“Yes,” Sergio Hudson planned for this.
“I had a very good upbringing. My parents were very encouraging, and I decided I wanted to be a designer at around 6, 7 years old. I’ve never looked back.”
The South Carolina native, curator of his eponymous collection, now helms one of America’s most famous emerging fashion brands.
He famously dressed Vice President Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama for former President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. But at Monday’s Met Gala, which honored Black men in fashion, Hudson’s designs were center stage once again.
On Met Monday, over a dozen gala guests donned his custom pieces — a staggering number for even luxury brands — while some stylists picked looks for their clients from his ready-to-wear line.
Days ahead of the May 5 affair, Hudson opened up about his historic ascent – and the view from atop fashion’s Super Bowl, where A-list attendees strut up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
“Although I am a Black designer, it’s like ‘I’m just a designer,’” Hudson says. “And I think it does pigeonhole us, too, because even Black people, when you say Black in front of something, we tend to demoralize, water down or put it in second position.”
“If we’re not walking around calling Brandon Maxwell a ‘white designer,’ I shouldn’t be called a ‘Black designer.’ That’s just my opinion.”
Quinta Brunson, Rachel Brosnahan, New York Liberty players stun in Sergio Hudson
Hudson dressed a roster of close collaborators for the gala, ranging from “The Marvelous Miss Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan, whom he calls “my girl,” to “Abbott Elementary” creator Quinta Brunson, whom he has been trying to work together with “forever.”
Hudson also designed looks for the Met Gala debuts of WNBA players Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Brianna Stewart from the championship-winning New York Liberty.
Other custom clients included legendary musician Stevie Wonder, his wife Tomeeka Robyn Bracy, Usher’s wife Jennifer Goicoechea, SpreeAI CEO John Imah, political strategist Huma Abedin and her future-sister-in-law Met Museum trustee Jamie Soros.
Celebrity attendees and high-fashion ateliers like Hudson were tasked with reimagining the Black “dandy” for their gala attire.
“I’m dressing all the people that I know, and I love. It’s nobody that’s outside of the Sergio Hudson world that I’m dressing,” Hudson says, pointing out that “the theme is pretty much who I am as a designer, translating men’s fashion into womenswear and making a beautiful statement is what Sergio Hudson is all about, so the theme is really perfect for my brand.”
Defined as a “man unduly devoted to style,” a previous release from the Met stated that “dandyism offered Black people an opportunity to use clothing, gesture, irony, and wit to transform their given identities and imagine new ways of embodying political and social possibilities.” Hudson, who uses elements from traditional menswear and attaches them to his signature structured womenswear, calls the opportunity to dress for dandyism as an “honor.”
“It’s definitely an honor to connect to something so easily and wholly, but I do feel like, in the back of my brain, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow. Are we every going to get an opportunity like this again.’” Heading into May’s first Monday, Hudson had another person on his mind: the late, former Vogue magazine editor-at-large André Leon Talley.
“I think the unfortunate part about it all is that he’s not here to see it because, of course, as a Black man who’s been obsessed with fashion since probably the day he was born, I looked up to André Leon Talley,” Hudson says. “And he was really the only person that I saw on those front rows that looked like me in those days.
“So, to look at him and see how he dressed and, you know, his personality, he was a dandy at heart. You can’t help but know that this came from his inspiration.”
Sergio Hudson hopes Met Gala is ‘turning point’ for fashion brand
Despite the one-night-only theme, Hudson hopes it is a “turning point” for his brand in the “gatekept” fashion world.
“(Fashion) is very gatekept. And I mean, it’s not just that it’s gatekept, it’s like you get through one gate and then there are three more to go through,” Hudson says, adding later that he is hoping “that people stand up and take notice, that this (brand) is not just a blip in time.”
“It’s not a trend and Sergio Hudson as a designer – Sergio Hudson as a brand – is here to stay and that is something that you can invest in, should invest in,” Hudson continues. “My goal is to open doors for people that wouldn’t normally have access in this industry. In order for me to do that, I have to grow. So, I’m praying for growth after this.”
There are “all these gates until you get to Valentino status,” Hudson continues. Does he aspire to reach Valentino heights? “I would say Ralph Lauren status,” Hudson replies. Lauren’s brand, though, only dressed a few celebrities for Met Monday.
As celebrities walked up the gilded steps in his designs, Hudson opened more gates. In Talley’s honor, for kids who love fashion in South Carolina. All a part of his plan.
“I just want to be known as a great American sportswear designer.”
Contributing: Edward Segarra
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