The Bobbed and The Beautiful

Clothes weren't the only thing on my trend-spotting radar. I saw some exciting bobs this week, with fantastic color. Mary J, Star Jones and Veronica Webb were on point with their chic crops. It's refreshing, actually, to see black women without the Barbie Doll weave down their back. Try something new and take these looks to your stylist. 

Trying a new look this fall? Tell me all about it below or email me at stylediary@essence.com.

Photo Credits
Star Jones:Shawn Ehlers/WireImage.com
Veronica Webb: Shawn Ehlers/WireImage.com
Mary J: Mark Von Holden/WireImage.com

Bag Ladies

The people-watching during fashion week is stellar. I'm not just talking about the celebrities. The clothes on the fashionistas can actually be just as inspiring as the collections on the runway. For the next few days I want to talk about the great stuff I saw off of the runway. Because I'm a handbag-addict, I'd like to point out the three bags that I saw on practically all the editors, editor-in-chiefs and stylists. Again, these style moguls have access to most everything, and of course they choose to show you all the hit bags of various seasons, however, what they were actually carrying were the following: the Cole Haan "Aerin" tote, colehaan.com YSL's "Downtown" bag , and Jimmy Choo's "Ramona" bag. They're all large,leather with great hardware and slightly slouchy, without loosing their "high-price tag" allure. Thank God for the keen and stylish eye of Essence's accessories editor, Gwen Covington--she gave me the names of these bags. You'll be hearing more about some of her fashion week experiences in my next few blogs. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

There are moments when fashion and politics collide. This happened, for me at least, at the Betsey Johnson show on this last September 11th. I was here in NYC six years ago–– sitting at my desk finishing
copy so I could rush to an early morning fashion show––when this date acquired a whole new meaning. Although I was fortunate not to have lost anyone close to me, as a transplant New Yorker/Brooklynite, I can still be a little emotional about that day.

On this particular 9/ll––2007––my morning started with New York One airing the memorial service for the victims of 9/11. The names were being read aloud by various officials at the site downtown, as I tried
to figure out what to wear for this here day of fashion week. I paused and listened to some of the commentary, got teary eyed, then moved back to my bedroom to hunt for a matching pump or earring. By that afternoon, I'd forgotten it was 9/11. But I got a necessary reminder at, of all places, the Betsey Johnson show. This is always a scene––a fun, kitschy, tarty collaboration of clothing you would probably never wear, but love seeing just the same. This year her theme was the Prom––from the 50's to the 2000's. The music was slammin'––she took us back with "I Wonder If I Take You Home" to "You're Never Gonna Git It", to "Real Love". I was nodding my head to the beat, watching LL Cool J, who was there in the front row, chewing his gum to the music, when the show came to a close. There was a frothy tulle American flag dress, followed, I think, by a few other patriotic frocks. "OK, so that was nice." I thought,, "this is September 11," But then, the models cleared the runway and some striptease music began. Four girls
came out holding their short capes at their necks. Betsey usually closes like this. The girls remove the capes and then there is some funny message, acronym or something on the backs of their virtually
naked bodies.

When they dropped the capes and the word 'vote' appeared I just had a moment, out of nowhere. This election may be the most important in my lifetime, but turning the tide that is. And because so much of what needs to change in this country is linked to 9/11, I was just extremely moved. I didn't cry or anything, I just started clapping like I'd just seen Michael Jackson (Thriller times that is) perform for the first time. Vote,We all have to vote, please.

Don't worry, the fashion is coming. I just needed to spew about this.

photo credit:
Randy Brooke/WireImage.com

Model Behavior

Alec Wek was ESSENCE’s September 2000 cover girl––a spectacular black and white shot that is still one of my favorite covers of all time. This Fashion Week weekend the model-turned accessories designer and now author was feted at the tents for her new book, Alek From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel (Amistad/HarperCollins)––read more about it in the Books Section of ESSENCE’s September 2007 issue. Anyway, my dear friend and colleague, Bridgette Bartlett, got up-close and personal with Ms.Wek at the soiree to discuss this new venture. Bartlett says Wek arrived at the Mercedes Benz Star Lounge wearing a black knit tank, black skinny jeans, strappy sandals and of course one of her own signature Wek1933 bags, alekwek1933.com. Barlett gushed to Wek that we here at ESSENCE are naturally excited about her cover choice.

Wek’s response: “When we sat around the table to choose the [cover] image, that one was just so compelling. And I said it just be instinct. It shouldn’t be a discussion. There wasn’t a fight over which picture would be chosen. We just said, ‘That’s it!’”

