Ebonee Davis and Brandice Daniel Come Together For a Powerful Discussion About Fashion Diversity

Model Ebonee Davis and Harlem's Fashion Row founder Brandice Daniel are leading the charge for a more diverse fashion industry. And yesterday (July 1), both women stopped by the 2017 ESSENCE Festival Beauty & Style stage to discuss exactly how they've overcome specific challenges in their respective careers.

Davis, who was recently featured in the Pantene Gold Series campaign, spoke out about the trouble she had getting signed as a Black model and the “Eurocentric beauty standards” that are glorified by the fashion industry.

“I was straightening my hair because they said that I couldn’t wear natural hair,” said Davis. “I was wearing weaves because they said that was the standard of beauty that I had to subscribe to -the Eurocentric standard. Ultimately, telling me that the way I was born isn’t beautiful and it isn’t good enough.”

The struggle for representation isn’t just with models, but designers as well. Brandice Daniel, wants to give Black designers a space to be seen.

“We’re spending 22 billion a year on apparel…but less than 1% of [black designers] are represented in department stores,” said Daniel, who began Harlem's Fashion Row in 2007. “That lit a fire under me.”

That flame grew into a organization that puts on packed out events and celebrates designers and celebrities that contribute to Black fashion.

“I want designers that put in the work.,” she continued. "Those who really have a different point of view and an amazing collection or aesthetic - I want them to be seen.”

Utilizing their platforms to make change, both ladies will continue to not only shine light on the fashion industry's diversity issues, but create opportunities for others as well.

“Who are our role models… if all of the successful Black women in my industry are being removed from the culture,” said Davis. “I have had the opportunity to amplify my message, amplify my voice. I want people to know is that no mater who are, no matter where you come from, not matter what you look like you’re beautiful.”

How to dress for the summer heat

We all look forward to summer, but let's face it, hot days can be a real pain when fashion is at stake. If you need some outfit inspiration that will keep you looking cool in the heat, check out our ideas.

1. Wear open-toed, flat shoes.

High heels can be a real pain the heat. You want to wear sturdy shoes that you won't slip out of and won't cause blisters

2. Bigger is (sometimes) better

Summer is the time of year we all want to whip out the short shorts, but remember that Bermuda shorts and flowy tops will give you the extra wiggle room to allow air to circulate

3. Don't be afraid of hats

Hats don't always seem like the most stylish accessory, but they will protect you from UV rays which will eventually keep you cooler

4. Opt for natural fibers

Natural fibers are more breathable than any synthetic material

5. Try lighter colored clothing

Black might be more slimming, but it also retains more heat. This summer, opt for white or lighter colored clothing

Fashion notes: Seek out summer power slides

I am the first to admit that my go-to shoes are trainers. But after wearing them throughout autumn, winter and spring, it may be time to trade in my clunky, sporty footwear for more feminine alternatives. The summer heat, after all, doesn’t favour thick socks and soles, and while the whole trainers-with-skirts combination has a nice tomboy appeal, there are far prettier ways to flaunt your feet.

There’s an upside. Slides have undergone a spectacular makeover since their mass-market entry two years ago. They debuted as sporty pool slides of an athletic nature. But the trend has heavily evolved since its early rubber Nike Benassi slipper offerings and now features far more interesting elements than mere logos. Case in point – my sister’s birthday gift to me was a pair of espadrille platform slides with embroidered, knotted bows in place of traditional sandal straps.

Though they’re multicoloured and have a bohemian, hemp-style sole, they’re actually incredibly versatile. Slides, given a bit of a lift with a platform, can be easily worn with jeans, culottes, skirts, tapered trousers or shorts. When they’re completely flat, with rubber soles and minimal detailing, they tend to evoke more of a casual, careless attitude and it becomes more difficult to pair them with garments other than sweatpants or leggings – unless they feature jazzy embellishments, such as Tory Burch’s rubber designs.

Almost every luxury brand has revisited the shoe silhouette of the slide this season, from Prada’s brightly coloured faux-fur versions to Fendi’s, which are topped with three-­dimensional floral appliqués. Embracing this trend takes hardly any effort – or much money for that matter. Take a trip to high-street stores such as Zara, ­Mango or ­Stradivarius, and you’re bound to leave with a few great summer slides.

Fashion Week’s Dirty Little Secret: Laundry

PARIS — Past the plush Napoleon III sofas, through a forest of orchids and under the keen eye of doormen in pillbox hats, a guest crept out of the Ritz Paris hotel on a mortifying mission.

The guest, dear reader, was me (while working on an article about the Ritz during fashion season some years ago), and this was not a walk of shame.

