Lady Gaga’s Collaborator Brandon Maxwell Named Womenswear Designer Of The Year

Brandon Maxwell scooped up the Womenswear Designer of the Year Award at the CFDA Awards 2019, and cemented his status as one of the rising power players in American fashion. Maxwell cut his teeth working under Nicola Formichetti, who was Lady Gaga’s personal design director from 2009 to 2012, before taking on the role of the popstar’s lead creative himself. Maxwell founded his namesake brand in 2015 and, after growing a client list including Michelle Obama and the Duchess of Sussex, he handed his styling duties to Haus of Gaga assistants Sandra Amador and Tom Eerebout.

Maxwell’s ongoing friendship with Gaga is central to his success over the last year. He created the razor-back black ballgown the performer wore to pick up her Academy Award for Best Original Song “Shallow” in A Star is Born, and to subsequently perform it on stage with Bradley Cooper. The autumn/winter 2019 design made front-page news via the pictures of the co-stars crooning side-by-side and cheek-to-cheek on the same piano stool while Hollywood’s great and good watched on.

Cut to the Met Gala two months later, and Maxwell arguably received more airtime than any other designer owing to the fantastical creations he made for Gaga’s red-carpet appearance, nay performance. While posing alongside her, Maxwell helped the “Paparazzi” singer serve four looks – complete with numerous props – before she had even reached the top of the museum’s stairs.

Maxwell recognised the CFDA accolade as “really once-in-a-lifetime” during an emotional acceptance speech that also turned the spotlight on his peers (he was pitted against Rosie Assoulin, Marc Jacobs and Rodarte in the category). “I worked for 10 years as a stylist before I started my company with almost every single person in this room,” he said. “And I know that you are kind people and you work hard. We scrubbed up tonight and put on a suit, but the other 364 days of the year we are trying to pay the light bill and make it happen.”

Indeed, fellow stylist Zadrian Smith told Vogue just weeks ago that Maxwell was the only designer he felt was capable of realising the Aladdin global premiere look for his client Naomi Scott because of his background. “Brandon has the precision and the eye of a stylist,” he explained. “He thinks about how a dress will look in the photographs and how a woman can pose as he sketches it.” Prepare to see a sea of famous faces on Maxwell’s front row at his spring/summer 2020 show during New York Fashion Week.