It was within the late afternoon in New York, and James Frazier was buttoning the ultimate element of his {custom} DIOTIMA look earlier than moving into the 2025 Met Gala—this yr themed “Superfine: Tailoring Black Type.” However for Frazier, the founding father of the Empowered Imaginative and prescient Award and trustee of The Andrea W. & Kenneth C. Frazier Basis, getting dressed tonight is greater than a vogue second. It’s a declaration of goal.
“Black dandyism has all the time been about greater than garments—it’s about presence, energy, and delight,” he stated whereas adjusting the silhouette together with his stylist, Milton Dixon III. “To put on a glance custom-made by Rachel Scott, somebody who’s as visionary as she is rooted, feels deeply private.”
Scott, the primary recipient of the Empowered Imaginative and prescient Award and founding father of DIOTIMA, is thought for her Caribbean-rooted minimalism and complicated crochet. For Frazier, her aesthetic wasn’t only a selection—it was alignment.
“Rachel’s work holds heritage in each sew. Her crochet, her tailoring—it honors the place she’s from whereas chatting with a worldwide viewers,” he explains. “That steadiness was one thing I knew I wished to hold onto this carpet.”
The look, which includes DIOTIMA’s structured tailoring with refined crochet nods to Scott’s Jamaican background, was impressed by her most up-to-date assortment honoring the matriarch.
“Milton and I linked deeply with that theme. My mom has all the time been considered one of my biggest inspirations,” Frazier shared. “We layered that sense of legacy with the historic richness of Black dandyism, and it grew to become one thing really particular.”
As Frazier prepares to step onto the carpet, he displays on how this second displays the mission of the Empowered Imaginative and prescient Award: not simply recognizing Black excellence, however serving to it flourish.
“Displaying up issues. Not simply being within the room—however being seen in a approach that affirms Black creativity, uplifts group, and honors tradition.”
“That is how we alter narratives—by dressing with goal, by mentoring with intention, by displaying that philanthropy and vogue can completely coexist, ” he stated.
His remaining message to fellow changemakers? “Type is storytelling. Let what you put on converse to what you imagine in. Let it open doorways. Let it depart a legacy.”