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Triple Threat: Beyoncé's Newest Vogue Covers Once Again Make History—This Time, With a 21-Year-Old Black Woman
There’s B’Day, and then, there’s Bey Week—which is a bit like Shark Week, but with much more buzz. Beyoncé kicked off the week building the buzz about her latest (and already sold out) Ivy Park drop with Adidas—her second since the label’s relaunch—and is ending it with the debut of three covers of British Vogue’s…
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'We're Not Some New Anomaly': The Root Presents It's Lit Talks Purpose, Process and Pronouns With George M. Johnson
When The Root first spoke to George M. Johnson (one of our longtime contributors) just ahead of the release of their debut book, All Boy Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto, we had a feeling they were on the cusp of something groundbreaking. Borne from their own reflections on growing up without the language and representation…
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Hair Apparent: The Look You Didn't See in Laverne Cox's Latest Cover Story Was Braid-to-Order
Laverne Cox is already well-known to body an over-the-top look—it doesn’t hurt that the statuesque actress has the stage presence to match. Accordingly, it’s no surprise that the Emmy-nominated breakout star of Orange Is the New Black donned a series of dramatic looks for Paper magazine’s “America” issue, released in tandem with Hulu’s Black star-studded…
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The 'Costumes' We Wear
It’s the time of year where I try to decipher whether I’d prefer to channel my inner pumpkin or Catwoman. It’s always one of the two. I’ve never tried to dress up as anything else for Halloween. Though I’m in complete awe of people who get really creative and can make costumes, I’ve never been…
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COVID Claims a Black Female-Owned Brand: Carly Cushnie Announces the End of Her Eponymous Label
It’s already a well-documented fact that the outbreak of the novel coronavirus has disproportionately affected Black communities in almost every way imaginable—including Black-owned businesses, 41 percent of which have closed permanently since the initial lockdown in April, compared to only 17 percent of white businesses. On Thursday, one of the few luxury labels helmed by…
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Feeling Blue About the Holidays This Year? Oprah's Network Is Gifting Us Our OWN Christmas
We know, we know—Halloween hasn’t even arrived yet, but we all know it’s a swift slide from there into Christmas, Kwanzaa and the new year, even in an already decade-long year like 2020. With COVID-19 spikes occurring around the country as we speak, we already know our holidays are going to look dramatically—and for those…
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Check on It: Ivy Park 'Drip 2' Is More Accessible All Around
One of the best qualities a creator can have is to listen to (constructive) feedback and adjust accordingly—and it appears Beyoncé and Adidas have done exactly that with their second collaborative drop of Ivy Park. Following criticisms that the relaunch of the brand was both cost-prohibitive to most and lacking inclusivity, “Drip 2″ not only…
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About Face: After a Years-Long Impasse, André Leon Talley Praises Anna Wintour Amid Accusations of Racism
Have we entered the season of forgiveness? In his 2020 bestselling memoir, The Chiffon Trenches fashion legend André Leon Talley referred to his former boss, Condé Nast Artistic Director Anna Wintour, as “ruthless” and “not capable” of human kindness.” Following Wintour’s much-publicized apology for “mistakes” made with regard to Vogue’s treatment of Black talent and…
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Oprah Knows We've Been Going Through It, So Her Latest Book Club Picks Are 7 Books That Help Her Through
There’s been this wild theory going around that now that all of us non-essential workers have been working from home (shout out to the essential workers keeping us all afloat), we have ample free time to engross ourselves in reading. In my case, that would entail finally diving into at least a hundred books I’ve…
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An American Family: Ilhan Omar and Daughter Isra Star on Teen Vogue's November Cover
As a Black girl born in Minneapolis, you’d think I’d have closely tracked the ascension of Somali refugee turned American political firebrand Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). But as I graduated high school just outside the Twin Cities and made a new life as a college student in New York City, Omar was a new arrival in…
