Sergio Hudson’s Power Dressing

In Southern Black communities, the church house on Sunday mornings isn’t just a sanctuary — it’s a runway. Getting dressed up is how you show respect for yourself, for a higher power, and also for each other; it tells the world that gathering in community, and offering oneself to a mission, is a matter of utmost importance.

Sergio Hudson, fashion designer and founder of women’s ready-to-wear brand Sergio Hudson Collections, is originally from Ridgeway, South Carolina, and tells me the South gave him a language to talk about clothes and style. “I have a very Southern mother. She likes to call herself a Southern belle,” Hudson says, with an unmistakably rich Southern accent — slow, thick, with a lilt of delight. “When she steps out of the house, she’s going to look a certain way, especially when she’s going to church. The Southern church experience shaped how I see women and how they dress and how I think they should dress.”

It is no wonder his often boldly colorful but neatly elegant dresses and suiting have found fans in Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, and Beyoncé: His designs exude pure, and mature, power.

“My lane is definitely the woman who is a traditional woman, but she walks to the beat of her own drum in a certain way. A lot of CEOs, a lot of lawyers, a lot of newscasters,” Hudson says. “Powerful women who have to be seen, but they don’t want to be seen just for what they have on. Feminine women that have to walk in male spaces and still look feminine.”

In other words: “She’s a boss — and I know that’s an overused term these days, but every client I know personally that we have, she’s the boss,” he continues, his posture shifting with pride. “That’s one thing that they all have in common. They all run some type of company, a charity, or they run their husband’s business or something like that. No wallflowers, for sure.”

“I am suited out. I told my team, ‘I’m not putting a necktie on another woman for at least the next five years. I’m done.’”

The Inglewood, California, apartment we’re chatting in is a tribute to these kinds of women. It’s the first place Hudson lived in when he moved to Los Angeles in 2016, and although he and his husband live primarily in West Hollywood now, he has held onto the place as a kind of museum of inspiration: Its navy walls are covered with portraits, drawings, and Hollywood posters of divas and models.

“When I lived here, we really decorated this place just out of all those influences that we had growing up,” Hudson says. The 41-year-old loves a bit of history: “There’s nothing more intoxicating than watching a good documentary about some woman that changed the world. Any documentary on Cleopatra, I’ve probably seen. It comes up on the TV, and I’m just like, ‘I’m going to watch that.’” And he likes scripted TV shows that match his design instincts: “The girls have to be dressed really well, or it has to be extremely dramatic, like a soap-opera-type show for me to get into it. I want, like, ‘I killed my husband and then I married his daddy, and I’m wearing a couture dress in the basement.’ I want stuff like that.”

Despite the glamorous digs and A-list clientele, the designer’s personal style sense is understated. Hudson, who’s wearing almost head-to-toe black when we sat down to chat, tells me he was a big fan of Demna’s run at Balenciaga. “He made clothes that fit me. I’m a bigger guy, so I have a lot of Balenciaga from Demna. He’s told me he’s going to do the same thing at Gucci, so we’ll see how that goes.” But beyond that, Hudson — who makes many of his own clothes — calls his fashion sense “basic.” When you’re busy dressing other people, chic simplicity is key. “Black T-shirt, black turtleneck, black sweater. Black tuxedo pants, a good Balenciaga or Bottega boot. That’s me. I love luxury.” On the day we meet, only a metallic chrome manicure hinted at a little extra razzle dazzle.

“Luxury fashion will never completely go online. When you buy something at a certain price point, you want to know why you’re spending that. You don’t want to order it online and get it shipped to your house.”

