For 25 years, fashion designer B Michael has come up with chic looks for Black entertainment elite like Phylicia Rashad, Beyoncé, Halle Berry and the late Cicely Tyson on red carpets and award shows.
His custom gowns are made with quality fabrics that often have minimal to no patterns. His blouses, jackets and pants are trimmed and structured using geometric shapes, giving the garments a modern aesthetic.
But B Michael puts personality before textile when deciding designs for his A-list clients. He told UATL making legendary Black women look glamorous requires getting to know them as individuals.
“I build dresses with lots of pieces to the pattern. I’m not styling a person, but I am dressing who they are to be timeless. It requires understanding them, where the dress is going and the setting the dress will be seen in,” B Michael said.
The couturier is leading a two-day residency at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion and Film, starting Wednesday with a discussion of “Muse: Cicely Tyson and Me: A Relationship Forged in Fashion,” his memoir published in January of last year.
The book is filled with glossy photographs and stories about his inseparable, 16-year personal and creative bond with Tyson, along with his business partner and husband Mark-Anthony Edwards.
Credit: Chaz Guest
Credit: Chaz Guest
Tyson, who starred in the classic films “Sounder” and “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” exclusively wore B Michael ensembles to special events like Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball, her cross-generational celebration of Black women in 2005, and the 2018 Academy Awards, where she was recognized with the first honorary Oscar presented to an actress of color. The veteran actress died in January 2021 at age 96.
Doing everything together — from attending award shows and intimate dinner parties to going on vacations and regularly attending church — B Michael said writing “Muse” became his outlet to grieve Tyson’s loss.
“Ms. Tyson and I always compared ourselves to [Hubert de] Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn. She always referred to us [Mark and I] as ‘thirds,’” he said.
“She was Hollywood royalty, and our relationship was based on respect and trust. I would tell her to focus on reading scripts or getting speeches ready, and I would focus on what the look is. Writing gave me closure because we really were an extended family, worshipping, laughing, crying and traveling together.”
Credit: B Michael
Credit: B Michael
On Thursday, B Michael is guest-lecturing at SCAD classes, where he’ll talk with students about his fashion journey, review their portfolios and provide them with best practices on how to turn their creations into opportunities.
He hopes by being transparent about what it took to become a luxury couture designer he can encourage young designers of color to consider constantly building their network. He will also provide suggestions on giving their designs an identity separate from other designer brands, and how to build the confidence to pursue careers in fashion.
“They have to see it to know it can be. You can teach discipline, but the art itself has to be innate. You have to be honest, tell what the journey really is like and encourage students to be as authentic as possible,” he said.
B Michael, who grew up in Connecticut, developed his interest in fashion from paying attention to how women in his immediate family dressed for church on Sundays. In the early 1980s, he secured a job on Wall Street and began designing millinery on the side.
He met costume designer Nolan Miller and landed a job designing women’s hats as wardrobe items for the prime-time soap opera “Dynasty.” He later took his hat-designing talents to ready-to-wear designer Oscar de la Renta for three years.
In 1999, B Michael started his own collection. He designed Whitney Houston’s costumes in “Sparkle,” a remake of the 1976 film and the singer’s last role before her death in 2012.
The same year Tyson received her honorary Oscar, B Michael created the dress costume designer Ruth E. Carter wore to accept her first Oscar for “Black Panther.” Carter told UATL she sought him out because she was a fan of his designs for Tyson and dedication to his craft.
“He is a long and established, solid brand that did extraordinary work with her. I felt safe to let him design one of the most important dresses of my entire life, and he was committed to creating it in the days leading up to the Oscars,” Carter said.
Last year, he donated several gowns he designed for Tyson to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
B Michael said he measures success as a fashion designer by how timeless his garments are. “Simplicity is a very difficult achievement, but when I see clients wearing something they got from me 20 years ago and they’re wearing it as if it was just made, that’s how I know I’ve made something that holds up,” he said.
Credit: B Michael
Credit: B Michael
He said he’s venturing into interior design and working on his second book, but sketching and designing red carpet looks for A-list celebrities will always be his first love.
“I’m grateful for everything I’ve been blessed to do, but I’m living in the present. I’ll never retire because my brain is always working and thinking about the next dress,” he said.
6-8 p.m. Wednesday. SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film. 1600 Peachtree Street NW, Atlanta. 800-869-7223. scad.edu
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