Theophilio
DESIGNER: Edvin Thompson PICTURED WITH: Melonee Rembert, model and friend
The 29-year-old Jamaican-born Edvin Thompson discovered designing while still in high school in New Jersey, but his real epiphany came in 2013 when he went to New York’s Afropunk festival. “That catapulted me into moving to New York: seeing all these people of color, Black creators all over the place. I was just like, I have to be around this,” says Thompson. He started putting out his own collections in 2016, and in 2021 he won the CFDA’s American Emerging Designer of the Year Award. By the time he showed his first collection in September 2020, he already had a following among celebrities like Solange and Gabrielle Union for his stretchy, racy designs. He has been friends with the model Melonee Rembert ever since they met through a mutual friend whose hair Rembert braided. “Understanding the woman’s body is so important for me,” says Thompson. “Melonee, a full-figured woman whom a lot of people aren’t used to seeing in certain skirts or dresses, I love how empowered she feels in the clothing.”
“I create the clothes, and that’s my part. So when a person puts the garment on, that other person is adding their part with their own opinions or what they think. It’s a collaboration.”