Hopefully we are entering our last stretch of cold weather- the sun is out a little bit more, there is no snow on the ground and stores are tempting us all with their new spring displays right? Many of us have in fact started purchasing little things here and there like the new cropped length pants, or anything in a fresh pastel color- or maybe you are like me and like to buy end of the season items dirt cheap off the clearance rack lol... Regardless of how you shop, now is the time to mix and match your wardrobe in more ways than one, so try these style tips:

1. Mix cold weather items with spring items; try your fur vest with ankle grazing pants and either long boots or a pointy toe high heel.
2. Mix textures and prints together for a very fashion forward look- just pick up one or more colors in your outfit and repeat.
3. Make sure to keep jewelry, bags and other accessories simple and stick with neutrals and metallics  (try rose gold, so lady like and fresh!) so your outfit won't read as too "busy". 

Do you need help shopping your closet and learning how to stretch your wardrobe? Check out my services page and let me help you!!

Stella's Groove: London based designer Stella McCartney will be adding a menswear collection to her lineup. This experience is not new for McCartney as she used to apprentice for her father's (Paul McCartney) Savile Row tailor Edward Sexton, and she has collaborated with Adidas for over ten years and celebrated her launch of athleisure inspired designs for Adidas StellaSport last year. The lifelong vegan shows her collections in Paris and is known for not using leather, fur or any animal by products in her designs which include ready to wear, accessories, eyewear, lingerie, fragrance and children's. The menswear collection for Spring '17 will drop this fall...

Ditto That: Gossip's front woman, Beth Ditto is back with a new fashion line! The plus size LGBT and body positive activist has designed 11 pieces in sizes 14-28 and the whole collection was made in New York- with the exception of one vintage denim jacket. The collection is definitely big girl friendly with well built construction and design elements like ruching and high-waisted leggings, and includes jumpsuits and caftans. Ditto who walked Marc Jacobs spring 2016 runway is not new to design- everything that she wears is custom made and she has designed two capsule collections in 2009 and 2010 with the UK's high street plus size store Evans, although she says that creative control was an issue. This collection will be available on bethditto.com.

Daaaamn Daniel: Skechers totally ripped off the fashion industry's favorite shoe- the iconic Stan Smiths- and Adidas took them to court for it. The battle has been going on for awhile now but last week an Oregon judge, Marco A Hernandez ruled in agreement with Adidas when he could not even tell the shoes a part in the court room from a few feet away. The knockoff, called the "Onyx" is one of three designs Skechers was ordered to halt production on which may or may not hurt the brand that was just revealed to be the second largest shoe company after Nike- who is also suing the company for copycat designs.

Girl You Earned It: She landed the cover of Vogue Brazil's January 2016 issue and now rumors are swirling that Kendall Jenner will grace the June issue of American Vogue ... Last time rumors about Kim 's cover were true, so it's possible!  

Producer, rapper singer, designer, model and creative director Pharrell Williams can add yet another job title to his already extensive resume: he is now the co-owner of the Dutch denim lifestyle brand, G-star Raw. Williams will over see the labels collections, advertising and business strategies, all with an eco friendly focus. This move comes after a two year collaboration between William's Bionic Yarn company and the brands "Raw for Oceans" project that produced clothes from recycled ocean plastic. No stranger to fashion, Skateboard P has previously worked on projects with Reebok, Adidas, Moncler, Louis Vuitton, Uniqlo and Come de Garcon and just last month he announced that he had recently bought back his own streetwear brand, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream.  Where on earth does he find all that time?

Kylie Jenner continues to build her beauty empire by adding a partnership with affordable brand, Sinful Colors Nail Polish to launch King Kylie SinfulShine, a series of three limited edition collections. With a successful hair extension line and the sold out lip kits, this move seemed to be a natural progression since the teen is known for her on point talons as she is for her plush pout... The first launch will consist of 20 jewel tone shades that mimic the look of gel nails and will be $3, only a dollar more than traditional Sinful Colors polishes. Jenner is the first celeb to work with the brand and the inaugural collection will be available sometime in the beginning of March with the second and third available in April and May respectively. I love jewel tones and might snatch up a few if I can get my hands on them...

