How many revisions were there until you got to the final look? And how much directorial say did Evan have? I know you said you wanted to meet him in the middle, but I wanted to know what he was specifically looking for when crafting the look.
TO— I mean, when I talked to him about it— When it comes to big things like, for instance, the Met, he really trusts me, which I'm really grateful for. He knows that I know him really well. And I just told him, I said, "This is what I was thinking." And then Taofeek had sent over a number of sketches, not a ton, but sent it to me also so quickly it was insane. Say, six variations of looks, six looks that Evan could do. And the one that I really liked out of those sketches was what I presented to Evan. And I was like, "This is where I think we should go, but here's the other options that Taofeek also sketched and can also do." And Evan agreed and was like, "Let's go there."
TA—It was actually so effortless. I found it right away. I literally just sketched it and I was bombarding Taylor with a bunch of texts going, "Hey, this is it." But right away. It was actually so easy right away. We all agreed on one favorite look. There was no back and forth whatsoever, it was like, "We like this over this." It was so neutral and Taylor made my life so much easier, to be honest. And then Evan also having that cool factor, made it so much easier for us to arrive at one conclusive decision.
TO— Even the fittings went really well, because also Evan just has a very easy body type to dress when it comes to existing garments and samples and patterns. And he just wears everything so effortlessly that the couple of fittings that we had also went really, really smooth. So this has been one of the most smooth experiences in my styling career as well, which is so rare, definitely.
That's so interesting that it's for such a big event like the Met Gala.
TO — Right. Taofeek and I are definitely stressed, and of course there's anxiety and pressure, but I think from just doing this before and from past red carpets that I've done and past events that I've done. I also think it's important to highlight that Taofeek is also a young designer, let alone a young, Black designer. Evan and I are both from Hawaii. The Gilded age was really a time that made sure that brown kids like us and black kids like Taofeek didn't progress during this time, so for us to really come through and rep like this is so sick and so full circle.
And so it's like for me to also have that play of, let's stay to the theme, but what can we also do to be like, this is how we do it. This is how we rep. And so I think that's also why it's been such a smooth experience. Taofeek's been one of the easiest designers I've ever gotten to work with, and I'm super, super grateful. I think also why it's been so seamless, is because we respect each other, we give each other our creative freedom, and we meet in the middle. There's no ego. There's none of that. And same with Evan. We're chill guys from Hawaii, so we come in, we're not being divas. I think that's also why this whole experience has also gone as smooth as possible, given the short timeframe.
TA— But yeah, in a way we spoke the same language. In a nutshell, we spoke the same language and that's why it was that seamless. In a nutshell.