“What are you?” If you’ve been asked this question in America, you know it’s the first word that stings the most. “What” can’t be confused with “who” and all the effortless responses available there: name, job title. “What” implies your abnormality. It has a blunt, vaguely dehumanizing crackle with the onus on you to diffuse.
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To fully grasp the power of Black beauty at Howard University, one can easily look through the lens of homecoming. Stepping foot on campus during that particular weekend is a true spectacle, in every sense of the word. The festivities are a celebration of Black excellence: beautiful crowds emit glitz, glamour, and unbridled joy throughout
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Every year, beauty editors from the international editions of ELLE come together to decide on the best in beauty for the ELLE International Beauty Awards (EIBA). This year is the 10th anniversary of the EIBA, and ELLE beauty editors from around the world will host a virtual ceremony to announce the winners. The winning products
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You know those bridesmaid-font t-shirts and mugs with sassy slogans like, “Powered by coffee and wine?” If I were a slogan-merch person, I’d add one item to that list: Mirena. As a person with naturally hellish periods, I am so grateful for my hormone-releasing IUD—and the nearly-nonexistent menstruation that comes with it—that I shudder to
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We all have a unique scent—that natural cocktail made up of our body chemistry mixed with the products we routinely use on our skin, hair, laundry, and more. It’s the subtle but distinctively-you smell left behind on a T-shirt—or on your bed sheets. If you think of a traditional fragrance formula, worn overtly, then a
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Frontals, closures, microlinks, and I-tips—trying to keep up with all the latest hair trends is as exhausting as actually sitting down in the salon chair for hours waiting for your desired style to be installed. For many Black women—myself included—traditional sew-ins served as our first foray into weaves before the style took a backseat to
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When the Hitachi Magic Wand first launched in the 1960s, it flew off shelves once an off-label use spread through whispered wildfire: the intense vibrations doubled could help you have an incredible orgasm. In the sixty-plus years since, the OG vibrator has remained iconic, only needing minor updates (like the more recent cordless option). “It’ll
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Matteo Rossetti/Getty Images When Oscar Isaac kissed his way up Jessica Chastain’s arm at the Venice Film Festival, he awakened a sea of starved onlookers. Those few seconds on the red carpet quenched the public’s thirst, and they suddenly knew what they’d been missing. The moment tapped into a larger conversation about the dearth of
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Courtesy of Dior/Frederique DUMOULIN By definition, haute couture is handmade, from start to finish. The labor-intensive process is hidden in the details, and to the untrained eye, all there is to see is exquisite runway plastered with detailed embroidery, fancy embellishments, and expertise in textile manipulation. But what we rarely think about is the time
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Bert Stern/Condé Nast/Shutterstock Directly below the Manhattan Bridge, on the mostly-vacant second floor of a Chinatown mall, there is a highly curated array of eveningwear at the vintage mecca James Veloria. When they were first released in the late ’90s and early aughts, many of these garments would have been displayed in gleaming department stores.
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Dolce & Gabbana has officially announced that they will discontinue the use of any fur in their collections. This choice is based on the brand’s executives pushing for more sustainable fashion production. The fur industry has long fielded criticisms from animal rights activists, especially in recent years as more sustainable faux fur options come into
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Courtesy of the designers; Getty Images; Fendi: Pascal Le Segretain; Valli: YANNIS VLAMOS Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. The worlds of sci-fi and couture might not, initially, seem to have much overlap. Except, of course, for the fact that both are rarefied realms with obsessive devotees
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