenzo
Meghan Marin/WWD
For the Met, Lorenzo and his Fear of God brand curated a table that included filmmaker Ryan Coogler and his wife Zinzi Coogler; actress Yara Shahidi; artists Amy Sherald, Arthur Jafa and Lauren Halsey; NFL star DeAndre Hopkins, and hairstylist Andre Walker.
“I don’t know how many other Black tables or Black designers that have tables [there are], but curating a table is something that is not something we necessarily have to do because it is our culture. We know what the table needs to look like and these are friends of ours,” Lorenzo says of his group.
“It’s also considered in the fact that we understand what the moment means from a different place than maybe other tables because it’s our culture. And so I think it’s probably why our table feels different because it’s not filtered through anything other than us. Whether it’s this Met Gala with this tricky theme or anything else, our brand has never shown up in a way that is looking to leverage our family with the intention of a story or press. Every moment that we have is more of a responsibility, not an opportunity. So having a table there’s a responsibility with that, it’s not an opportunity for the brand, if that makes sense. It’s a different perspective. And so it was really important that the story of elegance, the story of sophistication and the story of beauty, that we identify those individuals that paint those pictures, film directors, artists, designers, athletes, poetry in motion.”
Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Coogler
Meghan Marin/WWD
The Fear of God group gathered together on Monday in Fear of God’s makeshift studio at the Aman for group portraits, and traveled together to the Met. With each person’s look, Lorenzo aimed to prioritize their individuality.
“Every intention of our design is ‘how do I make this person feel like the best version of who they are? How do my clothes fall back and allow them to be seen?’ So it’s not like the outfits are interchangeable. It’s not like I have a point of view that I’m pushing it on a group of people,” he said. “It’s just looking at each person.”
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