André 3000 Is Making Clothes Again

(Another only-by-André surprise? The piano EP he dropped out of the blue on his way to the red carpet Monday night.)

André last wore a bowtie in 2011, but at the fitting he appeared to be reacquainting himself with his sartorial roots, having shed the overalls for his own Ants by Benji Bixby suit, which fit impeccably over his vintage football jersey, the cropped trousers skimming the tops of his Nike Air Trainer 1s. Like the tuxedo, André’s crisp navy jacket had gussets on the back, a detail borrowed from hunting jackets. “It’s almost like when you’re making music, you’re in a certain zone or a certain vibe, and you kind of follow that vibe,” he said.

Looking at André’s ensemble, I was reminded of OG Benjamin Bixby, but with age his bawdy, clubby menswear vision has taken on a new worldliness—deepened by travel, a recommitment to art and painting, and the wisdom of having been here before, back when it was near scandalous for a rapper to declare themselves a fashion designer. When I complimented him on his suit, he smiled. “Kap kun kap,” he replied.

The original idea for Welch’s tuxedo was for André to refurbish a madras dinner jacket he made when the brand debuted in 2008. He fished a few of them out of storage boxes in his basement in Atlanta, but, alas, they had been down there too long. “They smelled like mildew,” André rued.

“Once we decided André was going to make a look from scratch, I just said I want to wear your vision—whatever it is,” Welch said. “I was like, I’m happy to give my opinion if you ask for it, but at the end of the day, I’ll do whatever you want.”

Back in those early days, André was already as prominent a modern dandy as there was, “known for his leadership of the African American Gentleman’s Movement,” according to Barnard professor Monica L. Miller, whose scholarship guided this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” At a time when Americana was associated with WASPy lawyers and hipsters, the OutKast superstar freaked the preppy canon, performing in varsity sweaters and ’80s aerobic instructor-hairdos, and mixing boater hats and striped rugby shirts with bug-eye sunglasses.

Benjamin Bixby brought André’s rule-breaking style to Barneys. With OutKast on the backburner, André poured himself into the brand, channeling 1930s Ivy League uniforms and his own upbringing as a Polo-obsessed Atlanta schoolboy into colorful cricket sweaters, wide raw denim, and bold madras shirting. To this day, André recalls those days as “some of the best times of my life.”