Colman Domingo Calls His Red Carpet Style ‘Effortlessly Luxurious’ — and Hints at an Epic Oscars Look (Exclusive)

Colman Domingo will be one to watch at this year’s Academy Awards — but we already knew that.

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, Feb. 14, the 55-year-old actor opens up about his “feeling”-centric personal style, which has cemented him as one to watch on every awards show red carpet — including the Oscars.

When asked how he defines his style, Domingo first gives props to his styling duo Wayman and Micah and “their team of phenomenal assistants,” all of whom have helped the star “work [his style] out” throughout years of creative partnership.

“We figured it out, what I love and what I feel comfortable in,” the Euphoria actor tells PEOPLE, noting that these parameters “can go all over the map, but it’s always the story that I want to tell, that’s usually around a moment or a film or the way I feel. If my body’s changing, if I want to feel — usually the term is effortlessly luxurious.”

“And also, I want to look like I’m having a good time and also want to look like I’m festive in some way,” Domingo adds of his headline-making ‘fits. “I’m not only at the party, but I am the party.”

Occasionally, the star says, he will purposefully opt for a more toned-down look — as opposed to his typically ornate and elaborate ensembles — but only when he has a specific statement to make.

“Sometimes I don’t mind receding and finding just a bit more of a monochromatic look that just makes me feel elegant,” Domingo says, “and let it be about the words that I’m speaking rather than the clothes.”

The actor also says he thinks that what “people can actually see” when he steps out is not just the look he’s wearing, but also that he feels “like myself” — an attitude that exudes a very specific (and captivating, in his case) energy. “I think it’s not only the clothes,” he explains. “I think the clothes can look good on somebody else, but will they feel good?”

Using the garments he wore for his PEOPLE photo shoot to demonstrate, Domingo continues, “I feel good, I feel fun. I feel like an event, I feel sexy — everything about it, I feel like myself. I don’t feel like anyone put anything on me.”

Photo shoots, awards show or otherwise, his unique style has always been a group effort, he adds. “I feel like we arrived at it together,” Domingo says of his styling team. “So it’s always a lot of great conversations that are meaningful.”

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With one of the biggest nights for celebrity style, the Academy Awards, just around the corner, the actor — whose work in Sing Sing earned him a Best Actor nod — also teases what he and his team have in mind for the March 2 ceremony.

“What am I planning for the Oscars? Well, I’m a newly minted house ambassador for Valentino, so [the brand’s creative director] Alessandro Michele will be creating something with my collaborators, Wayman and Micah — something that makes me feel, I guess, right for the moment,” he tells PEOPLE, citing one of his past awards show looks to explain how a “feeling” can influence an ensemble.

While brainstorming for the 2022 Emmys, one of Domingo’s stylists, Micah McDonald (the other is Wayman Bannerman), said something he will “never forget,” the actor says. “We were going through different looks,” the Color Purple star says, “And then the question, he said, ‘Coleman, how do you want to feel 20 years later, when you’re looking at a photo of you winning your first Emmy?’ And I said, ‘I want to be in white, and just cream white.’ ”

“He said, ‘Beautiful, perfect,’ and then we started to take it from there, but that was the feeling,” adds Domingo.

And it’s a good thing McDonald used that feeling as a jumping-off point, because the star did win his first Emmy (outstanding guest actor in a drama series for his Euphoria role) at the 2022 awards show, and is able to look back on that career-defining moment fondly.

A photo of him at the 2022 Emmys “popped up, actually, the other day, and I thought, ‘I like the way that looks,’ ” Domingo recalls. “It’s ingrained in my memory that that’s the way I want it to feel.”

Conan O’Brien hosts the 2025 Oscars, which will air live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET on ABC and Hulu.