Gabrielle Union-Wade Wore Pyer Moss to See If Beale Street Could Talk and Sent a Powerful Message
Last night in Los Angeles, actress and new mom Gabrielle Union-Wade turned up to a screening of If Beale Street Could Talk dressed with intention. The highly acclaimed film from director Barry Jenkins is based on the 1974 novel of the same name, written by James Baldwin. It follows a young African-American couple, Fonny and Tish, who fall in love, get engaged, become pregnant, and endure much hardship. Tragically, Fonny is convicted of a crime he did not commit, after being wrongly accused by a racist police officer—a matter as painfully relevant in 2019 as it was in 1974. To drive home the point, Union-Wade wore a pleated sky blue skirt and printed top designed by CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss for Spring 2019. This runway collection focused on Raymond’s exploration of a Jim Crow–era travel book titled The Negro Motorist Green Book and how, as he told Vogue’s Fashion News Director Chioma Nnadi, it got him thinking about “what the African-American experience would look like without the constant threat of racism.”
The majority of Jean-Raymond’s garments featured prints of commissioned artwork by Derrick Adams, images of “just black people doing normal things,” as he explained. Union-Wade’s shirt depicts two children dressed in their Sunday best, and her choice to wear one of Jean-Raymond’s moving creations certainly aligned with the narrative and deeper meaning of the film. Both If Beale Street Could Talk and the Pyer Moss collection are about celebrating the joys of black life while also speaking out against cruel human injustice. In wearing Pyer Moss to see the film for the first time, Union-Wade seemed to not only be showing love for a young designer on the rise, but also supporting and amplifying Jean-Raymond, the Beale Street cast, Jenkins, and Baldwin’s powerful storytelling.
