discuss: NYT's People of Color holiday shopping guide

the New York Times recently posted a holiday shopping guide for "People of Color", stating that "it's not hard to find gifts created for and by people of color this holiday season", and then going on to list several items that range from Iman's Beauty of Color to wise latina t-shirts. some folks are riled up and labeling it a racist move. in their words, why on earth do people of color even need a separate section and why were certain gifts even selected to begin with?

in our humble opinion, racist is too severe a word; words like ill-researched and patronizing come to mind instead. our blog exists primarily to showcase Africa's budding fashion industry but it has never been our opinion that all Africans everywhere absolutely must support all African designers/entrepreneurs JUST BECAUSE they're African. no, our thoughts are more like this: many mainstream publications simply DO NOT focus enough time and energy on Africa (period!), so there's a clear niche market that needs to be covered. that aside, we support African designers/entrepreneurs where we can and encourage others to do the same in order to focus attention on them (for a change), and also to generate income for them while potentially impacting the fashion industries and economies of their countries. we spotlight several out-of-Africa brands because we're convinced Africa is a HUGE emerging market that shouldn't be ignored and we (Africans and non-Africans) can ALL benefit from "shopping Africa".

to create a shopping guide for "People of Color" that involves the most god-awful gifts leaves us more than a little unsettled*. there's nothing wrong with creating a guide that anticipates the needs of a certain group. in fact, we just might share some of our africa-centered gift-giving guides with you this season. but we'll never ever suggest that you should buy something from an African author/designer/musician for your African friend; we'd simply suggest out-of-Africa (and even non-out-of-Africa) products that might work for just about anyone. if NYT had spent a little more time researching, they may have come up with a more intelligent list that acknowledges people of color as diverse as they are "colorful".

what do you think? we'd love to hear from you!

xo

*the list is not all bad but there are some really baffling choices that severely undermine its purpose.

rant: ankara. again.

nothing quite like a bit of a rant to usher us all into a new week. and yes, that was sarcasm. OK. so we've seen ankara take off in a staggering way in the last few years. everyone's wearing it with everything, pretty much, and a natural extension of that is that everyone's (and we really do mean everyone) starting a clothing line or scrunchie line or underwear line that incorporates ankara and frilly lace trimmings. it's part creativity, part opportunism, part madness. to top it off, there's very little out there that's inspiring & apparently everyone's (hooray sweeping generalizations) creative gene has suddenly been tickled awake & we're going to see more and more of these copycat clothing lines where the basic ethos is this:

I CAN MAKE AN ANKARA DRESS, TOO.

how's that for a mission statement?

anyway, we ranted here about how we're a little sick of how more mainstream names are hopping on the bandwagon and taking advantage of the trend AND charging stupid prices in the name of fashion. no offense intended. stupid was the first word that came to mind. well, here we go again, folks:

and get this! all these dresses were made of fabric sourced DIRECTLY from...wait for it...THE IVORY COAST! GAAAAAAASSSSSPPPPSSSS! how freakin' exotic. let's all breakdance in celebration, shall we?! okay, you can stop now. on to more pressing matters. you see this dress?



it's called the Femi. you know, to add to the ivory coastness of it all.

that's really about as much as we can take. oh, but there's MORE! we did some research and found this:

Kristi Paras, owner of New York vintage boutique Zachary's Smile, sent her team to Africa's Ivory Coast [quite like saying Asia's China. but better.] to gather as much locally-made woodblock print tribal fabric ['tribal' meaning...?] as they could find [oh my, how exhausting] for a series of highly original dresses, on sale at Anthropologie (and her downtown boutique) starting this week. "There is so much variety, so many fabrics, that there is very little chance someone will have the same dress as you," [using originality as a selling point is very...original] Paras says. "So much of what we already sell is one of a kind, so it's pretty cool to see someone like Anthropologie embracing that individuality."

source: elle

oh, so now it's 'highly original' to make/sell $300 tube dresses with pockets (can't forget the pockets!) in 'african fabric'? OH. OKAY. well, if you're a lover of africa and a lover of exotic african print, why not start a fashion label that consists of generic run-of-the-mill dresses (with pockets, for originality), call them exotic names like 'femi' and 'sade', and sell them for $300 each? yes folks, that was an original idea.

