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LADYPANTS of the YEAR: the BEST of 2012

December 31, 2012
INSPIRATION board, RANDOM musings, style REPORT
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Perennially chic: the idea that style is constant, consistent, habitual, preternatural. It hardly erodes, but withstands the mercurial nature of trends, fads, and phases year after year to defy the annals of time. The women and men I have tapped as LADYPANTS and LADpants of the YEAR embody such a politic in every ounce of their dress and spirit. From photographers, songstresses, editors, writers, to bloggers, these individuals are style iconoclasts, possessing a fearless approach to fashion and an inspiring vision for all 365 days of the year. Read on to see who made the list…

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on the subject of SOLANGE

October 17, 2012
arts x leisure section, attache CASE, INSPIRATION board
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I am very pleased to offer you a preview of my featured interview with songstress/style star/beat-thumping DJ/hot mama, Solange Knowles, for LURVE Magazine’s Fall/Winter issue.

LURVE’s editor, Lyna Ahanda, approached me about the project last Spring and I immediately went to work, pouring myself over research on the style maven and developing questions that would underscore the wit, intellect, and artistry of this young creative on the brink.

I have found that when interviewing people, niceties should be thrown out the window: a conversation should be had, a dialogue started; all walls should collapse. And so with Miss. Knowles, I obscured the surface and dug deep. What she reveals here is expressly her own voice, and with it a very honest, endearing story emerges that works perfectly in concert with the imaginative and transformative images of Ellen von Unwerth.

After reading on, I think you’ll find that “Solo” is on to something fantastic, insightful, and very necessary.

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black girl crush series, part 4: SHALA MONROQUE

September 25, 2012
arts x leisure section, INSPIRATION board
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**An excerpt from the fourth installment of my Huffington Post series, “The Black Girl Crush Series”–an awesome new index of interviews with Black female iconoclasts.**

In the recently published third issue of the provocative art/fashion magazine, GARAGE, there is no dearth of fascinating images. The magazine, ferocious in size, literally opens itself up to page after page of expressive and intellectual visual dialogues on the subject of time. Simply checking the contributing page you’ll find a roll-call of the fashion industry’s top imagemakers; famed lensman to the beaumonde, Juergen Teller, shot one of the issue’s multiple covers.

However, for me, one of the most striking visuals comes in the form of a small black and white photo of our fourth Black Girl Crush, Shala Monroque. She, GARAGE’s Creative Director, is shown as a young tot, her hair perfectly plaited, and her cheeks plump and ripe with baby fat. I suspect the editor and style maven is no more than two when this picture was taken, but her expression here is one she has carried through her adult-life, and one I know well.

Almost inscrutable, I can still tell Shala is deep in thought–as she always is–and I’d like to believe this is why she has become, in turn, the “thinking woman’s” style icon some years later.

Declared the “muse of a generation” in 2011 by New York Magazine and the moment’s “It Girl” by Town & Country, the St. Lucian editor and writer has dazzled the international art and fashion crowds (and the infamously unflappable designer, Miuccia Prada), with a signature flare and statement-making approach to dress. The term “fashion risk” doesn’t really exist in her sartorial lexicon, as she can easily make the unthinkable (i.e. a bejeweled beetle brooch) the very necessary (i.e. Vogue did a full feature on the now must-have accessory).

But it is really when Shala opens her mouth does she make the most powerful impact. A soft, almost undetectable Caribbean lilt gives way to candid discussions on books, gender, race, art, politics, sex, relationships, and more books–her library seemingly as rare, vast, and precious as her shoe collection. Ebbing from the serious to the irreverent, no conversation is quite the same with Shala: a spirit I infused into the Q/A below, where she reveals the influence of writer Maya Angelou, how to navigate New York as a young creative, and her endearing (albeit secret) fascination with celebrity blogs.

Click HERE to read more…

Photography by Tommy Ton.

black girl crush series, part 3: VASHTIE KOLA

September 10, 2012
arts x leisure section, attache CASE, INSPIRATION board
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**An excerpt from the third installment of my Huffington Post series, “The Black Girl Crush Series”–an awesome new index of interviews with Black female iconoclasts.**

To be sure, the allure of the tomboy has stretched over time, mediums, and cultures, the beguiling assemblage of female magnetism and male dominance funneled into a single physical embodiment. Simply look at screen god(desses) Marlene Dietrich and Diane Keaton, jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday, or even Joan of Arc for verifiable proof: the bold, unconventional, yet glamorous sway of gamines has seemingly always had an impact on art, society, fashion, and history.

Within a modern context, though, no one seems to embody tomboy style quite like Downtown New York’s polymath/”sweetheart”, Vashtie Kola. The artist, designer, video director, brand consultant, professional party hostess-with-the-mostest, dominates the hip hybrid scenes of fashion, hip-hop, and art in denim cutoffs, Air Jordans (of her own design), a tee (also of her own design), and a flip of her enviable bushel of curls.

Such an effortless uniform still makes quite a statement while she’s busy directing music videos for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Solange Knowles, Kid Cudi, and Justin Beiber, designing haute streetwear for her clothing line VIOLETTE, or amping up the crowd of her weekly 90′s-music dance party, “1992″. Like many young women of our generation, Ms. Kola has masterfully transformed her passions into her occupation, shirking a single job title instead for several proverbial hats. The Trinidadian beauty reveals in the third installment of the “Black Girl Crush Series” how she balances her limitless interests, the female powerhouses that continually inspire, and what advice she would offer her younger self–all whilst being the only girl in the crew.

