representation matters
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Big Beauty Tuesday: When It Comes to Magazine Covers, What's the Line Between Art and Insult?
By now, you’ve likely seen them, heard about them, and maybe even participated in the conversation about two of August’s most striking—and controversial—magazine covers: Simone Biles photographed by Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Vogue and Viola Davis atop Vanity Fair, photographed by Dario Calmese—remarkably the first Black photographer to shoot a cover for the…
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Because Black Girls Shred, Too: Proper Gnar, the First Black Female-Owned Skateboard Company, Is Riding High After Props From Beyoncé
Proper Gnar, the first Black female-owned skateboard company, was featured on Beyoncé’s June list of Black-owned businesses we should know. The company, founded by Latosha Stone in 2013, is bringing representation to female skaters (especially Black ones) in the U.S. “Skateboarding has traditionally been a man’s sport, which is why I am so passionate about…
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Halle Berry Apologizes for Considering Playing Transgender Man for Film Role
Halle Berry issued a statement of apology on Monday after backlash for discussing her intentions to play a transgender man for a film she was pitched. She revealed she was considering the role during an Instagram Live session with hairstylist Christin Brown over the weekend. “As a cisgender woman, I now understand that I should…
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Fashioning the Future: Gucci Celebrates Its 1st Class of Changemaker Scholars
If the past few weeks have taught us anything, it’s the difference between promises and platitudes, and actions and accountability. Words of support are empty without effort and quantifiable results, and while multitudes of people are becoming more comfortable with phrases like “Black Lives Matter” all we’ve ever been asking is that they act like…
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Thanks to Aurora James, Sephora Just Pledged 15 Percent of Its Shelf Space to Black-Owned Brands
Here’s to black boxes that aren’t performative: beauty emporium Sephora has become the first to accept the #15PercentPledge proposed by designer Aurora James (Brother Vellies), committing to devote 15 percent of its shelf space to black-owned products. “What a difference a week makes,” James wrote on Instagram. “A little over a week ago, I wrote…
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'We Have Made Mistakes Too': Anna Wintour Apologizes for Vogue's Treatment of Black Talent
Vogue magazine has long been at the forefront of the fashion industry, forecasting trends that the rest of the world follows. But now, the magazine is in the rare position of working to get ahead of a cultural moment in which the fashion industry—and its publications—are being indicted for their treatment of the black talent…
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After a Very Public Parting, Munroe Bergdorf Rejoins L'Oréal in an Advisory Role
America’s chickens are arguably coming home to roost—a centuries-old phrase famously used by Malcolm X as he predicted a reckoning with this country’s deeply ingrained and institutional racism. And in a moment that echoes the impact of the advent of the #MeToo movement, the fashion and beauty industries are not immune. Amid accusations of performative solidarity,…
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'My Blackitude Was Prominent in Everything I Did': André Leon Talley on Wearing Blackness in White Spaces
André Leon Talley’s highly anticipated second memoir, The Chiffon Trenches, just hit shelves on Tuesday and is already a New York Times bestseller. But the buzz built around the book’s supposed bombshells about fashion industry gatekeepers like Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld have arguably threatened to overshadow the larger-than-life presence that is Talley himself—as well…
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Nichelle Nichols NASA Documentary Given the Green Light for World Sales
Actress and singer Nichelle Nichols is well known for her role as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series and succeeding movies. But she isn’t only a science-fiction hero; she’s a hero in the real world of science as well. The documentary Woman In Motion chronicles Nichols’ fight to recruit NASA’s first…