Category:

Accessories /

Faux Fur Jacket and Seamless Fleece Leggings: #WIW or #OOTD College Alumni Mixer Event

There’s something about getting a bit older that makes you become sentimental.  You began to reminisce about the carefree days of hanging out with your best college crew!

Those days involved hitting the laundry mat, unsolicited dating advice, and last-minute cramming.  To help us stay better connected the alumni group hosted a pop-up event.  As always, I didn’t know what to wear because I was getting over a cold and had a busy consulting week.

The Furget Me Not Jacket I’m seen in is from Zeal Boutique; it was purchased while attending another event.  Don’t be misguided, it’s actually one of the warmest jackets in my wardrobe!  The texture is soft like a blanket and the outer fridge adds a touch of style.

Again, the goal was to stay warm, so I ordered a pair of fleece-lined leggings, draped camisole, and wore my snakeskin booties.

We had a great night and my outfit was fashionable and functional.  Yes, I have several maroon pieces because it’s the colors of my alma mater.

Faux Fur Jacket:  similar | Cami Top:  Amazon | Seamless Fleece Leggings:  Amazon | Snakeskin Booties:  similar

Birmingham /

Headshots & Handshakes Networking Event hosted by FAB Females About Business

FAB Females About Business Birmingham Chapter will host it’s annual Headshots & Handshakes event on Saturday, April 25th.  

This is a networking event targeted towards professional women in business, interns, emerging professionals, and seasoned womenpreneurs.

Hot Topic Chat Sessions will be hosted by the following panelist:

◾ Tonda Thomas – Event Strategist
◾ Ronda Robinson-McKenzie – Brand Strategist
◾ Kimberly West – Image Consultant & Fashion Stylist
◾Tye Miles, Certified Personal and Business Coach
◾ Caryn Terradas, Social Media Strategist
◾ Khaia Wheeler, Radio Personality

Professional Photographer, Tracy Hill Riggs and Professional MUA Takaya Cunningham Maddox will be onsite to update professional photos for business.

Females About Business (FAB) and other select organizations will have informational booths set-up, which will allow each business to showcase their services and/or goods to all guests attending the event.

Click here to purchase a ticket:  Eventbrite

Accessories /

Hadiya Williams Handcrafted Graphics, Designs, & Jewelry Rooted In Bold African Diaspora

Hadiya Williams – emerging artist and owner of Black Pepper Paperie Co., – a Washington, DC-based mix-media art + design studio and lifestyle brand that focuses on creating globally inspired, one-of-a-kind handcrafted pieces to include wearable ceramic art, home decor, paper goods, and apparel. These ancestral modern pieces are rooted in memory and cultural influences from across the African diaspora, and I am sure they’d be of interest to your readers!

Additionally, Hadiya Williams’s graphic design work received national attention as she recently partnered with Best Buy for their Black History Month campaign “Write the Next Chapter.” It ran for the month of February.

In addition to her mixed media and graphic design work, Hadiya has done work with non-profit organizations in the Greater Washington, DC area serving families in marginalized communities throughout the city for the past 15 years. In her free time, she has also functioned as an art director & designer for special events, weddings, and small gatherings. Her ultimate goal is to create work that transforms spaces and helps people celebrate life’s most important moments. Her style is bold and all her own.

Fitness /

Make Positive Changes to Your Life Right Now

You need to do as much as you can to make positive changes in your life this year. It is so essential to think about what you can do to make your life better, and this is something to consider. Making the right changes can have a major impact on the way in which you take your life forward to new and more positive places, and this is important. Having an exercise regimen can prove to be hugely helpful when it comes to improving your life in the process.

2020 has only just begun, and there is more than enough time to transform your life in the right way. So many of us need to be doing as much as we can to work out the best possible ways of improving our lives in the process. Do what you can to make the changes you feel will most benefit your life, and these are some of the things you can do right now to get the best possible outcome.

Get Fitter

Make sure you work on your physical condition and try to do what you can to get fitter and healthier as much as possible. There are a lot of things that play a part in this, and you are going to need to focus on what it takes to make the most of this moving forward. Having an exercise regimen can prove to be hugely helpful when it comes to improving your life in the process. Keeping fit improves your health and well-being, and this is massively important for the future.