*end rant*

okay, folks. we know we're not the only ones who are irritated by how you can see a dress online, copy and paste it into ankara fabric and somehow have an 'original' piece. no one's saying it's not cool that ankara is trendy. long live ankara. and that wasn't sarcasm. what's not cool is how EVERYONE'S building fashion 'empires' around the crazy and obsessive ankarization of everything, charging FAR too much for pieces that take very little thought and/or creativity, and feeding them to everyone else as 'original', innovative, and earth-shattering. what say you?

read makefetchhappen's post on this 'matter' here and feel free to go ahead and rant it out all over our comment box. apologies in advance if you start seeing ankara in your dreams :)

peace and liquorice,

xo

rant: kingston bangle + "african" print dresses

from freepeople

now on sale at free people for $28 a piece. that's right, folks! $28 A PIECE! okay, let's put this rant in perspective for you:

- if you visit an open market in lagos, this item WILL NOT cost you $28 (approx N 3,600) A PIECE. not even for all three.
- fine, so you can't get to an open market in lagos anytime soon but since e-commerce is still a foreign concept to the vast majority of nigerian business owners, free people (& others like them) can continue to charge $28 for this because, hello, who's going to stop them? where's the COMPETITION? why don't the artisans in mali who apparently handcrafted these bracelets have a website where they can sell their own merchandise directly to consumers?
- we understand there are underlying issues that can affect e-commerce but how can we bypass them and move forward? and why are these issues even there in the first place?!?!

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BIG SIGH. if we had our way/the resources, we'd GLADLY be the middle man (i.e. the african saks, neiman marcus, etc.). and maybe we'll get there someday. that's how passionate we are about getting african fashion/african designers in the limelight. it's almost too simple for words: get a website or get left behind. get your brand/product in countries other than your own. no use hiding your work under a bushel! you know what? THAT'S IT. we're angry enough to want to do something about this and we just might. SOON.

***

also somewhat on this topic, tigerbites blogged about designer valentine leung a while ago and much to our chagrin, we found that one of her 'tribal' dresses (see below) retails for $360:



and from our findings, nieves lavi is also inspired by africa:



YAY for inspiration. but why should this dress set us back $363?

neither of the designers has done anything remarkable with the fabric or print so why is it okay to charge such ludicrous prices? this out of africa/tribal trend could've been an open door for african designers to showcase their work/talent. alas, few have made it to the mainstream...and while that isn't the hallmark of fine work, it certainly does help, doesn't it? both dresses are silly gimmicks in our humble opinion...but how smart of their respective designers to cash out while they can. the joys of e-commerce. again.

p.s. we're totally dusting off our sewing machines...

fyi: clutches + ranting + news + ugly betty

helllllllo & happy friday :) we thought we'd share a few fun things with you...but first, let's get this brief rant over and done with:

we blogged about the super fly marc jacobs airliner clutch here and we've been seeing lauren conrad rockin' it about town like it's nuthin'. last time we checked our piggy-banks, we had, what, $30 between the three of us? maybe $25. we were going to start a sisterhood of the traveling clutch sort of thing - you know, you keep it for 3 months, i keep it for 3, and on and on but LAUREN CONRAD just had to rub our brokeness in our faces, didn't she? we're too PISSED to continue typing. not really. hehehe. *rant over*



sources: ihatelc, popsugar

we're over it. maybe.

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speaking of clutches, we were on ybf today and our urbanoutfitters/forever21 radar went off when we saw this picture:



want mr. legend's jumpoff's clutch? we've got the hook up:


l-r: urban outfitters $38, forever21 24.80

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a few other things:



- you can how shop dsw online here! woohooo!



- you can also buy scented candles, notebooks, and mugs at forever21. what next, forever21? diapers? world domination? we just love how you keep us on our toes! (*sarcasm*)

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okay, time for our ugly betty phone conference! ooooh, did any of you catch UB last week? forget the drama, we were floored by ugly betty's comeback outfit! good grief! betty actually looked pretty decent!!! *GASPS* okay, granted, 'pretty decent' is VERY relative and we're letting betty get off with a slap on the wrist, but see what we mean:



source: newsday

(we swear we've actually seen some vintage-inspired fashionistas rock this look, no lie!)

compared to this:

/

and this:



her wardrobe has undergone a major overhaul. hehehe.

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back to our regularly scheduled programming SOON!

xoxo