Checkout the fashion of the Grammys on the Soul Canvas Facebook page! Who do you think shut it down and who should fire their stylist? Here’s a sneak peak:
Category Archives: Celebrities
Viola Davis in LA Times
Viola Davis has been receiving a lot of critical acclaim lately for her acting in ‘The Help’ which is also well deserved in my humble opinion. LA Times interviewed the actress on her love of theater and the accompanying photo shoot is simply stunning. I need to let my fro free and find a photographer who can make me look that fabulous! I love everything about it from the styling, to the tone and her poses.And since I poses a kinky head of hair I may be biased but her hair looks fabulous too! Check out her interview here!
While I was living under a rock…..
….Kanye West debuted his women’s wear line.
Seems logical for him to end up in fashion seeing as in terms of clothing he’s one of the more experimental males out there. He started off with his college kid look in 2004 and has gradually evolved into a weird mix of high fashion and hiphop in 2010.
2004
2010
Notably we have him to thank for the weird shutter shades that spread among the young and hip like a plague…*sighs heavily*
Having dabbled his hand in sneaker design before (he collaborated with Louis Vuitton to design a footwear collection in 2009) it was only natural that the blouse wearing rapper would eventually end up in design, he definitely has the eye for it.
His women’s wear collection is called DW, named after his mother Donte West and his first show took place in Paris on the 1st of October. Below are a few of the looks that stood out to me, personally I like the collection which featured shoes by Givenchy and the design talents of British designer Louise Goldin as well as Kanye West.
I would definitely wear all of the above and it doesn’t hurt that the gorgeous Chanel Iman is one of his models! I love and depressing look of the clothing and how everything looks as though it was draped on to the model. The clothes seems comfortable and relaxing. Follow this link to view the whole collection.
Fashion reviews for his line haven’t been so positive but though I know less about fashion that the reviewers do, in my opinion he show was of higher standard than what we’re accustomed to seeing from musicians and given his work ethic, he will only get better.
…..Rihanna was featured in Vogue magazine
I dont really follow artists magazine spreads unless they have a particularly interesting shoot. This shoot that Rihanna did for Vogue UK caught my attention. I like the colour (I think black qualifies as my favourite colour), the simplicity of the concept and the Parisian styling. The blonde wig adds some character and what wouldn’t I do for those pointy black heels??
…..Drake released a video for “Headlines”
Speaking of videos two local artists based here in Botswana released videos that are just in time to welcome summer for those of us in the southern hemisphere. The first is a song called “Dancing shoes” by hiphop artist Zeus who is making a foray into House music. I LOVE the video, I am not a fan of house music per-say but I appreciate the song.
The second video is the a product of Marked Men artist Keb. This should easily win the award for best summer anthem.
Botswana Fashion Week (and Fashion from the 63rd Emmy’s)
Botswana Fashion week
Botswana recently held another Fashion week event this past weekend. I didn’t participate as a model this time and failed to attend it as well but I would have loved to of course. Fortunately my fellow blogger Haus of Kings attended it with his camera in tow; follow this link to check out some pics of the attendees.
Brilliant photographer Mickey S (www.whoismikey.net) also took some fabulous runway pictures at the event, below are 3 that he has released:
Simply stunning.
I feel Botswana has so much potential for the fashion business here to be lucrative financially though it may be on a smaller scale than in other African countries with larger populations (Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa etc). However it seems there is no unified push by all those involved in the fashion industry here towards such a goal. In the past year 3 fashion events have been held: Gaborone Fashion Night, Colour in the Desert Fashion week and Botswana Fashion week. However there has been little convergence among the 3 events; mostly different designers and different organizers.
Having modeled in 2 of these fashion events and watched the 3rd from the sidelines (I joined the Facebook group for Botswana Fashion Week) I can see that there is still a lot to be done.
In the first show (Gaborone Fashion Night) models complained publicly to the Midweek Sun Newspaper that they were not paid and were not well looked after. Meanwhile some models from the more recent Botswana Fashion week took their grievances to the Facebook group page. Despite these backstage issues the shows themselves were a pleasure to watch for attendees. As for the second event Colour in the Desert Fashion week, having participated in that show I can guarantee it was well organized and managed behind the scenes, unfortunately despite the impeccable preparation public support for the event was disappointing. No point in having a top class show and there being no one to watch now is there?