Congratulations are in order for new Maybelline spokes model Harieth Paul! The Tanzan born, dark skin, natural hair beauty who has walked for Cavalli, DVF, 3.1 Philip and others says she will use her new role to raise diversity awareness in the modelling industry. Paul will be featured in the upcoming spring ads for the cosmetics brand. Yessss!! I love it when beauty brands have darker skinned models in there ads cause too many of us are afraid to wear color and the campaigns are used for mu inspiration everywhere...

Back in the early 2000s, rapper Fabolous was a Mitchell and Ness rockin' throwback jersey wearing king and he had the most exclusive vintage jersey collections out of all the other rappers and fans alike. Fast forward to last year when the Brooklyn native collaborated with urban lifestyle retailer Villa on "WATCH Me Ball", a collection of jerseys worn by classic '90s urban movie characters including Jesus Shuttlesworth, (He Got Game) Willie Beamen, (Any Given Sunday) and Birdie (Above the Rim). Now back for a second collection, launched to coincide with All Star Weekend, the TV- Allstar Jersey line will pay homage to Degrassi High (coincidentally Jimmy Brooks, the character played by the not yet famous Aubrey 'Drake' Graham) and Bel-Air Academy (worn by Will Smith's The Fresh Prince and his cousin Carlton). The limited edition jerseys are exclusive to Villa and retail for $100 each.  I don't wear jerseys at all, but I would not mind getting the Above the Rim Tupac- ahem scuse me- Birdie one lol

I called this video "Going Places" cause my models literally just walked around downtown Cleveland over and over again looking like they were going all these different places but they stayed right in the same area lol. The concept was inspired by Fellini's 8 1/2, the foreign film that I watched with the volume off (no subtitles smh) and did not completely understand what was going on, but it was shot so beautifully that the images haunted me for weeks until I could get it out of my head. This short film was a result of that. If you have not seen 9 1/2 yourself please watch it!!

The beautiful gowns came from Michelle Pointer of Mchlynne Couture, a young designer I attended fashion school with and I remember how excited I was looking at her work- the fabric, the colors, the movement of the garments, everything was beautifully detailed and finished to perfection. It was easy to choose models that I wanted to work with for this, a few of my faves who had all either modeled for me on the runway or in print- Deanna, Ellie, Chirvatta, Alicia and newcomer (to me) Khadijah. It was very important that I had girls of different shades, ethnicities and body shapes- brown skin Deanna with her hourglass shape is considered jr. plus in many markets, my white girl Ellie with her dancer's body and can do attitude, Chirvatta- South African and fierce with her reddish brown skin, Alicia had JUST HAD A BABY (you definitely could not tell lol) and light skinned Khadijah gave me all types of yoga poses for the photo shoot part of the video. (Yes I did style, film and direct the video and then had the photo shoot in between scenes- very DIY lol). Hairstylists Teresa and Ronnita both did all the ladies hair and made them look so elegant!

The making of the video in itself was quite an adventure. We were in downtown Cleveland inside of the Tower City shopping mall and used that as our meet up spot and got dressed there. Now I had went there the day before and asked management if I could take photos and or shoot a video there and was told NO. F that though cause I had an idea and I would not be able to move on until I got what I wanted. Which was to shoot inside Tower City lol. And I did, guerilla style. I had the girls get dressed and then had them walk around casually (hard to do while dressed in designer gowns with onlookers and passerbyers commenting and getting in the way lol) while I hurried up and filmed and took photos with the flash off.  Well that worked for a cute little minute until security came over and gave me a warning. I was still shooting when he was talking to me lol. I knew I had less than five minutes to finish up before he went to get back up- which he did... umm me and my models got kicked out of Tower City ya'll *hangs head in shame* BUT I GOT EVERYTHING I NEEDED lol!!

We packed up all our stuff and went outside directly in front of Tower City and got footage from there- which again is hard to do when guys are trying to talk to you and your models and photo bomb you. But we managed... We then moved on to the Soldier's Monument, one of my favorite places downtown and shot around the exterior. I was really happy with the results after we were done! And my model's were awesome for putting up with me cause I literally had no idea what I was doing, but I faked it until I made it and well, here are the results below! What do you think?