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Optical Illusions: At Balmain and Off-White’s Spring/Summer 2020 Shows, Things Aren’t Always What They Seem
As Fashion Week traveled from New York City to London to Milan to Paris, we’ve been waiting patiently to see what the fashion industry’s top two black designers would be offering for Spring/Summer 2020. And while they presented very different aesthetics, Off-White’s Virgil Abloh and Balmain Creative Director Olivier Rousteing are both taking an illusory…
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Flashback Friday: About That Time Serena Williams Took on NYFW
Editor’s note: While we try to stay on top of everything at all times, sometimes a post gets lost on the way to publishing—which is what happened when we wrote the following coverage of the first New York Fashion Week appearance of Serena Williams’ S by Serena line on Sept. 10. So, in honor of…
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Up Where We Belong: Zendaya’s All-Black Glam Squad Named One of the Top 15 in Hollywood
Black-on-black-on-black….that’s the color scheme on one of the two covers of the Hollywood Reporter’s “Glam Squads” issue, featuring its seventh annual list of the Top 15 most influential hairstylists and makeup artists. And black-on-black-on-black is also the composition of Zendaya’s team, which includes tress-whisperer Ursula Stephen and face-maker Sheika Daley (Zendaya’s all-black squad is led…
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Colorism Isn’t Funny: Japanese Comedy Duo Apologizes for Saying Naomi Osaka Should Bleach Her Skin
It be your own people; that’s what Haitian-Japanese-American tennis champion Naomi Osaka—who proudly plays for Japan, her country of birth—found out yet again while winning her first Pan Pacific Open title on Sunday in her hometown, the aptly named Osaka. According to BBC Sport, Japanese female comedy team A Masso ignored the two-time Grand Slam…
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‘Mental Health Is Not Fashion’: Gucci Sparked Controversy—Again—as a Model Protested on Its Milan Runway
It’s been a long year for Gucci, as it has both sought to stay on the cutting edge of fashion and convince the world it’s made some major positive changes since the “blackface sweater” controversy that rocked the legendary fashion house this January. But proving that the label still loves to provoke, creative director Alessandro…
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![Behind the Brand: BLK/OPL Is Finally Black—and Female—Owned [Corrected]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/p8xuzu3sfrxuqyfu9hhz-1024x522.jpg)
Behind the Brand: BLK/OPL Is Finally Black—and Female—Owned [Corrected]
We’ve got something major to celebrate this Big Beauty Tuesday (soon to be relaunched as “The Glow Up Gets…”)! It wasn’t widely known until recently, but Black Opal, one of the most established global beauty brands for black women, was never black-owned. While the brand was created in 1994 with women of color in mind—specifically,…
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On Her 1st Trip to South Africa, Meghan Markle Speaks to Locals 'as a Woman of Color and as Your Sister'
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is currently making her first visit to South Africa, as part of a royal tour of Africa with husband Prince Harry and son Archie. But as the duchess acknowledged during a speech at the Justice Desk initiative, which focuses on child protection and female empowerment, her bonds to the continent run…
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O, No! Oprah Reveals a Deadly Health Scare—and Urges Us All to Take Care
As I write this, there seems to be something going around The Root’s virtual newsroom, as both News Editor Monique Judge and I are battling something wicked. Monique, being a much smarter person than I, scurried off to Urgent Care yesterday to address our very similar symptoms (albeit two time zones apart). I, being the…
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Big Hair, Don’t Care: A 5th-Grader Stands in Defiance of the Policing of Black Hair
“So, yesterday, I went to school, and I wore my hair in an afro like this…and a lot of people had a lot of mean things to say about it,” said Nashville fifth-grader Promise Sawyers, gesturing to her enviable halo of natural hair in a now-viral video on YouTube. “So that made me feel some…
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Pretty in Pink: Beyoncé Gives Us a Peek Into Blue Ivy’s Rose Gold Birthday Extravaganza
When we grow up, we want to be just like Blue Ivy Carter. Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s firstborn is clearly living the best life we can imagine, and racking up credits on Billboard-charting hits in the process. And when Blue Ivy celebrated her seventh run around the sun this January, she did it in pop princess…
