Erykah Badu’s Life in Looks Features a Powerful Array of Black and African Designers

Peace, Vogue.

My name is Erykah Badu, also known as Badulla Oblongata,

also known as SHE ILL.

And this is my Life in Looks.

[gentle music]

This is my album cover for Baduizm.

I shot with Marc Baptiste, who shot most of my covers.

The label chose this one with without my face showing.

I love this look.

Camouflage, the soldier in me.

All of these are my pieces.

All of these things are my jewelry.

It s a look I put together and we just shot it.

Real minimal.

Sesame Street friendship.

It was such a pleasure doing that show.

It was one of the highlights of my career.

In this picture, I m wearing a patchwork headwrap,

which I became very synonymous for.

Patchwork is really important to me in fashion

because it s not so much about the patches themselves.

It s more about the threads in between

that weave them together.

I feel like those are the moments in my life

that are important.

You can t see it in this photo,

but they also wore headwraps.

I have to take these out cause...

[Erykah laughs]

This picture is from the Blues Brothers 2000.

My character s name was Queen Mousette.

She was a voodoo queen.

She was very, very old, hundreds of years old.

This gown is pretty much an African cloth.

Red, black and yellow,

which also happened to be the colors

of my tribe in Cameroon, Bamileke.

And the designer of the movie incorporated it

into the Victorian gown without me

even saying anything about it.

It just kind of happens that way.

I call that grace in fashion.

When things just kind of come together.

I was nine months pregnant right there.

And you can t even tell, you know?

I have this full plate going down the front,

which underneath,

which makes it look like it s a flat surface.

And they didn t find out I was pregnant until I showed up.

Like, Wait a minute, you re nine months pregnant!

I m like, I know, I know.

And they had to quickly create this prosthetic piece

in front of me to help me keep the job.

And the ladies in the costume department kept my secret.

This is beautiful.

This dress is by a New York designer named Epperson.

Epperson is very famous for his deconstructed look.

It needed to be neat and the form needed to be beautiful.

But it needed to have some edge to it

cause I like to keep it grimy.

This jewelry,

the famous ankh that I m wearing on my right hand

was made by Baba Heru Semahj here in New York.

When I see a rack of things,

I get an idea of what I can do to contribute.

What pieces in my bag I ve brought with me.

I didn t wear name brand designers during this time period

from 90s to mid-2000s.

I only wore Black designers from New York

or Dallas or Atlanta.

I wanted to make sure that I used my platform

to be an advocate for young designers.

And Epperson s piece made the cut.

Oh! This around 2002 to 2003.

And in my right hand,

I am holding the Grammy Award for Best Video

for Love of My Life.

One of my best friends, Sonya, drew this henna on my arms.

I was chiseled up. I was ready to knock somebody out.

Look at that.

My understanding for being a Black woman in America

was very strong at the same time.

That s what I wanted to display that night.

And to me, the star of the outfit

was these deconstructed white pieces

made by my friend Epperson.

So I just kind of used it how I wanted,

just wrapped it around one leg

and that was my gown for the night.

And I m rocking this dead prez shirt.

It s a political statement.

And I probably took this off, this white stuff,

and went right to the studio afterwards with dead prez.

Hey! I went to the Met Ball with the amazing Riccardo Tisci,

who was the creative director for Givenchy.

And I was also the face for Givenchy for 2014/2015.

This was my first time at the Met.

My favorite memory of that night was the men s bathroom.

The women s was kind of full with a line,

so I went in the men s,

but then all the women were in there too.

Everybody was in there. Having a good time.

Should I be saying this?

Oh! Now this was my first meeting with Thom Browne.

When I hosted the Soul Train Music Awards.

That was the first time I hosted an awards show.

My friend, Diamond Mahone, who s a stylist,

pulled this look.

This white thing I have underneath my hat,

I got it from Home Depot.

It s like one of those things that painters wear

under the mask.

And so I thought it would be cool,

cause I didn t need any hair with this.

And this is one of my favorite silhouette hats.

This one I spray painted white for this event.

And on top of my head,

this is a sculpture by one of my favorite artists, WXYZ.

And this symbol is called a Merkaba.

And if you look really closely at my hand,

there s this really cool sculpted ring

that was custom sculpted by Engel Stora,

another very young designer from Italy.

By this time I had started incorporating larger houses

and designers into my looks.

Oh, this look is really giving good cleavage.

Real good post 50-year-old cleavage.

The makeup was fantastic. Melanesia Hunter.

I was so honored that year

because I went with Marni, Francesco Risso.

And he put so much thought into this.

He knew that I liked wearing things

that make noise and music.

Yasmin Amira sat with me that whole day,

beading these braids.

And as we were getting out of the car,

all of the braids just tangled up together

and we were standing on the side of the car

trying to untangle all of these.

I remember looking over, looking at Francesco,

waiting for me at red carpet going,

You know, you know, we gotta go.

Oh, this being my first Vogue World runway.

My first runway ever, period.

I always thought I was too short to do runway,

so I didn t even think about it.

You see the chains and bells,

and around my neck I m wearing my own talismans and amulets.

It s my hat and scarf.

We just kind of threw this whole thing together.

It s actually two young designers.

I d never walked on a runway or walked on cobblestone

with platforms.

I think I did pretty good for my first time.

Oh! Now this was pretty fantastic, if I must say so myself.

I m wearing Badu World Market accessories.

These shoes, which I call anemones,

were made by my best designer.

Her name is Myah Hasbany.

She s a student, she s only 19 years old.

She went to my high school, Booker T Washington,

for the Performing and Visual Art.

These are leg warmers, the anemones, and they re also shoes.

They re also armbands.

So since Rick Owens does not dress people for his shows,

I went to the showroom

and bought these things off the floor.

The hooded robe and pants set.

Put one of my best brims on, I call it bottle drip.

Oh wow, wow, wow, wow.

This was the last shot of the day, actually.

The golden hour shot.

I just did a collab with Marni

and this is one of the feature pieces.

I was blown away. I was blown away.

I felt like I was seen.

I felt like I was recognized for how passionate

and serious my love for fashion and art is.

That s me.

It s Erykah from South Dallas on the cover of Vogue.

I m a Black woman and I m a woman and I m a human

and I m a spiritual being and I m a mother and a doula.

And I see all of that, in that profile.

What a wonderful profile.

Thank you for what a day, what a life!

This was my Life in Looks.

And I m very grateful.

And at this time,

I m going to sign my Jane Handcuff.

[gentle music]