Fashion & Beauty
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A Miss America Crown on Natural Hair Is Small History—and Still History
Source context Regan Hutsell of Texas was crowned Miss America 2027. A pageant crown should not have to carry the weight of a national conversation about Black hair. But beauty institutions helped create the standards that made straightness, proximity to whiteness and controlled presentation feel like prerequisites for legitimacy. That history is why a winner…
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A Miss America Crown on Natural Hair Is Small History—and Still History
Source context Regan Hutsell of Texas was crowned Miss America 2027. A pageant crown should not have to carry the weight of a national conversation about Black hair. But beauty institutions helped create the standards that made straightness, proximity to whiteness and controlled presentation feel like prerequisites for legitimacy. That history is why a winner…
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A Miss America Crown on Natural Hair Is Small History—and Still History
Source context Regan Hutsell of Texas was crowned Miss America 2027. A pageant crown should not have to carry the weight of a national conversation about Black hair. But beauty institutions helped create the standards that made straightness, proximity to whiteness and controlled presentation feel like prerequisites for legitimacy. That history is why a winner…
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Black Designers Are Not a Side Conversation at Fashion Week
Source context ESSENCE is spotlighting Black designers set to show during New York Fashion Week SS27. Every fashion season produces a familiar ritual: a list of Black designers to watch, followed by a broader industry conversation that often treats those designers as a separate lane. The more interesting question is whether Black designers are being…
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Black Designers Are Not a Side Conversation at Fashion Week
Source context ESSENCE is spotlighting Black designers set to show during New York Fashion Week SS27. Every fashion season produces a familiar ritual: a list of Black designers to watch, followed by a broader industry conversation that often treats those designers as a separate lane. The more interesting question is whether Black designers are being…
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Naomi Osaka’s Braids Remind Us That Black Sports Style Has a Lineage
Source context Naomi Osaka wore U.S. Open braids inspired by Allen Iverson. Sports style is often treated like decoration around the “real” athletic story, even though Black athletes have repeatedly changed what the culture looks like far beyond the court or field. Naomi Osaka’s Allen Iverson-inspired braids work because they acknowledge that lineage rather than…
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Naomi Osaka’s Braids Remind Us That Black Sports Style Has a Lineage
Source context Naomi Osaka wore U.S. Open braids inspired by Allen Iverson. Sports style is often treated like decoration around the “real” athletic story, even though Black athletes have repeatedly changed what the culture looks like far beyond the court or field. Naomi Osaka’s Allen Iverson-inspired braids work because they acknowledge that lineage rather than…
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Textured Hair Should Never Have Been an Elective in Cosmetology School
Source context New York now requires cosmetology education and licensing to include training on textured hair. A professional beauty license is supposed to signal basic competence. For generations, Black clients could sit in a licensed salon chair and discover that their hair was treated as a specialty the stylist had never been required to learn.…
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Textured Hair Should Never Have Been an Elective in Cosmetology School
Source context New York now requires cosmetology education and licensing to include training on textured hair. A professional beauty license is supposed to signal basic competence. For generations, Black clients could sit in a licensed salon chair and discover that their hair was treated as a specialty the stylist had never been required to learn.…