deerstalker

http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/fit-black-fashion-designers-new-exhibit/

Tracy Reese. Olivier Rousteing. Aisha Ayensu—what do they have in common? Besides being successful black designers, they will soon share in the shine at the Museum at FIT at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. The museum is spotlighting several generations of African and African American fashion designers from the 1950s to the present in a new exhibit called “Black Fashion Designers,” which opens on Dec. 6.

The exhibit will feature 75 designs from more than 60 designers. They represent the transition from 19th-century dressmaking traditions that encompassed countless, unnamed black dressmakers, to the modern conception of a fashion designer. It is organized according to categories and themes, including eveningwear, menswear, street style, experimental fashion, and African influences.

The black experience is prominent in the work of many designers featured in the exhibition. For instance, Paris-based Patrick Kelly drew inspiration from his American Southern roots. The colorful buttons on his knit dress reference the mismatched buttons his grandmother used to mend his family’s clothing, noted a description on the museum’s website. Aisha Ayensu spins traditional Ghanaian wax-print textiles into ready-to-wear pieces. Duro Olowu, a Nigerian-Jamaican, London-based designer draws on multiple cultural perspectives and emphasizes Africa’s historic role in cultural production and international trade.

A section of the exhibition devoted to black designers breaking into the industry features work by New York-based Zelda Wynn Valdes, whose sultry designs were worn by Josephine Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, and Gladys Knight; and Ann Lowe, an unknown designer at the time who owned her own dress shop on Lexington Avenue and created custom-made gowns for society clients, including Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding gown. She became one of the first leading black fashion designers.

 

Duro Olowu, ensemble, Fall 2012. Image: The Museum at FIT

 

 

The exhibit also features Laura Smalls’ floral-print dress that Michelle Obama wore for her appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden‘s Carpool Karaoke.

Though it is a celebration of designers whose heritage influences their inspiration and creations, and who have made a cultural impact on the fashion world, the museum also noted that the exhibit aims to highlight the fact that many black designers have too often been unrecognized and underrepresented. It aims to bring awareness to the challenges faced by black designers and showcase how their experiences have changed over time.

“Although there have been exhibitions on individual black designers, this is the first major exhibition in many years that highlights the global history of black fashion designers from the 1950s to the present,” stated the curators on the museum’s website.

Black fashion designers began to gain recognition during the late 1940s, even while still segregated within the fashion industry, notes the museum’s website, adding that even today, they make up only about 1% of the designers covered by VogueRunway.com, the go-to online site for viewing collections from fashion weeks around the world.

Another section of the exhibition devoted to activism showcases fashions that send political and social messages. There’s also a tribute to black models and Ebony Fashion Fair, which gave them a national platform, as well as a short film in which former Vogue editor André Leon Talley interviews designers Tracy Reese and Mimi Plange.

The exhibit runs through May 16, 2017. For those interested in learning more, The Museum at FIT will host a one-day symposium on Feb. 6, 2017, featuring talks by designers, models, journalists, and scholars on African diaspora culture and fashion.

http://www.blackenterprise.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/joss-whedon-womens-equality-workplace/

http://nerdist.com/stream-the-la-la-land-soundtrack-featuring-ryan-gosling-and-emma-stone/

Shine your dancing shoes. The La La Land soundtrack is now online and available to stream in full. While you’re prepping to get your boogieing on, keep scrolling to check out Fred Armisen’s songs about KFC, Elton John’s music video contest, Thurston Moore’s new Can supergroup, and a Big Freedia song about Santa Claus. In other words, all the music news you may have slept through over the weekend.

One of the most anticipated films of 2016 only just now came out, and based on reviews, it’s worth all the hype. We’re talking about Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, the Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling-starring musical with tons of comedy and romance thrown in. It looks charming as heck. In case we doubted that, its soundtrack is streaming in full, including songs sung by both leads. Let the swooning commence.

Fred Armisen doesn’t know how to take a break from comedy. Somewhere between acting in movies, appearing on SNL, writing and starring in Portlandia, creating fake bands, and recording albums, he took some time to write songs about KFC. Armisen wrote a two-song EP that was pressed onto 125 copies of vinyl and then hidden in record stores across the country. If you can’t find one of the copies, have no fear. Both “C-O-L-O-N-E-L” and “Nashville Centric Boogie” are on Soundcloud to stream right now. [Consequence of Sound]

Classic rock and the hits that are tacked onto that genre are timeless. Their music videos? Eh, not so much. Elton John is well aware of this fact and partnered with YouTube to change it. He’s now letting fans create music videos for three of his biggest songs: “Bennie and the Jets,” “Rocket Man,” and “Tiny Dancer.” Technically, those songs were released before the music video era so they don’t actually have videos, but if they did, they likely would be full of cheese (Sorry not sorry). So, submissions are now open each week for filmmakers to submit their own animation, live-action, and choreography to the entries. Read up on the details over at Elton John’s website. [Rolling Stone]

