Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s fashion symphony

Yannick Nézet-Séguin stood on patent-leather tiptoes as he led the Philadelphia Orchestra through Valerie Coleman’s quick-paced, soulful composition, Fanfare for Marian, during the Kimmel Center’s inaugural concert in newly renamed Marian Anderson Hall earlier this month.

The tie-ups’ sequined heels and red soles — Nézet-Séguin wears only Christian Louboutins onstage — flashed the audience, shimmering under loose-fitting black trousers. A shadowy dragonfly print danced along the back of his McQueen double-breasted dinner jacket as Nézet-Séguin twisted and turned, bringing the orchestra to crescendo.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off that McQueen.

As the music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Nézet-Séguin has his back to the world’s swankiest audiences. And as the 49-year-old’s sense of style evolves — he exposed muscled pecs in a cream suit and midriff-baring vest at the 2024 Academy Awards — judge-y fashion tongues are a wagging.

Tattooed and platinum blond, Nézet-Séguin is unbothered.

“I think it’s a powerful statement that someone who holds two of the top jobs in the classical music field is not stuck wearing what people expect to see,” Nézet-Séguin told me as we chatted on the chocolate leather couch in his dressing room.

In other words, he’s over conductors wearing plain old black tuxedos onstage.

A photograph of Nézet-Séguin’s manicured blue, yellow, and white nails — polished in honor of the Ukraine flag — hangs on his dressing room wall in the Kimmel Center. “I don’t dress like a typical conductor,” he continued. “I realize this challenges certain people. But I show up at events respectful. I know what the codes are. I don’t ignore them. I just play with them.”

Nézet-Séguin says his personal style isn’t brand-driven, but once he starts to fancy a designer, it’s clear that he becomes obsessed. His blue jeans come from the French fashion house Dior. His tattooed deltoid peeks from underneath a preppy sweater vest and T-shirt fashioned by the upscale French label Céline. His white sneakers are Céline, too.

I’m itching to tour the roughly 300-square-foot walk-in closet he had built in his suite post-pandemic. Inside are several pairs of well-worn Louboutins as well as Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana shawl-collared suits, with jackets featuring backs covered with musical notes and city skylines. Flyers, Sixers, Eagles, and Phillies jerseys — modern and vintage — hang on the bottom right rod of the closet. Maestro emblazes the back of an Eagles green shirt.

“I’m ready to wear one of these when any of the Philadelphia teams win,” he says with a twinkle in his brown eyes. “I wouldn’t conduct the full concert in a jersey, but I’d certainly come out wearing one toward the end.”

Every fashionista understands it’s all about the outfit change.

Nézet-Séguin, who grew up in Montreal, credits his mother for his passion for fashion. “She loved shopping when I was growing up,” he said. His husband, Pierre Tourville, chooses Nézet-Séguin’s onstage ensembles.

Tiffany Briseno — the Canadian stylist responsible for giving singer Shawn Mendes his edgy, boyish swag — helps Nézet-Séguin navigate Hollywood red carpets. The goal of the 2024 red carpet looks was to show the world how a conductor — specifically one who defies long-standing mores of who can compose, conduct, perform, and enjoy classical music — gets gussied up.

At this year’s Grammy Awards, Nézet-Séguin wore an ensemble that paid homage to his groundbreaking work conducting operas composed by jazz musician Terence Blanchard, the first Black person to compose a work for the Metropolitan Opera. That look, he said, certainly couldn’t be old-school.

“I went with this Ackermann [suit] with a shawl collar and wide-legged pants. But I wore boots with them,” he said, conceding that the wide-legged silhouette is hard for his 5-foot, 5-inch frame to pull off. (Nézet-Séguin won the 2024 Grammy for best opera recording for the Met’s performance of Blanchard’s Champion.)

But it was the cream Saint Laurent tuxedo with the navel-grazing vest revealing Nézet-Séguin’s toned chest that he wore on the 2024 Academy Award red carpet that caused the most couture chitchat. “I was not going to wear a shirt,” Nézet-Séguin said. “I’m proud of my chest and I wanted to show it off. Period.”

Nézet-Séguin wore a similar Saint Laurent suit in black to the Vanity Fair after-party.

Nézet-Séguin, who has been the Philadelphia Orchestra’s artistic chief for 12 years, describes his fashion evolution as a gradual progression. He has never deliberately tried to turn heads, yet he is serious about expressing his sense of style. “As I was feeling more comfortable in the role, I wanted to use fashion to share the beauty of [classical] music with everyone,” he said.

In 2021, Nézet-Séguin urged Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky to relax the orchestra’s dress code and allow men to ditch the white tie and tails. That year, Nézet-Séguin also tapped New York-based African American costume designer Paul Tazwell to design a look for him to wear for the premiere of Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, kicking off a made-to-measure relationship with the designer who often collaborates with the Metropolitan Opera.

Tazwell designed the sparkling black suit, complete with a faux cravat, that Nézet-Séguin wore in late May when he conducted a concert featuring the work of African American composer Valerie Coleman.

“I want to democratize [classical] music,” Nézet-Séguin said. “People still think it is only for the elite, people in the know, white, or old people. It’s none of this, and it’s up for the classical music field to show that.”

With that, he grabbed his Céline knapsack and dashed off. Orchestra business and fashion waits for no one.