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As Part of a $3 Million Investment, Serena Williams Adds Her Power to the Fight Against Maternal Mortality
What does it mean when the most recognizable female athlete in the world can’t get the attention she needs when suffering complications after giving birth? For Serena Williams, it meant becoming intimately familiar with the crisis currently facing so many black expectant mothers—the threat of a life-or-death outcome. Williams, who documented her own harrowing journey…
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The ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’: Tennis Star Naomi Osaka Scores Allure’s August Cover
She may not have managed another Grand Slam at the French Open or Wimbledon (that Australian Open, though), but Naomi Osaka is still a tennis phenom on the rise—with a rising profile that now includes the cover of Allure’s August issue. It’s the Japanese-Haitian athlete’s first American fashion magazine cover, and while I personally wish…
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The Second City Turns Complex Community: ComplexCon Brings the ‘Cultural Super Bowl’ to Chicago This Weekend
Real talk? I’m not terribly prone to FOMO—I’m grown, respectably connected and have done my share of thangs, so to speak. Nevertheless, I must admit to feeling some significant event envy last fall when my press invite to ComplexCon once again got lost in the mail (and I may or may not have sent a…
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‘Barbie Dreams’…of Fendi: Is a Nicki Minaj Luxury Collab in the Works?
It’s no secret that Nicki Minaj and late luxury designer Karl Lagerfeld had a deep mutual admiration for each other, with the two joining forces on a cover shoot for Elle last year and Minaj frequently fawning over Lagerfeld’s designs for Chanel. But if suspicions are correct, it may be Fendi, another formerly Lagerfeld-designed label,…
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With a New Amendment, New York State Quietly Joins California in Fighting Hair Discrimination [Updated]
New York City passed amendments to ban hair discrimination in February, but now the state has followed suit, lending its legislative weight to the ongoing conversation around hair bias. Prompted by the CROWN Act (SB 188), proposed by Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Calif.), California became the first state to pass anti-hair discrimination legislation on July…
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Beyoncé Made So Many Costume Changes in the ‘Spirit’ Video, We Almost Lost Count [Updated]
So far, we’ve counted 12—yes, 12 outfits that Beyoncé reportedly sports in the four minutes and 31 seconds the “Spirit” video runs. That’s gotta be some kind of record. Granted, only 10 of Beyoncé’s reported 12 costume changes made the final cut of the official video for the first single from her Lion King-themed album…
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Proving ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ Are in Fashion, Chanel Hires Its 1st Head of D & I—but Not a Person of Color
Often, the best way to confront a scandal is to avoid creating one in the first place. After a flurry of major brands—including Gucci, Prada and H&M—quickly scrambled to create diversity-focused positions, boards and initiatives following major gaffes in cultural insensitivity, Chanel, which has thus far avoided being named in a recent racial scandal (and…
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The Breakthrough: Harlem’s Fashion Row Mentors Designers to Success—and a Lion King Collaboration
Ahead of the July Fourth weekend and the multimedia marathon that was Essence Fest 2019, where we connected with groundbreaking fashion luminaries like Dapper Dan in New Orleans, New York-based incubator Harlem’s Fashion Row (HFR) was doing what it does best: inspiring and empowering the next wave of designers of color. In partnership with Nike,…
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‘I Am a Champion for My Brown, Dark Women’: Living Legend Missy Elliott Covers Marie Claire
Fun, fly fact: Monday marked the 22nd anniversary of Missy Elliott’s debut drop, Supa Dupa Fly. If that anniversary astounds you, it’s likely because aside from the fact that we don’t feel 22 years older (that was legit half my lifetime ago, at this point), the song, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” still slaps, proving…
