Voices In Color

I'm In Love: Swagger 360

I love his style POV.  The Sick Shoe Game category is my fave...

Style Slump

Whenever I'm feeling like I'm in a style slump I like to page through these two sites for inspiration, The Sartorialist and Garance Doré.  A few examples..

I'm In Love: Rachel Roy New York

I've been a fan of fashion designer, Rachel Roy, for a while.  I'm thrilled to see she has this new line of more moderately priced clothes/accessories (sold on her site and at Macy's) that are just as interesting and sexy as her more expensive line.  Here are a few examples...

AphroChic: modern. soulful. style.

Love this blog and now she has a shop with her own line here...

Black Is Finally In Fashion At Vogue

It's an open secret in the fashion industry: black models rarely get jobs on catwalks, in magazines and on billboards. According to executives, they do not inspire women to spend money.

Apart from Naomi Campbell in one Louis Vuitton advertisement this season, it would be difficult to find a single black model in a prominent position in a magazine. Carole White of the Premier Model Agency says she has received casting briefs requesting "no ethnics" and adds: "According to magazines, black models don't sell."

The leading British photographer Nick Knight says: "The fashion industry and the advertising industry are steeped in racism. You just have to look around at the number of black girls you see in ads – virtually nil. Among the main fashion brands, they are completely under-represented. It's shocking and atrocious."

Mr Knight blames business people at the top of the industry. A common attitude among them, he says, is that black models are "not aspirational" or "don't sell in Asia". He goes on: "I have tried to redress the balance. It is enormously important to use black models and models of different ethnic backgrounds."

Now a counterattack to the racism of the fashion industry is coming from an unlikely source: Vogue Italia. The July issue of the fearsomely cutting-edge quarterly will feature black models almost exclusively, shot by the photographer Steven Meisel.

Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, told The Independent on Sunday: "We are using a lot of black models, like Iman, not only the models of today – a lot of different girls." Asked why she had decided to do this, she said: "Because nobody is using black girls. I see so many beautiful girls and they were complaining that they are not used enough."

Read more: The Independent

I'm In Love: Prada Fairy Bag

LeBron Shrugs Off Criticism Of Vogue Cover

I actually liked this cover…

LeBron James has done lots of magazine covers and heard lots of criticism for various things in the past five years. So he's brushing off the heat he's getting about his most recent close up.

James made a measure of history when he made the cover of Vogue's April issue alongside supermodel Gisele Bundchen. He was just the third male in the history of the publication to make the cover and the first African-American male.

But after the photo hit newsstands, some thought that his pose and facial expression gave off a poor impression. The most vocal was an ESPN.com columnist who said James resembled King Kong cradling a ''fair-skinned love interest.'' The writer said James ''looks like he's on his way to a pickup game for serial killers'' and was an example of ''a black athlete being reduced to a savage.''

James, who was aware of the story, shrugged off the comments.

''I was just having fun with it, I was just showing a little emotion,'' James said Saturday. ''We had a few looks and that was the best one we had. Everything my name is on is going to be criticized, in a good way or a bad way. Who cares, honestly, at the end of the day.''

Read more: Ohio.com

I’m in Love: Interior Decorator Antoinette Loupé

I loved this month’s issue of Domino mag, which featured “the Domino 10”. It’s their second annual roundup of the 10 soon-to-be hottest interior decorators across the country. My favorite was Antoinette Loupé. Her mix of old and new combined with soothing neutrals and an ethnic touch was inspiring, and right up my alley.

You can check her out in the mag, or on her site.

Karl Kani Teams With Saks For New Clothing Line

Designer Karl Kani has created a new upscale men's line that will be sold exclusively at Saks Fifth Avenue stores nationwide.

The new Kani Kouture, which combines contemporary fashion and streetwear, was unveiled on March 11th during a fashion show hosted by the designer as part of the Mercedes-Benz LA Fashion Week.

Read more: AllHipHop.com

Photographer Builds Black Greeting Cards Line

There were no broad noses crinkled in laughter. No muscular mocha arms holding newborns close. No giggling girls running through a field of daisies as their plaits flop in the breeze.

Robin McNeil, 38, of Loganville wanted everything to be perfect for her husband's first Father's Day — especially the card.

"I knew what I wanted to see — an African-American man being a dad, but I didn't see any African-Americans at all," she said. "I didn't see pencil art, I didn't see graphics. That's when I thought, 'This is ridiculous.' I refused to buy anything else."

So that Father's Day in 2003, McNeil, a photographer, decided to leave the cards at the supermarket and make a card of her own. She flipped through her collection of photographs for an image that seemed just right — a black dad walking hand-in-hand with his daughter.

She attached the picture to cardstock paper and printed a personal Father's Day card.

It was the first in a collection the stay-at-home Loganville mother of two would soon design. Her greeting cards, Reflections of Us, now sell in stores in the Atlanta area, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and online at www.reflectionsofus.net.

Read more: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution