fashion
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Just Book a Black Girl: Model Gigi Hadid Faces Accusations of Blackface (Again)
(This is an open letter to Gigi Hadid.) Gigi, you in danger, girl. You are in danger of having to issue an apology every time you work with your friends at Italian Vogue if you don’t start checking them when they start trying to slap bronzer and Afro wigs over your blond, blue-eyed beauty. Because…
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Closet Case: Fashion Psychologist Dawnn Karen Styles From the Inside Out
On Saturday I woke up to find out, over coffee and the New York Times, that “fashion psychology” is now a thing. Dawnn Karen—a Columbia grad who, in 2012, made history as the first black female psychology professor (and also one of the youngest) at New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology—is an academic and…
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Paris Fashion Week: I Am Woman, Hear Me Dior
Dior makes very pretty clothes that are as easy to wear as they are to understand. I say that because, often, clothes can be pretty but puzzling at the same time. Now, under the direction of designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior speaks to women loud and clear. What’s Grazia Chiuri got to say? For one,…
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Rodarte: Where Black Beauty Blooms This Season
Women who inspire us? Well, these women most certainly do! We’re thanking Rodarte—the two-sister design team from Los Angeles—for bringing us these stunning images of strong, smart, stellar women to sweep us into spring style. Just in time for fashion week, their 2018 Fall-Winter portrait series features Tessa Thompson, star of HBO’s Westworld; Black Panther’s Danai…
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Unpopular Opinion: Kanye’s Kim Worship Has Gone Too Far to Be Fashionable
(Editor’s Update: Apparently, this opinion isn’t as unpopular as first thought.) Today in “Baby, what is you doin’?” news: Kanye, GET OUT of here with this Yeezy season 6 campaign! We’re all for folks being their mate’s biggest cheerleaders, but this campaign is taking “muse” to sycophant levels. The “Who wore it best?” series of…
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Last Night, a DJ Dressed My Life: Inside the Dope Double Life of Sophia Hyacinthe
“I think one thing that’s really important with me is I have no shame,” Sophia Hyacinthe says. She has nothing to be ashamed of. Hyacinthe is one of the hardest-hustling creatives in New York City, crafting a hybrid career out of her two greatest passions: music and fashion. By day, the stylist and CEO of…
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Missing in Action: Black Designers
Here comes New York Fashion Week, again. Everything is about to change—or so it seems—as designers present fashion shows featuring clothes generally intended to break the rules. But one thing rarely, if ever, seems to change, and that’s the absence of black designers occupying top spots in the fashion industry. Freelance designer and journalist Kibwe…
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H&M Hires ‘Diversity Leader’ After Global Backlash to the Racist Monkey Hoodie
Fashion retailer H&M, more than a week after a photo of a black boy in a “coolest monkey in the jungle” hoodie caused an international backlash, announced Wednesday that the company has appointed a diversity leader. The Swedish-based company announced its decision on its Facebook page: The recent incident was entirely unintentional, but it demonstrates…
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The House of Versace: Long May It Reign
The trailer for Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, debuting on FX on Wednesday, ironically sparked a flood of gorgeous memories for me about working with Versace. This, despite the fact that the Versace family has issued a press release calling the series—based on Vanity Fair correspondent Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors—“a…