Fashion Icons

Since this is my first post and the first day of FASHION WEEK S/S 09 I decided to share with you some of the fashion icons that have personally inspired and influenced my style. There are many more than these two icons that I will share with you periodically. Enjoy!

:) Chay$

Diana Ross

I love Diana Ross. She's always been larger than life, starting with her huge eyes and lashes. When I think of Miss Ross I think of BIG hair and 70s glamour. Her hair has gotten bigger and bigger every decade. Miss Ross also makes me think of sequins and platforms galore. To this day she still performs in riduculously high platforms and she's well into her 60s. The wardrobe in both "Mahogany" and "Lady Sings the Blues" (the biographical film about Billie Holiday) were to die for. The couture designs in "Mahogany" were FIERCE. "Mahogany" resinates with me because she played the role of a famous Italian fashion designer who came from nothing. As a kid that inspired me to believe that I too, as a African-American woman could rise to the top of the fashion world.

Patrick Kelly

Patrick Kelly is another one of my fashion icons because he wasn't afraid to push the limits of fashion and expose stereotypes. His fashions in the 80s were sexy, bright, fun, playful and unconventional. He was known for his use of big bright buttons, jersey dresses, his black baby doll pins and spray painting a heart on the end of his runway before each show. He is the only American designer to be inducted into Paris' Chambre Syndicale (alongside Yves SaintLaurent and Karl Lagerfeld). I was fortunate when I came to New York in 2004 to see an exhibit of his work at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit showed me that. Although his career was cut short by his death in 1990, Patrick Kelly has made a huge impact on fashion (though many of us don't realize it) and ME.