 Take up a New Hobby

Another thing to think about when you are serious about taking things to the next level is to consider taking up a new hobby. This is something that can have a massive impact on your home, and it will make a major difference to the interests and experiences you have in your life. Do what you can to find the best hobbies and interests you can, and make sure you take them forward in the right sort of way.

 Improve Your Home Entertainment

 There are some excellent ways of improving your home entertainment, and choosing the perfect Sky TV package is one of the best ones. As you can see from this article entitled Sky Entertainment: What’s in the Basic Sky TV Package? There are more than 300 channels to choose from, and you can combine the package with broadband. Sky offers a wonderfully affordable package deal, beginning at as little as $22 per month!

Go on Holiday

Something else you can do to make positive life changes is to make sure you go on holiday more. This is a great way of being able to relax and unwind, as well as opening your mind to new experiences. Make sure you get away from the stresses of regular life for a while, and go and see the rest of the world.

As you might imagine, you have a lot to think about when it comes time to improve your life, and this is something you are going to need to focus on. Make the most of the different elements of your life that can have a major impact on you moving forward, and try to do what you can to get this right as much as possible.

Accessories /

Tina Knowles Seen In Bespoke Power Suit: Ghanaian Fashion Brand Christie Brown

Beyonce’s Mom, Miss Tina Knowles Lawson, took Instagram by storm in this bespoke power suit by Ghanaian fashion brand Christie Brown.

Christie Brown (CB)  takes great pride in how it develops traditional African fabrics into contemporary garments without downplaying their African roots.

With a diverse range of clientele including the backup singers of Award-winning pop-singer Beyoncé Knowles Carter, Stylist; TY Hunter, Beauty Queen, Menaye Donkor, OAP, Nikki Sammonas, Berla Mundi, Makeup Artist, Sandra Don-Arthur and some of Ghana’s most iconic women, CB is and has always been show-stopping.  The brand won the Emerging Designer of the Year Award in 2009 at the Arise Africa Fashion Week in Johannesburg; to being the only Ghanaian label showcased at the Arise L’Afrique-A-Porter in Paris Fashion Week in March 2010. It has also received several features and media mentions in Teen Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue Italia, Canoe 53 and Glamour Magazine.

 

Fashion /

Pantone Introduces 315 New Colors + New Digital Solutions for Fashion, Home + Interiors

Pantone LLC, the global authority on color and provider of professional color tools for designers, today introduced 315 new colors and new supporting digital solutions to the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors Color System.

Refreshed and restyled for greater utility, Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors combines the industry’s most relevant color palette with new digital solutions that streamline your digital and physical color workflow. Newly arranged by color family, it’s now easier and more intuitive to find the perfect shade and includes additions in every color, including over 70 new hues of blue and 50 new shades of pink.

With color being a more important aspect of lifestyle today, our new palette was strategically selected to reflect current and future color influences across fashion, home furnishings, and product design, along with the Pantone Color Institute’s trend forecasting, color intelligence, and consumer and client color research. These tools across Pantone guided the expansion and enhancement of the new color offering.

The Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors product suite has helped designers around the globe creating a product for fashion and home furnishings and the related product markets (i.e. footwear, activewear, cosmetics, accessories, hard home) use the color language to select, communicate and control color throughout the design process. Additional updates to the system include:

  • An all-new layout that is refreshed, restyled and absolutely required for today’s designer. The new Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors formats have been redesigned to best meet the color needs of designers while streamlining digital and physical color workflow. Each of the new Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors cotton and paper formats have been refreshed, restyled and redesigned to make the color selection process more intuitive. Featuring a palette of 2,625 colors arranged by color family, designers can now find that right color, shade, and tone faster than ever. Increasing the utility of the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors products enables designers to more quickly turn inspiration into product reality.
  • Brand new colors that empower a greater range of expression. The release includes the addition of a brand-new collection of 315 new colors to the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors cotton and paper formats. With color being more important to every aspect of lifestyle today, these new colors have been strategically selected to reflect current and future color influences across fashion, home furnishings, interior, and product design worldwide.
  • New design technologies that enable new color innovations. Having digital access to each of Pantone’s 2,625 colors enables designers to seamlessly streamline digital and physical workflows. Spectral data support ensures fast turnaround and accurate, on-schedule production.

