Designer Kirby Jean-Raymond showed his collection yesterday, titled “Wat U Iz,” as a powerful celebration of Black culture. In true Pyer Moss fashion, each look was centered around a Black-invented household/item. If you all want to see the show, it’s live on YouTube!
Other than the clothes and natural environment of the show, there were a few other surprises happening on the runway. One of Russell Simmons’ kids and Kimora Lee Simmons’ daughter, the 18-year-old Harvard student, Aoki Lee Simmons, made her runway debut following in her model mom’s footsteps.
Aoki Lee is represented by the modeling agency, ONE Management. She wore Look #8 in the collection – an homage to the game of chess, a game natively of African descent.
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Courtesy of Pyer Moss
Aoki Lee is a star in the making, but it’s easy to see how if you know her mother. At only 13, Kimora scored an exclusive modeling contract with Chanel and worked under the tutelage of Karl Lagerfeld. In fact, Kimora’s impact was so strong that she closed Chanel’s 1989 haute couture show as the pivotal “bride”. Kimora also walked the runways for Fendi, Valentino, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Dior, Roberto Cavalli, Anna Sui, Geoffrey Beene and Yves Saint Laurent — all before starting her Baby Phat empire.
So, Aoki Lee definitely has an amazing platform to build off of.
About the show, the live-streamed in-person show was staged at Madam CJ Walker’s estate in Irvington, NY. Mrs. Walker is known as the country’s first Black self-made millionaire. According to a statement from the Pyer Moss team, “Black prosperity begins in the mind, in the spirit, and in each other. [Madame CJ Walker] knew that no dollar amount could ever satisfy the price tag of freedom — that green sheets of paper and copper coins could never mend souls, heal hearts, or undo the evil we’re endured.”
The estate was built by Walker who used and fronted her own money to build it.
The show began with a rousing speech from the only female leader of the Black Panther Party, Elaine Brown, and then models walked to music by Flatbush rapper 22Gz. The show emphasized how the Black experience is not just about pain and trauma. “At our best, we create space and tools for those who will come next, knowing that we must pay it forward. What will you leave behind?”
So, Misfit, what will you leave behind?
