How to Slay: Inspiration from the Queens and Kings of Black Style

Description

One of the few surveys ever published of black style and fashion, How To Slay is for fans of the wildly successful, still-in-print Crowns (Doubleday, 2000) and Pharrell (Rizzoli, 2012). How To Slay provides a lavishly illustrated overview of style among African-Americans, throughout the 20th century but with the primary focus on the last 35 years. Through striking images of icons of black fashion and taste, this lush volume explores a diverse array of topics from hats, hair, the use of vibrant colour, and the beauty of black skin to the roots of black style in Africa and the Caribbean. Richly illustrated with gorgeous photography, both contemporary and historical, this visual survey of black fashion in America features some of the most celebrated and iconic individuals of style, exploring the cultural underpinnings of many trends and how they have become part of fashion vernacular today.

An award-winning journalist, Constance C. R. White has served as editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, and was previously a style reporter for The New York Times, the founding fashion editor of Talk magazine and the first and only black executive fashion editor at a major fashion magazine, Elle. Before that she was an associate editor at Women's Wear Daily and W. As a style director, brand consultant, and spokesperson for eBay, she conceived the organisation's first fashion webzine and developed content and strategies aimed at women. White was a consultant, and a regular contributor to The Chicago Tribune and Ozy.com, where she has written about Michelle Obama and Nicolas Ghesquiere, among other fashion icons. She is currently fashion features editor for TheImpression.com. She has been a frequent guest on news and entertainment programs including The Today Show, MSNBC, and New York Live, and she helped develop the first daily fashion news show, which she co-wrote and hosted for Cablevision's Full Frontal Fashion. She conceived and edited the book, Essence: A Salute to Michelle Obama (2013), and she is the author of Stylenoir (1998), published by Perigee/Putnam.