Hudson ran his own design business in South California for nearly a decade before reality TV took his career to the next level. In 2013, he won Bravo’s one-season fashion competition Styled to Rock. On the back of that, he officially launched Sergio Hudson Collections in 2016 and made his New York Fashion Week debut in 2020. “I think Styled to Rock was a turning point for me where I realized the power of dressing a celebrity and being influenced by their style, as well as influencing their style,” Hudson says of the Rihanna-hosted show, which tasked contestants with designing looks for musicians like Miley Cyrus, Kylie Minogue, and Carly Rae Jepsen. “It was a turning point for me in how I designed, because before then, I was designing for a clientele which was very Southern, very event-driven. A lot of ball gowns and a lot of cocktail dresses.”

Today, Hudson has a rich network of celebrity clients who trust his taste implicitly. Just last month, the designer joined Ciara on the carpet of the CFDA Fashion Awards, where she donned a double-breasted blazer with wide-leg trousers and an ivory fur coat for an angelic power-suit ensemble — the very blend of femininity and toughness Hudson is known for. “Pretty much she let me have my own way. She just was like, ‘I want to wear a suit.’ So whatever suit I came up with, she was going to wear it,” Hudson says. “It just was very organic. She was down for the cause. And I think those are the best custom moments. It always works out great when they let you do your thing.”

This year’s Met Gala’s theme, “Tailored for You” — which celebrated The Met Costume Institute’s accompanying Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit — was another chance for Hudson to shine.

The designer created custom looks for 18 people to wear to fashion’s biggest night, including Stevie Wonder, Quinta Brunson, Adrienne Warren, and Rachel Brosnahan. (But that roster alone doesn’t capture his impact: “Because once I walked into the Met Gala, it was so many people there that had purchased my clothes from a store,” he says.) “We didn’t struggle that much with actually coming up with the ideas because it was in our wheelhouse. So I think that’s one of the reasons, now that I’m thinking about it, that it was easy for us to do that many people,” he says. “The most challenging part was trying to make the women who didn't want to wear suits a gown that spoke to the theme as well.”

Still: “I am suited out. I told my team, ‘I’m not putting a necktie on another woman for at least the next five years. I’m done,’” he adds, only half-joking.

When I ask which fashion trends he’s most excited about these days, his answer is perfectly on brand. “What’s exciting to me is women wanting to dress again. You know what I mean?” he says. (I suddenly feel self-conscious in my uniform of Mother jeans, Camper boots, and a nondescript black top.) “I felt like during COVID, everybody got so comfortable, but after that everybody was like, ‘OK, let’s dress up again!’ I’m not great at casual clothes. When my mom would wear jeans, she would have on boots and a sweater and a big coat. It was always a fashion moment. I kind of go from jogging pants to gown. There’s nothing in between for me.”

“To survive 10 years in the fashion industry — for a minority-owned brand at this level, selling to these types of stores, 10 years is like 100 years.”

Hudson sells direct to consumers through his website, but he says he relies on the luxury retailers like Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Bloomingdale’s that carry his line. “My brand, it doesn’t do well online. I do much better in-store because people can see the fabric, feel the linings,” he explains. “I personally believe that luxury fashion will never completely go online. Because when you buy a great Hermès bag, you want to go in the store, and you want to feel it. You want to have the experience of walking in Chanel and buying your first Chanel purse. You don’t want to order it online and get it shipped to your house. When you buy something at a certain price point, you want to know why you’re spending that.”

Next year will mark Sergio Hudson Collections’ 10-year anniversary. “It’s 10 years for the brand, but it’s about 35, 36 years for me to get to this position,” Hudson says. “And just to survive 10 years in the fashion industry — for a minority-owned brand at this level, selling to these types of stores, 10 years is like 100 years.”

When I ask Hudson how he plans to celebrate this journey, he pauses for a moment, as if he hadn’t even considered doing so. “Maybe I should,” he says. Hudson sometimes struggles with the public-facing side of his job — “trying to be a personality, doing things like this [interview], being on social media,” and, perhaps, owning his wins. “I’m constantly working on that.” But the clothes? “We’re planning a fabulous collection,” he says confidently, a manifestation and a promise. “It’s going to be exquisite.”