“The colors that are influencing design today have evolved to reflect shifting societal views, new technological innovations, and a truly global outlook,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “With the ability to interpret the influence of color on overall consumer psychology, we have enhanced the utility of our Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors Color System with this new collection of engaging hues, enabling the design community to stay on the cutting edge of color selection.”

When paired with the new physical color offering, software and mobile apps from Pantone enable seamless integration between digital and physical workflows, increasing efficiency (or saving time and money) by streamlining the color development process and ensuring color accuracy through quality control and on-schedule production. Pantone Connect, a color library, and palette management ecosystem, can be integrated directly within design tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign to provide final delivery of color into design files. Each of the colors in the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors Library is supported by spectral data in both QTX and CXF format, further accelerating product speed to market and providing quick access to other color values including RGB and L*a*b*.

“As a global color authority for almost 60 years, designers look to Pantone to meet their color needs; from having the exact right color palette that will engage and entice their audience to providing efficient solutions that will help them reliably reproduce these colors in their designs,” said Laurie Pressman, Vice President, Pantone Color Institute.

“Expanding and enhancing our color palette and introducing new digital solutions ensures our design clients that they can continue to count on Pantone today and into the future, helping them to transform their creative vision into reality.”

For more information visit Pantone online at pantone.com.

About Pantone

Pantone provides a universal language of color that enables color-critical decisions through every stage of the workflow for brands and manufacturers. More than 10 million designers and producers around the world rely on Pantone products and services to help define, communicate and control color from inspiration to realization – leveraging advanced X-Rite technology to achieve color consistency across various materials and finishes for graphics, fashion, and product design. Pantone Standards feature digital and physical color specification and workflow tools. The Pantone Color Institute™ provides customized color standards, brand identity and product color consulting as well as trend forecasting inclusive of Pantone Color of the Year, Fashion Runway Color Trend Reports, color psychology and more. Pantone B2B Licensing incorporates the Pantone Color System into different products and services, enabling licensees to communicate and reproduce approved Pantone values and improve efficiencies for their users. Pantone Lifestyle brings color and design together across apparel, home, and accessories. Connect with Pantone on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn.

About X-Rite

Founded in 1958, X-Rite Incorporated is a global leader in the science and technology of color and appearance. With Pantone, X-Rite employs more than 800 people in 11 countries. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Mich., with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and service centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. X-Rite offers a full range of solutions used by manufacturers, retailers, printers, photographers and graphic design houses to achieve precise management and communication of color and appearance throughout their processes. X-Rite products and services are recognized standards in the printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles and medical industries. For further information, please visit www.xrite.com. For the latest news, information, connect with X-Rite on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

 

Birmingham /

BLOOM: FAITH, FASHION, AND BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT SERIES SPOTLIGHT: Rochelle Gaston Malone

BLOOM readers, today I would like to introduce Rochelle Gaston Malone.  Rochelle is a teacher, author, mother, motivational speaker, and Birmingham native.  She utilizes her extensive education and wealth of personal experience to create renewed attitudes with her clients.

I interviewed Rochelle and learned more about this dynamic woman of empowerment and purpose.  She is also the granddaughter of prominent businessman A.G. Gaston.

BLOOM SPOTLIGHT:  Rochelle Gaston Malone

·       When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person who comes to mind and why? 

 When I think of the word successful, the first person that comes to my mind is Dr. A. G. Gaston. This civil rights icon accomplished the impossible during impossible circumstances. As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, he established relationships, not competitions, changed lives for the better and create wealth. I believe that he knew the key to success, and it was displayed through his accomplishments and his life which was founded on filling the needs of others. Dr. A. G. Gaston was my grandfather.

·       What topic would you speak about if you were asked to give a TED talk on something outside of your main area of expertise? 

 I would speak about legacy. The importance of understanding the process of how to leave a legacy when building one. It’s impacting how each of our lives is intentionally designed to empower others by providing the foundation for our future.

·       What is the best or most worthwhile investment you’ve made? It could be an investment of money, time, energy, or other resources. How did you decide to make the investment?

 The most worthwhile investment I’ve made is launching my Talk Show, Casual Conversations, a component of my ministry. I made the decision to make this investment when I stopped running from my calling to minister and change my perspective of what that would look like.

