A Dallas-based designer was featured on the national stage recently.
Venny Etienne, the designer of Levenity fashion line, was one of the designers handpicked to design clothes for Beyoncé’s visual album “Black Is King” on Disney Plus.
“There is nothing else to do but to be completely in shock in that moment when I got the call. I think at that time, I hired on two interns here locally that same week. I told them that they had to sign a contract because we were about to dress a client. They looked at me and were like ‘Well who is it, Beyoncé?!’ and I said just finish signing the contract,” Etienne explained.
Beyoncé is seen in the 85-minute film wearing dozens of costumes and Etienne’s journey to being one of the designers started years ago.
“One of the things that I always loved to focus on is just networking with finding out who your team is. Like social media is such a great tool to get to know who people are surrounded by, who their stylists are. Who is their makeup artist? I just reached out through Instagram to shoot my look book over and this was like four years ago. We have been inching on in and finally, that moment came," Etienne said.
Etienne is no stranger to the spotlight. He’s been in the fashion industry in the last 12 years and finished in the top seven of Bravo’s Project Runway’s most recent season.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
In his case, persistence paid off and that is the advice he gives anyone who is trying to make their dreams come true. Especially for people of color who have felt like their hard work has gone unnoticed for so long.
”I would say just to keep going. I believe that the moment we are in right now is really shining our designers of color and Black creatives and its moments like this where Beyoncé helps people like us have a voice. It is giving me the opportunity to do the same for others. So I just feel like we need to support each other and be there for one another in terms of supporting businesses. There are so many different things the Black community can do, We just don’t have that platform, but now it’s starting to happen,” Etienne said.
