For Colman Domingo, Everything Is Coming Up Roses at the 2025 Oscars
One wouldn’t expect to find a Best Actor nominee walking down Sunset Boulevard the morning of the 2025 Oscars. Nevertheless, Colman Domingo started his day with a quick workout and a haircut from Chaz Hazlitt before pulling on sweatpants and heading out the door of The Pendry Hotel in West Hollywood.
“What better place than to go for a nice walk? There’s been many dreams that have been achieved—and many that have failed—on Sunset Boulevard. So I thought I’d just walk where dreamers walk and take it all in,” Domingo tells Vogue over the phone. “I like to take a moment for gratitude, my past, all that was built to be here, and then look towards the future. To me, that always involves walking.”
Domingo celebrated his second consecutive Academy Award nomination with his role in Sing Sing. (Last year, he was nominated in the same category for Rustin.) To mark the momentous occasion, he turned to Alessandro Michele, who fashioned him a custom Valentino suit. Domingo has become something of a Valentino man lately, wearing Alessandro Michele’s designs several times throughout awards season. While the 2024 Academy Gala, 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival, and DGA Awards saw more outré looks, Michele also put his stamp on classic red carpet dressing for the 2025 Golden Globes and SAG Awards.
The process of creating Domingo’s Oscars look began with Michele’s sketches, which the actor describes as “high energy, impactful fashion moments.” Collaboration ensues. “[Valentino] shows me what they’re interested in, and then myself and my stylists, Wayman + Micah, we get involved,” Domingo says. “We do some editing and we really started to do some storytelling.” For the 97th Academy Awards, Domingo felt especially moved to wear the color red.
“It felt like everything’s coming up roses. It felt like love. The thing that I feel like I’m speaking about more than anything—more than process, more than moments of achievements—I’m talking about [how] to be resilient and to bring love energy into a room,” he says. “What better color than that classic Valentino red? So they came back with some more sketches and Alessandro leaned into that.”
Valentino took the brief to heart, creating a tailored, double-breasted jacket in red shantung silk over a matching shirt with a guru collar. He finished the look with black wool trousers and a tasseled belt. Domingo’s accessories were just as high-octane: he added vintage Boucheron jewelry and a custom diamond-encrusted Omega watch. “Everyone has really come around to really help me tell a good story. I’m feeling like my best self,” he says.
For Domingo, the night doesn’t start without a Don Julio 1942 toast in his suite surrounded by his friends, nieces, members of his team, and his husband, Raúl (his date for the evening). “We have a toast right before we leave to make sure that we’re grounded. We have a celebration that no one can take away from us,” he says. “That it is a moment for not only for me, but it’s for them as well to say thank you for all the love and support they give me. It is a shared thing. It’s not just about me, it’s about the people who love me.”
