On Monday, I attended the Met Gala in a 10-year-old Shipley & Halmos tuxedo that I had previously worn to the CFDA Fashion Awards. But this time, it was different.

I worked with Runa Ray, a fashion designer and environmentalist who uses art as activism to advocate for policy change, to upcycle the jacket.

One of my favorite books is Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. Gibran writes, “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?”

Since the Met Gala is all about giving – giving looks, giving money – and my 40-year career has been about serving others, Runa hand-applied over 7,000 Swarovski crystals spelling the giving chapter in braille.

It’s a detailed process. Once the braille was marked on paper, the paper was cut into strips, which had the braille font which was pierced through with a pin.

The paper strip was then placed vertically on the jacket, starting from the side-seam bottom-up and continued across the jacket to the center front, and similarly so on the other side.

The holes pierced on the strip were then marked with a micro tip pencil onto the jacket.

The process is repeated until the entire front of the jacket, its sleeves, and back had the braille font traced upon it.

The marked points were glued on using tweezers to hold on to the Swarovski crystals and the jacket was complete.

Each line of braille on the jacket took an hour and a half to complete; the total working time was approximate 45-48 hours.

When we decided to upcycle the jacket with crystals, we didn’t know that the theme of the night was Gilded Glamour, so I felt particularly attuned to the universe’s gift of making sure I was on trend walking the red carpet.