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Paris Fashion Week: Chanel and McQueen Give Us a Contrast in Modern Classics
Chanel is the definition of classic. Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s longtime designer, has kept the label’s image moving by making modern classics out of tweed jackets, quilted leather bags and patent leather cap-toe boots, and by both adding sparkle to fabric and #BlackGirlMagic to the runways. This season, a full-scale enchanted forest played host to a…
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Paris Fashion Week: Saint Laurent Shows Us the Appeal of All-Black Everything
Seriously sexy suits cut from lush black velvet, sensuous silks, luxurious black leather and the vibrant palette of African wildlife have always been the hallmarks of the famed Parisian house of Yves Saint Laurent—now simply known as Saint Laurent. Saint Laurent’s current designer, Anthony Vaccarello, turned out an almost all-black collection, save for a few…
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Entrepreneurial Ingenue Ariana Pierce Is a Superstar—and Wants to Make You One, Too
Twenty-five-year-old CEO Ariana Pierce is going places in style. Since the age of 13, her love of beauty, business entrepreneurship, wanderlust and a hustle that just won’t quit have made her one to watch. The Glow Up girl caught up with the avid traveler and founder of Superstar Nail Lacquer to find out what inspires…
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Sean John x Jean-Michel Basquiat: A 20th-Anniversary Collaboration Honoring the Radiant Child
For the 20th anniversary of his Sean Jean clothing brand, Sean “Puffy” Combs’ latest artist collaboration is a partly posthumous one: a five-piece T-shirt-and-denim capsule collection featuring the work of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Combs—obviously also known as “Diddy”—and Jay-Z both collect the late painter and revere him in their lyrics. As Diddy rhymes in the…
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Paris Fashion Week: Balmain Wants You to #JoinMyReality
Balmain, designed by 32-year-old Olivier Rousteing, the first person of color to head a French heritage brand, literally dazzled the crowd gathered at Paris City Hall for its Fall/Winter 2018/2019 presentation. Olivier R.—as the designer prefers to be called—sent out his #BalmainArmy in futuristic fabrics inspired by fantasies of a soon-to-be-real cyber mashup world. Holographic…
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Paris Fashion Week: Off-White x Nike Caused a Fashion Riot
Paris experienced a riot last week. Off-White designer Virgil Abloh knows how to draw a crowd, but his Fall/Winter 2018 runway presentation almost closed down before it opened. An uninvited and impromptu throng of sneakerheads gathered outside the venue in hopes of scoring a pair of Off-White x Nike, which Footwear News reported will be…
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Wrap Your Head Around This: Imaan and Iman Cover Vogue Arabia’s Anniversary Issue
I’m in love with Vogue Arabia’s first anniversary cover, which features the legendary Somalian supermodel Iman and this generation’s phenom, Imaan Hammam, a Dutch-born supermodel of Moroccan and Egyptian heritage. Wearing traditional head wraps, cloaked in clouds of Marabou feathers fresh off the couture runway of Saint Laurent, the two wonderful women—both of whom I’m…
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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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On Target? Black Beauty
Target is fast becoming the mass-market hub for black-owned beauty brands. Customer demand for high-quality products with a luxury feel aimed at a black and brown audience—ticketed at drugstore price points—has been pent up for decades. This is in response to shifting demographics as much as customer needs; by 2028, the majority of Americans 18-25…
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Love, Italian Style: #BlackGirlMagic at Milan Fashion Week
Black girls have been ruling the runways this Milan Fashion Week (Feb. 21-Feb. 28). Case in point: For the first time since Naomi Campbell’s opening strut back in 1997, Prada tapped a black model to open its fashion show (Jourdan Dunn is the only other black model to be booked by this global powerhouse brand…
