RED CARPET REVOLUTION

JASON BOLDEN

THE POWER DRESSER

In 2011, Gabrielle Union needed a dress for a swanky Art Basel event. So she called her friend Jason Bolden, then the owner of a popular New York vintage store. He rifled through the racks and instinctively selected an archival Lanvin gown in a geometric pattern (above, centre). “I did a favour for a dear friend and days later the phone rang, and I literally have not stopped working since,” Bolden recalls. “I didn’t know that dressing her for an event was going to snowball my career. It was all kind of a perfect mistake.”

Today, Bolden’s client list is a who’s who of black Hollywood: Union is still on his roster, as are Serena Williams, Alicia Keys, Yara Shahidi, Cynthia Erivo, Taraji P Henson and transgender actor Janet Mock. Bolden, whose process has recently been the focus of a glossy Netflix docu-series , could no sooner choose a favourite client than a parent could a favourite child. “They all bring something so different,” Bolden enthuses. “I’m blessed that I get to enjoy and take up space in their lives.”