It’s hard to have the blues when your community’s with you.
The 10th annual Blue Jacket Fashion Show touched down in Los Angeles, spearheaded by visionary designer Frederick Anderson.
Teofimo Lopez, Frederick Anderson
With 27 years in the game, he’s dressed Jennifer Hudson, Charlize Theron, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, and more, and he’s used that cultural cache to bring awareness to an often overlooked topic: prostate cancer.
“Guys, one in six of us will have to deal with this,” he said. “We need to own up to this and start to get tested.”
While this star-studded event has been happening for 10 years, this is only its second iteration in LA.
Ty-Ron Mayes
Presented by Johnson & Johnson, this year’s group of celebrity supporters included Ian Ziering (90210), Rob Kirkland (Yellowstone), Romain Bonnet (Selling Sunset), Lawrence Robinson (The Pitt), and many more, a good bit of whom were gracious enough to model blue jacket fashions in one of the most effervescent runway shows I’ve witnessed.
Designers Tommy Hilfiger and Epperson sent looks down the catwalk that were taken to a new level by models reveling in the moment.
It was impossible not to smile ear to ear throughout the night, seeing so much love and generosity aimed at eradicating prostate cancer, with a focus on men of color.
According to a press release, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and second-leading cause of cancer death in U.S. men, with 313,780 new cases and 35,770 deaths expected in 2025.
Black men are 1.7x more likely to be diagnosed and 2.1x more likely to die than White men.
Rodney Pete, football star, was a standout on the runway, beaming his thousand-watt smile directly into a waiting gaggle of cameras.
His wife, and one of my favorite actresses, Holly Robinson Peete, said she was proud of her man, especially because he’s got bad knees and two left feet. I’m paraphrasing.
After the show, we vibed out to the scintillating sounds of our DJ, all of us mixing and mingling and complimenting each other’s looks. Because showing love is always in fashion.