Next year is the 50th anniversary of experimental rock act Can‘s formation. The German group influenced just about every rock, psych, or jam band to exist, so this is a pretty big anniversary, as if the five-decade number didn’t indicate such. To celebrate, London’s Barbican Centre will host a tribute concert series in April entitled The Can Project. The original keyboardist in the band, Irmin Schmidt, will conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for a piece called “An Homage to Can.” Better yet, classic Can songs will be covered by a Can tribute group led by none other than Sonic Youth‘s Thurston Moore. Tickets have already sold out, but we’re willing to bet (See: praying) the event will be recorded and uploaded for fans to watch sometime shortly after. [Consequence of Sound]

Not every holiday song is meant to be played by the fire. Big Freedia dropped a new EP called A Very Big Freedia Christmazz and it is, exactly as expected, full of songs for twerking. From “Rudy, The Big Booty Reindeer” to “Santa Is a Gay Man,” she made sure to cover all topics with a smirk and sarcasm. It’s available to stream right now, and if you want to hear these songs live, grab tickets to her upcoming tour and hope she’ll stay in the holiday spirit long after Santa and his sleigh have flown away. [Rolling Stone]

See you back here on Wednesday for another Music Dispatch!

Image: Summit Entertainment

http://blackgirlnerds.com/rogue-one-strikes-apocalypse-now-meets-mission-impossible/

By Jacqueline Coley

This past weekend we saw about 30 minutes of Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and to put it simply this ain’t your Daddy’s Star Wars.

The footage from Rogue One started with the first 15 minutes of the film, followed by few 2-3 minutes clips from the first half, and ending with an extended trailer sizzle reel. It is not enough to judge how good the film will be, but I can tell you – without question – this is not like any Star Wars story we have ever seen.  If you’re worried about spoilers, let me just say, I did get some details about the film, but I don’t KNOW anything. We reviewed an extended trailer, and though I can now make assumptions on a few plot points, I learned nothing that couldn’t garner from the current marketing of Rogue One.  So here is what we saw:

The shift from the previous Star Wars films starts with the crawl – or in this case – the lack of crawl. The film begins with “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….,” then we jump to a cold open.  We are on a young Jyn Erso’s home world where Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) dressed all in white and shoulder to shoulder with black storm troopers – in direct contrast to the Darth Vader entrance of A New Hope – lands in an open field. Krennic is sinister yet charismatic during his interrogation of Jyn’s father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen). Ben Mendelsohn’s performance here is very reminiscent of Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds instantly terrifying and disarming. The Ersos, it seems, have been preparing for Krennic’s eventual discovery of their hiding place. Like this, immediately after her mother sends Jyn off with words of love and wisdom, she provokes Krennic. The skirmish results in Jyn’s escape, her mother’s death, and her father’s apprehension.  Later we meet, Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) who rescues Jyn and says, “We have a long ride ahead of us.” Then there is a beat, and “BAM,” the Rogue One title card fills the screen as the main theme plays.

In the next scene, we meet Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), an intelligence officer for the Rebel Alliance. Cassian’s interaction with a wounded agent shows that even though he is one of the “good” guys he has no problem making a wrong decision to achieve the ultimate goal. The Rebels we learn want to know how to defeat the Death Star. To do this, they need Galen Erso’s plans. To get to Galen Erso, they need a defector named Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed). When we spoke with Riz following Rogue One press conference, he mentioned how his character is not terribly smart and never intended to be caught up in a war.  – “He’s just trying to survive.” 

It becomes apparent that the Rebels need Jyn to get to Gerrera, who can then help them get to Galen, and ultimately destroy the Death Star. During the rebels rescue of Jyn’s, is where we first meet K-2SO (voiced and played by Alan Tudyk), who even the most casual fans will be talking about long after the credits roll. During Jyn’s rescue, she’s catapulted to the ground by K-2SO, and he cheekily says “Congratulations, you’ve been saved.” This moment pretty well sums up the character, funny, brutally honest, and lethal. ” During this same action piece, we also meet Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) a blind warrior who is also Force sensitive. He describes as a “Guardian of the Whills. Though his character is still a mystery, even in the footage we saw, one thing is for sure is Donnie Yen is going to be bad-ass – Darth Maul style bad-ass.

I did see some other things that I would say are a bit spoilerier, so I will not discuss those here. The biggest thing I walked away with is that this is a huge departure from the previous films. Rogue One strikes me as Apocalypse Now meets Mission Impossible with a little Argo on the side. Only seeing 28 minutes of a 130-minute film isn’t enough to judge it, but is sufficient to get the flavor. The flavor is new, dark and gritty and I can’t wait to have more.

Rogue One is in theaters December 16th.

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