- They said, how do you feel about being
name checked by Beyonce?
And I was like uh, what?
Hi, Vogue.
I'm Luta Young and this is my life in looks.
This is 2011
Dr. Faustus Lights, The Lights
the play I did at the Yale School of Drama.
It was written by Gertrude Stein and I was playing Maisto.
It was directed by Liliana Blane Cruz.
And it was a very intense rehearsal process.
The way Gertrude Stein works is that there's a lot
of repetition in her words.
There's no punctuation.
We had to learn this whole play, but my suit was really fly.
I, I really enjoyed that androgynous look.
This time at Yale was really rich.
It was intense.
I mean, from morning to night I was working on my craft.
And I remember thinking, If I don't act another day
after this program, I'll be good cause I've done it all.
I'm glad I'm still acting though.
This is Golden Globes in my
Ralph Lauren Red Cape.
It was the first dress I tried
on for the Golden Globes and I loved it.
It was just so bold with the cape, you know
kind of superhero ish.
Vogue actually was trying to get this dress on the cover.
So it was either gonna be
on the cover of Vogue or on my body.
I ended up trying on all sorts of other gowns
but I kept coming back to this and in the end it won.
I am so glad I got to wear it.
This is at the Academy Awards.
I'm wearing Prada
and I won!
I remember talking to my stylist, Mikayla.
She asked me how I wanted to feel
on the night and I just said, I wanna feel like I'm floating
because that was just how I felt at that time.
I couldn't believe I was going to be attending
the Academy Awards, so I wanted to feel like that.
And she showed me this image
of champagne in a glass and all the bubbles.
And we used that as our inspiration for the dress.
And you can see it's got specs
of silver and it just feels effervescent
which was what that whole period felt like.
The flow of a gown is very important
to me and it really depends
on what the event is and how I wanna feel at that event.
How you move in a gown is as important
as how you look in it.
When I was doing that role, Academy Award was very
very far from my mind.
The only thing I wanted to do was not get fired.
So I felt already very accomplished to then
be attending my first Academy Awards.
Being nominated my very first time
and winning my very first time.
I was very humbled by the idea
that so much suffering in one person's life can lead
to so much joy in someone else's.
I'm humbled by the sacrifice
of the person whose life I portrayed in order to get here.
This is a 2014, the NAACP Image Awards.
I'm in Givency and it is head to toe leather.
Ah, yeah, this dress was cool.
I love being in it.
It was soft leather, you know, and of the pleats.
I love a pleat.
The fashion world aspect of my career was a surprise.
And nothing that I expected, it started from the beginning.
I mean, my very first red carpet
I wore Prada and the reception of me
in that white Prada gown
was the beginning of my understanding
of what an impact fashion has on the life of an actor.
And so by this point, when I'm wearing this gown
I'd understood the assignment, let's put it that way.
And I was having fun the whole time.
I still am.
This is 2014 and I'm at the MET Gala.
This is Prada I'm in.
I was thrilled to attend my first Met Gala.
It was when I learned
that there was something called a MET Gala.
And I really enjoyed this look.
It was inspired by Josephine Baker.
I wasn't supposed to wear this gown.
I had a different gown that Prada had made for me.
Ver Davis gti, who is Mrs.
Prada's right hand person.
She very strategically put this dress on a mannequin
on the way to my fitting the day before the Met Gala.
And so I walked in, I saw this gown, went in, tried
on my dress, My dress was nice, but that was way better.
And I asked, Who's wearing that down?
And she was like, well, I was hoping you might.
And I was like, oh yeah, that's the gown for me.
And so this was a surprise.
My favorite memory was the
Prada squad.
We all had these
noisy gowns.
Our gowns all had these beads.
So when we were walking down
you could hear us coming from a mile away.
It was like Cha cha.
It was me and Gabriel Union and Bree Larson
and Sarah Paulson and all our dresses were just
making this noise as we went down the halls.
It was very fun.
Well, this is my first Vogue cover.
I'm wearing Prada.
I mean my love affair with Prada.
They were the first brand that supported me.
They were the first fashion show I went to.
The first gown I wore was Prada.
And so it was very fitting that I wear Prada on the
the cover of my first Vogue.
