LAFAYETTE PARISH — Lafayette native Toz Sam has spent years building a name for himself in Los Angeles, but he says the path that brought him there started long before social media fame or red-carpet access.
“Fashion is art, I am walking art and everything that I do is intentional. So when I put out an outfit, that’s what separates me from the rest. I don’t just wear clothes just to look nice. Anybody can do that. But the difference, like what you saw, is that I have an intent," said Sam.
That intent, he says, is to keep pushing his creative limits without losing touch of where he came from.
Sam credits his mother for planting that early spark. She enrolled him in acting classes when he was four, and later drove him to New Orleans weekly for auditions.
“She was diligent in doing that and she pretty much planted that seed of creativity in me from a young age,” he said.
His family moved to San Antonio for a year during high school, and the change opened his eyes to personal style. “There, they didn’t have uniforms. We have uniforms in Louisiana. So, I was like, 'okay'. So, I really had to find myself through clothing.”
He originally planned to attend The American Musical and Dance Academy (AMDA) in New York, but when his family announced they were moving to Los Angeles in 2016, his father encouraged him to join them. He made the move and never left.
In LA, he found himself surrounded by the world he once watched from afar. “I started going to award shows and being amongst the celebritie,s you know. This year I got graced to be amongst Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Taylor Swift, and see Beyoncé win for Cowboy Carter right there. I was right behind them.”
Sam grew his platform online, gaining traction through fashion content and high-energy personality pieces. One turning point came when a video he posted from Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour went viral and was shared by Beyoncé herself— earning more than 5 million views across platforms.
The exposure helped build the audience he now uses for his latest challenge: competing in the Elton John Style Icon competition, a fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
To enter, Sam submitted his entire portfolio of creative work. Now, he is relying on public votes and donations to advance.
“You know, this is a charity event, a fundraiser. With fashion in the forefront and it’s been a great platform to show people everything that I’ve done over this time,” he said.
For Sam, the competition is an opportunity to represent the city he still considers foundational. “It’s a part of the fabric of who I am, and I'm so thankful that I had two Lafayette, Louisiana, parents who saw that I was bigger than the city I was born in, bigger than the state, you know.”
With the contest running through December 11, he hopes his hometown will help carry him across the finish line. But regardless of where he lands in the competition, Sam says he’s just grateful to be a part of something bigger than himself.
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