What are clothes, anyway?

A month or two ago, I was a fly on the wall for a conversation between Christopher John Rogers (a fashion designer who won the CFDA American Emerging Designer of the Year award last year) and Law Roach (mega stylist and "image architect" for people like Zendaya and Celine Dion) for the March issue of InStyle. I'm a massive fan of both of theirs, and it was kind of an I can’t believe this is my job moment for me.

The story came out this week, but I haven't stopped thinking about the conversation since. We were discussing what it meant to CJR (who is Black) to have been embraced by the Black community from the start of his career. This is what he said:

"When I first started, I didn’t have many pictures of myself out [there], it was just about the work. So the people who were responding really understood some of the implied references. Certain aspects of my work are informed by my experiences growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Going to church was a big part of my life, and my grand…