·       Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often? 

 Oh, wow, quotes are what drive me. With that said, there are so many quotes that come to my mind. Each season of my life seems to be empowered by different ones, however, the one I would say that remains consistent is “You must be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma Gundi. I believe this speaks to the purpose of my being, making the necessary personal change so that I have what it takes to empower others to do the same, an agent of change here on earth.

·       What advice would you give to your 20-, 25-, or 30-year-old self? And please place where you were at the time, and what you were doing. 

The advice that I’d give my younger self, would be to the 20-year-old me, who was a sophomore in college desperate to establish a relationship with her father because of her need for validation of her being enough. Rochelle, you are more than enough. It’s not the expectations, actions or rejection from others that validate you. Your validation was given to you before you formed in your mother’s womb. You were born with greatness in your DNA. The very essence of what makes you more than enough is already on the inside of you. Don’t allow anyone’s lack of identification of who you are and lack of awareness in your level of greatness direct your thoughts toward yourself to be anything but the truth of who and how God made you, fearfully and wonderfully in the likeness of Christ.

·       How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Or, do you have a favorite failure of yours? 

 The failure or shall I say failures that have set me up for later success are my failed marriages. It was from the growth during my recovery from these failures that I gained the strength and the motivation I needed to become empowered by life and empowered by faith. I believe, and I quote myself: “In order to know your greatness, you must first embrace your identity, know who you are, and then you will be able to choose who you become.” “A loss is not a failure but the door of opportunity to your next victory” because “It’s the response to former losses that create future victories” and “It’s the “I” in fight that makes it what it is and brings it all together, but It’s the strength behind the hand within the glove that creates the power of the punch.” “Your success and the success of those assigned to your life is all about choice.”

·       What do you believe is true, even though you can’t prove it? 

I actually don’t believe anything is true unless it can be proven. Even when we are faced with life-altering circumstances that change our realities as we’ve come to know them, the better days ahead may not be visible which can lead one to think it can’t be proven. In actuality, the evidence was provided as we were brought through the previous circumstances that had no relation to the present, but it was a part of the strengthening, shaping and molding process that proves this life-altering circumstance will also pass and better can be “Again”.

Follow Rochelle Gaston Malone and learn more about her talk show Casual Conversations on social media:  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

“EMPOWERED WOMEN, EMPOWER WOMEN!”
Beauty /

ESSENCE Centers Black Women’s Wellness; Brings #ESSENCEWellnessHouse to Atlanta

Today, ESSENCE Communications Inc., the leading media, technology and commerce company serving Black women, announced that it is bringing its signature ESSENCE Wellness House to Atlanta on March 7th.  The ESSENCE Wellness House – an immersive wellness experience designed to support Black women on their collective and individual health and wellness journeys – will convene a host of wellness practitioners and A-list fitness professionals for an exclusive day-long retreat. The retreat will take place at the W Hotel Atlanta Midtown.

ESSENCE Wellness House serves as an extension to the brand’s unwavering commitment to Black women’s health and livelihood, as well as cultivating spaces for healing.  With robust experiences – including energizing workout sessions, intimate conversations, interactive workshops, massages, reiki, meditation and group discussions with leading industry experts – this full day of ESSENCE-curated programming is designed to rejuvenate the mind, body, and soul.

“As the leading global destination for Black women, ESSENCE embraces our position as a premier resource for their wellness as well – and we take that very seriously,” said Michelle Ebanks, CEO, ESSENCE Communications, Inc. “We know that Black women tend to focus more on the care of others than herself, and as a result, they are disproportionately affected by almost all major health crises affecting women in the United States.  So, it is incumbent upon ESSENCE to use our platform to bring wellness practices to Black women, create a safe space to gather and connect with culturally-informed spiritual, health and wellness practices.”

