As I stated before I have hopes of becoming a stylist, but I also like to style myself and friends. This was my prom look that I put together myself from every detail and had a designer bring my look into life. Sometimes these things can be pressured on to you because everyone always complementing your good style. You feel like people is waiting to see your results because they expect so much from you and it can be stressful. You want everything to be perfect so you put yourself in this position where you think about it too much; that’s exactly what happened on my prom. Even though I wanted to be happy with my dress, I wanted everyone else to be satisfied as well. I was depressed through the entire prom season and I watched everyone excited for the dresses while I was still looking for mine. Social media really played a part on this because I watched everyone upload their beautiful prom dresses and I had doubts about mine. I didn’t want to be the topic of everyone’s discussion saying how poorly my dress looked. Two months before prom, I finally realized why do I care what others think? As it ran through my mind I was more calm about prom. I was able to finally decide what I want to wear for my big day. From the beginning I knew I wanted to wear silver and have the bottom of the dress like a mermaid, but I didn’t know how I wanted to design my dress. I just let everything flow slowly then it came to me. I just want to state, don’t make the same mistakes I did for my upcoming prom seniors. Don’t worry about what satisfaction you need from everyone else; worry about what makes you happy. Don’t look at others ideas and doubt yours because yours can always be ten times better. Most importantly, don’t let social media and other’s opinions discourage you. No matter if your idea is good or bad, people are always going to find something negative about it and that’s life. Do what you want to do and be happy, that’s all.

A lot may not know, but yes I own my clothing brand. It’s been a few months and I can honestly say the process wasn’t easy but it was worth it. Being a young entrepreneur can be tough but it’s definitely an eye opener for the future on how to start a business. I was sitting in my college dorm one day and I was just thinking to myself, “I don’t work right now so what is something I’m willing to do that won’t distract me from my school work, but I can get pay for and still enjoy ?”. I first thought of selling clothes but so many people sell clothes and I wanted to be different. Randomly I thought of selling coats and it just came to me out of nowhere. This isn’t something I was planning to do for years, it happened sitting right in my room. I knew it would be hard because I’m new to this entrepreneurship and I did it with the help of no one. It was challenging in the beginning because people weren’t familiar with my brand and I had to get people to trust me. The prices I listed weren’t cheap and I knew it would take a little long for people to gain my trust, but eventually customers came in slowly and grew overtime. Was it hard? yes, was it worth? definitely. When people post on social media, they make the process looks so easy but honestly nothing is easy in the world we live in. Always believe in yourself even through hard times, let your failures push you to become greater, most importantly, be dedicated and consistent. Your never going to get support from the beginning which is okay but always remember when you become successful, they would congratulate you. I always give this tip to others who wants to start a business because the problem with young entrepreneurs now, they wait for someone to congratulate their work. They feel the need or they won’t feel good about their business, but you don’t need someone else opinion to feel good about your work. If you feel that your work is good then that’s all that matters. If you always wait for someone else approval, you will never be successful. Consistency is another important one because if you don’t promote your own work, no one will so it all depends on you. If you really want it, you will find all means to get it.

A lot of people who knows me don’t know during my the end of my seventh grade year going into my eighth grade year which was in 2013 I believe, I stayed in Africa. I stayed in Abidjan, Ivory Coast from 2013 to 2014 and I had my ups and downs with my experience. When I first stayed, I wasn’t really happy with the decision and I just wanted to be back home. I complained throughout the entire summer because I thought I hated Ivory Coast. I wasn’t used to the new environment which I had to adjust to and the heat was overly too much for me, I couldn’t take it no more. There were days where I emotionally cried and there were days when I was angry with my parents. I eventually had to move on and get over the fact that will be spending my eight grade in Africa. As months went by, my whole perspective change and I was happy to be there. I stayed mostly with my grandma and I watched her make bazins which is an African clothing with handmade-dyed polished cotton. After the bazin fabrics are dyed, they are hung out to dry. She would cut it to standard sizes and knot tissues tightly into parts of the fabric so that those parts remain un-dyed when the cloth is dipped into buckets of pigment and fixative. When the fabric emerges it bears coloured spirals, rings or patterns. So it will have a glittering appearance, then soaked in a starch solution and hung on fences to dry. I was

I was born in Manhattan, New York but I was raised by two immigrant parents. My mother was born in Guinea, Conakry and my father was born in Ivory Coast, Abidjan. Both countries are located in West Africa where the fashion is just as deep and colorful as the continent itself. It should be no surprise that a colorful world of fashion coincides with such a rich history. Fashion has always been a global language but the evolution of African clothing is difficult to trace because of the lack of historical evidence. Learning your roots and background from your ancestors, there’s tons of history about African fashion. Sani which means gold in my native language Mandingo; my grandmother once told me “women only get piercings done with gold because they say other materials don’t heal.” The jewelry was a must so they could be identified as wealthy, attractive or sexy. Also, the black tattoo lip was a trend that use to take place at the middle of the village. It was a sign of beauty, bravery, and obedience. You would dishonor your whole caste, and family if you ran during the painful process of getting the tattoo. Some women were even beaten by their parents to get it done! It’s seen as a sign of respect, value and beauty. Going back to the motherland open my eyes in many ways. I realized the fashion style is different from Americans and I do say this because Africans like their clothing and style to have deeper meaning to it. They like something that will be pass down to the next generation and the legacy to be kept. Unlike Americans, they want to try new things and have their own style. Being able to live both lives is a blessing for me because me wanting to become a fashion stylist will put me in a position where I will have to think outside the box and be creative sometimes. I can use my knowledge that I have from my african roots and also use knowledge that I have from my American roots to style my own particular looks on my clients and be unique from other stylists. I have the adavantage of bringing out these fly looks because I would like to say, I lived the double life and this helps me bring out a bigger vision on style for my clients.

Growing up I lived in a neighborhood called Harlem which is located on the upper side of Manhattan. In the 1920s and 1930s, Central and West Harlem were the focus of the “Harlem Renaissance”. Many people might not know what the Harlem Renaissance was, but it was a movement in the African-American culture which had a big influence on African American literature, philosophy, music, and mostly fashion. Harlem Renaissance is still famous for its dramatic change for fashion and style from the eras previous to it. The Harlem Renaissance definitely paved the way for a new era of fashion and today’s designers look towards the 1920s all the time for inspiration. Coco Chanel who’s a major icon was a huge contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. She set the trend and helped people including me achieve our goals by allowing us to express ourselves through her fashion. When people hear the word Harlem, they mostly thing about the poverty, crimes and crack era during the late 90’s. When people first see me, they think I’m just some chick from Harlem, but I experience a bunch of culture from a young age. I think this perspective has allowed me to stay true to who I am and bring out peoples individual looks. Most people who’s been around me knows I’m antisocial and I’m a very shy person, so I always looked at style as way of using my voice. I always felt like once you put your best outfit on and be around a group of people, you never have to speak because your style speaks for you. Rachel Zoe once said, “style is a way of saying who you are without having to speak.”

“Style is a way of saying who you are without haven’t to speak.”

— Rachel Zoe.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.