Ryan Coogler has always wanted to wear a cummerbund and tonight, he finally gets the chance to do so.
“Today is the first day I actually put one on my body,” Mr. Coogler said about the shark colored waist sash, in a video interview from his fitting. “I’ve been to countless weddings and I never got a chance to pull one off.” Mr. Coogler was chatting from Jerry Lorenzo’s office, sitting next to Mr. Lorenzo, the founder and designer of Fear of God, who designed Gala looks for Mr. Coogler and his wife, Zinzi Coogler.
This is Mr. Coogler’s first Met Gala. Many of the actors he is known for collaborating with have been guests at the yearly fete — from Michael B. Jordan to Chadwick Boseman to Letitia Wright. Still, he never quite felt like it was the place for him, he said.
“I always enjoy seeing what they put on,” Mr. Coogler said. After the release of the first “Black Panther” movie, Mr. Coogler got a peek inside the exclusive event. “I think I had maybe like five or six cast members there. Somebody snuck a cellphone in and took a video. I remember getting that from Tish and, it made me smile.”
The most important thing to Mr. Coogler is the community he gets to build through his films, and collaborating with Mr. Lorenzo felt like home — as far as fashion designers go. Before the fitting, the duo discussed spirituality, organized religion, the entertainment business and fatherhood.
“The power of being around people who understand you, believe in you, value you, when you’re in a space with a lot of people like that, it kind of doesn’t matter where you are,” Mr. Coogler said.
Mr. Lorenzo is from Northern California and his sister attended school with Mr. Coogler. When he began the process of designing the director’s suit, he said he felt like he already knew him.
“If I watch ‘Black Panther’ or ‘Sinners’ — I see every nuance of Ryan’s life,” Mr. Lorenzo, said. “Everything that I do, similar to Ryan, I put all of me into it and so if I don’t have the elements of who Ryan and Zinzi are, what they represent, within some of the ingredients, then it’s not going to be what it has to be.”
Mr. Coogler described his suit as “very nice.” But more important, he said, it was tailored to fit his body — and the journey it had taken to bring him to the Met Gala.
“I’ve never had a fashion house design a piece for me, for my wife,” Mr. Coogler said. “We are both former athletes. Our bodies still carry the weight of years spent lifting weights and running and me crashing into people and trying to keep people from crashing into me. It’s never easy when it’s time to put a suit on.”
But tonight, Mr. Coogler, in Mr. Lorenzo’s work, will feel at ease.
“The pants really fit, you understand?” he said. “I really can sit down and it’s still be comfortable.”
