0 African Style and Fashion

If someone sat you down and asked you to picture African Fashion, what would come to mind?

For most of us, bright colors with lots of greens, reds, blues and yellows of all shades. Large bold prints demanding your attention, beautiful head dresses crafted by gifted hands and creativity.

Imagine the fashion and style no longer. Here are a few gems we have discovered in our trek through the internet.

African Chic for your home (Maraki Design)

Click Image to view more pictures from source

Click Image to view more pictures from source

Decor for your African Themed home (Eva Soinake)

Click here for more pictures from Original Source

Click here for more pictures from Original Source

Art for your walls (Brianna McCarthy)

Click for more pictures from original source

Click for more pictures from original source

Clothes for your wardrobe (Vlisco Fashion Show, Photography by Nana Kofi Acquah)

Click for more pictures from original source

Click for more pictures from original source

Read more

0 Spotlight: Tracy Reese

Tracy Reese (Photo from obviousmag.com)

African American women love clothes. It cannot be denied. At a gathering of black women beautiful clothes come out of the closet and are donned to present polished and beautiful silhouettes.

Michelle Obama, lauded as one of the most stylish First Wives, has become something of a fashion icon (even though the praise really should fall to her stylist if she has one. If not, well, good for her!).

In exploring fashion, certain names come easily to mind: Valentino, Vera Wang, Dolce&Gabbana, Sean John, Rocca Wear. It would seem that familiarity with design houses led by African American designers are less well known.

Hopefully this introduction is one that you will cherish. Here is Tracy Reese. The design of her clothes is clearly very feminine and creative. Her creativity was nurtured by her parents, and although she had previously thought her path lay towards Architecture and Interior design, one internship changed her life forever.

Her clothes have been described as unabashedly girly and are created for the every day woman.

Tracy Reese Website.

Read more

0 The Art of Being Sexy

Have you every typed "sexy black woman" into the Google search engine? I did! This is what I got.

From this search it would seem that in order for a black woman (and all other women) to be considered sexy, she would have to be clad in next to nothing.

The images that flash at us from the television screen scream a message to us; we MUST be sexy even when we are doing the most mundane activities. Products are peddled to us that claim they will increase our sex appeal if we use/wear/buy them.

We are not the only ones being given this message as the recent YouTube video of the Old Spice Guy has shown, however, it is most forcefully applied to us. We dress to enhance our bodies, put coloring on our faces to show off our features and purchase clothing designed to expose body parts that were previously thought of as private parts.

Why do we desire "sex appeal"? Are we hard wired to react positively to the urges that drive the reproduction of our species? Is it possible to be considered sexy, when we are fully and tastefully dressed?

Read more