Tessa Thompson’s Mom Helped Pick Her Favorite Red-Carpet Dress

Tessa Thompson has worn a number of red-carpet hits, from her Valentino minidress at the Creed premiere in L.A. to the multipatterned Marc Jacobs gown at the film’s London premiere. But there’s one look in particular that the actress recalls as her favorite: the Rodarte gown she wore to the Selma premiere in 2014.

“They did a very special thing, which they let my mom look at the dresses before me at our fitting,” says the actress of her stylists Wayman Bannerman and Micah McDonald, recognized collectively as Wayman + Micah. “I was in the other room and I just heard my mom go ‘Ooh,’ ‘Oh,’ ‘Ooh, this one is kind of like mixed media.'”

“That sounds frightening,” recalls Thompson of hearing her mom describe the Rodarte look. “I’m not wearing a mixed-media dress. And then I walked in and it was stunning. It was so different than anything else on the rack.”

Since then, the 32-year-old star has been seen rocking Rodarte on multiple occasions and attending designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy’s show during New York Fashion Week. And you can bet she’s got her style gurus right by her side.

Watch the trio chat more about their fittings below.