JUSTUS KELLEY BRINGS AFRICAN DIASPORA VOICE TO CENTENNIAL FASHION GALA CELEBRATING CULTURAL EXCHANGE
Twelve days after becoming the first married woman, first mother, and first woman in her 30s to win the Miss USA crown, Justus Kelley walked into the China Institute of America’s centennial black-tie fashion gala in New York on September 8, carrying a perspective shaped by years of living and working across Africa.
The China Institute, marking its 100th anniversary, assembled an impressive roster of designers of Chinese heritage for the evening, including Vera Wang, Jason Wu, Grace Chen, Yue-Sai Kan, Lynn Chen-Zhang, Vivienne Tam, Guo Pei and Fern Mallis. The gala celebrated the international reach of Chinese fashion and the cultural exchange it has fostered across generations.
Kelley’s presence, though, added a distinct dimension to the evening. Speaking with FORBES AFRICA at the event, the 31-year-old articulated a view of fashion rooted in her own cross-cultural experience, not in pageant talking points.
“What’s so beautiful about fashion is the way that it unites people across cultures, across differences,” she said. “We all may speak different languages, but when you see a fashion piece that excites us all, it doesn’t require communication. It’s something we share, the beauty of art.”
That conviction comes from lived experience. Kelley traces her ancestry to Cameroon and has spent considerable time across the continent. For several years she worked for Sankofa 360, an organization based in Accra, West Africa, a role she described as having “absolutely won my heart.” She and her husband also visited Johannesburg and Cape Town, and found themselves so drawn to South Africa that they considered relocating there. Her husband maintains his own connections to Nigeria, further deepening the family’s ties to the continent.
“Being a part of the diaspora, learning more about African culture, spending time in different countries, including Nigeria and South Africa, I’ve just loved these leadership experiences I’ve gained from each of those opportunities,” Kelley told FORBES AFRICA.
Meanwhile, designer Grace Chen used the gala to showcase a philosophy that mirrors Kelley’s instincts about fashion as a bridge. Her “Fashion Travel” series, also known as “Around the World in 80 Dresses,” launched in 2017 and has taken her couture to international settings including Kenya and Cairo, photographing clients wearing her designs in those locations. The project treats fashion, travel and art as tools for encouraging women to see themselves differently.
Chen’s advice to emerging designers was direct: “Make your dresses and your designs important to the person wearing them.” On the broader question of cross-cultural appeal, she was equally plain. “As long as people feel comfortable and confident in themselves, I think others will be interested. We have more in common than differences, believe me.”
The centennial evening also honored Vera Wang and Jason Wu, both of whom addressed the assembled guests. Wang’s designs have been worn by Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o and Issa Rae. Wu earned particular recognition for designing Michelle Obama’s inaugural ball gowns in 2009 and 2013, and has since dressed Nyong’o and Constance Wu, among others. Their careers formed the backbone of the evening’s argument: that designers of Chinese heritage have shaped global fashion in ways that extend well beyond any single market or cultural moment.
For Kelley, the gala was less a celebration of arrival than a continuation of a longer journey across cultures. Whether her platform as Miss USA translates that experience into something more visible on the international stage remains the question her tenure has only just begun to answer.