The industry needs to help the public understand the value of the Fashion Industry and the importance in supporting local designers as much as they support the international designers.
I do understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day though and this is a good start despite the hiccups, hopefully the Botswana Fashion Industry will go from strength to strength and one day in the future we’ll have a well funded, well organised and well attended fashion week with a strong local representation. And I’m sure all of us involved in fashion within Botswana from the models to the designers, organizers and photographers and fashionista’s share this dream.
In the words of Mickey S: Viva Fashion!
The 63rd Emmy’s
The 63rd Emmy Awards took place on Sunday September 18th and here are some of my favorite dresses!
Kerry killed it! Love that dress!!!
Heidi wearing a fabulous dress designed by season 4 project runway winner (and one of my favourites from the series) Christian Siriano.
Taraji P.Henson
Jurnee Smollett
Sofia Vergara
Nina Dobrev
And lastly, the nights #epicfail in my humble opinion was by Gwyneth Paltrow….
Gwyneth Paltrow
Looks like a belly dancing outfit gone wrong….
Fashion’s night out and NY Fashion week
Check out some fahionable looks of celebrities out and about during fashion’s night out and fashion week in NYC so far (September 8th to September 14)
Whats hot and whats not?
Miss Rowland if ya nasty…
Miss K.Rowland deserved a post for this one!
The former member of Destiny’s child shut it doooooooooown wit this spread in Wonderland magazine. I love everything about it; the black and white, the sharp contrast, the styling and the way they made her look like a tall dark Amazonian goddess!!! I wanna blow the pics up and put ‘em in my non existent study,lol.
Take a look and lemme know if you agree!
Tres sexxxy!!!
Solange!!!
And those of y’all that know me know how I feel about Solo and Riri. Basically I would marry Solo and have Riri as my side chick,lol!
Anyhoo Solo’s kiyuute son Jules designed a shirt and according to Necole Bitchie :
The t-shirts will be available later today and all proceeds from sales will benefit the Peace Winds organization which provides support for those affected by the devastating earthquake
in Japan.
So Solo, Jules and celebrity stylist Ty Hunter took a couple pics in the shirt. #Iwant. And yes, I’m a groupie. 
Cute shoes and skirt tho!
Jules showing his handiwork off
Solange and Ty Hunter
Solange
Shingai Shoniwa in Harpers Bazaar March 2011
I LOVE this photo. So Grace Joneszy.
Beyonce darkens her face as a tribute to Fela Kuti
Yeah, I have no idea what is goin on either…
L’Officiel Mag thought it wud be cool to get Bee and paint her face dark brown so she “gets back to her roots” in order to honor Nigerian artist and human rights activist Fela Kuti who passed in 1997. All they get from me is a wtf?
One: How does this honor the dude again? Is his family sitting at home goin “Wow, what an honor!! Beyonce with a dark face!” I don’t see the purpose.
Two: They know how black people get about skin tone, and if they don’t they’re about to find out. They are just begging for backlash on this one and Bey should know better. Anything that reminds us of the Blackface era is not taken lightly.
If the paint on her face resembled African tribal tattoos or face paint then it would not have been a problem.
A lady from Niger in West Africa with Tribal tattoos
A woman from Ivory Coast wearing face paint.
However I don’t know what is on Bey’s face.
Three: What does this mean? Why couldn’t they get a model or musician who was dark to begin with? Why get someone who’s light then make her dark? Or would the tribute have not been complete if Bey didn’t do it? Is the idea that Bey as famous and light skinned as she is, she’s willing to go dark for Fela? Me is confused. Apparently Jay-Z is one of the producers of a musical being released to celebrate Fela’s life called “Fela!”. So maybe that’s the relevance *shrugs*.
I like to think I’m a forward thinking individual and I’m trying to see this spread as just an expression of a make-up artist and designer and a celebration of some of the fashion elements that are defined as African (head dresses, accessories made of bones, feathers etc) but for the life of me the dark face makes no sense to me. I want to hear her justification for this, however until then, my opinion is best expressed by the first lady of the United States
#sideeye.
The rest of the spread is cute tho.
Tell me what you think; is it racist, artsy or are you indifferent?
Nicki Minaj paints her face for V magazine
I wasn’t sure how to react or what to think when I saw these a couple days ago, still not sure what to think….
It’s unique I guess. *shrugs*
I’ll say this though, one thing she isn’t is boring. You can always trust Nicki to surprise you.