Click HERE to read more!

A special thanks to Vashtie for participating in this growing project!

black girl crush series, part 2: DARLENE & LIZZY OKPO, of WILLIAM OKPO

July 25, 2012
arts x leisure section, INSPIRATION board
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**An excerpt from the second installment of my Huffington Post series, “The Black Girl Crush Series”–an awesome new index of interviews with Black female iconoclasts.**

A fashion insider, who shall remain nameless, once told me that the idea of a Black female fashion collective was an impossibility. The idea of creative like minds — in its simplest form, a crew, and in its grandest, a nucleus of Black female talent and cool — could never be. Not because there weren’t any existing potential participants — to be sure, the numbers grow by the day — but rather, as they explained, because of the attitudes and drama our race and gender incite … no, no, no it does not bode well for us. We simply do not work well together.

Thankfully this ominous forecast was relayed to me via email, for I’m unsure how I would have responded if confronted with it in the flesh. Without the ability to type a poised, diplomatic response, I would have most likely swallowed hard and pointed to daring design stars, Darlene and Lizzy Okpo, the sisterly duo behind lauded womenswear label, William Okpo, as proof positive that such self-pathologizing conclusions are unfounded.

The young designers, whose diverse origins traverse the savannahs of Nigeria, to the beautiful chaos of the Bronx, to the quaint suburbs of Staten Island, are physical and emotional complements of one another; two sides of a single design objective, who have worked together cohesively since the line’s debut in 2010. The sisters have in turn branded a quiet cool about William Okpo in a short interval, having garnered support from the GenArt brand, which has sponsored both their Spring/Summer 2012 and Fall/Winter 2012 collections, and the patronage of such fashion darlings as Solange Knowles,

Darlene and Lizzy are also the subjects of the second installment of the “Black Girl Crush Series”, and have infused their infectious personalities into a thoughtful Q/A that touches on the brand’s muses, how they combat the struggles of Black designers, and above all, how they manage those signature knee-length cascade of braids.

Click here to read more….


Photo by Jason Eric Hardwick.

LADYPANTS in the press

July 18, 2012
INSPIRATION board, RANDOM musings
5 Comments

A humbling surprise and honor fell across my desk a few weeks ago: Independent Fashion Bloggers (IFB) named LADYPANTS one of the “Top 11 Amazing Style Blogs You (Probably) Have Never Heard Of.”

A brainteaser of a title, but I love the idea of flying under the radar, and yet still being recognized.

When I started this site last year, it was really just a writing exercise, something to get my proverbial pen wet again. I had set it down for far too long, having entered into the corporate fashion workforce after graduate school.

At the death of my mentor last Spring and a change in jobs, though, I realized that I needed to get back to my first passion, which is and always will be, writing. Style and fashion are of course huge fascinations of mine, but as much as I get tangled up and lost in my wardrobe, I play endlessly with words. And for a creative, when those words are understood in the slightest…well, it’s a relief unlike any other. // xLP

Many thanks to the IFB team, and be sure to check out the other up-and-coming style blogs that made IFB’s, “Top 11 Amazing Style Blogs…” list, here.

LADY OF SUMMER

July 10, 2012
attache CASE, INSPIRATION board, style REPORT
8 Comments

As I write this, I can feel summer at my back.

I can feel it blazing outside my window, the oppressive heat crackling on the concrete streets below, scorching the greenery, browning the skin, and leaving a hint of the earth burning in the air. It is a relentless season, one of reverie, sweat, fantasy, and adventure; best experienced with an open calendar and spirit, I believe.

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black girl crush series, part 1: ESTELLE

June 30, 2012
arts x leisure section, attache CASE, INSPIRATION board, style REPORT
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**An excerpt from my recent Huffington Post article, “Black Girl Crush Series, Part 1: ESTELLE”–the first in an awesome new series of interviews with Black female iconoclasts.**

When I initially wrote ”Sisterly Love: The Rise of the Black Girl Crush” I simply wanted to offer a modern reading on the powerful and delightful connection women of color have always shared with one another. Though the term “crush” insinuates an inane, temporal connection with certain subjects, I was able to argue instead that the “Black girl crush” reflects a deep admiration for women of color in the limelight whose careers affirm that our ambitions are hardly anomalous and certainly attainable.

I knew I wanted to expand on the idea somehow after the article published, and thought, “Why not simply interview the very subjects of these Black girl crushes?!” Why not discover what makes these women tick, which Black girls in turn inspire them, and where do they get their strength, inspiration, and style?

With this said, I began by talking to British singer/rapper, Estelle, who has enlivened audiences the world over with her soulful sound, fresh approach to style, and joyful spirit. With the recent release of her praiseworthy sophomore offering, All Of Me, Estelle draws from a long tradition of Black female songstresses, singing earnestly of the raw emotions that come with love and relationships, while injecting her signature groove into the infectious album.

Here she confesses her own Black Girl Crushes and pathos on style, life, and sisterhood….

Click here to learn what and who inspires singer/rapper, Estelle….