After more than two hours of delays due to heavy, persistent rain that forced more than a hundred guests to wait it out under umbrellas and nearby tents, designer Kerby Jean-Raymond announced he would reschedule his runway show that was meant to close out Paris Couture Week. 

Jean-Raymond was a guest designer on the schedule, and chose to host the show at Villa Lewaro, a mansion built in 1917 in Irvington, New York for the Black beauty entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, considered the country’s first female self-made millionaire. About an hour outside Manhattan, guests arrived by a fleet of buses and cars. The rain started around the expected show start time and never cleared up enough for the team to restart the show, which was due to take place outside with a musical performance. The audience, which included a mix of fashion industry folks and friends of the brand passed the time at a BBQ cookout and open bar. 

“This energy ain’t it,” the designer wrote on Instagram. “I have a better idea.” He said the brand would make a portion of the audience open to the public.