83-Year-Old Lynn Wyatt Boogies Down in Texas Fashion Designer’s Buzzy New Campaign

In creating his spring/summer collection, America’s most buzzed-about designer Brandon Maxwell looked to his home state of Texas for inspiration and zeroed in on Houston style icon Lynn Wyatt, whom he labels “the ultimate muse.” So it seemed only fitting that when he created a video to highlight his new ad campaign, he turned to Wyatt to narrate it in her distinctive style.

Maxwell, who counts the Duchess of Sussex, Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama among his regular clients, flew from New York to Houston for the day with his collaborator, Jessy Price, and filmed Wyatt in the living room of her River Oaks home as she talked about the collection while viewing a film of model Emily DiDonato in several key looks.

Wyatt said there was very little stage direction. Maxwell just let her talk.

“He turned on the show and started taping me. I would say, something like, ‘Oh, gosh, I can wear that,’ and he would put his thumb up, (indicating) that’s great,” Wyatt recalled.

Indeed, the three minute video includes a number of Wyatt aphorisms spoken in her velvety Texas twang. At one point, she notes that Maxwell created a see-though plexiglass container for a champagne bottle. “Is that the best or what?” she says in the video.

Upon spotting a miniature purse the size of a pillbox, she says, “It just goes to show you not everything is bigger in Texas.”

Wyatt also comments on several key looks worn by DiDonato, including a “wearable” red pleated dress that has been the collection’s best seller — “This dress could go from a cocktail party to the symphony,” Wyatt notes — and a yellow satin jumpsuit. DiDonato could do a split in it, Wyatt says, but, alas, the model simply looks into the camera and smiles.

The video ends with a closeup of Wyatt who takes a twirl and says, “That’s the way you have fun with fashion.”

https://vimeo.com/312961857

The whole thing was done in one take. When Wyatt wondered if there should be another, Maxwell, who grew up in Longview before moving to New York, becoming Lady Gaga’s stylist and launching a fashion career, said, “Hell, no. It was perfect.”

“I was just so flattered that he invited me to do it. I was totally over the moon that he even thought of me,” Wyatt said, adding with a laugh, “At 83-and-a-half years old I’m still boogying.”