via fashion gone rogue
Lupita Nyong'o by Sharif Hamza
It's been quite some time since I posted anything fashion related! Well there's lots of places on the internet where you can go to read about all the reasons why Lupita Nyong'o is the new best thing to grace the face of this earth, but I really just wanted to take a second to talk about how amazing it is to see a dark skinned woman with natural hair be heralded as the newest fashion Goddess.
If you've seen 12 Years A Slave, then you know that Lupita is an amazing actress and completely deserves the accolades that she's been receiving, but there's something to be said about her acceptance into the fashion world. For a lot of ladystars, being accepted into the fashion fold is the thing that really cements their place in Hollywood. Just look at Jennifer Lawrence. She is admittedly the opposite of poised, and yet her star has only continued to rise in the last two years; helped along by her Dior endorsement.
But the dynamics are different here. JLaw already fits the Hollywood mould; propelling her to the top of the back didn't take much effort. Only time will tell if the current obsession with Lupita will translate into a lucrative career, or if it is simply lip-service to allow Hollywood to pat itself on the back for letting a black woman into its ranks.
Lupita is captivating on so many levels that I want with all my heart for her to have the career that she deserves. But I also want to hope that the fashion endorsements will continue to roll in; I want to believe that fashion will continue to herald her as the beauty she is and continue to bolster her visibility within the public consciousness. I want to hope that we will continue to have representations of beauty that centre on black women, and aren't tokens thrown to appease the masses (looking at you SNL).
For women like me, who so often have to beg to be represented in mainstream media, having Lupita be on the covers of magazines in all her glory feels like a coup, and I hope she continues her domination.