- Balmain’s creative director Olivier Rousteing is sheer inspiration to say the least and a newly minted guest editor this month on CNN Style. If you don’t know much about Rousteing’s story, he has overcome a number of challenges, including abandonment by his biological parents at a young age. His guest editorship uniquely isn’t going to be just about fashion, but what he has termed as #diversity. He shared these thoughts in the inaugural post, “When the press announced that I was the new creative director for Balmain the thing that was most shocking for a lot of people was not my age (I was 26 at the time) but my color, and that really surprised me. Suddenly there were all these stories about me being the first black designer in a luxury, heritage fashion house.” (Though Edward Buchanan at Bottega Veneta and Patrick Robinson at Paco Rabanne preceded him). Rousteing continues, Sometimes the fashion crowd think they’re really modern and avant-garde, but I think the system can also be quite old fashioned. I’m proud today to speak about a world where you walk down the street and see so much diversity, different people, different colors, different races. It’s what I want to try to express in my catwalk, in my casting. All my girls, no matter their age, they can be mothers, they can be 20 years old, they can have different body shapes and be different colors. Asian, American, African, European — they’re beautiful, strong women who are proud to be on the runway.” Yes, Olivier! I can’t wait to read more of his honest insights in this powerful series. (CNN Style)
- If you hadn’t yet jumped on the Tidal bandwagon, Jay-Z and co are giving music fans everywhere a more compelling reason to do so this month. Jay-Z announced Tidal will be hosting a charity concert featuring none other than Beyoncé, Prince, and other Tidal partners, including Usher, Lil Wayne, and Nicki Minaj, on October 20th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. First of all, talk about an incredible line-up! The deal gets sweeter: all ticket proceeds will support charities “dedicated to advancing positive community relations and affecting systemic change for the development and sustainability of just societies.” This reads supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and developing the requisite community / legal reforms all over it. Buy tickets here. (NY Times)
- Earlier this week, news hit that Nicki Minaj will produce and star in her own scripted ABC Family comedy series. Let’s all shout a collective Yasss Onika! With this current shift in media towards actually giving opportunities to the diversity of black talent in television and film, I’m super excited about this. Nicki’s show will be based on her childhood in 1990s Queens and will hopefully give viewers a deeper look into who Nicki was before she became the self-proclaimed Queen of Rap. (Rolling Stone)
- In beauty news, Pat McGrath, makeup legend extraordinaire, released a press release announcing her very first product, a gold dust entitled “Gold 001;” you can see just how she applied this gold dust in the latest Prada Spring 2016 RTW presentation in Milan. Her debut product will go on sale later this month, so sign up on the site Pat McGrath Labs to get real-time updates. For a beauty icon as large as Pat McGrath, this is major! (Fashionista)
- You may think this already existed (actually I definitely did!), but apparently Nike had no female basketball apparel line, designed by women. This Tuesday, Nike Women revealed its Elite Basketball performance collection, an apparel line designed by females for female athletes. Retailers, especially powerful ones like Nike, can shape consumer culture and behavior. Designing basketball apparel with female athletes in mind gives a voice to the young girls playing the sport today who will aspire to the WNBA. In this ultra-competitive industry, it only takes one activewear giant to lead the way for the others to follow swiftly behind. (Fashionista) (Image: Nike)