012: Invisible Beauty & Back To School

WELCOME BACK 🍂

This week, we’re soaking up the cooling temperatures in New England and wistful for our favorite season of the year.

If you’re just joining, welcome to the weekly dispatch, a hyper curated take on the best of diaspora creatives shaping fashion, beauty, and culture today.

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DISPATCH 012 —

This week, we’re rounding up back-to-school inspiration and highlighting yet another editor shakeup. We’re acknowledging the Afrobeats takeover at Burberry and sharing an archival sale for the ages in South Africa. But first, our review of a new favorite fashion documentary…

FILM REVIEW: INVISIBLE BEAUTY

A thoroughly packed crowd was gathered to witness the newest addition to the fashion documentary canon, Invisible Beauty, which first premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2023. Based on the story of one of fashion’s greatest conspirators Bethann Hardison, the film (also co-directed by Hardison) and Frederic Tcheng (behind Dior & I and Halston) weaves a tale of one person’s quest to change the face of the fashion industry for good.

Through Hardison’s position, the film deftly captures the lightning speed of change that was the New York creative scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Shaped by Seventh Avenue garmentos, the dazzling era of Studio 54, and the now legendary Battle of Versailles, which brought five New York designers and their retinue of black models to Paris to trounce the French establishment, Hardison was on hand for it all. From Andre Leon Talley and Andy Warhol to Pat Cleveland and Stephen Burrows, the film shows the turning of the tide for American designers and Black models sharing the same stage professionally as European stalwarts.

But what happened when this tide of inclusivity dried up by the late 1980s? Without spoiling the plot, Hardison embraced this herculean task within a closed ecosystem that did not take well to criticism. But she was a New Yorker and in some ways, she knew something that they didn’t. The diverse range of talking heads could agree on one thing — to know Hardison is to know fearlessness, but in many ways they didn’t know her (the person) at all. Tcheng attempts to bring some grounding through her biographical journey and her son Kadeem Hardison offers a nuanced view. Yet there are moments throughout the film where the sacrifices and heartbreak are all too upsetting.

She walked away and returned to an industry at different stages on her own terms, which allowed her to be free of the system’s spoils in order to live a life something out of a storybook. It brought her to Mexico, upstate New York, and Europe where she decamped for years at a time. There was a reflective specter across the film to know that she had survived when sadly many of her peers were no longer alive. She had survived it all to see a changing of the guard, to see a reversal of justice, and to be invested in bringing the system back to its rightful place (whatever that means).

Invisible Beauty is a story of triumph and its costs. It’s also a story of questions for a younger generation that has seen its fair share of tragedy, trying to make sense of their substance in an industry that is all too concerned with surface. For doing what too few films have done, 10/10, go see it!

BACK TO SCHOOL ENERGY

Tis the back-to-school season, so we’re pulling together our edit of bags that at least a laptop could fit into and a few other items we love. First up, the clear waterproof Curves by Sean Brown tote in white affronts the old adage of no white after Labor Day and we approve. Next, we are keen on this Wales Bonner necklace with hand-painted beads made in Ghana with recycled glass, freshwater pearls, and a Swarovski crystal pendant. We would be remiss not to include perennial favorite Telfar in an exclusive jelly collaboration with Melissa and last, but not least a pair of crochet sandals by Diotima.

ON OUR RADAR

A lot of hubbub on the number of Nigerian celebrities front row at Burberry’s AW24 show in London — WizKid, Tems, Burna Boy, Skepta, and Stormzy. Since the Met Gala this past May, creative director Daniel Lee has been quite clear about how he feels about that. In his sophomoric show, the celebrity tack this season surely makes Burberry stand out. Just can’t decide if that’s a good thing… yet. (Link)

Thebe Magugu is hosting an archival sample sale in Johannesburg, South Africa starting September 21. You will need confirmation to attend, but you’re sure to find gems from the earliest collections. (Link)

If in Berlin this fall, check out the current group exhibition ‘The Becoming’ held at Peres Projects featuring works by Joseph Awuah-Darko (who is also the show’s curator), Mazu Azu (who will present at the 2024 Venice Biennale), Ousmane Ba, and Mobolaji Ogunrosove. Open through October 28. (Link)

It’s a new era at British Vogue, which announced Chioma Nnadi as new head of editorial content succeeding Edward Enninful. (Link)