Backstage at Jovana Louis’ NYFW show felt less like a runway call time and more like a film set waiting for its leading lady. Steamers hissed. Dressers whispered. The energy was part atelier, part awards season. And right in the center of it all sat Garcelle Beauvais calm, glowing, and wrapped in a robe with Manhattan’s winter skyline peeking through the window behind her.
“New York was no joke this week,” she laughed earlier, referencing the kind of cold that makes even seasoned fashion editors question their life choices. But if there is one thing Garcelle understands, it is how to make winter fashion work for you. Coats become armor. Boots become punctuation. Accessories become conversation starters. She does not survive fashion week. She styles through it.
Hair slicked into a sharp, glassy bob. Skin luminous but not loud. A sculpted eye that whispered old Hollywood instead of shouting trend. The glam was intentional, a nod to the collection’s cinematic spine. “The collection was exquisite,” Garcelle told me. “I love how Jovana tied it in with the film industry and old-school Hollywood aesthetic, yet with a modern, chic twist.”
The runway itself was designed like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Stars beneath her feet. Cameras flashing. A reminder that fashion, at its best, is performance art you can actually wear. And what she wore was exactly that: wearable art. A black velvet column gown anchored by a dramatic ivory sculptural wrap that framed her shoulders like a halo. The bodice, glossy and architectural, felt almost mechanical in its precision. Gloves added the final punctuation mark. Regal. Restrained. Unapologetic.
Walking the show, she said, took her back. “It brought me back to my early days of modeling in New York City. It was nostalgic.” There is something poetic about returning to the runway not as a newcomer but as a woman fully formed. “Seeing friends in the front row supporting me as I was walking, that was the icing on the cake.”
And then there is the deeper layer. Jovana Louis is Haitian. Garcelle is Haitian. In an industry that often forgets to widen its lens, this was a moment of intention. “It’s always important for us to support each other, but the fact that Jovana is Haitian makes it even more special,” she shared. She first wore Jovana for her debut Real Housewives reunion because she wanted to feature a Black designer. “It felt truly magical. I have never felt more beautiful.”
Fashion week moves fast. But this felt like legacy. Not just a walk. A full circle.