Over the weekend, more than half a million festival attendees descended upon New Orleans for Essence Festival: a family reunion of sorts that celebrates and uplifts music, style, culture and entrepreneurship in the Black community. And considering Black women are the largest group of entrepreneurs in the country, Black buying power is at an all-time high, and Black women vote in the highest numbers, it makes sense that a few very high profile guests would want to get in on the action, including Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama.
The latter sat down with Gayle King to talk about her time in the White House. "For a minute there, I was an angry Black woman who was emasculating her husband," Obama recalled about the press during her husband's presidential campaign. "As I got more popular, that's when people of all sides -- Democrats and Republicans -- tried to take me out by the knees and the best way to do it was to focus on the one thing people were afraid of: the strength of a Black woman."
Obama recounted her experiences wearing a belted royal blue sequin jumpsuit by luxury designer Sergio Hudson. He designed the piece custom for our former First Lady. Obama's stylist Meredith Koop also reached out to Hudson to dress Michelle for the Atlanta stop of her Becoming book tour. In the past, he's dressed Beyoncé, Amal Clooney, J.Lo, Janelle Monae, Kendall Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, and Serena Williams.
In December 2013, Los Angeles-based luxury designer Sergio Hudson was crowned America’s Next Trendsetting Designer from Bravo’s fashion competition series Styled To Rock. His prize? He took home $100,000 cash, received a fashion feature in Glamour magazine, and the chance to become the next member of Rihanna’s design team. Six years later, and it's clear that Hudson is on his way to becoming a household name, dressing the biggest stars in fashion, politics, and entertainment.