Confidence is Beauty - The Melissa Update

Rock It, Melissa!

Her wide smile is as gorgeous as her new “do.”  Melissa’s a natural beauty at ease with herself.  She has lots of good hair days, and her crowning glory is not tied to a Eurocentric standard.  She has spark, spunk, and exudes confidence. 

Treasures From the Trunk - Melissa D’Agostino

On a recent Saturday I walked into a comfy light-filled apartment on Rittenhouse Square filled with fashion treasures.  Melissa D’Agostino Fashion Textile Design was in the house with a closet full of riches.  Woo-hoo!  The weekend treasure hunt was on!

Melissa D’Agostino is a young Philadelphia designer who crafts one-of-kind pieces using Shibori hand-dyeing techniques and locally sourced materials.  Her dresses make any woman look heartbreakingly, traffic-stoppingly gorgeous. She also features stunning head scarves, wraps that moonlight as curve-hugging skirts, and tunics that don’t make the wearer look as if she’s wearing a slipcover.  The dyes are universally flattering colors from nature.  The collection, as her calling card says, is “a seasonless collection hand dyed and sewn in Philadelphia to celebrate the spirit of our client.”

Melissa’s background is in sculpture; she earned a BA in Sculptural Fine Arts from the Moore College of Art and Design.  She learned to weld before she learned to sew.  She’s warm and talkative, and her enthusiasm for her designs and her customers is infectious.  Check out these pics from the event, check out her website at melissadagostino.com, then try to convince me that you don‘t want one of her pieces! 

Melissa at the Trunk Show

Unknown Guest

Happy Mother's Day!

Betty in the early 1950s

Scratch a little below my surface and you'll find my unforgettable mother, Betty.  She's forever in my heart although she left me 16 years ago.  Happy Mother's Day to my readers and the fabulous mothers in their lives!

A Natural Woman

Melissa at the gym

This post is the first in a series on love affairs between Black women and their natural hair.  Meet Melissa, one of my workout buddies.

Melissa first went natural right after graduating from college in 1986.  “People thought I was disappointed about life after college, but I just didn’t do hair.”  Her sorority sisters kept her hair looking sharp while she was an undergrad. One made her hair swing with chemical relaxers, another was a wizard with scissors, a blow dryer and curling irons. 

When Melissa returned to her southern home town after college her mother said, “She done went to the white people’s school and lost her mind.”  Mom added, “We don’t want to look at your nappy head, you know white people don’t want to look at it either!”  Eventually she caved in to family pressure and straightened her hair.  Melissa then landed a job at a hotel and returned to chemical relaxers.  I’d bet that her co-workers and customers relaxed because she didn’t look like a revolutionary waiting to be televised.

She’s locking her hair now, and describes it is an individual journey with heaps of self-love. It’s a warm relationship between a woman, her hair, and her self-image.  As Melissa will tell you, “You can’t get away from yourself.” 

She admires Nina Simone and Maya Angelou with their striking African features and stunning natural style.  She talks about seeing black as a color of power, and how we need to reorient ourselves to that idea.  (Just think about judges wearing black robes.)  Black is also the color of elegance. (Just think of the LBD.)

Melissa wraps up our conversation about hair by saying, “Originally I cut it because I didn’t want to do anything [to it] but now thirty years later I have to decide what to do with it!”  Sounds like a fabulous challenge!

Skipping the salon also has a nice wallet fattening quality. She laughs and says, “I keep that $110 in my pocket.”

Supreme Beings

Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong

Did you ever belt out “You Keep Me Hanging On” or “Love Child” in the shower?  Maybe you shouted your way through “Stop! In The Name of Love” on a drunken dare at a Karaoke joint?  If you can answer yes to either question and/or you love fashion, you had to see “Come See About Me,” a small but meaty exhibit of The Supremes gowns collected by Mary Wilson. 

The Supremes (nee The Primettes) were the top selling group at Motown in the 1960s.  The six divas (Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, later Cindy Birdsong, Jean Terrell, and Scherrie Payne) offered the world style and glamour on a magnitude never before seen in popular music. 

In their early days, Ms. Ross, Ms. Ballard, and Ms. Wilson made it a point to choose dresses that were a step up from what the average shopper could buy in the local department stores.  Their popularity rose during the 1960s and their daytime style evolved from modest sweaters and pencil skirts to crocheted mini skirts and thigh-high boots.  Evening/stage wear moved from sleek, elegant gowns to beaded mini dresses and bell-bottomed jumpsuits.  Early Supremes style also featured black wigs teased to a towering six inches.  Maybelline was the fourth Supreme.  Thick winged eyeliner and cheek-dusting lashes added to the girls’ allure and was as important as vocal harmony.

Their early style influences included Sophia Loren, Ruth Brown, Dakota Staton, and Jean Harlow.  Their costumes sprang from the minds from the hottest talent of the era, including designer Michael Travis, a former apprentice of Bob Mackie, choreographer Geoffrey Holder, and Mr. Mackie himself.  The sequin trees were picked clean under their watch.  Magical hands combined yards of velvet and chiffon with barrels of glass beads to create sparkling confections that every Barbie envied.

Many of the gowns on display were worn on 1960s TV variety shows such as "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Hollywood Palace," and "The Flip Wilson Show."  The “Butterfly Gown” was designed for the NBC-TV special "TCB" (Taking Care of Business).  Check out the floor-length beaded sheath with a cape in the pic below.


My favorite images from the exhibit include a terrific photo montage featuring Diana Ross in a fierce metallic trench coat with matching boots; a promotional poster from the 1970s of Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong and Jean Terrell in carefully coiffed Afros; and the “Black Diamond Trench Coat” which rode the military style trend of the late 1960s.  This traffic-stopper is made of lustrous black silk and wool with sequin and rhinestone covered buttons.

The 1970s--post Diana Ross--featured bolder Supreme styles such as a deep purple jumpsuit with street sweeper bell bottoms and a snug little bolero jacket.  Gowns featured layers of feathers or pleats that made the wearer look as if she were floating above the floor.  There were cotton candy-colored gowns with an East African motif.

The Supremes were wonderful clothes horses.  They looked exceptional at a time when the world view of black women was one of us wearing rags on our heads and cradling mops.  Their clothes were exquisitely tailored and elegant.  The girls rocked brilliant sapphire suits, sumptuous white fur stoles, and leopard pillbox hats during the day, and shimmered in pearls, satin and exquisite lace onstage.  Yep--they were divas and this exhibit proves it!

Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross

The "Butterfly" Dress

Treasures

Walking on Air