ESSENCE Festival: Roland Martin

[MUSIC] Well, how many of those are in your closet? 52. I actually, I actually bought two of these from Wazema Arts website and bought three more, and I couldn't find them. And, for three years I try to find somebody in Japan who can find the store and I finally found somebody so when she emailed me she said, how many you want? They have 47. I said, all 47. So yes, that's exactly, so that's what happen. So, you know, we know Roland Martin, the journalist. But we also, we know Roland Martin, the man who loves fashion. Yes. So, tell me, who, a few things about, three things about, you know, your love of fashion that we don't know. For example, who was the person that has influenced you most, with terms of the way you dress? My daddy. Sure, I mean, grow, growing up, my dad, my dad would get dressed up to go shopping. So, he taught me, my brother, in terms of putting together combinations and suits and stuff. But I'll take it to a different level, he's more conservative. I'm, I throw a little more color into it. Are you a type of person, you know, you knew you were coming to New Orleans, would you pack everything? Or, are you, are you? That's my phone. [MUSIC] Oh, is it color coordinated? Hey baby, let me help you out with something, okay. Let me help you out with something. This, this photo here is Essence. Come on, bring the camera here. Y'all think I'm lying. This is the night before. Oh, wow. So you, so you see, the watch, the cufflinks. And so, that's the whole, that's everything right there. I grew up, I'm 45, I've always known black men who dressed, I can't get with this t-shirt stuff. I can't get with some tennis shoes and some jeans, and so, what people don't realize is, for years, for decades, black folks had no money. We didn't have any of that. What we did have though, we had style we had flair. And so cats literally go from their share cropper clothes to dressing. And I don't know if you recently saw, Guinness has a commercial on the Suppors word and same thing. So you got these blue collar cats, but when they dress, they all looking clean. And in fact, I put that video on my phone. And I showed it to somebody. And the things is, what I try to convey to folks is that, that was what black folks said. I'm grimey, I'm dirty, but come Friday night, come Saturday night, and then come church on Sunday, I'm clean. And so, I, it's important to me in terms of how we look and how we dress. Because it's a attitude. It's a swagger. And I just came for that t-shirt stuff. Thank you so much. Preciate it. All right.