You know, the year 2014 had so many firsts
for me and I don't think I
I could really retain
what it meant for me to be
on the cover with my natural hair and my dark skin.
A cover of a magazine that I had seen
over the years with very few people that looked like me.
And there I was.
You know, to be able to feature
on the cover of a magazine as
pivotal as Vogue is an honor.
And for me it is writing a wrong that I grew
up with where I didn't see very many people
like me on the cover of magazines.
I didn't see these stamps of approval or these markers
of admiration for dark-skinned women like me.
And so for me to be able to do this
and be that for a younger generation is very moving
and I feel very blessed to do that.
Ooh, Toronto International Film Festival
the premiere of Queen of Katwe.
And I'm wearing Carlina Ira.
This dress was inspired by a piece
of fabric that McKayla had bought in Kenya of ANCA fabric.
There wasn't enough of it.
And so she brought it to the states
and she shared it with Carlina Ira
and asked them to be inspired by this ANCA fabric.
And so this design came from that fabric.
We always try and find like a theme when we're
doing a press tour for Queen of Katwe.
We were inspired by the head wrap
and this particular head wrap was inspired
by the Nigerian guile and Carlina Ira really name made it.
And then Vernon Fran Swis styled it.
And so this is a piece very dear to my heart.
This is a Vogue cover.
This one is special to me because we shot it in Kenya.
Not only did we shoot it in Kenya, we shot it in Kisumu.
My ancestral homelands.
This particular shot was done at the end of the day
was like the be witching hour.
The sun was setting.
We were right by the Lake Victoria.
We were running outta time.
And this shot was right before dark.
It's a very fond memory of taking Vogue to my country.
So this is 2019.
I'm on an academy screening
of the movie US and I'm wearing bant oi now.
The movie US is a scary film.
So that press tour
we were inspired by the spookier things in life.
And there's also duality in the film.
So we were also trying to find duality in what I wear.
I love this look
at the Met Gala.
The theme was camp and I'm wearing Versace.
We went full out
Vernon Franco.
We wanted to have a really big afro.
And so he had this idea of putting these picks
in my hair to create dimension in the Afro.
Cuz otherwise it's very hard to appreciate the structure
of an Afro.
The makeup was inspired by iconic drag queen Divine.
The theme was more, is more.
And as you can see, it is a lot.
This is from Beyonce's music video, Brown Skin Girl.
And I'm wearing Rodarte.
I learned that Beyonce had name checked me
in her song in an interview that I was doing in London.
They said, How do you feel
about being name checked by Beyonce?
And I was like, What?
And they were like, Yeah
haven't you heard she dropped a song this morning?
I was like, No, I haven't.
And she reached for her iPhone to play for me.
I was like, Oh no, we're not gonna be doing it like that.
I need proper sound system to listen to this.
So I saved it for the end
of the day and put it on my, my speaker and I scream!
I was so excited.
And the song means so much to so many and definitely to me
you know, just that appreciation of of dark complexion.
We need it.
We needed that song.
And I thank Beyonce for it.
I felt like a pixie.
Oh, and then this Met Gala.
I'm wearing Versace and we were inspired by Versace jeans.
What's more American than denim?
My hair is inspired by the artist Lauren Simpson.
I was Vernon's Bright idea and I just love how it feels
like a cloud and very much reminds me of some of her work.
Mm. All right.
This is a shot from Black Panther, Wakanda Forever.
I am here with the gorgeous, wonderful Angela Bassett.
I love working with Ruth Carter
because she's just a visionary when it comes to clothes.
And she's so specific in terms of
like her color scheme and what it story, it's telling.
This look was hard to finalize
because it needed to be something practical
but also very flattering.
It needed to be something that popped from the setting.
Playing Naikia has been a lot
of fun and a learning experience.
We, we have a lot in common
but she definitely has a tenacity that goes beyond me
and certain physical skills that I'm very happy to forget
once they say it's a wrap.
To see the impact of a fictitious character
on people around the world, it cannot be underestimated.
And it feels really good to have this as part
of my legacy and to be a part of a group of
of artists that really care
about the impact it
has on African peoples around the world.
I'm deeply proud.
Well, that's just a snippet of my life and looks
It's been fun to share it with you.
Vogue, there's more to come.
Thank you.