Victoria Monét Gets Red Carpet Ready

What's up, Vogue?

It is your girl, Victoria Monét,

and I am here in New York City getting ready for the CFDAs,

come join me.

[upbeat music]

It's my first time going to the CFDAs,

so I'm really, really excited to be a part of this event

with the LaQuan Smith,

he's dressed me in something so beautiful and custom,

and I feel really great in it,

we had a fitting earlier today.

So I'm super, super excited to get sexy.

I just had an album release party

because I just released a Jaguar II Deluxe,

go stream, shameless plug,

but for the party I wore LaQuan Smith,

and I posted this video,

and not long after I posted this reel of what I wore,

LaQuan himself posted it on his page,

not long after that I found out about the invite to this.

I actually enjoy his work and wear his designs,

so it feels like a match made in heaven,

a match made in NYC.

[bright upbeat music]

The look of everything usually is driven by wardrobe.

The fitting will happen

and we'll try our best to send all of our glam team images,

so that way we can all collaborate on

what the full look should be.

You see the smoke coming off my hair?

This is the icon, Davontaé, he's been doing my hair for,

ooh, what is it like six years now?

I was doing a shoot and so the first time I worked with him,

I had another hairstylist, but I was like,

Let's just see how he does,

we'll have him come in and assist the other hairstylist.

But like, well, he took that lady job.

[everyone laughing]

He was just so attentive and so amazing and a perfectionist,

every shot had my back so well,

he even poured honey down my ass.

Can I say ass?

It was for Ass Like That,

a song I have called Ass Like That.

There was a shot, an outtake that we never actually

put as the artwork, but it's just like my butt

with like honey going down it,

and he was just,

he was down to help with everything

and the sentiment was really special.

With the bold cutouts of the dress,

we want something that's just not overwhelming

and complements the dress really well.

So, we decided to do a sleek bun look.

So on my nails today I have the beautiful, stunning, Coca.

[Victoria laughing]

She's really, really such a visionary, she's such an artist.

So as with most looks, we tend to kind of

bounce ideas back and forth,

Vic will send me kind of like what kind of vibe she's in,

but we traditionally stick to original tapered almond shape,

and Vic loves anything that's sparkly.

So today is very much that,

but we kind of elevated the look

with hanging some smoky crystals from her nails

just to kind of bring the dress and the whole look together.

[upbeat music] [camera clicking]

When I first moved to LA,

I was sitting in front of In-N-Out

with this girl group I was in with the little In-N-Out cup

so people would put money in there,

but it was good practice, we were singing lots

of Destiny's Child covers and stuff, SWV.

I would say in the past two years,

my life has gone up a couple notches,

it's been a really cool transition.

Also just to see my personal development and growth

with fashion and confidence even.

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I think there's always moments in the back of your mind

where you have doubt,

but I feel like they're only to juxtapose the moments

where you're completely sure,

just so that you know that you wanna do this.

Because coming into this, I knew that it would be hard,

I knew it was like, you know, if people have a dream

of going to the NFL, you're looking at a six-year-old kid

and you're like, What do you wanna be when you grow up?

He's like, I wanna be a rapper.

Like, Yeah, okay.

You know, sometimes a teacher's approach or response

will be like, Okay, well what else,

like what's there're to fall back on?

You know?

And it's up to that child to maintain their dream

and work hard enough through the difficulties that

that pursuit would bring, to push through all the noise

and get what they want, and I think it's just a part

of my story to fight through those doubts, you know?

[bright gentle music] [camera clicking]

I think when I first gave birth,

it affected my music quite literally

because my voice was different after giving birth,

it was lower, richer,

and so some of the ideas I had in my head

just didn't suit the vocal ability that I had at the time,

so I had to change the dynamic of how I would write.

I feel like it was a divine plan,

because I spent 10,000 hours

developing my songwriting and singing

in order to be able to do what I wanna do in less time.

It definitely also changes your priorities

and how you spend your time

and also the consideration for the other parent,

consideration for the child.

With my career, I'm not able to be there as much

as I would love to,

and so I wrote a book called Everywhere You Are,

which is kind of a conversation between a moon and a star.

The sentiment is that even when we're apart, we're together,

because we love each other and our souls are tied together.

I think that's part of what love is,

and it's not something that is tangible,

and it's something that you feel,

and it doesn't go away, especially for your baby.

So on makeup today, we have the beautiful Angie.

Your makeup style is like just snatched and clean and fresh,

and she's really hot.

[Victoria laughing]

Thanks.

Well I feel like today, we really wanted

to accentuate the shape of her eye

and kind of extend it out

to give her very like feline-esque eye,

'cause I mean, she's a Jaguar, so.

Yeah, we were definitely playing off of that tonight.

What I will say about my glam squad

is I actually really love them

and I wanna hang out with them after we're done,

which is a really, really good sign.

Energy is really important.

It's the beginning of how your event will go,

you know, or your day.

I really love them so much, a special crew.

[upbeat music]

[camera clicking]

Thank you so much for watching.

[upbeat music]