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MET GALA 2021

How Lewis
Hamilton Offered
Black Designers A
Seat At The Table
For This Year’s Met
Gala
BY LIAM HESS

14 September 2021

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 13: Lewis Hamilton

and guest attend The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In
America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan
Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York
City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for
The Met Museum/Vogue ) Dimitrios Kambouris

SAVE

Given his illustrious career as one of the

motor racing world’s most legendary figures
– and, of course, one of its most stylish and
culturally perceptive ambassadors far
outside of the sport – you might think
Lewis Hamilton had enough on his plate
when it came to planning his looks ahead of
the 2021 Met Gala. Not so: The Met gala
veteran, known for his impeccably tailored
’fits spanning everything from Tommy
Hilfiger to Dolce & Gabbana over the
years, chose to move the spotlight away
from himself this year. More specifically, to
three emerging Black designers that
Hamilton has been especially energised by
over the past 18 months: Theophilio,
Kenneth Nicholson, and Jason Rembert.
They were among a table of talented young
Black stars who Hamilton invited to the
Met.

Lewis Hamilton hosted a table bursting with young

Black talent at the 2021 Met Gala. Mike Coppola

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That he should turn his lens from sport to

fashion isn’t just a tokenistic gesture, but a
celebration of the underrepresented and
overlooked design talents that inspire him
every day. “We’re living in a time where
diversity and inclusion is so important, and
that’s why I started this organisation [The
Hamilton Commission] within my own
sport,” says Hamilton. “I realised it’s very
similar in the fashion industry. A lot of
young brands and designers don’t have the
same opportunities, so that’s what really set
me off.”

And for Hamilton, the Met Gala – as well

the platform it offers to promote a new
group of groundbreaking design talents, just
a handful of whom were hosted on his table
– was simply an obvious next step in his
efforts to diversify the creative industries
from top to bottom. “The Met is the
biggest fashion event of the year, and for
this theme, I wanted to create something
that was meaningful and would spark a
conversation,” Hamilton continues. “So
that when people see us all together, it will
put these Black designers at the top of
people’s minds.”

This article was originally published by

Vogue.com.

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