Zadrian Smith and Sarah Edmiston styled Diggs in Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton on Sunday night, a highlight of their new partnership.
“Taye is someone that Sarah and I always wanted to work with,” says Zadrian Smith, who, along with Sarah Edmiston, gave Taye Diggs the style for the 2021 Critics Choice Awards. “We really love this idea of working with people whose values and morals align with us and what he’s been doing – with the books he’s been writing, and how great a father he is and the projects he’s working on – that is the type of person we want to work with. “
For the third year in a row, Diggs is presenting the award show on March 7 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, on the CW.
“I grew up really amazed by Ralph Lauren and preparation and everything that it represented,” says Diggs of his personal style. “Now that I am much, much older, I like comfort. My son likes sports, so we are going to buy sneakers together constantly.” The actor, currently starring in the CW’s All Americans, is also set to meet with the original cast of The best man for spinoff of Peacock’s limited series of the film.
Headquartered in London, Smith and Edmiston recently joined forces after a decade in the industry, brought together during the pandemic by their mutual friend, photographer Misan Harriman. “We had been discouraged by some aspects of the industry responsible for projecting an idea of beauty that is not inclusive”, explains Edmiston. “We were also a little dismayed at the way the fashion industry can be reckless in terms of racism, age and somewhat misogynistic.”
In their first nine months working together, the pair recently dressed Kingsley Ben-Adir for the BAFTAs, and also worked with Naomi Scott, Lachlan Watson, Arlissa and Naama Preis. Regarding their partnership, Edmiston continues, “it is like a small family and we are really working only with people whose values and morals align with ours”.
Smith describes his approach to style as “we try to honor the identity of who the customer is. We saw that Taye loves a hat and he is a very classic guy and we just wanted to raise that. ”Diggs’s first look on Sunday night is a champagne Giorgio Armani suit with a black satin lapel, worn with a Longines watch and Giuseppe Zanotti shoes.
“The first look is the protagonist par excellence, the Giorgio Armani moment”, continues Smith, “and we are very grateful to the entire Giorgio Armani team. We wanted to pay homage to the classic Taye, but we also wanted to build it up. “
Diggs – who also writes children’s books focused on representation, the next one, “Why? A Conversation on Race”, to be published in October by Macmillan – describes the look as a union of his love of preparation and talent. “I am very colorful, I like to burst; even when I was a little boy, I was always attracted to brighter colors, patterns, polka dots and stripes ”, he says. “[It] it just looks elegant to me, watching Sammy Davis Jr. and the Rat Pack in that kind of look, the tuxedo and the black pants, the sharp kicks. Just everything in place. I feel that way in that first outfit. “
Edmiston adds that Taye’s personality was the main inspiration: “All the wonderful energy and grace that [Taye] brings to everything he does that’s why we are so excited, because this is the dream person to dress up. To give our customers a chance to wear clothes that reflect their values and reflect what is important to them and tell the story of where they are in their lives right now, that’s all. “
Diggs’ second look for the night takes its classic style and adds a different touch. “We all saw the news about the lack of support for black designers at the Golden Globe,” explains Smith. “For me and Sarah, diversity and inclusion are the drums that play the loudest, and this is for women’s empowerment, this is for trans rights, LGBT rights, for minorities. So the designer who made the most sense for Taye on this occasion was Virgil Abloh. What Virgil is doing at Vutton is absolutely incredible. “
The double-breasted Louis Vutton suit – which Smith and Edmiston combined with the same Longines watch and Jimmy Choo shoes – is subtly unexpected. “Virgil plays with proportions, shapes and textures,” continues Smith on the work of Abloh, the male artistic director at Louis Vuitton. “The best thing about this suit is that it’s kind of eighties, it’s a little too big and it also did a really interesting thing where you would normally see the buttons on a double-breasted suit, where the buttons would come out, Virgil kept it closed so that you don’t see that detail. “
Regarding the second look, Diggs says it is “obviously a lot more expensive and with a better cut, but it was the same style I was looking for during my prom. I love that, the length, the pants being a little bit wider. Nostalgic, literally. And it just proves that everything is back to normal. “(To prepare for the night, Diggs worked with Dane Cristian Diego and Sergio Lopez-Rivera, who used Pat McGrath Labs and Patrick Ta Beauty products.)
Although resident in the UK, Smith has dual citizenship, which allowed him to settle in Los Angeles for the awards season (working with assistant stylist Jazmine Gandhi), despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “We started preparing this in late January, so delivery times are much longer,” says Smith of the pandemic’s effect on the process. “You really have to start thinking about it and connect with brands a lot sooner, because obviously the days of doing last-minute things don’t really exist, especially if you want things to be shipped from other countries.”
The partnership may be new, but Smith and Edmiston (both represented by The Wall Group) say they love working together and are perfectly aligned in their philosophies. “None of us is interested in painting our aesthetics on the client”, elaborates Edmiston. “We are both interested in really understanding the client’s aesthetics and what makes them look like them, and so we just want to elevate it and maybe temporize it.”