More of our Alek chat . . .
Essence: Of course we covered the book in our September issue so I know it’s sort of a coming of age story. What would you like young girls to take away from the book?
AW: Young girls think that modeling is fun and glamorous but it’s a job. I’ve been fortunate to be on the runway and be successful but I stay humbled by the whole thing. When you get to a certain position and you have a voice, you’ve been blessed with it; you should use that voice to help people that may not have those same opportunities you have.

E: How have you been able to re-create yourself in such a relatively short period of time? You’re a model, a handbag designer, an author…
AW: I just really let myself evolve. I don’t try to feel any comfort in one zone. Time goes on so it only makes sense to let nature take it’s course. So for me it’s just being able to do the things I love.

More Celeb Sightings
I failed to mention that Janet Jackson and Mary J. Blige were at the Catherine Malandrino show. Ms. Malandrino, who is oh so French, is one of my favorite designers. She always delivers gorgeous colorful frilly but sexy dresses. This season was no different. Ciara was at BCBG looking
fresh-faced in a smoky grey cap and Samuel Jackson brought the family out for front row seats at Y-3.

photo credits:
Janet/Mary J
Mark Von Holden/WireImage.com

Samuel Jackson and family
Joe Kohen/WireImage.com

Ciara
Djamilla Rosa Cochran/WireImage.com

Oh Happy Day!

Black Style Now! That summarized last Friday of fashion week. My morning began with Tracy Reese, the only African-American showing at the tents, and ended with the Kimora Lee Simmons’ extravaganza at the Roseland Ball Room. Tracy’s show was full of black fashion society, (Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley, Socialite Susan Fales Hill, Curator Thelma Golden, Veteran fashion editors Constance White of Ebay and Teri Agins of the Wall Street Journal). Kimora’s
fete was spilling over with black celebrity (Star Jones, Mary J. Blige, Selita Ebanks, Russell, of course, Djimon Hounsou, many more). Tracy’s vibe: happy, sophisticated, feminine. Kimora’s groove: sexy and over-the-top. Her kids are still as cute as ever. I remember when Kimora had to carry little Aoki on the catwalk. Tracy’s show ended with love, family style, as well. Her mother and father always present her with a bouquet at the show’s conclusion when she takes her bow.

Backstage Drama

The inspiration for Tracy Reese’s show was a vacation in Tunisia. Kimora’s inspiration was a rich lady in St. Tropez “with too much makeup and huge hair,” laughed her key stylist Laurent Philippon from Bumble and Bumble.
Lisa Butler of MAC keyed the makeup–-an in your face mix of orangy-red and pink blush on eyes and cheeks––lips were hot-pink. Edris Nicholls and Mally Roncal have keyed Tracy Reese’s hair and makeup since Tracy began showing at
the tents. Edris’ team gave the girls easy and unstudied French braids that wrapped across the forehead. Mally’s direction was dewey skin, flush cheeks and nude glossy lips.


Family Matters

Model Chanel Iman and mom, China Robinson, smile sweetly backstage. Ms. Robinson accompanies her sixteen year old daughter to all of her shows. They just got an apartment in New York, a home away from home in LA, to make their cross- country jaunts easier. Russel and Djimon admire Kimora’s
frocks. Could this be another cozy Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher situation?
The Family Reese: Tracy’s Mom Pat, her father Claude, sister Erin, and family friend, LaSonjia.

New Kids on The Block

Newbie models Hollis, from Tennessee and Sabina, who hails from Sweden, enjoyed their first season at the tents. When I asked Hollis what she thought of modeling for Tracy she said she was “honored and happy that she got to carry the umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh, eh….”

Etc, Etc

Backstage I saw Miss Jay and Djimon Hounsou scurrying to Kimora’s private nook where she was holding interviews. Kimora’s family jeweler, Sol Raffeal, was also backstage keeping an eye on a long table of diamond baubles for the
models. The sapphire and diamond set he selected for Kimora to wear were worth over two million bucks. The ring, a 100-carat natural sapphire was blinding. Bling on.

Show Time/Part 2

Wednesday night at the LAMB show (Gwen Stefani’s collection) I waited
patiently backstage for the black model’s to show up. In addition to telling you about all the fab fashion, naturally, I also want you to see how the season’s it looks (makeup and hair that is) translate on us. As soon as I entered backstage––editor check in is about two hours before the show begins––I looked at the poster board of model’s for the show. Thank God there were two black faces. Two prominent black faces: 16 year-old super-model-in the-making Chanel Iman and the gorgeous Jordan––models don’t deal with last names. Anyway, the key talent backstage was Charlotte Tilbury from MAC and Danilo (Stefani’s stylist of many years) from Pantene.

