Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield “Does What Feels Right” with His Red Carpet Style

Hi, I'm Lakeith Stanfield,

and this is the timeline of my fashion for Vanity Fair.

This picture is 2013, South by Southwest,

my very first, first, first festival

and first anything being photographed.

Pretty much all I knew about the business at that point

is that there was a thing called the red carpet,

so it was cool to finally get my 10 toes on it.

It was very strange but also exciting.

I felt like I'd kind of made it in some way I guess.

I wore a button up because I thought button ups

meant more business or whatever,

and that's an old amulet piece I had

that's kinda sentimental to me.

A family member gave it to me.

But I thought I should present myself

in a more approachable way, a more business way,

so I tried to do the button up thing.

But that button up wasn't mine.

It was some friend of mine's who was much bigger than me,

so it's like three times bigger than me.

Everything at that point seemed that I had manifested it

through some magic.

All the symbols that I had imbued with intention

were showing up everywhere.

It was the third month of the year in 2013.

Those are two numbers that I imbued with intention

just maybe months before all this stuff happened,

and I kept seeing the same symbols popping up.

It seemed to be something that was meant to be,

so yeah, that was what I remember about that.

And I remember just being really driven and dedicated

to use this opportunity to just do what I love.

2013 LA FilmFest, that's when I was Keith Stanfield.

I just dropped the La.

People were having so much problems with it.

They were like, are you (speaking gibberish)?

I'm like, it's just Lakeith, bro.

So I was like, I want to make it easy on everybody,

Keith Stanfield.

But no, it's Lakeith.

That's my mom's hat,

and I didn't have any clothes or anything to wear.

And so, those are my Payless moccasins

and my tattered jeans that I had for like two years

and this button up that I had for a while.

And as I was walking out, I just grabbed my mom's hat

and put it on my head, and I was like,

I'm wearing this to the premiere.

And she was like, cool.

This photo was in 2014 at the Selma premiere.

That was a morning that is like many of my mornings

where I wake up and I just feel driven by forces

that I don't understand.

The voice said shave off half your head,

and so, I did.

I didn't question it.

I just went in the bathroom, shaved it,

and was like, alright, here we go.

In my mind, it was a ritual of sorts

because Selma at that time

was the biggest thing I had done thus far.

And I always like to keep one foot grounded

and one foot in whatever I'm doing,

and so, half of my head being cut off

was a symbolism for balance.

It makes sense in my head,

but it probably doesn't make any sense.

I just look crazy.

I love bow ties, yes.

And I kinda felt like,

for some reason I felt like Spiderman.

I'm not sure what that pose is,

but it's kinda like that's how I feel Spiderman,

I don't know.

It was very, very moving,

and it's the kind of work that I've always wanted to do,

something that was like real, that really happened.

I was playing a guy who got killed by a cop

when he was fucking like 17,

so I feel like I was kinda taking his spirit or something

and being a voice for him

and a lot of people that are killed unjustly.

As a result of all the pain and stuff

that people had to go through,

now I can share this with people,

and so, it's kind of a silver lining.

And so I felt good and I hope that I will continue to do

work that was meaningful.

That is 2015 at the Dope premiere.

Damn, nice suit, bro.

That is a woman's suit.

I told all my stylists at the time

that I wanted to wear a woman's suit,

and so they found that one

and it was brilliant and beautiful

and it was like, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I have to do this

also because Dope is such a fun, poppy, colorful movie

that I kinda wanted to pay homage to that.

I just really loved the suit.

It was fucking dope.

When it comes to my style,

I do what feels right.

2016 at the Fox and FX Golden Globes party,

I had just shot a movie

called War Machine in Ras al-Khaimah.

I got a whole bunch of cool little

headscarf things from there

and it was just like really beautiful patterns and stuff.

You know, I was thinking like,

I'm feeling very spiritual today,

so I just wrapped my head up and went.

Well, what people think about you's in their mind, not yours

so I don't really care that much.

But I am a little

bluebird flapping around.

I'm a Leo, and I'm a performer,

so I'm very conscious of all of that.

So yeah, I guess it's like

caring and not caring mixed together.

Golden Globes 2017.

I decided I'm not playing around,

and I just want to feel like an actor or something.

