I have a vocabulary in clothing. It's like a whole language.
Interpretation
Clothing can express one's identity and emotions, serving as a form of communication.
Tracee Ellis Ross highlights how clothing transcends mere function and serves as a way to express individuality and creativity. Just as language conveys ideas and feelings, fashion tells a story about who we are, allowing us to communicate without words through our choices in style and attire.
In practice
In a fashion seminar focused on personal branding.
We as black people are not a monolithic bunch. We are not all the same, and neither are women. Instead, we are all individuals who have these extraordinary stories to tell and share with each other that will enrich all of our lives and help us all become more ourselves and better people.
I used to watch my mom put her makeup on for the stage, and it was one of the most special moments. I would sit quietly on the dressing room floor and watch her put her face on. I think she looks most beautiful in the morning when she wakes up with no makeup on... it's my favorite look on women.
I've never felt like I was in my mother's shadow. If anything, I felt like I was in her embrace.
I grew up on the ragged edge of self-acceptance, where I was holding on to it, but it was easy to fall off. But as I found my way inside myself, I've been able to accept my own hair, my own shape.
I've heard people say, 'Why do you have to do a show that's called 'Black Girls Rock'?' or 'Why is there an expression called 'black girl magic'?' You know, when you say, 'Save the dolphins,' you don't mean, 'I don't like whales.' That's just not the way it works!
Share shame so you are not left alone with it. If you can't find another person, get a journal. I didn't say make a video on Snapchat. It's for you, not anyone else.
I really only take roles that I love and that I have some kind of innate compulsion or need to tell that story. Although it's almost like I have no control over it. It's like they choose me.
Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.
The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.
Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is - and not so much a matter of being real.
I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.
Jazz music is a language of the emotions.
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