With a lumpy bag humped over my shoulder, I was headed to a coin-operated laundromat, surely the first guest at this storied establishment to take out his own washing.

I had my reasons.

Packing strategies take on an urgency when your occupation requires you to spend as much as a month at a time following the fashion caravan through some of the most beautiful and expensive cities in the world, as hundreds of retailers, journalists, stylists and photographers routinely do.

If you seek to make a daily fashion statement like Alex Badia, the style director of Women’s Wear Daily and an Instagram darling, you pack the way 19th-century swells did for the Grand Tour: with oversize suitcases and outfits arranged in advance.

“Fashion Week is like an expedition, an adventure, like mountain climbing,” Mr. Badia said at a Balenciaga show in the Bois de Boulogne.

From two immense North Face bags crammed with his outfits, Mr. Badia had selected on that torrid morning a Joseph coat, a Juun.J shirt, Bottega Veneta trousers and Yeezy sneakers, all in polar white.

“I really, really love clothes,” Mr. Badia added. “Though when I get home, I wear the same navy T-shirt for, like, a month.”

If your intention, however, is not to set shutters whirring but, rather, to stay presentable during the weeks crammed with runway shows and industry events, the system you develop is a matter of self-preservation and budget maintenance.

For Greg Kessler, a photographer who has spent 15 years documenting backstage life at men’s and women’s fashion shows in New York and Europe, clean laundry is key to survival. “We always rent an apartment in Paris, and the first thing we ask is if there’s a washer-dryer,” said Mr. Kessler, whose personal style might be characterized as that of a natty slacker.

“One problem is that, being from the United States, you never know if the setting is on the right cycle,” he added.

Calibrated on the metric system, temperatures on European washers can play tricks on the unaware. Run delicates through a wash cycle at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and you end up, as Ms. Kessler said, “with doll clothes.”

In most seasons, Nick Sullivan, the style director of Esquire, arrives in Milan on a Friday evening direct from the men’s wear shows in London, checks into his hotel and immediately tosses his dirty laundry on the floor.

“Then I stuff a bag,” he said, “and on the way to the first Saturday show, I get the driver to stop at Lavasecco di Santa Croce,” one of Milan’s wash-and-dry establishments. “You have to time it right, because if I miss the drop-off, the clothes aren’t ready” to be picked up in time for the next leg of a journey leading to Paris.

Typically, the risk pays off. Not only does having everything washed, pressed and folded at Mr. Sullivan’s preferred spot cost an employer-friendly 60 euros rather than the exorbitant €300 charged by a hotel, “everything comes back folded in cellophane and packaged like a 1950s Christmas present. Plus, I resent spending €300 to wash my smalls.”

These sensitive items and the jeans that no European hotel ever gets right — creases! — are why I creep through lobbies to my favorite laundromat here, a generically named (a sign above the door says “Laverie automatique”) 16-washer holdout wedged between a restaurant and a Martin Margiela boutique on a tiny square in the First Arrondissement.

A full load at this place costs €4.50, and dryer time is calculated in 10-minute increments, each costing a single euro. Since I prefer my jeans air-dried, I bypass this step and take my clothes back to my hotel room to be strung up from shower rods and towel racks and even, during this particular week, the chandelier until the place starts to look like a Neapolitan alley.

Some people would consider it sinful to squander an hour dully observing a wash-and-spin cycle when all around lie the splendors of the City of Lights. Yet a steady diet of fabulousness can leave one aching for mundane pleasures. And when business trips stretch to a month, it is essential, as Madeleine Weeks, the fashion editor of GQ, said, “to do your laundry, pick up Greek yogurt or buy some flowers, whatever you can to make you feel more normal.”

Carla Fendi, Former President Of Luxury Fashion Brand, Dies

Carla Fendi, onetime president of the eponymous fashion line, died in Rome on Monday at the age of 79, following a long illness, The Associated Press reports. The fashion house tweeted that her loss "deeply affects us all."

Italy's Culture Minister Dario Franchescini remembered her as "a cultivated and sensible woman who was a major patron of the arts," according to the AP.

Carla Fendi — along with her four sisters — helped propel their parents' humble leather and fur workshop to an internationally famous brand name.

It was 1925 when Adele and Edoardo Fendi opened their shop in Rome. In 1965 Carla and her sisters hired Karl Lagerfeld as a designer.

Under his direction, Fendi became perhaps the world's most famous furrier. Fendi also broke ground with its leather purses, especially the celebrated baguette bag.

Each sister continued to play a role in the company but it was Carla who served as Fendi's president and the company's public face until it was sold to the French luxury group LVHM in 1999, reports the AP. Carla served as honorary president until her death.

She was married to Candido Speroni.