From Olandria Carthen to Tyriq Withers, Fashion Seems to Be the Pipeline to Fame for Black Talent
There’s something to be said about the role fashion plays in our lives. It introduces us to a room before our words can. It creates community and sparks conversations. But it also grants access and growth in ways not always readily tangible. Fashion (and an exquisite sense of personal style) is the way to accelerate through certain doors. And it’s also become a secret superpower for many rising Black celebrities throughout the years.
In the entertainment industry, several Black stars have spoken candidly about their struggles with access to this key pipeline, though. From limited stylists on set who understood Black hair textures to luxury brands refusing to dress them. Over time, we’ve seen all the ways in which these stars have had to advocate for a seat at the table.
While it might seem customary for young talent to be excluded from high-fashion pulls in general, its history for Black celebrities is much deeper when you factor in the years of exclusion in Hollywood. Black actors were often prohibited from attending red carpet events and film premieres at all due to segregation and systemic racism.
Hattie McDaniel was the first Black person to win an Academy Award and was initially banned from the 1939 premiere of her film Gone with the Wind in Atlanta. For the 1940 Oscars in Los Angeles, she was allowed to attend only after special permission, as the hotel had a strict “whites-only” policy. Inside, she was forced to sit at a small, segregated table against a far wall, separated from her white costars.
And this was the case for many Black talent in the ’40s and ’50s. Red carpets weren’t something they were allowed to attend, even if they were a key part of the project.
Fast-forwarding to more recent memory, Image Architect Law Roach spoke on fashion’s treatment of (now undeniable fashion icon) Zendaya at the beginning of her career. On the podcast The Cutting Room Floor, he shared that the Emmy Award–winning actor hasn’t worn certain designer brands (beyond editorial cover shoots) because of their dismissal of her in her early days.
“I would write the big five. I would write Saint Laurent, Chanel, Gucci, Valentino, Dior, and they would all say, ‘No, try again next year. She’s too green. She’s not on our calendar,’” Law said during the interview.
Law got creative and admitted to strategically using the “Who Wore It Better” sections of tabloid magazines early in his work with her to establish her as a fashion fixture. By intentionally selecting outfits already worn by other celebrities, he forced her name into the conversation and ultimately transformed her into a household name.
Fashion is consistently transactional—access is only granted to those deemed worthy. Which is why historically, rising Black stars leaned on their own community to shape their fashion choices. Destiny’s Child comes to mind: Beyoncé’s mother, Miss Tina, designed, hand-stoned, and sewed their outfits herself because high-end designers didn’t dress them early in their career.
“I’ve never said it, but I’m actually grateful that these people would not allow us to have clothes because it made us more creative and it made them different from everyone out there. I would tell them sometimes when I was pissed off that they wouldn’t give me clothes for the girls or say something negative about the girls, about them being too thick and then being too country or the fact that they dressed too much alike and that they wouldn’t give them clothes and I would say as I was leaving, ‘Well one day you’re gonna be asking to dress them,’” Miss Tina said in an Instagram post.
That shift from being excluded out of fashion conversations to shaping them largely comes from innovation mixed with a styling team that bets on you. And for these new-age Black stars, that combo has proven to be the difference maker in someone’s career trajectory.
From Zendaya and Law Roach to Cardi B and Kollin Carter and Doechii and Sam Woolf, we’ve seen firsthand what a style team can do to shape, elevate, and escalate what is already a budding career. Fashion is the inconspicuous missing piece of the puzzle that can shift a career into high gear—if you get the algorithm right.
Doechii’s style transition and career growth is the prime example of this. The moment she shifted to wearing brands like Thom Browne, Schiaparelli, and Miu Miu, she began to be positioned as a rising fashion star to know. Immediately afterward, she skyrocketed to becoming a first-row patron at every important fashion week show and a committee member of the 2025 Met Gala, solidifying her sartorial role in the zeitgeist.
And let’s tap down on the Met Gala for a moment here. Known as fashion’s biggest night, it’s the grandest and most expensive door to get your toe into. Once accepted there, the opportunities are endless. Stars know this is their chance for visibility and financial growth beyond stage performances, movies, and television.
Tyriq Withers, making his Met Gala debut tonight, is a prime example of quickly rising standout fashion stardom. Tyriq works closely with stylist Jason Bolden, who has positioned the 27-year-old as a particularly well-dressed heartthrob. Tyriq has worn Willy Chavarria and Louis Vuitton. With only two major projects out, the actor has been everywhere on the fashion front, from Coach runways to walking in Vogue World; this sort of elevation is sparked by impeccably stylish (and strategic) choices.
Love Island USA season 7 star Olandria Carthen is another young talent whose career post-villa has been shaped by the fashion choices she’s made. Working with The Reismans has centered her in the sartorial conversation. She made her runway debut this past year during Sergio Hudson’s September New York Fashion Week show. Now, Olandria has a partnership with Brandon Blackwood set to release in a few weeks, further proving that the right styling can take you far—especially when it is still very difficult for young Black talent to break through.
Olandria is also rumored to be making her Met Gala debut tonight. And if that is true, she’ll be the first Love Island USA cast member to attend fashion’s most exclusive event.
Despite it all, Black talent and their style teams are creating culture, even up against so many unnecessary restrictions. And they’re making fashion executives and fans all over the world, take notice. That in itself is proof of what clothes (and the people that wear them) can do.
Aiyana Ishmael is the style editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. In her work, Aiyana focuses on the culture of fashion and how it intertwines and shapes the zeitgeist. She is an award-winning journalist from Miami, Florida, and a graduate of the historically Black university, Florida A&M. She is a 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30: Media honoree, and her debut romance novella PASSING GAME is set to release March of 2027 (831 Stories/Simon & Schuster).
