Pyer Moss designer Kerby Jean-Raymond gave Black creatives a reason to celebrate last night and celebrate they did. To a packed house at the Kings Theater in Flatbush Brooklyn, Jean-Raymond presented his collection 3 for his CFDA award winning mens and womenswear brand, Pyer Moss. For the past 3 years, Jean-Raymond has chosen to work with brands who, while popular and successful, never gained the kind of accolades he himself now receives. Namely, these are Black brands who are recognizable from their mass-market names but ultimately never embraced by the often critical and racist traditional world of fashion. First, Jean-Raymond took on Cross Colours. Then, it was FUBU, and, this season, Sean John got the Pyer Moss treatment because Jean-Raymond is emphatic about the past, present and future uniting. His shows can often feel like a history lesson and last night was an exceptional display of music, fashion and transcendent creative energy. Many people, including editors and models, were in tears. If you’ve ever looked at the stone-faced front row of a fashion show, you would understand how very rare it is to get an idiom of emotion out of a single attendee. 

Jean-Raymond manages to his shows an experience and as a testament to the talent that showed up for him last night, at 10:30 pm on a Sunday no less, he is one of the most well-liked people in the industry, design abilities aside. The show began with a riveting spoken word performance from 32 year old Texas native and Harvard graduate Casey Gerald about the magical nature of Black people based on plantation folklore. Gerald, author of, There Will Be No Miracles, set the tone by declaring that we were rejecting the false narratives constantly told about Black people. We are not just made to work. We invented rock and roll. We can fly. He said “I am not your n****r!” to a rowdy chorus of cheers and Amens from the crowd. Then an all-Black choir of dozens of men and women took the stage with a band to provide the inspirational and very-Black soundtrack for the runway show.

The Pyer Moss brand began in 2013 and since then, Jean-Raymond has made a point to only use models of color in his shows, particularly Black ones. He pours every ounce of his being into celebrating our people and our culture and does so tirelessly. As a go-to designer for La La Anthony, Lena Waithe and countless athletes, Jean-Raymond was newly appointed by Tom Ford to the CFDA. And though he has often been labeled a “disruptor” to the fashion industry, he continues to till the soil of change, and hack away at broken old systems, opinions and biases. It is very rare that the smartest guy in the room is also the coolest, but Jean-Raymond proves that you really can do it all.

If my personal cosign is not enough, take a look at the dozens of powerful Black celebrities that were grooving along to his full choir who provided the musical stylings for the show, singing the gamut from Tina Turner’s "Proud Mary," Anita Baker’s "Sweet Love," Cardi B’s "Money" and finally, "Make Me Over Lord." We were all blessed to be a witness to the greatness that is Pyer Moss that continues to uplift, inspire, and, of course, keep us looking fly AF.

RELATED: Pyer Moss Designer Kerby Jean-Raymond Debuts "Seven Mothers" Short Film At NYC Pop-Up Shop.