Fashion & Shopping
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5 products these Black beauty founders always recommend

Leigh B. Maynard

The lack of shelf space traditionally given to Black-owned beauty brands has rightfully been spotlighted in recent months. And while independently owned brands may now be slowly, surely gaining the recognition, support and opportunities they deserve, the fact remains that there are few major retailers making products for Black skin a primary focus.

This is exactly what makes Candour Beauty so exciting. Jacqueline Kusamotu and Abi Lawrence-Adesida’s newly launched e-tail platform successfully mixes content with commerce, delivering an all-round luxury shopping experience.

The brand roster spans hair, skin and bodycare, and offers big-name brands (think Olaplex and Dr. Barbara Sturm) alongside new and niche ventures, from The Afro Skin + Hair Co to the anticipated Melyon skincare. Black Girl Sunscreen – a cult hero in the States – has been snapped up, as have textured hair heroes The Mane Choice and Cantu.

This content is imported from Instagram.

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Fashion Jewelry
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Why Brands Need to Hire More Black Influencers

Leigh B. Maynard

Let’s face it: 2020 has been a year of letdowns, and the fashion industry is no exception — especially when it comes to matters of race. As a Black editor, I’m sick and tired of the general refusal to follow through on promises and simply do what is right. Following George Floyd’s murder, countless brands rushed to social media to share sentiments of solidarity. My inbox was flooded with emails titled, “Our commitment,” “We stand with the Black community,” and, my personal favorite, “We pledge to do better.” For someone who’s worked in fashion for eight years and experienced discrimination both firsthand and from afar, these so-called “promises” sounded like a broken record. They were performative, lacked emotion, and, frankly, felt like they were after one thing: my coin. As I dealt with the trauma and grief of losing yet another innocent Black man, supporting newly woke brands was something

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Fashion Jewelry
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‘A new wave’: Kamala Harris elevates black designers on world stage | Fashion

Leigh B. Maynard

In a year where the global fashion industry has faced its biggest ever racial reckoning Kamala Harris, the first black and south Asian vice-president, has elevated the names of black designers by wearing their clothes on the biggest public stage possible.

By wearing fashion labels Pyer Moss, Christopher John Rogers and Sergio Hudson during last week’s inauguration events, Harris was aligning the new administration’s commitment to diversity with the fashion industry’s attempt to move past systemic, historic racism into a new era. A new era where designers of color get the same opportunities that their white counterparts have had for years.

“When it comes to inauguration events, black designers have been almost exclusively absent,” said the author Ronda Racha Penrice, “so it was nice to discover that the fabulous outfits [were] created by black designers.”

The concept of “the new” was seen directly on Tuesday when Harris attended an

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Fashion Brands
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How the Inauguration Inspired the Next Generation of Black Fashion Designers

Leigh B. Maynard

Just as Kamala Harris’ inauguration was a history-making moment in politics, so it was in fashion with Black designers behind the biggest looks of the occasion.

Harris, the first Black, South Asian, and woman vice president, wore a coat by Christopher John Rogers, a leading Black designer who won the 2020 CFDA Award for Womenswear Designer of the Year. Her heels were by Sergio Hudson, another talented Black designer who also dressed Michelle Obama in her head-to-toe burgundy ensemble for the presidential inauguration. (Rogers declined to comment; Hudson did not return requests for comment.)

On the eve of the inauguration at a tribute to those of have passed away from COVID-19, Vice President Harris wore a coat from Pyer Moss, a brand designed and owned by Haitian American designer Kerby Jean-Raymond. Jean-Raymond launched Pyer Moss in 2013, and he quickly became a darling of the American fashion industry, and through

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