Highlights of the ESSENCE Wellness House on March 7th include:

  • Heart Health Real Talk: A Conversation with AMA’s First Black Female President with Charli Penn, ESSENCE Relationship and Wellness Director and Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, President of American Medical Association
  • Get Your Mind Right: A Mindfulness Exercise with OmNoire’s Christina Rice
  • Introduction to Breathwork with Yoga Instructor and Holistic Health Educator Ona Hawk
  • Dance Your Pounds Off with Celebrity Dance and Fitness Instructor, Dwight Holt, Jr.
  • Preventing Burnout by Reclaiming Your Boundaries led by Licensed Clinical Psychologist Dr. Ayanna Abrams
  • Top Tips for Relationship Wellness & Sustainability: A Conversation with Aaron Turpeau Ph.D. and Derrick Jaxn

Additional exciting wellness professionals and influencers who will participate include Beatrice Dixon, Founder, and CEO of The Honey Pot; Alex Elle, Author & Self-Care Facilitator, Egypt Sherrod, TV host and Celebrity Home Space Expert; Rashan Ali, Multimedia Personality and co-host on the syndicated show Sister Circle; and more.

For more information and to purchase tickets:

visit essence.com/wellnesshouse and follow #ESSENCEWELLNESSHOUSE

Beauty /

Beyonce’ Honors Kobe and Gianna Bryant: Bold Purple Nails #NailsonFleek

The tragedy that occurred between Kobe and Gianna Bryant was earth-shattering to the entire world.

Celebrities and fans both searched for an opportunity to show their respect to the legend and his daughter.  Some wore Kobe’s basketball jersey while others created a poster, highlighting his name.

During the memorial, Beyoncé was seen dressed in purple and gold.  She even took it one step further by coordinating her manicure with her outfit.

This was a creative tribute to one of the greatest athletes of our time!  What are your thoughts about Beyoncé’s bold purple nails?

Photo Credit: @bey_world_ on Instagram

 

Beauty /

New Service Propels Bossy Cosmetics Customers to Reach Professional and Personal Goals

Bossy Cosmetics, makers of beautiful cruelty-free cosmetics for empowered women, and wiseHer, the platform that provides professional expert advice for women, announce “Beauty Meets Wisdom” an innovative collaboration empowering women to take a major step toward leveling up in their business, life, or career goals, by connecting with an experienced group of experts.

Beauty Meets Wisdom is open to Bossy Cosmetics customers, who spend a minimum of $50 on cosmetics. The customers will be able to select an experienced wiseHer expert and request a complimentary one-hour session.

With a new year and new decade upon us, customers shared that picking makeup looks was only one facet of their confidence-building story. In addition to wanting to look and feel “bossy”, they were equally focused on personal and career development – to be “bossy”.

Meeting Kathryn Rose, founder of wiseHer, during the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s acclaimed Milestone Makers Program, and learning about her mission to propel women further and faster was exactly the partner Bossy Cosmetics founder and Chief Executive Officer, Aishetu Fatima Dozie, was looking for and a collaboration was born! wiseHer connects women with top consultants, mentors, coaches, and executives ready to support their ambitious life goals.

Beauty Meets Wisdom connects Bossy Cosmetics customers with wiseHer experts in all areas of business, including, but not limited to:

Career Planning

Marketing and Sales

Business Strategy

Leadership

Scaling A  Business

Branding

Conflict Management

Social Media

Work Life Integration and so much more.

Beauty Meets Wisdom launches February 10, 2020, in advance of International Women’s Day, (March 8, 2020), which also happens to be the 1st year anniversary of Bossy Cosmetics founding, because “every day is Women’s Day as far as we are concerned,” says Dozie.

Together, Bossy Cosmetics and wiseHer will embark on this program that encourages women at every stage of life or career to skill up or accelerate progress on the paths that they are on in order to build sustainable businesses, careers, families, and lives of their dreams. “With entrepreneurship, especially women-driven, and working mothers on the rise, (75 percent of full time working mothers have children under age 18), we are excited to partner with Bossy Cosmetics and offer women the expertise they seek to drive their lives and businesses forward,” says Kathryn Rose, CEO, wiseHer.  Information on Beauty Meets Wisdom may be found at: https://services.bossybeauty.com/coaching

About Bossy Cosmetics Inc. Bossy Cosmetics’ goal is to ignite confidence in ambitious working women through cruelty-free cosmetics, topical content, and essential services. Being a mission-driven company is an integral part of our DNA by selling and making gorgeous, ethically-made color cosmetics for people of all hues and partnering with non-profit organizations that actively promote social change for women and girls around the world.  Learn more about Bossy Cosmetics at https://bossybeauty.com or info@bossy.design