So I was like, get me something that feels really like,

just normal, I guess or whatever.

So yeah, then I got that and I was like, this is dope.

And I felt good.

I was playing a role there.

I was like, oh, I'm an actor, you know, on the carpet.

Those things aren't really as fun as they seem all the time.

And I just remember being like, damn, this is long.

When can we go, and can I get another wine please?

This is 2018 on the stage of the Oscars.

I was shooting a movie in Germany,

and I got a call and it was like,

oh, you want to be at the Oscars and do this little thing?

I was like, okay cool.

So I fly down just to do this bit

that you see me in here.

So I'm backstage,

there's a bunch of pandemonium and craziness going on,

and then they're like, alright, go on stage.

Put on your Get Out suit.

It was a long time since I'd seen this outfit,

so it was kinda funny.

And they had the exact outfit.

It was like, where the hell did you guys get this?

And so, I put on the outfit,

and they kinda just like push me out on stage.

It was the strangest thing.

All these people and all these, you know, (claps),

and I was just like, Get Out.

And it felt kinda metaphorical in a weird way.

It just felt really strange,

and then I ran backstage and I tweeted immediately,

that was strange.

And then some articles picked it up

and was like, he said that was strange.

It was like, oh yeah, I forgot I can't say anything.

And then I jumped on a plane and went back to Germany.

It's just a strange outfit, isn't it?

And New Balances are crazy shoes.

They're really comfortable.

I remember actually in terms of that outfit,

I remember coming on the day and being like,

okay, I can't wait to see what this guy wears

when he becomes possessed by this white man.

And when I saw the outfit, I was a little crestfallen.

I was like, this sucks, this is boring.

I was expecting to be like some suspenders

and something like kinda weird,

but it was just that.

Yeah, 2018 Atlanta.

The fabric of the season was important to me,

and it meant a lot to me because all of us

had things robbed from us,

things robbed from our real lives and got intertwined

with the characters that we were playing,

so it just meant a lot so I wanted to commemorate

what we had just done.

I was like, I'm on the nose of corny,

so I was like, let me put on a robber suit.

I was like, man, I want to just

dress like a robber or something.

I found this beanie

but all the holes are in the wrong places,

so if you look at it, it's kinda like not on right.

But I said I got it, so I'm wearing it.

And yeah, I like to wear things that complement the art.

I just try to honor the process to the bitter end

or sometimes the sweet end

and always just keep in mind what I'm there for.

The art doesn't really stop when the movie stops.

It's kinda just getting started.

2018 BET Awards.

Since I was little, I just used to always play around

with wigs and stuff.

I bought a whole bunch of wigs,

and my plan was to just buy a bunch of tickets

for Sorry to Bother You when it came out,

hide them in wigs and then put them around theaters

and then tweet it or Instagram,

go find tickets in these wigs.

As I was shopping for wigs,

this was one of the first ones I found

and it was just gorgeous.

And that again was just like the half head shaved thing.

It was just like, put a wig on.

I was like, alright, and I put it on.

But I also, I knew that going to BET with that on

would be different than going to other places with that on.

It's just a, it's a little bit of more trepidation

when it comes to shit like that,

so I thought it would be fun to play around with it.

So yeah.

And I definitely got some crazy ass looks.

And it was hot as hell.

So I ended up taking it off halfway through the show.

Those fans in the little pit thing, they're insane,

so they were going crazy.

So I just like threw the wig at them,

and they were like ripping each other for it, for this wig.

I don't know who got it, but it was fun.

Somebody got it, yeah.

They probably got it on eBay or something for five cents.

You gotta be a special kind of weird to just be like,

okay, I'm gonna put this wig on.

That's what a lot of those moments are.

It's not even really just me.

It's just like something else, that's just like, bloop,

and I just let it happen.

I don't get in its way.

A lot of times, I'm wearing real expensive stuff.

I try not to take it for granted too much,

but at the same time, yeah, it's fun.

And it's something that is kind of a

luxury part of my lifestyle now.

I have access as time has went on to more stuff,

so I was able to grab more stuff and do different things.

That's where I was coming from.

I was just like naked wolf boy

and then now I'm like in a whole bunch of Gucci wolf boy.