From Cardi B To Kim Petras, Christian Cowan Empowers Women Through Fashion

By Evan Ross Katz


"Christian Cowan really brought Ms. Bellum to life… I’m screaming," one Twitter user remarked. Some also caught the references to HIM, the flamboyant demon that routinely wreaked havoc on the people of Townsville. And obviously there was the opener, featuring completely realized, high-sparkle versions of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.


Much less than a month right after his New York Style Week FW19 runway, designer Christian Cowan debuted his latest work, a group effort with Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls, before a Los Angeles crowd that included Heidi Klum, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tinashe, Erika Jayne, Skai Jackson, Kim Petras, and Betty Who. Paris Hilton, who walked in Cowan's debut NYFW show back in 2017, closed out this show; Cowan took his final bow alongside Hilton, grabbing his mother at the mouth of the runway and walking the last of the multi-colored pastel catwalk arm in arm with both ladies. “Really my mom is the root of it all,” he tells me backstage minutes before the show.


That the collection inspired by a trio of crime-fighting young ladies was rolled out on International Women's Day was nothing close to coincidence, however rather in line with the ethos of a brand that seeks to celebrate the aesthetics and power of females. Cowan's love, appreciation, and emulation of girls is expressed verbally in our interview backstage moments before the show, where he recounts influences including his mother and best friend. Nevertheless it's in the smaller, far less self-aware moments where this comes through more pointedly: watching him run between models, personally making sure they not only look good, yet feel good in what they're wearing. "You feeling good?" He asks one model. "Of course. Are you feeling good?" She asks, almost to underline another momentous moment in the career of one of fashion's buzziest names.


Cowan’s managed to artfully maneuver countless levers categorize in attempt to increase status at the age of 24. There’s the industry cred, which includes being a 2018 CFDA/Vogue Style Fund finalist along with collabs with designers Giuseppe Zanotti and Eugenia Kim. Yet there’s a much less trodden path for a designer as young as Cowan: that of celebrity dressing. From Beyoncé to Gaga, Cardi to Ariana, Normani to Charli XCX, these days it seems the list of celebs Cowan hasn’t dressed outweighs the list of who he has. Need more proof? There’s Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey, Rita Ora, Janelle Monae, Hailee Steinfeld, Beth Ditto, Gwen Stefani, Remy Ma, Camila Cabello, and more.


“I often think about this,” Cowan admits to MTV News once asked about gay men’s long-mused-upon iconography of females as instead of other gay gentlemen. “This is a society that’s driven by straight males and thus it’s like ladies are marginalized and gay boys are marginalized and thus I think we come with each other on that. Although more importantly, I think it’s often females who have supported us in our lives. I certainly will attest to that whether it be my mother, my best companions, or maybe female editors in the industry, they’ve all been there and helped push me out of my box of being a shy gay kid."


Cowan (center) with his mother (left) and Paris Hilton (right) at the Christian Cowan x The Powerpuff Females style show


And that support has been reciprocated by several of the female celebrities who not only wear Cowan, although continue to wear and support the brand. Take, for instance, Cardi B, who chose a Cowan look for her debut album cover. She then wore a lavender leather ensemble from his SS19 runway at her efficiency at the Etam lingerie show while in Paris Style Week. Most recently, she chose a custom look for her recent “Money” video that featured 90 watches fashioned into a bodysuit and headpiece. The look, according to Cowan, was at Cardi’s request. (Fun fact: Rihanna once passed on an identically designed look from Cowan, calling it “the most ghetto shit [she’d] ever seen in her life.”)


It’s this categorize kind of loyalty from celebrities with as much clout as Cardi that’s traditional Cowan as no one-trick pony. Yet it’s a loyalty that is earned through a symbiotic relationship, one that is customary through conversations with the celebrity and their stylist about the image or message they desire to convey through clothing. “I never wish to prepare something and just shove the person into it; it’s habitually a collaborative process,” he says. To that end, Cowan worked with Cardi to prepare the custom look she wore while in a April appearance on SNL, a design that would serve as a pregnancy announcement mid-performance.


Cardi B performs on Saturday Night Live


“Christian Cowan empowers ladies through style in so several ways,” mentioned RuPaul’s Drag Race star and transgender contributor Gia Gunn, who was in attendance at the show. “I personally love how sexy the pieces are, taking the cartoon concept and updating it for a modern woman. We all know if a woman can feel sexy although however comfortable in her attire she’s going to feel the utmost confidence along with quite empowered! His pieces are certainly for the females who hope to prepare a statement without being ‘too much.’”


“Every time a woman wears my clothes I visualize them smiling or laughing and that’s what I want to achieve for the rest of my career," Cowan says. Whenever they’re not hiding and so they feel cute and confident, and I feel like that confidence reveals their personality.”


It’s a message that seems in agreement with style, an industry that ostensibly is add onto the idea of celebrating girls, although one that often gets drowned out by way of the its actions. Take, for instance, Virgil Abloh’s second Louis Vuitton show in January, where Ian Connor, a gentleman accused of rape by 21 ladies sat front row. “Why do fashion's #MeToo moments keep getting swept under the rug?” Refinery29 asked in October.


“We take very seriously events that happen in the industry, whether in or out of our control,” Anna Wintour recently told the Guardian. And while institutions like Condé Nast — which operates Vogue, W, and GQ — have rolled out new codes of conduct intended to better protect models, and corporations like the Council of Style Designers of America (CFDA) have prioritized “wellness” and “privacy,” issues pervade, particularly within an industry that centers the faces and bodies of girls, particularly young women.


"I do think there's been huge improvements,” Cowan mentioned. “One small example for instance is that there used to be backstage photographers at every show taking photographs of models getting ready. And right now that's become a large unanimous taboo. We are going to kick a photographer out of our backstage if they're taking photographs of models. Yet, I do think there can be more done on the corporate level. I have known with several corporations that have preached inclusivity and championing women's equality nevertheless they've not really had that in the corporation itself.”


It seems largely to be young designers like Cowan — and also other buzzy names Telfar Clemens and Palomo Spain — whose mindfulness around model safety and sustaining inclusivity as a practice versus solely lip service that are helping to shift the culture toward one that prioritizes the ladies, femmes, and non-binary individuals central to the industry.


So what’s next for Cowan? "Sleep?" I propose. No, needless to say not. "Onto the next collection."