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Legacy, Legacy, Legacy: What Best Befits a Civil Rights Icon?
As we wrap up the biannual phenomenon known as New York Fashion Week, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the amount of new fashion and trends we saw on the runways, forecasting what is to come in Fall/Winter 2018. But since we here at The Glow Up sit at the intersection of Fashion Week and Black…
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Heavy Metal: How Jeweler Douriean Armored and Adorned Black Panther
“It’s surreal. I still don’t think I’ve fully processed or fully understand what impact this movie is going to have on people’s lives. So I’m excited.” —Douriean Jewelry designer and metalsmith Douriean Fletcher—who designs and retails simply as Douriean—is having the kind of breakthrough moment most artists can’t even begin to dream of. Handpicked by…
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From Wannabes to Wakanda: Ruth E. Carter Costumes Our Cultural Consciousness
Ruth E. Carter’s résumé reads like a list of iconic favorites from contemporary black cinema. In the 30 years since her first film, Spike Lee’s 1988 hit, School Daze, the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated costume designer has amassed more than 60 film and television credits, including I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988); Do the Right Thing (1989);…
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Call Me by My Name: Danai Gurira Writes About the Importance of Identity for Glamour Magazine
Fun fact: There was about a decade of my life where I didn’t like to be called by my given name. After an early childhood of correcting anyone who dared mispronounce it, I spent most of grammar school feeling burdened by a name seemingly so difficult, no one could be bothered to learn to say…
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#BNYFW: LaQuan Smith Brought the Heat to Fall Fashion Week
There was a definite sizzle on the final day of New York Fashion Week, and it wasn’t due to Valentine’s Day. LaQuan Smith debuted his Fall/Winter collection, and the theme was decidedly sexy. Evoking the last days of the disco divas, Smith sent his models down the runway in crushed velvet, sparkling spandex and fur…
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Popping the Question: What if I’m the One Who Got Away?
“Auntie Mai, why aren’t you married?” Ugh. My 5-year-old nephew has apparently reached the age where bald curiosity meets peak candor, because he’s taken to asking me this question every time we see each other, as we did a few days ago. My response is always the same: “Honey, why do you want me to…
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Smile! This Valentine’s Day, Yvonne Orji Is All the Single Ladies
“Hey, girl, why don’t you smile?” If you’re a woman, there’s a likelihood you’ve heard this sometime in your life—or several times already this week. But this Valentine’s Day, one of our #Faves, comedian and Insecure star Yvonne Orji, reminds us that smiling isn’t the worst thing we can do, even if we don’t think…
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#WCW: The Women of Wakanda Have Our Hearts!
Y’all. We are now less than 48 hours out from what will undoubtedly be the greatest cinematic triumph since The Wiz (yes, all films), and it is safe to say that along with the flu, Wakanda fever has officially hit The Root’s office this February. Among our staff, outfits were purchased even before tickets, and…
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NYFW: Cushnie et Ochs Celebrates a Decade of Design
What does a decade of design look like? If you’re the female design duo Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs—better known as Cushnie et Ochs—it looks like modern femininity: “We like to let a woman’s most feminine side shine. Her most beautiful, most alluring and seductive side,” their website proclaims. To do this, the designers have…
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In An American Marriage, Tayari Jones Gets to the Heart of Our Matter
“When love calls, you better answer”—at least, that’s what Atlantic Starr once told us. But what happens when Oprah calls? The Glow Up asked writer Tayari Jones, who got the call from the great and powerful O in October when her latest novel, An American Marriage, was chosen as the first Oprah’s Book Club selection…