The inspiration for hair was, according to Danilo, who wore black eyeliner especially well for a man, Priscella Prestly the morning after. Hmmmm, I thought to myself. Translation: messy bouffant French rolls. As for the makeup, Charlotte said, Barbara Streisand in Funny Girl, according to Tilbury. Translation: Sky blue eyes with heavy black liner and bluntly trimmed faux lashes. Pretty fabulous actually, see Chanel below.

Ah the nails, how could I forget them. Nails are a big deal backstage these days. Creative Nail Design (CND) is the “MAC” of the Nail Industry. There are about 150 showings during fashion week. MAC is booked for just over 70. Creative Nail Design is booked for just over 60. They are trusted by the fashion world to finish their clothing looks beautifully. Anyway, tips were created for the models. They have to run from one runway to the next so they need nails that can be changed quickly. Creative Nail Design made over 400 tips for this show alone! They have a suite with a team that works 24-7 creating thousands of fabulous nails. LAMB’s tips were a black and white French Nail situation. The tip was black however, nice funky touch.

Speaking of funky, the clothes were a mix of naughty schoolgirl meets
well-dressed 50’s housewife meets mod 60’s siren. Stefani, along with her hot husband and sweet little boy, came backstage to greet the talent in a black and white mini sequins sheath. I got one shot of her getting her hair touched up by Danilo. The clothes, the clothes: A lot of black and white, with touches of bright yellow and plaid accessories. There was a bit of sparkle as well. A few sequin short mod shift dresses. LAMB is to be worn by the confident, but not so serious fashionista. She has to love short shirts, tight pants and strong vintage overtones. This isn’t for the girl next door.
The pieces really looked like they came straight out of Stefani’s wardrobe.

Eve, Puffy, Kerry Underwood and the girl from One Tree Hill (forgive me for not knowing her name) were front row. I’ll be back with more.

Photo Credits:
Chanel Iman’s Runway shot
Randy Brooke/WireImage.com

Jordan’s Runway shot
Kevin Mazur/Wireimage.com

All the others
Yours truly☺

Show Time

It’s fashion week here in New York. That means eight days of viewing top dog designer digs for Spring 2008. Fashion insiders will see all of the US collections here first, before they trickle down to the stores by early spring. Anyway, I’ve gotta share some of my daily highlights with you, so I hope you don’t mind coming along with me as I dip in and out of various shows, presentations and parties. My yesterday, day one of fashion week, began with some backstage interviews at the Rachel Roy presentation. She
didn’t have a formal runway fashion show, but rather a showroom viewing of her 13 fresh looks for spring. In case you’re not familiar with Ms. Roy, she’s what I like to think of as a socialite-type designer, a la Tory Burch.
She’s also Damon Dash’s wife. So she has no formal training as a designer but impeccable taste, and most importantly a great eye and understanding of how to produce gorgeous clothing that women actually want to wear. For me, Rachel’s presentation began backstage, or rather behind silk curtains, with the models, makeup and hair preparation.

The Hair, The Models, The Makeup, The Mayhem
I naturally gravitated to the models of color, there were two, Joan and Carmelita. You’ll see them here being prepped and prodded by the key beauty teams from Bobbi Brown (the makeup mogel, not the ex-Mr. Houston) and Fabrice Gili (I hope that spelling is right) from Frederic Fekkai SoHo––he’s Rachel’s personal stylist. Anyway, these beauty players collaborated with Rachel to determine the perfect makeup and hair direction that would best suit the clothing. The result: watercolors on the eyes, soft but bright––Bobbi Brown’s Ultra Violet Eye Shadow and Apricot Blush were the main colors used on Joan and Carmelita.
Bobbi told me that we everyday gals can pull off the look by taking the color down a bit: applying it just above the top lash line, as opposed to the entire lid-to-brow area.

As for the hair, I cracked up when I saw all of the hair packs from the line that Brandy endorses––no pricy pieces here. All of the models rocked faux ponytails from the line––they looked fabulous by the way, sleek tops and long nesty and deliberately messy tails with a small ribbon tied at the center of the tail. I’m trying this. I’m gonna get my Brandy pack and try it.

The Main Event
So the clothes, the clothes. Rachel told me that the inspiration for the line was balance. She thinks women have both masculine and feminine nuances to them. So with this collection she included some masculine aspects not seen before in her previous collections a harness-like detail on a silk evening gown, heavy-metal embellishments constructed into dresses and jackets. Still all very wearable, especially the super-wide legged cotton/linen trousers and the loose sheath dresses
with drawstrings. Can’t wait for the sample sale!
Rachel was all smiles when Andre’ Leon Talley arrived, on time. They went through the collection together. There were kisses and hugs, oohs and ahhs over the clothing and as you can see I was snapping away. A very good show all around. I’ll be back later with more!