Emblazoned across the back of a sheer fuchsia Christopher John Rogers ensemble, in vintage script lettering and thousands of painstakingly placed blue & purple Swarovski crystals is a single word:

“DRAMA!”

That extravagant expression reveals not only his approach to fashion with his voluminous and kaleidoscopic designs, but also a few simple truths about his eccentric perspective.

“I grew up gay, black, Southern Baptist and my grandmother was the head of our church,” the 25-year-old explains. “For me, there’s nothing wrong with effortful dressing.”

It seems that some of fashion’s most esteemed names agreed when they awarded him the prestigious 2019 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) / Vogue Fashion Fund, a prize designed “to help emerging American design talent find continued success in the business of fashion” with an intensive design mentorship and $400,000 pocket change, too.

It’s a monumental accomplishment for the Baton Rouge, Louisiana designer who only just debuted at 2018’s New York Fashion Week with a collection that he delightfully characterized as “a debutante ball thrown at Stonehenge and illustrated by Dr. Seuss,” and sewed from his Brooklyn living room while working full-time at Diane von Furstenberg. His win goes deeper than what’s on the surface, though. On Christopher John’s runways, the models themselves complete his vivid vision, running the gamut of race, gender and age. Recognizing his work so prominently is in turn a recognition of the diversity he brings to a woefully misrepresentative industry.

“I’ve always known variety to be standard,” he recalls, and it shows in every detail of his presentation. “’Inclusion’ and ‘diversity’ are trending right now, but I feel like there’s also a real opportunity to encourage permanence on that front by celebrating the excellence and hard work of those people. The more colorful the room is, the better everything is for everyone.”

And so far, his brand of color and variety have kept Christopher John Rogers in high demand. Since his NYFW debut, he’s dressed some of the most famous and fashionable black women in the world – Tracee Ellis Ross, SZA, Regina King, Lizzo and former First Lady Michelle Obama (after whose message he says, “I immediately threw my phone across the room”) among them. True to his desire to better things for everyone, this year, Christopher John’s ready-to-wear designs will be sold in stores nationwide and online, and almost certainly inspired by one of the many key messages in his collections: “It’s not about a girl wearing a suit or a guy wearing a heel, it’s about fully embodying the nuances of yourself when dressing up. It’s about you feeling yourself.”

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