Hey Tribe,
Alright, so I guess the cat is all the way out of the bag now…
The Hollywood Reporter named me their Stylist of the Year—
—for the second year in a row!
Which is so crazy, because just last year I was the first Black stylist EVER to get that title. So it means a lot to have my work recognized again, at this level. The magazine puts out this who’s who list of Hollywood’s most powerful stylists every year, and for a long time, it was always the same handful of people. You could anticipate it. When I was on the cover in 2017, I was the first Black stylist in history to receive that honor—and that was only five years ago.
Back then, I was number 21 on the list. And even that was after I was already working with Céline Dion, who hadn’t walked the red carpet in almost 15 years before she and I connected and put her in this Zuhair Murad Haute Couture gown for the Grammys…
But anyways, anyone who follows this newsletter knows how hard I’ve been working over the last year, how much I’ve had to go through in my personal life, and how hard I’ve been working to be the best stylist in the game since I came into this industry over a decade ago. And I really do feel like I manifested the career that I have. When I first moved to LA back in the mid-2000s, stylists weren’t really mentioned in the same breath as their clients. They weren’t in the public eye like that. They were always behind the scenes, pulling invisible strings.
So it really means something for me to be so visible and so public and at the top of my game, because it also means that other Black and Brown boys get to see themselves represented in this business in a way that I never could. I get to show them the possibilities of what they can be! And I don’t take that lightly at all.
And it took so much for me to get here. I didn’t just appear out of thin air on the cover of THR, standing next to THE Venus Williams in lace Louis Vuitton. I fought my way here, through all the PR people and the publicists and the brands and everybody who told me “no,” and didn’t bother to give me or my clients a chance.
So to be standing there on the cover of this magazine next to Venus, making history again, means more than words can express. Flo Ngala took all these gorgeous images, and it feels incredible to have that moment immortalized from right before we got her onto the red carpet for the Oscars. I mean, I already wrote about this in my last post, but I don’t think I can express it enough. Getting to work with Venus Williams has been a highlight of my career! I really did grow up watching her and Serena change the world. And to know that I dressed her for such an important moment in her life, and that she felt like a superhero in the clothes I put her in—that’s why I do this.
Because it’s always more than fashion. Isn’t that what I always say? It’s always about the story, about the dream. I’m aware more than anyone else that it’s about selling a specific fantasy. But the trick is that the client needs to feel as much of the magic wearing the clothes as you all hopefully feel when you see them in the photos. They need to believe in it, too. You want them to feel invincible. That’s the beauty of styling as an art! The whole point of red carpet styling is to show off, to show everyone who you are but also to take risks, and to play around. And I’m so grateful that my clients trust me enough to be my muses for whatever crazy ideas I come up with, especially in an industry where your image means more than just a little…
I can’t wait to keep pushing myself and showing you all the beauty I can mak. And I can’t wait for you to be on the ride with me.
Until next time,
Law xx
