In a recent interview with Pastor Levi Lusko, Brant Cryder, the president of Yves Saint Laurent North America, shared how finding God fueled his love for both fashion and people.
Cryder appeared on Lusko’s Youtube channel in his series called “War With Friends,” where he interviews his friends while playing the card game War.
Cryder, who has been the president of Yves Saint Laurent North America for the past 10 years, shared with Lusko how he found God at a Promise Keepers event in 1996, after spending years “searching” for something to fill the void in his heart.
“I kept looking for an answer, and I would find a friend group, but my thirst wasn’t quenched,” Cryder shared. “Ironically enough when I had an encounter with Promise Keepers in Denver, Colorado, I had a massive, divine experience.”
He explained how he would go to music festivals, and raves and they would temporarily fulfill him, but when the sun would come up that feeling of emptiness would still be there.
“I was standing on the field, July 1996, the sun was setting behind the white horse,” Cryder said, setting the scene. “I began weeping uncontrollably, I was not a cryer, and I heard a voice whisper to me, ‘I’m the answer that you’ve been looking for.”
At that moment he gave his life to God, not knowing how it would be changed forever.
“I gave my life over to God at that point, and it changed my life forever. I went on this radical pursuit of Him, and that’s when it started for me,” Cryder shared.
“What I love so much about it,” Lusko responded, “is that it wasn’t like now that I’ve met Jesus, the fashion passion has to go away because that was the trajectory, and love and a natural ability that you fostered, that now only got better with Christ. Here you are now, from growing up in the midwest to working at Abercrombie, to leading Yves Saint Laurent, and to think about the impact and influence you have.”
“It didn’t mean, now that I have Jesus I have to get a job at a Baptist church, and all of that goes away,” Lusko added, speaking about Crydes career in fashion.
Lusko explained that he has a passion for Christians living out their faith, and their Christ-centered missions in all walks of life, whether that be in a ministry-career, or in a career like Crydes.
“There was a concern at the very beginning that I would get saved and join the team of ‘paint the town beige,'” Cryder explained, meaning that he did not want to become boring in his faith.
“I found that even before I really had a relationship with the Lord, I knew it was not about painting the town beige,” he added. “Even before I got to know Him, I found Him to be so wild, powerful, strong, and unabashed. I found His pursuit of me, of us way more real, passionate, tactile, and multi-dimensional, than beige.”
Lusko added that sometimes people get the wrong message that being a Christian is a boring, menial thing when in reality, it’s the most exciting mission to be apart of.
“This idea of what we should be innovating if we have God who breathes out stars in us should be the best thing ever,” Lusko said.
“Ever,” Cryder echoed. “The greatest ideas on Earth, the greatest event on Earth, we have the answers to life’s questions.”
Cryder explained that he went on this “love pursuit” of God after the Promise Keepers event, and it only fueled his passion for fashion even more.
“Once you get His love inside of you, your ability to love other people is so much easier. I think it would be challenging at times to give people the love and grace they need if I didn’t have Him fueling it inside of me,” Cryder said.
“He’s really the endless source and spring of life himself,” he added.
Brant Cryder’s faith
Cryder has been outspoken about his walk with God in the past, speaking with various pastors about the intersection of his career and his faith.
In late 2017, Cryder sat down with Rich Wilkerson of Vous Church LA, where he talked about his journey to becoming a Christian, and how it impacted his life.
In the interview, Wilkerson asked Cryder how he has been able to work at such a high intensity job, in so many different capacities to which Cryder responded “God.”